Read Only Memories: Neurodiver Review

thesixthaxis.com:

2064: Read Only Memories was a game that never fully piqued my interest. I love the idea of a sci-fi anime-esque adventure, but the aesthetic of that game never seemed as tightly dialled in as I would have wanted it to be. It’s sequel, though, has looked exactly like the game I’ve been waiting for. I was hooked from the first reveal trailer for Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, mouth nearly watering at the technicolor characters and gorgeously rendered future streets. Now, after ages of delays, I’ve finally gotten to sit down and play the game, and I just desperately wish there was more of it.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver drops you into Neo-San Francisco in the year 2070, controlling a mind-reading psychic detective named ES-88 – AKA Luna Cruz de la Vega. While some sci-fi worlds are dense and dreary and soaked in neon, Neo-San Francisco and the people who inhabit it are the exact opposite. There’s a cheery veneer and uncompromising comfort to every inch of this world that reminded me of the bright and bubbly world of the Ace Attorney series. Every pixel is spent rendering a world you almost wish you could live in, and every background detail features an unexpected cameo or out-of-pocket gag waiting to reveal itself. While most of Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a linear visual novel with bits of pointing-and-clicking bolted on, there’s enough life to the world that I never felt trapped or limited by this format.

As ES-88, you work at a technology information company called Minerva as one of their elite Espers – a psyche-exploring agent who can access, rewire, and recover a client’s memories with the assistance of a synthetic life-form called the Neurodiver. Mind crimes and mental palaces and non-linear memory-driven storytelling are some of my favorite tropes in sci-fi media, so this immediately got me hooked on the premise.

Then, when the Ace Attorney similarities hit me, I was expecting and hoping for this game to be just as beefy as one of those titles, providing