Playing ANOTHER Code: Recollection really made me realize how much of an intellectual machine the Nintendo DS was. Aside from the Brain Age series, year after year, we were treated to high-thinkin’ puzzle-solvin’ masterpieces like Ace Attorney, Touch Detective, Professor Layton and, of course, the original Trace Memories. Unfortunately, I missed out on the original ANOTHER Code—growing up, getting new games was rare, and I had to stick with things I knew, like Super Mario 64 DS and Rayman DS, over new and interesting games.
It was definitely an interesting choice to release a from-the-ground-up remake of Trace Memories and the previously Japan-only ANOTHER Code: R – Journey Into Lost Memories since I’m not sure how many people were champing at the bit to experience this once again. Nevertheless, I’m happy I finally got to experience it—ANOTHER Code: Recollection is a fun mix of puzzle and story and a unique look back at a bygone era.
Though touched on briefly in the September 14th, 2023 Nintendo Direct, ANOTHER Code: Recollection tells the dual stories of Ashely Mizuki Robins, who gets embroiled in two whirlwind adventures full of twists, secrets, and memories long forgotten. In Another Code: Two Memories, Ashley is invited to the mysterious and abandoned Blood Edward Island at the behest of the father she has never known. Once there, she meets the ghost of a young boy named D, and together, the two must unravel the secrets of Ashley’s father’s disappearance and D’s life and tragic death—of which he has no memory.
Another Code: Journey Into Lost Memories Ashley takes place two years after the events of the first game, with Ashley now estranged from her father once again. She is suddenly invited by him on a camping trip to Lake Juliet, where, upon arriving, her backpack is stolen by a young boy. However, things aren’t as they seem here as the boy—named Matthew—is being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. The two must work together to unravel the secrets of the Lake and the circumstances surrounding Ashley’s mother’s tragic death.
While I missed Trace Memories back in 2005—and ANOTHER Code: R – Journey Into Lost Memories for obvious reasons—for the purpose of this review, I wanted to know how faithful ANOTHER Code: Recollection would be to the original stories, after having looked into it, through extensive research and Let’s Play-watching, ANOTHER Code: Recollection does change some minor details and plot points but keeps the core of both games’ experiences intact. In true “remake” fashion, this game fixes small things and streamlines others for a stronger, more fluid narrative.
“ANOTHER Code: Recollection does change some minor details and plot points but keeps the core of both games’ experiences intact.”
However, while both games have interesting stories, they’re not exactly master crafts in narrative. They both lean heavily on the “lost memories” conceit and create intrigue more by withholding information rather than crafting captivating mysteries. What results is a story with “twists” that any halfway reasonable person can guess immediately and revelations that kind of come completely out of left field.
Another thing that had to come with the remake was gameplay changes—obviously, adapting games from two radically different systems was going to require some tweaking. While both Trace Memories and ANOTHER Code: R – A Journey Into Lost Memories were more traditional point-and-click adventure games, they each had unique movement and perspective. Trace Memories had a top-down perspective with background and key images on the top DS screen, while ANOTHER Code: R – A Journey Into Lost Memories locked Ashley to a 2D movement plane and offered more first-person views for Wii Remote investigation.
ANOTHER Code: Recollection streamlines both experiences into a simple, third-person perspective where players can explore and observe in a convenient and straightforward way. However, players can still observe the newly built environments in first-person through the DAS—which follows the series’ tradition of being modelled after Nintendo’s current handheld, now looking like a Switch—which can be used to take pictures of useful information, scan paper QR cranes for story, and keep track of story and character details.
Furthermore, along with the gameplay changes, many of both game’s puzzles have been completely redesigned, with almost none of Trace Memories’ puzzles appearing in the game, and many of ANOTHER Code: R – A Journey Into Lost Memories’ being altered. For the most part, the new puzzles are fairly simple, with only a few requiring a bit of logical legwork to figure out. However, one problem I have with ANOTHER Code: Recollection’s approach to puzzle solving lies in how it often withholds solutions from you until the game allows you to solve them.
“Visually, ANOTHER Code: Recollection is excellent, utilizing a cell-shaded style that really evokes that classic Gamecube-era vibe and flashback frames that are incredibly reminiscent of the DS art style.”
This happened fairly early with a puzzle in ANOTHER Code: Two Memories Though I can’t go into specifics due to spoilers, essentially I had figured out the solution to the puzzle fairly early on, however when I tried to implement the information I had ascertained naturally, the game wouldn’t let me solve the puzzle. It was only after I triggered a cutscene that the game now allowed me to solve the puzzle with the knowledge I already had.
Maybe it’s a nitpick, but something that does bother me with puzzle games, particularly narrative puzzle games, is not accounting for the player’s intelligence or intuition. The game establishes several times that the player needs to search every corner for possible clues, so it’s only natural they’ll stumble upon things intuitively. But withholding the solution to a puzzle the player has already solved because they didn’t go back into a room they’ve already been in and look at an object they’ve already examined so that the game can tell them they’re allowed to solve the puzzle is just bad design.
Furthermore, it’s a genuine shame how both the puzzles and general gameplay don’t really utilize the Switch in interesting ways. One of the selling features of both ANOTHER Code games was how they utilized their platform—Trace Memories had a lot of puzzles that used the touch-screen, while ANOTHER Code R not only utilized the Wii Remote for investigation but had puzzles that utilized motion controls.
But ANOTHER Code: Recollection does nothing with the dual Joy-Cons—which could have been a fun nod to the Two Memories title—or the system’s gyro controls and touch screen. In that regard, none of the puzzles are exactly memorable or notably dynamic since they all involve just moving a cursor between points and pressing the A button or going into the inventory to use an item that may solve the puzzle.
“…one problem I have with ANOTHER Code: Recollection’s approach to puzzle solving lies in how it often withholds solutions from you until the game allows you to solve them.”
None of that is to say ANOTHER Code: Recollection’s gameplay is particularly bad. For the most part, I found it somewhat captivating and enjoyable, but I never really had those “Ah ha!” moments that made the Ace Attorney or Professor Layton games so incredibly memorable and satisfying. It’s just kind of bog-standard, which I always end up disliking more than something truly bad.
Visually, ANOTHER Code: Recollection is excellent, utilizing a cell-shaded style that really evokes that classic Gamecube-era vibe and flashback frames that are incredibly reminiscent of the DS art style. It maintains a lot of the visual style of the original games, but updates it and unifies it in a way that makes the two games feel way more connected. Furthermore, the way dialogue scenes take place between separated panels evokes the style of ANOTHER Code: R – A Journey Into Lost Memories, but elevates it to feel more like a pulp-mystery comic.
However, visual performance can be a bit spotty, and some of the textures can be a bit low resolution, which is particularly poor for objects like photographs or newspapers, which need a higher resolution for visual clarity. Also, quite a few parts of an otherwise small game can stutter and run at a pathetic framerate.
The audio can be a little hit-or-miss, however. While the music is fairly solid, mostly recreating the music and ambiance from the original games, much of the updated voice acting can be a bit stilted and certain scenes that are meant to be intense interplays or dramatic revelations just fall flat.
It’s been genuinely refreshing to see these puzzle games getting a second life on the Switch, with a new Professor Layton on the horizon and an updated rerelease of Touch Detective as well. While this review may have skewed somewhat negatively, ANOTHER Code: Recollection is a solid enough little puzzle game and a unique little time capsule. While I wished it could have been a little better, I didn’t hate what was on offer.
