Another Code, or Trace Memory as it was known in the West, was a game I sadly missed when it was first released for the DS. It’s a bummer looking back at it since the title shares many elements with my favorite DS title 999: 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors. That being said, even at a glance the room escape aspects never reach that height.
But if one was inclined to look back at the two titles on DS and Wii you will find that this is a pretty loving recreation of a more obscure puzzle-solving game and even at its worst can brag about that. It’s the original aspects that remain that hold the game which is a shame. Despite that, this forgotten gem did make for a good time when all its best mechanics worked together.
Solving Mysteries
Unlike some games that let you choose which games you as the player start with, a new game in Another Code: Recollection starts with the first game before feeding into the second. Since the second is a direct sequel, not to mention the massive glow-up both games received for the Nintendo Switch, this decision makes sense. With both games playing relatively the same, a more updated version of the Wii sequel, I will attempt to keep most narrative references to the former.
In that game, you play as 13-year-old Ashley Robin who travels to Blood Edward Island in hopes of locating the dad she hasn’t seen since she was 3. You travel by boat, which then leaves with plans to pick you up later (you see where this is going) which forces Ashley to face her fears and travel into the mansion where, yet again nobody could just leave the keys out and the doors unlocked.
I imagine in some universe this could be a horror game, using the traversal element of the need to solve a room puzzle to advance past a locked door. Not to mention the setting is dilapidated and barren of life. However, much of the game is set during the day and even with the ghost sidekick you have there is nothing spooky about the story. Later on, when the mystery starts to unravel, this is further made clear with a plot that feels more bizarre than anything else.
Despite this, the narrative is a joy to watch unfold thanks to the new polished graphics and voice acting. It honestly makes me not want to criticize the elements I inevitably will with the amount of work that went into modernizing both titles, not just in basic exchanges but in the cutscenes that were added. You rarely see a remake, especially one with a niche audience, have this much painstaking work put in.
Both games originally launched in the 2000s, years before the first Life is Strange was released but honestly, the similarities are everywhere. Your character Robin feels a lot like Max Caulfield, well-meaning and uncomfortable in most situations. In the second game, you even have a new outfit that looks weirdly similar to Chloe Price. Whether these were inspired by LiS, or simply inevitable for a forgotten gem that predates it the draw these comparisons is beyond me. All I know if these made me feel at home.
A Puzzle Here, A Puzzle There
As stated far above, much of the remake uses the 2009 Wii title as its base. This involved an over-the-shoulder camera as you explore small set pieces connected to a larger world. This is in line with modernized point-and-click adventures of the time, but again, for modern players, it will be familiar to players of Telltale games and Life is Strange.
This involves finding yourself in a room, or building, and wandering around interacting with items to get more narrative drops or interact with objects. This brings about the first issue with the game that I had, the camera. Since these rooms can be small and filled with objects, your camera is always getting knocked around. This usually happens by lessening your field of view, even occasionally pushing me into a pseudo-first person before it slowly pans out past a grainy character model once again.
Puzzles are also less intuitive than I would have liked. A resident evil game for instance involves you running around all the unlocked space to find the item you need to progress but that isn’t the case here. Once you enter a ‘kinda’ puzzle you are blocked from exiting that area and, if you can, leave a room it means that another room is involved.
The first puzzle I had was what I would have expected. I needed to find three plates and solve a level puzzle with them but they were hidden in three other rooms. They weren’t super far away but in two cases I needed to examine them to realize they were being repurposed. After that, the puzzles felt easy and simplistic.
In another puzzle, I needed to use a weighted scale to find coins to unlock a hidden room. This one was self-contained but simple but at least it used the room in a meaningful way. Shortly after, to get a similar key item to the one gained above, I simply had to turn the dials on a radio to turn it on and unlock it, and unfortunately, most puzzles were on par with that.
Another issue I had was a feature unlocked early through the character’s DAS mechanic. This switch-like device has a camera to photograph clues which in any other game would be a godsend. Here, however, I only used it twice in early puzzles. Similarly, the combine mechanic only came up twice in the first game’s short runtime.
The second game, for what it’s worth, did seem both mechanics return and get used slightly more, but the puzzles remain the same with you wandering around a finite space interacting with stuff till you find what you need. It’s a shame because, from what I saw, most of these remained unchanged from the originals, despite the glow-up every other aspect received from Arc System Works.
Verdict
Another Code: Recollection offers a flawed experience that in its core gameplay can come across as dated, which isn’t a bad thing if you are willing to accept that these games were released in the 2000s. It is harder to accept that when you see just how much work went into updating it for a modern audience when they could have probably gotten away with half the work that went into it.
If you are willing to look past these flaws, what you get is an enjoyable narrative and a gameplay look that is fun even if it is flawed. Both games are short, but in a double pack where they serve as one experience, it works pretty well. For Fans of Life is Strange in particular, this is a title to revisit, to see what you might have missed before you gave narrative driving games a chance.
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Reviewed for Nintendo Switch
A code was provided by Nintendo of America for the purposes of this review.
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: January 19th, 2024
Players take the role of Ashley Robin across two mysteries first released in the 2000s.
Pros:
+Storytelling
+Graphics Update
+Solid Voice Acting
+interesting setpieces
Cons:
-Lackluster puzzles
-Clunky Camera
-Short narratives
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Another Code: Recollection
