Read Only Memories: Neurodiver Review (Smol Lea)
Oh dear, deciding on wether I wan't to recommend this game or not is so, so hard. I ended up deciding to recommend it, because I do think it has its good aspects, fans of 2064 will enjoy it a bit here and there, but if possible, I'd prefer to just neither recommend it nor not recommend it.
I've been anticipating its release for YEARS and now that it's here... I can't help but feel disappointed. Not only did I love 2064, I also LOVE the concept of this one.
The game is beautiful and the audio is great (although I think the characters sometimes take too many/too long pauses while speaking, making it a bit tedious to listen to them), as expected.
As others already pointed out, there are a couple issues (talking sprites and the text not matching up, voicelines and the text not matching up, some spelling mistakes, at times rather extreme changes in how loud the characters talk (so you get to choose between being yelled at by Luna, while GATE talks normal, or having Luna talk normal, while GATE whispers), GATE in the cafeteria!! being on screen twice when talked to), but none of that would bother me much if the plot and game mechanics wouldn't have seemed so... empty? incomplete? rushed?
-> plot/characters
I did not expect one playthrough to be only about 5 hours long (at best), it was hard to get invested in the main story at all and the ending seemed rushed and confusing. I didn't expect a perfectly clearly explained ending, ofc, but Luna didn't get the backstory she needed for all of it to make sense ( like?? Lexi mentioned she wasn't always purple but it was never brought up again? how did she end up at MINERVA? she mentiones having a hard time controlling her abilities as a child, but what does that mean? her parents are mentioned, but noone talks about her life pre-MINERVA ), FORTUNA is made out to seem important, but isn't fleshed out at all, they spent too much time on establishing that Harold is an idiot, but for what? He isn't particularly likeable or important to the plot.
Regardless, I do like Luna and GATE.
I barely cared about the main Golden Butterfly story, it didn't feel mysterious or anything, really, other than like a tool to guide you to the re-ocurring characters from the first game. I think that's actually what I liked most about this game, because the older characters actually got a chance to grew on me and I enjoyed seeing what happened with them in the future and get more of their background story (TOMCAT, my beloved).
-> gameplay
I felt like there were barely any choices, and most of them didn't seem to matter much. The Neurodiver mechanic had potential, but ended up kind of boring, as exploring and fixing the fragmented memories seemed extremely linear and interacting with anything other than the relevant things seemed unsatisfying and pointless, and imo also didn't add as much to the world and the characters as it did in 2064, it just didn't feel as alive.
-> conclusion
I just don't feel like I played a full, finished game. I feel like I played an introductory chapter, and I liked it. I could see myself getting as invested as I was in 2064 if this was the case, if there was more content, if I got to explore the world more, if there was an actual mystery to solve that felt like a mystery, if I got to spend more time with the characters... but I didn't, and I'm sad about it.