A Memoir Blue is an engaging and emotional visual novel

I wasn’t sure what to really expect from A Memoir Blue. It was first widely revealed during Annapurna’s summer showcase last year, but without an accompanying developer interview like some of the other titles. Having played through it, I completely understand why.

A Memoir BluePublisher: Annapurna InteractiveDeveloper: Cloisters InteractivePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox

The story begins with a swimming athlete, Miriam, reluctantly posing for the press with her winner’s medal. As you hit a button to trigger more and more camera flashes, she begins to feel overwhelmed, keen to leave the growing swarm. Once she’s in her apartment, she tries relaxing on the sofa, slouching her feelings into submission.

This is where the game’s mechanics are communicated to the player. We start to manipulate and play with the ice cubes in the glass of water on the coaster-free table. Fish begin to swim inside the glass and water starts to leak from the bottom. This steady drip of strange, supernatural imagery continues when we get to mess around with an old portable radio, hitting switches and moving a dial, causing different visuals to appear on the large speaker at the front.

Because of my lack of prior knowledge of the game, I was unsure if it was heading towards Dark Water territory. Instead, a true sense of exploration occurs soon after the opening sequence, during a flooded subway ride. We’re asked to peel paper on the advertising board inside the train, slowly revealing pictures of this character’s life journey and the source of their malaise.

Further memories are fleshed out in beautifully animated flashbacks, like those wonderful and unusual films that are briefly mentioned each year during film awards ceremonies before the ‘best animated film’ title is inevitably given to Disney’s latest thing. All of these moments in the game are accompanied by dreamy music that never feels overwhelming, which can so often be the case in these visual novels. My favourite sequence involves Miriam watching as jellyfish drift towards the surface, and it reminded me of the sea-space mashup sequence in Child of Eden.