I played Another Code: Two Memories
So in the most recent Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo announced that Another Code would be getting a remake version on Nintendo Switch. ...after I saw this announcement, I decided that I wanted to see the original version first. So I decided to play Another Code for the Nintendo DS.
Another Code is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Cing and published by Nintendo in 2005. ...Hmm, seems like Cing doesn't exist any more, they went bankrupt in 2010.
Cing also made Hotel Dusk - another well-regarded DS point-and-click game, and strangely enough, they also made Little King's Story, which is one of my all-time favourite Wii games. Strange though, because Little King's Story is definitely nothing like Cing's other works...
But anyway.
The protagonist of our story is Ashley Mizuki Robins, who has just received a mysterious letter from her father who she previously thought was dead, along with a strange gadget called a DAS. (The DAS looks exactly like a Nintendo DS, of course). Ashley is now travelling to a remote island where she might possibly be able to meet with her father, and uncover the truth behind her family, as well as this mysterious gadget.
The game takes place on the island, mostly within the island's abandoned mansion. Ashley must point-and-click her way around the mansion, solving small puzzles and piecing together the history of the family who once lived here.
In Another Code, you see the world from two perspectives at the same time. On the bottom screen is a top-down view where you can move around with the D-pad or with the touchscreen. And on the top screen is a pre-rendered image of the current location. The pre-rendered top screen kind of reminds me of games like Myst, which were entirely made of pre-rendered images that you click through to move about. But here, instead of clicking on pathways and stuff, you just control the character directly with the bottom screen. It's kind of an unusual way of doing things, but that's kind of the fun of the DS, isn't it?
If the current top screen image has something interesting to click on, you can press a magnifying glass button to bring the image down to the touchscreen, and can then start examining the environment. I like how pretty much everything you can click on gives a response, including unimportant things. Even if it's just a response like "The wall is made of rock", or "The grass is slightly damp", it's still nice that the game acknowledges what you've decided to click on.
Ashley can also use the DAS to take a photograph of any screen in the game, which is used to keep track of interesting things, and to solve a few puzzles.
As you poke around, you can find items that are used to solve puzzles, as well as DAS Card data logs that give you additional information about the story and the characters.
The puzzles in this adventure are all pretty simple. Most of them involve finding and using specific items (like in most point-and-click games), and some others involve using the Nintendo DS's features. The game actually makes use of almost everything the DS is capable of in fun ways - lots of puzzles use the touchscreen, some use the DS's microphone, and a couple of them cleverly use the DS's clamshell design as part of the puzzle. It's pretty cool.
The game also uses your DS's birthday settings - Ashley Robins will have the same birthday as the player. She's always born in 1991, but the month and day will be the same as the player's. (....and in my case, the year is the same too, since I am also from 1991 haha)
Overall, the game is pretty short and simple, as far as point-and-click games go. There isn't much variance in how to solve things, and the puzzles don't ever get super complicated. It's a short, casual point-and-click game, with a nice story to play through.
My biggest complaint with the game has to do with getting the "good" ending. In order to get a satisfying conclusion to an important subplot, you need to have clicked on specific things to trigger certain "memories" throughout the mansion. If you miss one of these memory triggers, then you don't get the good ending. It's rather annoying that there isn't any way to know this beforehand, nor to know which interactions actually "count" as a memory. And it's especially annoying because at least one of these memory triggers is missable too. :/
Since the game was short, though, it wasn't much hardship to play the game through a second time with a walkthrough so I could see the good ending. Interestingly enough, during a repeat playthrough, all of the DAS card data logs actually have different and more detailed information on them. So a second playthrough is actually necessary to see everything the game has to offer anyway!
It's a fun game! It's not going to blow anyone away - it's definitely a pretty casual game. But it's a good time nonetheless.
This playthrough got me curious... since this game is so heavy on the DS gimmicks, I'm really curious to see how this game will work on the Switch. They'll definitely need to change many things...so for this reason, I'm definitely glad I played the original game before the remake version comes out.
I want to play the sequel game, "Another Code R" for Wii too before the remake comes out. And I also want to play Hotel Dusk too. :D Maybe I'll do these ones soon, maybe not. We'll see!
