My gosh, I’ve loved this series since it was known as Trace Memory on the DS, and I modded my Wii explicitly so I could play the EU exclusive sequel.
So far, I’ve played to the opening bits of R.
Calling this game a remake, honestly, it doesn’t do it any justice.
The first game has been remade from the ground up.
As in, the mansion that is the game’s setting has been entirely redone with a new layout. It feels more like an actual mansion now, as opposed to something akin to an RPG dungeon where you keep exploring deeper and deeper.
The puzzles have also been redone from scratch. Honestly, this was probably very necessary as CiNG liked to incorporate hardware features into their puzzles. In the DS there was one puzzle where you had to look at the reflection on one screen onto the other… obviously that’s impossible on the Switch.
Actually, on that note, I didn’t recognize hardly any puzzles from the original game.
TBH… the Trace Memory bits feel like an entirely different game, that only used the same characters and, broadly, the same plot.
This is not a complaint, (well, aside from not being able to use the DS hardware creatively this time around), It’s very much a more polished experience this time around.
Actually, on that note, I didn’t recognize hardly any puzzles from the original game.
This actually makes me excited about a possible Hotel Dusk remake, as I just recently finished it (again) it would feel way fresher to experiment it with the Switch hardware (although I feel it would be boring compared to the DS NGL but exciting because it would be like a HD 2.0).
TBH, I’m surprised they’re remade this game (Games?) for a couple of reasons.
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My understanding is that Hotel Dusk is much more popular series, and Lost Window flunked because no one knew it was a Hotel Dusk sequel. Those games need the Recollections treatment.
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Another Code: R was supposed to lead to a sequel starring the game’s deuteragonist, Matthew Crusoe. I feel like it would make more sense to make the third game in the saga than to remake the first two.
(But that said, there were significant changes in the first game on Switch—mostly to resolve retcons made in R—so maybe they added more to Matthew’s story in R’s remake? I haven’t gotten that far yet)
- My understanding is that Hotel Dusk is much more popular series, and Lost Window flunked because no one knew it was a Hotel Dusk sequel. Those games need the Recollections treatment.
I think they wanted to play safer as Hotel Dusk was a Nintendo DS only title and the way it was played was holding it like a book, which I guess would require a bit of more thought to translate to the Switch.
Regardless, it is not like Another Code didn’t use too much of the DS hardware as you have pointed out (I haven’t played it, so this remake is on point for me), so maybe they think if this less known game does well they can go safe with HD? IDK.
Normally I’d agree with you, but Another Code: R interprets the Hotel Dusk/Last Window split screen gimmick quite well, and they used it in the Switch game as well.
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Thanks for the review. Haven’t seen much hype for the game, so nice to see people excited about it.
I own the DS game but never got around to playing it. I also bought the Switch game. Are they so different that you think it would be worth playing both?
Hmm… The games are indeed wildly different, and there are some subtle story changes (mostly to fix retcons with R, but D gets a little more to do).
But regardless of if you think playing the same story on both hardware is worth it, the Switch game has ‘Another Code: R’ bundled in, which makes it a MUCH fuller experience than the DS title.
(That said, I do think all of CiNG’s DS games (Hotel Dusk, Last Window, Again: Eye of Providence, and Trace Memory) are all worth playing at least once to experience the unprecedented creativity in puzzle design. Though I will admit that Again took a couple of chapters before it grew on me.)
Thanks! I own those too (well, not Again), but was planning on having an adventure game binge at some point to play them all.
