One of our romance games we discussed in February was the otome game Amnesia Later, the first Amnesia: Memories fandisc included in Amnesia Later x Crowd.
After finishing that, I took a short break and then moved on to the second game in the collection, Amnesia Crowd.
The content here is a bit more varied than in Later. First, each character has a new “suspense” story, set during the events of the original game. While this means a return to a silent protagonist with Orion providing commentary, the stories more than make up for it. As a fan of mystery and suspense games, these were an absolute delight. They even have some light point & click elements.
Then there is the “work” segment of the game. This is a new world (with a new Waka, and I still want a Waka fandisc where we date every Waka) mostly told with chibi character sprites.
It features mini-games as you work various jobs at the cafe. Playing these mini-games and interacting with the LIs in between lets you unlock a variety of different scenarios. The mini-games are simple, so it can get tedious to try to play these routes all in a row, but it made for a nice change of pace interspersed between regular routes.
Each love interest has a romantic after story, which is the main feature. These are set after the stories in Later (so the main character gets dialogue and thoughts in these) and show the further development of their relationship. I think I’d give the edge to the Later after stories, but Crowd’s were still enjoyable.
There’s also a “communication” after story for each love interest, where you pick dialogue choices to fill up an affection meter and then get a new scene. I would have liked if the conversation flow felt a bit more natural, but it’s a neat idea.
While those are Crowd’s main features, there’s one last section where you can interact with Orion, take a quiz about Amnesia, and unlock new scenarios. You also can play poker and blackjack against the love interests, although there isn’t much to that mode.
Overall, Amnesia Crowd has a good variety of content, with the after stories being a great way to conclude the romances and the other stories providing additional fun. I’d say I enjoyed it more than Later, despite Later having the advantage in some areas. With both fandiscs being enjoyable, I’d say Amnesia Later x Crowd is well worth it for any Amnesia fan, even if you only like a handful of the love interests like I do.
(There is one more fandisc, Amnesia World, which is still exclusive to Japan. From what I’ve read, it has a bigger focus on mini-games. We’ll see if we ever get Amnesia World localization – maybe if IFI decides to announce more otome games beyond Charade Maniacs.)
