Sailing into the latest chapter of the beloved Memories Off series, PQube and MAGES present SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky. Visual novel enthusiasts will be eager to delve into our review to learn about this intriguing release!
SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky, developed by PQube and MAGES, marks the newest entry in the storied Memories Off lineage—a franchise that first saw the light of day on the original PlayStation back in 1999. This particular installment serves as a spin-off from the core series, which is set to welcome a fresh addition next year on the Nintendo Switch in Japan. Fingers crossed, it will journey our way too! Set a decade past the main series timeline, the story introduces us to college student Junya Mizumoto.
Our protagonist Junya is grappling with the grief of his brother’s untimely demise a year prior. And just when life couldn’t get more complicated, he encounters a strange girl who bluntly declares that he was the one who should have met the tragic fate. How on earth do you cope with a revelation like that? The silver lining, if you can call it that, is his venture into a renovation project with childhood friend Chihaya Hojo. The task? Breathing new life into a traditional Japanese abode—the Hojo manor—integral to Chihaya’s family heritage. From there, an intriguing narrative unfolds, but I’ll leave the story’s surprises for you to uncover through gameplay. Each choice you make shapes your relationships with characters like Chihaya, Hinata Ise, Azusa Satomi, Chunyu Huang, and Yuriko Oyama, leading to different story pathways.
For those new to the world of visual novels, they deserve their title by offering deep, immersive stories, often comparable in length to a good book, accompanied by compelling visuals. Some in this genre also include voice acting, which brings the narrative to life, though it’s a costly feature for game developers. Fans of SINce Memories will be pleased to know this installment is fully voice-acted—but in Japanese. So, unless you’re fluent, be prepared for a reading journey, which in truth, embodies the essence of visual novels quite well.
Diving once more into the tale of SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky, it whisks us ten years beyond the conclusion of its predecessors, putting us in Junya Mizumoto’s shoes as he reconciles with his brother’s tragic accident. The shock-inducing encounter with a mysterious girl poses profound questions about fate and life. Fortunately (?), as Junya, you’re drawn into a restoration adventure with Chihaya Hojo, restoring the family’s historic Hojo manor. But what more lies behind this seemingly simple task?
Throughout this visual journey, you’ll unravel various narrative threads, shaped largely by the decisions you make and their impact on these heartfelt character relationships. A few grammatical errors and typos appear in the English localization, but they don’t greatly detract from the overall experience. Priced at $39.99, SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky is available now for Nintendo Switch.
Before wrapping up, a quick note: This review of SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by PQube. Enjoy diving into this heartfelt narrative!
