Review | Reminiscence in the Night

LifeisXbox’s Reminiscence in the Night Review | Do you ever wonder what it would be like if one day you were to wake up and have no memories or recollection of anything? Well, in case you were wondering, Reminiscence in the Night might be just about this subject. You wake up one morning, oblivious to the fact you’ve lost your entire memory. All you have is numerous objects available for you to examine and investigate in your apartment, with friends and family being a complete blur when you come into contact. You must use different items and dialogue options to explore the unknown as this may be the only way you’re ever going to recover what you have tragically lost. Reminiscence of the Night has been developed by Team SolEtude and published by Ratalaika Games S.L. and brings another form of the visual novel to venture through in the form of text with point and click, allowing for more interaction. Once again, your choices will impact your endings.

Quote: “If I’ve forgotten my memories, I would be looking at everything thoroughly in detail but this was far from conveyed in Reminiscence of the Night”

ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One S | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.

What we liked!

• Intense and well written | I had no idea what Reminiscence in the Night was about but I was quickly realised and it grabbed me almost instantly. The story is simply about someone who wakes up one day and has lost all memories they had. I use the term ‘simply’ loosely but for this to happen to anyone must be horrendous. Not only do you have to work extremely hard to remember them or learn about yourself from scratch but you have people in your life who to you will be complete strangers that could be doing or saying anything, pushing your belief and trust to the utmost limit. For what has been written for this visual novel, everything has been told to a high standard and manages to tug at the heartstrings a little.

• Fitting audio | Suspense, dread, and the unknown. These are the words that come to mind when I think about the use of sound in Reminiscence in the Night. There are points where you immediately know things are going to possibly turn dark and grim; the great thing was it was never expected and having it catch you off guard (the first time at least). I never imagined the feelings and emotions to hit me as hard as they did therefore I must praise the choice of audio and the positioning also.

Somewhere between

• Enigmatic story and endings | I’ve been confused and bamboozled by many stories in my time but the length combined with the topic had me left with multiple questions that I think could have been answered if the game would have been refined and given a deeper meaning. By truly exploring the depth of trauma that was being felt by your character, more could have been understood and felt by players. I adored the subject being tackled and thought it was a bold choice but if I have to say that this could have been further worked on to really bring the story to life. The last thing you want is to still have questions with a visual novel unless there is a sequel that aims to achieve this.

• Artistic visuals | The watercolour-like art style and musty colouring that was used made for a beautiful effect of confusion mixed with a symbol of hope. At least, this was how I interpreted it when playing. This is because watercolour isn’t precise or sharp, it’s known as ‘wishy washy’ to create a messy yet welcome look. The hope comes from the splash of colour when on your computer or moving scenes in your apartment. Losing memories must be devastating and this is how I looked at it. The negative point of the visuals is due to there being only a handful of unique scenes with some only changing by using a black and white version from time to time.

• Not much variety | Now I’m all for having multiple choices to choose from in visual novels because they can potentially make each playthrough a distinctive experience. To my dislike, when I realised there were only a handful of endings that did not need a massive host of different choices to achieve, I had really hoped for there to be more than what I witnessed. Reminiscence in the Night had greater potential with its somewhat grim, emotional, and enticing background to create ‘what if’ scenarios in players heads; it just did not feel complete and could have been a real masterpiece if it was given more detail, alternatives, and replay factor.

What we disliked

• Short playthroughs | I’ve always been one to get engrossed into stories – whether fictional or not, paperback or video games. I was left extremely disappointed with the lack of playtime Reminiscence of the Night had overall. When I noticed my first playthrough took thirty minutes, I was not best pleased and thought “Oh, maybe the multitude of endings and choices will make up for it”. However, as you probably read from my previous point, because of the lack of decisions as well, my first playthrough took around thirty minutes. This was due to me having no prior knowledge of what to interact with and as I was reading each part of the story carefully. When you’ve been through it once and know the main idea behind it, you will find other playthroughs to be much shorter. 

• Quick completion | After my first playthrough of Reminiscence in the Night, I noticed there weren’t a massive amount of achievements left to earn and it took me only an extra fifteen minutes to get the full completion with the addition of the skip text that allows you to skip any text you’ve already experienced/read. I’m all for completing a game to 100% but these types of games make me feel deflated and almost like I haven’t achieved much for my time playing. I could see plenty of content in this title that seemed to have been left out, leaving me wanting more.

• Interactable environment | One of my pet peeves in video games is when there is a whole environment that is supposedly ‘interactive’ only to find out that only half actually had any importance. This was a major annoyance for me. Yes, you got a little bit of text to read with each object you clicked on but they had no significance to anything other than this. At the end of the day, if you’re going to add these, at least make them mean something other than just for the sake of putting them there. Especially with a game with such an important story to tell. If I’ve forgotten my memories, I would be looking at everything thoroughly in detail but this was far from conveyed in Reminiscence in the Night. 

How long to beat the story | Approximately 30 Minutes
How long to achieve 1000G | Approximately 1 Hour

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