Memory's Dogma CODE:01 review discussion

[Fred the Barber]

http://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/11/04/memorys-dogma-code01/

I was obviously a little disappointed by it. What are your thoughts?

 

[Eclipsed]

It looks pretty, and I'm calling you Fred the Softy from now on :3

[Vorathiel]

Well, you just one by one confirmed my every worries about this title.

Interesting hard sf turned into fantasy mess - check.
Not enough science details/'things happen because they do' - check.
Chuuni - check.
Weak characters - check. (especially those parts about 

Spoiler

villains, I didn't even expect that there will be any.)

Very short first part - check. 

[Soulless Watcher]

Huh, I was under the impression from the 01 in the title and the $15 price tag that it was the first installment of a series, similar to Fault. Shame it seems to be this underwhelming, the first animated trailer I saw got me pretty hyped. Even more of a shame that it wasn't a hard scifi title like Psycho;Pass or Ghost in the Shell like I personally wanted.

[Decay]

Just now, Soulless Watcher said:

Huh, I was under the impression from the 01 in the title and the $15 price tag that it was the first installment of a series, similar to Fault. S

It is. The rest is still in development.

[Vorathiel]

I don't know how Fault series looks like, but I'm not happy that MD 01 have self contained story. I would rather have some cliffhanger, and one, three parts long, story.

[Fred the Barber]

Yes. While the ending did a fairly good job of closing out the story, it also left a ton of conflict unresolved in the larger world. So while there was nothing you could even remotely call a cliffhanger, there's a whole mountain of unfinished business for various people, and a lot of under-utilized characters who were treated like main characters but weren't followed very closely or investigated thoroughly, and who will certainly be returning later (Akane and Ema top that list).

[EastCoastDrifter]

As a writer myself, I find that the main issue here is the overall plot that you mentioned. By that, I mean, if the VN stuck with its original premise of memory recording technology, the questions around it, and the stories of the characters' grief, it would have been solid. Instead, it quickly took an opposite turn and deviated into a generic "defeat the villain, save the world" plot, causing it to be way too inconsistent simply because of a major genre shift. The writers shouldn't have done that because all they did was created more plot holes.

[Soulless Watcher]

32 minutes ago, Decay said:

It is. The rest is still in development.

Ok, see I originally thought that, but than I looked through the steam page I couldn't see any mention that it was the first installment of a series..... while, the Fault page did. I'm I being hypersensitive about this? I nearly burst a blood vessel when I saw there is an option on steam to purchase the COMPLETE collection of the Fault series when only the first two episodes have been released, but not mentioning that Memory's Dogma Code:01 is the first episode of a series seems equally off. 

 

[littleshogun]

Good review there, and guess incomplete story there was showing the weakness of episodic development there if I may guess. Then again, I still didn't play this yet so I couldn't comment much other than the graphic and the opening song for this game was quite good. As for my plan in regard of this game, I think I'll just wait and see if there is another episode will come or not even if it'll take long time there.

[Suzu Fanatic]

13 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

http://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/11/04/memorys-dogma-code01/

I was obviously a little disappointed by it. What are your thoughts?

 

Looks like it'll at least be a interesting read - I can't stand reading episodic stuff, so I'll simply wait for the rest to come out before digging in. Hopefully with some constructive feedback, they will polish the future installments.

I've touched on it in the past - but I question if half the problem these obscure releases suffer in quality, is because they don't even start writing until funding is successful? Not only does it put the writer(s) on a strict timetable, they likely put in the amount of effort relative to the campaign success - rather than writing to the best of their abilities regardless. If I was a writer, I would have everything finished, from start to end - long before I pitched it to any publisher or developer. Any changes needed to be made after can be worked in.

I guess it's a difference of "writing a story that the author would WANT to read" versus "fulfilling an obligation". But that's an an issue in movies and games as well - passion projects vs. "the rest". But perhaps that's overly harsh in this instance, it could have simply been a issue of time, or inexperience.

[Fred the Barber]

FWIW, since people keep mentioning the episodic nature of it, I really don't think that's worth getting hung up on: the plot arc reaches a satisfying conclusion, and the main threads it spawns are tied up. The problem here is just that it's kind of a generic story with rather forgettable characters.

[Suzu Fanatic]

14 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

FWIW, since people keep mentioning the episodic nature of it, I really don't think that's worth getting hung up on: the plot arc reaches a satisfying conclusion, and the main threads it spawns are tied up. The problem here is just that it's kind of a generic story with rather forgettable characters.

Ah, so it's more like the FSN build - self enclosed stories. Still, I'd rather wait on the remaining content - it may address some of the issues that you mentioned - could be some characters that needed more screen time, or things left unresolved, are given a spotlight in the other installments.

That, and I prefer a long read over several short reads - I have too much time on my hands, so the busier I can be kept, the better (and less frustrating).

[Soulless Watcher]

I swear to god this is the last time I'm going to mention the episodic nature of the game here. After, going through the kickstarter updates I stumbled upon the one that announced the decision to divide the game up. Here it is if anyone is interested in reading it. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/memorys-dogma-a-scifi-indie-visual-novel-from-japa/posts/1551423

From what it sounds like, code:01 consists of most of the original story and ideas that initially went into the project. Future games will include side stories and different heroine routes that they decided to extend because they got over-funded.