Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Mar 202023
 

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.

Click for Amnesia Crowd spoilers
While I’m not the biggest Toma fan, the part of his route where Kent and Ikki saw the cage and drew their own conclusions was so funny, and then the later scene with Shin made it even funnier.

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.)

Feb 202023
 

Two years ago (almost to the day), we discussed the otome visual novel Amnesia: Memories.

Now we’re going to talk about its first fandisc, Amnesia Later, released for the first time in English last year as part of the two-game collection Amnesia Later x Crowd.

(Once again, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a fandisc, think of it as a game-length epilogue or a sequel focused on the characters enjoying their happy ending.)

I had a lot to criticize about Amnesia: Memories, but when Later x Crowd was announced for localization, I said I’d pick it up for the two love interests I actually liked as well as for the side story featuring Waka.

And, now that I’ve played Amnesia Later… yes, my reasons for getting it remain intact.

Amnesia Later features a short story that lets you spend time with any of the game’s major characters, which unlocks their related content. The core of this fandisc are the after stories, one for each of the five love interests.

I adored the after stories for Kent and Ukyo, my two favorites. They were enjoyable enough that I’m happy with my purchase just for them. Of the other three, I found Ikki’s story to be sweet, but unfortunately Amnesia Later did nothing to make Toma and Shin rise in my estimation at all.

So if you enjoyed the love interests in the main game, you’ll probably like their after stories here.

You also unlock three girls’ night scenarios with the protagonist’s friends, although these are actually just a way to unlock the profile information for the guys. They have some funny moments, though.

Then there’s Waka’s World, one of the main draws for me. Waka is a side character in the game whom I liked more than Ikki, Toma, and Shin all put together. His personality is different in each of the worlds, and Waka’s World is a collection of four short scenarios to let you get to know each version of Waka. Every one of them is pure gold.

I need a Waka game now. I would gladly take each of those four scenarios expanded into a full route. I am begging for a Waka fandisc, Otomate!

Finally, you unlock one final route after completing everything else, featuring Orion, which wraps up the story in a really sweet way.

And what makes everything even better is that since the protagonist has her memories back, she’s no longer a silent protagonist like in the original game, but talks to other characters and has internal thoughts. She feels like a real character here, which is a vast improvement for me.

Even though I had to power through some of the routes because I didn’t care about the love interests, Amnesia Later was worth it for the characters I do like. It was sweet, funny, and a pleasant follow-up to the original game that made me appreciate it a bit more. Amnesia Later is only one of the two fandiscs included in Amnesia Later x Crowd, so we’ll see how things go in the second one in the future.

Jul 272022
 

Back in April, we learned that the Switch ports of Amnesia: Memories and Amnesia: Later x Crowd were being localized, and now we have a release date.

Idea Factory has announced that they’ll be out on September 20.

That’s interesting, because Aksys has the Piofiore sequel coming out on September 22. It looks like the end of the year will have some otome competition.

Judging by how they’ve done things in the past, Amnesia’s limited edition, which you can get with either one of the games or both together, will probably open up to preorders sometime in late August. Idea Factory seems to like opening up limited edition preorders around a month in advance.

Meanwhile, in other otome news, Aksys released the English trailer for Lover Pretend.

The trailer confirms its December 2022 release window, which I believe was shown at the Anime Expo showcase.

The months ahead are stacked with games I want, and my backlog is weeping. Meanwhile, let me go check for the thousandth time to see if I have a shipping notification for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 yet (I don’t).

Are you looking forward to Amnesia and Later x Crowd? What about Lover Pretend?