Game review: Tokyo Dark Remembrance (Switch)

Tokyo Dark Remembrance is an indie point and click game that was originally released on Windows PCs in 2017. It took two years for the game to get ported to the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4 but now that it is finally here, is it any good?

Story

The game tells the story of a Japanese police detective whose partner went missing. Ayami (the detective) goes on a journey trying to solve the mystery of her disappearing partner.

When you first start up the game, it gives you a warning that your actions will affect the story. The story has 11 different endings that directly depend on the choices you make.

I want to go more into detail about the story, however, it is really hard to do that without spoiling it. Besides, the game's story is the most fun part. All I can say is play it, and then play it again to try and reach a different ending.

Gameplay

The game is fairly simple. You are just playing through an interesting story waiting for the mystery to unfold. You spend most of the game walking your character to new locations, finding items to interact with and choosing how you want to interact with those items. The game could use a few more puzzles as the ones that are there are rare and extremely easy to figure out.

Your character will have something called the SPIN meter. This keeps track of your professionalism, investigation, sanity and neurosis. This SPIN meter is a great tool as it provides the player with a way to directly see how their actions affect their progress.

The game is fairly short as well. A thorough first play shouldn't take more than 6 hours and after that, replays for different endings can be achieved in just under an hour.

Game design and atmosphere

The game will appeal to anyone who enjoys a subtle dark horror theme. It is also one of those games that need to be played with a headset on as that's the only way to get the full experience.

Every place has its own music that is unique to it. This helped keep me interested. The music changed to match the areas, for example, upbeat songs would play in a pub and scary horror music with screams would play in a dark forest. 

Verdict

If you are the type of player that is into dark visual novel type games, then Tokyo Dark Remembrance is a must-have. If you are the type of person that gets bored reading dialogue, then I would probably steer clear of this one.