Remember Me

[Cerrax]

So a little game called Remember Me came out yesterday and I wanted to share my thoughts and discuss it. You may recall the game stirred a bit of controversy because the publisher (Capcom) tried to get the main character to be a male rather than female and when that failed, they tried to remove scenes depicting the female protagonist in a romantic relationship with a male.

I got my hands on it yesterday and I am enjoying it. The protagonist is strong, intelligent, and modest. She's not flashing skin every chance she gets nor is she subjected to ferociously violent or borderline sexual abuse. She's just an action hero, which is the whole point of the game. Her gender is not completely ignored (male figures will make comments about being attracted to her, male enemies will make remarks like "Are you afraid you're gonna break a nail?" during combat) but these instances only seem to drive the point that her gender does not define who she is. She constantly defies trademarks of typical female game characters, which I find refreshing as a gamer, and rewarding as someone who is tired of super sexy or weak and feeble females in games.

The graphics are gorgeous and the music is equally beautiful. Yet both suffer from lack of variety. Navigating trash-laden streets, climbing dirty buildings, and then reaching the top to a glorious view of Neo Paris, all while an orchestral score swells melodies into the heavens, gets old after the fifth time. The music and graphics also periodically glitch which is intentional, but I'm hoping its more than just an aethstetic choice. When you enter people's memories, specific parts will glitch to indicate they can be altered. I'm hoping this works its way into the narrative more.

Speaking of which, altering memories is actually pretty cool and I hope I get to do it more often. I've only had the opportunity to do it once and it was pretty neat. As I said, certain parts of the memory will glitch out, indicating that you can change that part of the memory. Chaining together the correct memory alterations will result in a new memory.

The combat system is not as customizable as I thought it would be. The "Combo Lab" as the developer advertised, was a way to customize your combos. I thought this meant you could change the actual buttons of the combo to make new fighting moves, but that is not the case. Instead, you can alter the effects that each part of the combo has on you. You can assign different effects to each button press, which will boost or drain your abilities. For example, if you make a combo of Power, Regen, Regen, Power, completing the entire combo performs two Power moves and two health regenerations. It seems kind of dumb at first, but as you unlock new abilities and more combos, this systems actually gets pretty intricate.

[Meteo Xavier]

I hope this topic doesn't become wholly centered on the gender aspects of the game development like so many other topics in the last while have, because the game itself actually does sound intriguing and I'd like it if discussion focused on that (seeing as how I won't be able to play it anyways).

[Bleck]

[Gollgagh]

Oh man, I remember watching one of the early trailers for this and being pretty interested; I'll see about picking it up.

heh

[Cash]

Just watched the trailer, game looks good. Might have to get it at some point. Main character definitely looks strong, a welcome change for female characters.

[Brushfire]

It sits upon my computer tower, waiting for the weekend hen I and my lady are gonna play through it together.

[Annie Felis]

That's it, topic's over. No discussion can be better than this post.

[lazygecko]

I have a general problem with games that try to sell themselves on spectacle rather than the merits of the game in itself. Pretty much all the press for this game was centered around the protagonist being female, which set off a few warning signs for me. Seems like most of the reviews agree on the sentiment that it's an average, by-the-numbers title mechanically speaking.

[Cerrax]

The context-sensitive finishers have impressed me. Depending on where the enemy is standing and where you are in relation to the enemy, the finishers are quite different, which makes the combat look much more natural than most "press B to kill" systems.

The Combo Lab system has actually forced my to learn the combos. Most brawlers I just learn two or three very effective combos and I can beat the whole game like that. But because you are constantly changing how the combos affect combat, it's important to know all of them. The boss battle I'm in right now requires me to have quick Cooldown combos and a long Regen/Power Combo, which means I have to know the combos to be able to build and utilize them effectively.

My only gripe with combat is that there is no "lock" option, so Nillin switches targets abruptly, which ends your combo. Granted, most of the time this happens because one enemy will jump in front of you to break the combo and protect his ally. That and the camera hangs kinda low during combat which makes it hard to see what you are doing. Again, this may be to heighten the tension and frenzy of the fight. Plus, getting surrounded is very easy and usually very bad for you.

Overall I like the combat. The Brain Lock (whereby an enemy will sneak up behind you and zap your head with a cattle-prod looking weapon) effectively disable your special moves temporarily, which throws a hefty monkey wrench of unpredictability to the fights. And as I've said, the combat is frenzied and tense, and relies on keeping your cool to fight effectively.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Cerrax

[Brandon Strader]

This game is SO good. I am glad I pre-ordered it, and glad that my pre-orders this year have all been met with really quality games. I don't know if it has been luck, or if we're headed into a better quality era of gaming.

I hadn't heard a rumor that Capcom wanted lead to be male, OR seen any gender-based advertising for the game. No idea where you went to see any of that, or the legitimacy of that statement, but I find it hard to believe.

In short, I recommend this game.

[Final Kingdom]

I hadn't heard a rumor that Capcom wanted lead to be male, OR seen any gender-based advertising for the game. No idea where you went to see any of that, or the legitimacy of that statement, but I find it hard to believe.

I heard (via Wikipedia) that when DONTNOD was pitching the game to potential publishers, and they thought that a female lead wouldn't sell as well as a male one (among other things, such as the race of the character and how she takes out enemies). I haven't heard anything about Capcom disagreeing on the gender/race/etc of the protag. That may have been what Cerrax was referring to, unless he just heard the rumor elsewhere.

[Brandon Strader]

To repeat, I really love this game, but OH LAWD, in the fight against Kid X-Mas I have no idea what the hell the final button presses should be, it gives no indication. What the heck is dot with a half spin? I tried spinning the mouse, no go.

[Melbu Frahma]

I hadn't heard a rumor that Capcom wanted lead to be male, OR seen any gender-based advertising for the game. No idea where you went to see any of that, or the legitimacy of that statement, but I find it hard to believe.

*cough*Oneexamplehere*cough*

*cough*Andthis*cough*

Though to be fair, it sounds like Capcom itself didn't necessarily have a problem with it, just the other publishers that turned the game down.

As to the game as a whole, personally, I don't know... it's a good story concept, but none of the actual gameplay I've seen has particularly stirred my imagination. I might look into getting it on a Steam sale, but I think I'll probably pass otherwise and make my next purchase one of the many classics I'd still like to add to my game library and haven't gotten around to yet.

[Cerrax]

To repeat, I really love this game, but OH LAWD,

Brandon, I'm playing on Xbox so I'm not sure if it maps the same, but the final combo was X, A, Y if I remember correctly.

[Brandon Strader]

Brandon, I'm playing on Xbox so I'm not sure if it maps the same, but the final combo was X, A, Y if I remember correctly.

Yeah it was space bar / jump button.

I just started Episode 4.

This game is beautiful, soundtrack is great, combat is super fluid... so good.

*cough*Oneexamplehere*cough*

*cough*Andthis*cough*

Though to be fair, it sounds like Capcom itself didn't necessarily have a problem with it, just the other publishers that turned the game down.

As to the game as a whole, personally, I don't know... it's a good story concept, but none of the actual gameplay I've seen has particularly stirred my imagination. I might look into getting it on a Steam sale, but I think I'll probably pass otherwise and make my next purchase one of the many classics I'd still like to add to my game library and haven't gotten around to yet.

That makes Capcom look better IMO. At least they PUBLISHED this and weren't bitching about a strong female character being the lead.

This game is so good. If it doesn't sell, you can't blame Capcom for that. Well, unless you do it from a marketing / exposure viewpoint or something.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Brandon Strader

[prophetik music]

hey, i saw this being demoed the other day. was thinking about checking it out. sounds like it's worth my time =)

[Brandon Strader]

hey, i saw this being demoed the other day. was thinking about checking it out. sounds like it's worth my time =)

It certainly is, Brad. I've seen reviews harping on the combat, which I've found to be absolutely fluid and immersive. I've seen reviews harping on the gameplay / platforming which I've also found to be incredibly immersive. It's almost like half of the reviewers loved the game, and half of them wanted to be paid to love the game.

At any rate, in addition to these other great aspects of the game, the freaking soundtrack, man!

Nuff said. The WHOLE THING is as quality as that. Also it's on Spotify if you want to give it a peep, search for the composer, Oliver Deriviere I think was his name.

[Dj Mokram]

I hadn't heard a rumor that Capcom wanted lead to be male, OR seen any gender-based advertising for the game. No idea where you went to see any of that, or the legitimacy of that statement, but I find it hard to believe.

Publishers initially rejected the game because, and I quote: "You can't have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that."

The full article is here if you're interested: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-19-dontnod-publishers-said-you-cant-have-a-female-character