Trace Memory

Submitted by Karen

The Nintendo DS game Trace Memory was just recently released in North America, but has been available in the UK and Australia as a game called Another Code – Two Memories since early summer.

Trace Memory is an adventure game, a genre that is somewhat neglected by the gaming industry, partly because the talent involved in creating a good storyline with challenging puzzles is quite different from other game genres, and partly because the market is dominated by gamers who prefer a more visceral and less cerebral style of gameplay.

Enter Nintendo DS, with its emphasis on innovation. An engaging storyline that draws you in from the beginning is one of the most satisfying aspects of this game.


Synopsis

Just before her fourteenth birthday, a girl named Ashley Robbins receives a small machine called a DAS as a gift from her father, who she thought was dead. Ashley’s father had been a scientist, along with Ashley’s mother Sayoko, when he disappeared eleven years ago. After being mysteriously contacted by her father, Ashley goes to Blood Edward Island with her Aunt Jessica, who has raised Ashley since she was three. Jessica appears to know more about Ashley’s parents than she lets on.

When they reach the island, Jessica and Ashley become separated, and Ashley is convinced that she will find Jessica and her father together on the island somewhere. While searching for her relatives, Ashley meets a ghost who appears to have no memory. From that point on, the game revolves around Ashley’s search for her father and the ghost’s attempt to recover his memories.


Gameplay

The dual nature of the quest is one of the least satisfying aspects of the game. Without consulting a detailed walk-through, it would be very difficult to achieve 100% success your first time through. Half the storyline proceeds without difficulty to the end, even if you miss things here and there; the other half of the storyline is so closely dependent on event triggers that it is easy to reach the end of the game without achieving the solution to the quest.

Navigation in the game is mostly intuitive. Sometimes maps change orientation from one area to the next, which is confusing for those of us who are directionally challenged, but most people would not have difficulty finding their way around. Areas requiring investigation are clearly marked, even if they are not always in the same state for each visit.

In fact, gameplay is very linear. When collecting inventory, you can sometimes see an item that the game will prevent you from picking up until you see why you need it. Other troublesome aspects of inventory pertain to an item you carry with you hoping to find its owner, only to have it disappear automatically when you meet that person, without ever showing the transfer. Or an item that is an important event trigger, which is meant to be given to a specific person. If you offer the item to a different person too early in the game, the item is accepted and disappears. From that point forward, without warning, you have destroyed any chance of completing the game with 100% success.

In general, the puzzles are just challenging enough. They are not overly difficult, and except for the inventory issues already mentioned, do not involve irksome repetition or running around. Innovative use of the dual screen and microphone of the DS, as well as a unique method of blending images, make for a novel gaming experience not seen on any platform previously.


Conclusion

The engaging storyline and innovative gameplay make this adventure game a valuable addition to the DS game library. It is held back only by an unnecessarily linear design that relies on easy-to-miss event triggers to complete one half of the game’s dual quest.

Trace Memory gets an 8.5 out of 10.