Another Code Recollection - A completely unexpected remake

Have you ever walked into the videogame store, mindlessly dug into the used game box and instinctively bought a game that you never heard of but it had something in the cover that caught your attention? That’s exactly what happened to me when I found Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, a small investigative adventure for Nintendo DS.

That was my first approach with the games made by Cing, a small Japanese software house that was founded in 1999, then closed in 2010 due to bankruptcy. Last Window was their very last game. Cing was mostly focused on adventure games, with a particular focus on the investigation genre.

Last Window was a very peculiar game: I enjoyed the fact that you had to hold the DS vertically like a book, I loved the animation style which reminded me of the Take On Me music video by A Ha. The story was also very interesting: in the guise of the detective Kyle Hyde we had to discover the secrets of this apartment block, and by consequence the secrets of its inhabitants.

After Last Window I looked up everywhere in order to collect the rest of their games. It’s a real shame that this team, with so many unique ideas, ultimately had to close; Nowadays their games have become kind of a cult for the fans of the genre, but they never really garnered a huge success.

In spite of the bankruptcy, the former members of Cing are still active in the industry, working for Arc System Works. In 2016 they tried to relaunch themselves with a new, if very short, adventure game for Nintendo 3DS called Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories: a game that could’ve been the start of something new, but barely made a blip on anyone’s radar.

The true game changer happened in 2023, when out of nowhere a Nintendo Direct announced Another Code: Recollection, a complete remake of the two Another Code games, respectively for Nintendo DS and Wii. I was overjoyed at the announcement, I didn’t think a revival was even possible at this point, so naturally it ended up being an instant buy for me.

It’s been more than a year since it came out, the former Cing employees have released a new exclusive game for Nintendo Switch 2 and I wanted to jump back a bit in order to help you rediscover these little gems, and maybe convince you to give it a shot.

Another Code: Recollection

About the Plot

The plot is split into two stories: Two Memories and Journey into Lost Memories. Both see Ashley Mizuki Robins as the protagonist, a teenage girl daughter of two scientists Richard Robins and Sayoko Kitazato. 

The two are experts in neuroscience, in particular the study of memory, and they’re working on a project called Another, a machine with the ability of extracting and modifying human memory. One day though, the project gets interrupted: Sayoko is assassinated when Ashley was only three, her father has disappeared and since then she lives with her aunt, Jessica.

Two Memories begins on Ashley’s 14th birthday. She receives a package from her dad containing a device called DAS, with a letter of invitation to meet each other at Blood Edward Island. Ashley, encouraged by her aunt Jessica, decides to accept the invitation in order to finally get to know her dad.

On the island she meets D, a ghost of a teenage boy that floats around the island’s mansion. He doesn’t remember his past, but he knows that he has to find some answers in order to finally rest in peace. Together the two start exploring the island in search for answers about their past.

Journey into Lost Memories takes place two years after the events of Two Memories. After being reunited and living together for some time, Richard and Ashely get separated once again. Richard accepts a job at Lake Juliet for a company called JC Valley, and despite the promise of always coming home on weekends, he starts coming home less and less as time goes on, and by this point they haven’t seen each other for 6 months.

Once again it will be a letter that sets off the chain of events, this time for a weekend family camping at Lake Juliet. Ashley is not enthusiastic about the idea at first, but she finally concedes about joining her father. The moment she arrives, her backpack gets stolen by a kid at the bus stop.

Ashley files a charge for robbery at the camp and instantly starts looking for the kid responsible. It’s at that moment that memories from the distant past start re-emerging. Ashley has been in this place already with her mother, and thus she decides to stay at the camp and uncover the secret hidden at Lake Juliet and JC Valley.

Both of these are investigative stories, and as Ashley we get to explore the various locations in order to unlock mysteries about either the place or people involved in the events. The main theme is uncovering lost memories and the truth about potentially traumatizing events about a person’s past.

In Two Memories, for example, both Ashely and D, witnessed the murder of someone dear to them at a very young age and the shock made it so that they completely lost the memory of that event. The final massage being that you shouldn’t run away from hurtful realities but find the strength to elaborate them and move forward.

“Knowing the truth might be painful, but in the end it’s always the right choice”

I especially enjoyed the atmosphere of Two Memories. Roaming around this old house, sometimes in ruin, to uncover various fragments of D’s family history and the tragedy that took place, was something that carried me from the very beginning. To this day Edward mansion is still my favourite part of the whole game, to the point that I feel the absence of something similar was the main reason why I wasn’t enjoying the sequel the same way.

Journey into Lost Memories is a chapter that since the beginning is a lot more cheerful, since it takes place in an American campsite instead of an 1800s mansion. There are a lot more characters, many of them the same age as Ashley, so there isn’t a feeling of isolation and loneliness like in the corridors of Edward Mansion.

Some of the conflicts in the beginning feel akin to Teenage drama. Richard who behaves like an excessively oblivious father, Ashley becoming more and more frustrated by the situation… Even the first approach between Ashley and Elizabeth, a girl she meets at the camp, is brimming with jealousy and Elizabeth herself acts like the worst spoiled teenager.

But after getting used to the drastic change of setting and letting myself be carried by this feeling of summer vacation of the Lake Juliet Campsite, everything started to click and I was getting immersed in the story, especially with our new companion for this adventure, Matthew Crusoe.

Matthew is filling the same role as D in Two Memories: he’s a kid with memory loss due to a previous trauma, who finds himself at Lake Juliet to find out the truth behind his father's disappearance. His father was building a resort for the lake that was interrupted due to accusations of polluting the environment, this sent the company into bankruptcy and since then he disappeared for more than 5 years.

Since then Matthew has never stopped to search for him and this year is the last occasion he can find out where he’s gone to, since in autumn he’ll be forced to move out with his uncle in England where he’ll stay until he reaches legal age. In addition to this there’s a secret that Matthew hides in the depths of his memory, a secret that rings within him every time he gets closer to the clock tower.

If there’s a theme that is present in this game, even more so than the previous one, is family conflict: Ashley is trying to create a true bond with her father Richard and find out more about the death of her mother; Matthew is desperately looking for his father; Elizabeth is angry at her father for an engagement she doesn’t approve and an old woman, Charlotte, has lost contact with her daughter for years.

There are all stories that are handled in a very delicate way, and that I found to be very engaging, some of them have been slightly changed since the original Wii version, and I feel every change has been for the best, especially everything regarding the main antagonist of Journey into Lost Memories.

The only major problem is that all of these stories are all presented in the very beginning of the game, while everything regarding Ashley has been pushed to the endgame. This not only ends up creating a strange pace in the narrative, but it also gives the impression that the plot of the main character isn’t really advancing that much. This was handled a lot better in Two Memories, where the stories of both D and Ashley advanced at the same time.

I also wanted to see more scenes of Ashley and Richard together, for a game that puts so much emphasis on family relationships, it’s weird to see how the one between the main character and her father is the one pushed more to the side.

I really appreciated the presentation style in this game, Taisuke Kanasaki has always been the art director for these titles, and this remake is so full of wonderful watercolored illustrations that I felt were replicated as good as possible in the graphics of the game.

Colors are bright and lively, many of the designs have been revised and I find them beautiful, especially the ones in Journey into Lost Memories. I enjoyed exploring every location, and there some neat touches like the map constantly getting updated with notes taken by Ashley during the exploration.

Music does a perfect job in making the experience as relaxing as possible, with its delicate notes with piano and synth, the motives of various songs have been stuck in my head for a long time after playing. It’s not a genre I would listen to often outside games, since I enjoy more energetic genres of music, it’s still some of my favourite soundtracks.

Most of all let me know if, after playing this game, you had the Lake Juliet camp theme stuck in your head for at least two weeks!

About the Gameplay

Let’s start with saying that these aren’t exactly titles that you fell in love with because of the gameplay, the core of the game is all in the plot, so if you hadn’t found that to be engaging, I don’t feel the rest of this paragraph will change your mind.

Playing as Ashley we have to explore the various areas in order to uncover how to proceed, mainly by solving puzzles or uncovering particular key items. The puzzles in this game are very simple compared to the original, a bit simplified in execution.

This is mainly due to the fact they tried to take full advantage of all the gimmicks of their consoles: dual screen, touchscreen and microphone with the Nintendo DS, or motion controls of the Nintendo Wii. Some of these features are present on the Nintendo Switch, but it was decided to not use them so that the players wouldn’t be forced to play the game handled rather than docked or vice versa.

The only gimmick that gets utilized for a couple of puzzles is the gyroscope of the Joycons or Pro Controller, for the rest are mostly simple logic puzzles that only need a controller to be solved. The most unique feature is using the camera of Ashley’s device, the DAS, which in the original version was based on the Nintendo DS, while here is closer to the Nintendo Switch.

We can take photos of various objects in the house and overlap them between each other, so we can find solutions to some clues, or even take them as a note so that we don’t have to do that on paper. It adds a bit of spice in a game where the difficulty is in general pretty low.

Taking into account the fact that most of the puzzles are found in Two Memories, since Journey into Lost Memories is more verbose and concentrated on the characters, there’s a possibility that this game for a good portion might feel close to a walking simulator.

The exploration is also a non issue, the maps are very clear and detailed, and in case you get lost and don’t know how to advance, just push the left analogue stick to have a neat compass on screen that will guide you step by step, just to be sure you will never have any trouble.

The cutest addition of the remake were this collectible QR Code origami that we could scan with the camera, and they all unlock little excerpts from Richard Robins’ diary. I felt they were a cute addition to give space and depth to a character that unfortunately doesn’t have that much screen time.

Overall, if you want some spice and intricacy in your puzzles while playing your investigation games, you most likely won’t find it here. I was kept intrigued by the story so the game being so easy wasn’t a problem, but I get to some it might end up being pretty boring, if this story can’t manage to grab them.

In Conclusion

Personally I loved these games in their original version and the moment they announced the remake I was there on day one, and wasn’t disappointed at all. Two Memories has remained pretty much intact compared to the DS version and all the additions of Journey into Lost Memories have made it the definitive version of that story.

If I have to find a big sore spot, it’s definitely the price asked for this game. It's a Nintendo Switch exclusive, so even with the physical version the price is of course 60€, and as much as I love this series, I perfectly understand this might be a sore pill to swallow.

As much as they’re completely rebuilt remakes, it’s still two very simple adventures, which combined, only last at best around twenty hours at max… It's a bit hard to justify the price tag.

Of course I totally recommend it, I loved these games. I love the atmosphere, I love the characters, I love the music. Playing these games is almost therapeutic to me, like a comfort food, and I hope someday Arc System Works will give them the free range to do whatever they want and continue with a new chapter.

If you ever decide to play it, let me know what you thought about it: did you like it? Did it bore you? What of the two stories is your favourite? There are things you would’ve enjoyed to see more in depth? Let me know with a comment… In the meantime, for those of you who already played this game, follow me to the…

SPOILER SECTION - Proceed at your own risk

Two Memories has remained very close to how it was in the original. I’m saddened to see that they haven’t been subtle in the slightest with Bill, during the section of the story when he was pretending to be Ashley’s father.

Bill was a friend of Richard and Sayoko, but after she decided to abandon the Another Project to live together with Richard, he suddenly snapped, thinking about this as a betrayal, and so he killed Sayoko. The game tells us this was all about money, but the way Bill acts when talking about her, it’s very clearly some kind of jealousy issue with Sayoko and Richard’s relationship, I feel he was attracted to her in a very unhealthy way.

Bill initially is more of a manipulator, trying to use Ashley’s naivety to his advantage so that she can complete the Another Project, but the game is not at all subtle about making the player understand that he has ulterior motives and he might not be entirely sincere.

Let’s also consider the fact that Ashley doesn’t remember the person who shot her mother, and Richard was one of the suspects. Bill could’ve easily taken advantage of this in order to put father and daughter one against the other. Instead Bill is just focused on completing another and seems completely unbothered by Ashley.

The best changes to me have been in Journey into Lost Memories. I already mentioned Elizabeth, a girl that in the original game was just insufferable, the perfect stereotype of the rich spoiled brat. In this version, she still maintains a bit of her haughty attitude, especially with Ashley, but we also get a confrontation scene between the two that I found to be beautiful.

Elizabeth isn’t just angry at her father for his marriage with Sofia, she’s also in a personal crisis with her main passion: singing. She and her friends have a band which is very close to debuting. Elizabeth has inherited her passion from her mother and always tried to follow in her footsteps.

The closer her debut gets, the more her self esteem crumbles: she starts feeling like she’s not enough, constantly comparing herself to her mother. And it’s in that moment that Ashley spurs her into stop worrying in trying to live up to her mother. She has to sing her own songs and carve her own path forward. It was a very touching moment that helped me find new appreciation for a character I didn’t really enjoy in the original.

The same goes for the main antagonist, Ryan Gray. In the original he wasn’t all that different from Bill, a scientist with no scruples and many unresolved issues that wants to use Another for money, and he needs to use Richard and Ashley in order to complete his plan. In this version they decided to give him more layers making him a more complex character.

Ryan Gray is really what remains of Ryan Fitzgerald, son of Judd Fitzgerald, founder of JC Valley. As a child he was traumatized by the loss of his mother and since then he stopped talking. Judd thought about the concept of Another and with it he could’ve erased the memories of Ryan’s trauma in order to hopefully turn him back into the cheerful kid he once was. But something goes wrong during the trial, and Ryan dies… what survives though, are his memories.

The memories kept at JC Valley with time started to become self aware and they survive like a sort of artificial intelligence. After the death of both Sayoko and Judd, nobody remained aware of his existence. Feeling lonely and isolated, he wanted to feel alive again, and thus he decided to take advantage of Ashley: plant Sayoko’s memories inside of her, so that Sayoko would essentially be reborn in her daughter’s body.

Ryan was really close to Sayoko as a child, and he thought that once there was a person alive who actually knew him and cared about him, he might feel himself alive again, instead of just a ghost barely living in a data storage that is also deteriorating, so it’s not gonna last forever either.

This existential conflict of Ryan, coupled together with his family conflict, and the ethics around how Another as a machine is just as helpful as it’s massively dangerous, encapsulate the best aspects of Another Code perfectly. I feel this version is a lot more interesting than a generic scientist with no morality, despite the massive amount of pseudoscience at play.

It’s clear that in the original version of these games, the Another machine should’ve played a much larger role in the long run, but considering these games most likely won’t go further than what we have now, I’m happy that this machine is more of an accessory to the story rather than the main attraction, because sincerely, I’m much more interested about the characters.

I liked discovering all the drama of the Edward family and the tragedy that destroyed all in just one night; To see Matthew having to deal with the death of his sister and finally find his father after all those years; Help Elizabeth trusting herself again so she can follow her dream; and reunite Charlotte with her daughter after years of silence.

These are all a series of moments that made me sad and at the same time warmed my heart, and I feel this is the best strength of the Cing games, not so much the main plot, rather the people we meet along the way of solving it.