Review: Read Only Memories: Neurodiver Is Worth the Wait

When a sport is delayed a few times, it might probably seem to be a pure a part of the method. A number of delays? Which may go away somebody a little bit involved. Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver initially had a 2020 launch window. That obtained bumped again to 2021. Then, it was delayed to 2022. That was adopted by a 2023 window. The discharge date trailer even lampshaded all this. However now it’s lastly debuting on Might 16, 2024, and it feels properly well worth the wait.

In Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver’s future, there exist espers with particular talents that enable them to faucet into different folks. One in every of them is Esper-8801, a younger lady working with an organization referred to as MINERVA that’s on the chopping fringe of all sorts of expertise. As the sport begins, we see her making ready for an examination that can enable her to freely work with the Neurodiver, a bioengineered organism that she works alongside to step into folks’s reminiscences, restore them, and uncover invaluable info. After the prologue that units the stage, we flash ahead to a extra assured ES88 who’s snug in her position and coping with a menace referred to as Golden Butterfly. This particular person is messing with folks’s minds, and it’s as much as ES88 and the Neurodiver to set issues proper.

Like the unique 2064: Learn Solely Reminiscences, Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver is once more set in a colourful, cyberpunk world and incorporates a numerous solid of characters. It additionally mixes point-and-click journey parts with visible novel staples, what with ES88 interacting with the true world, talking with people, and acquiring objects in folks’s reminiscences to restore anomalies and uncover truths. There’s quite a lot of exploration right here and alternatives to work together with environments and people, which I appreciated. 

Particularly because it all seems to be and sounds so beautiful. Neo-San Francisco is a lavish and detailed world, with elaborate sprite work making every little thing really feel distinctive. It’s otherworldly, which is suitable given how the supernatural parts like espers and excessive expertise combine. On the similar time, it’s acquainted and reassuring in methods, with otherworldly areas nonetheless feeling comforting and acquainted as a consequence of pure parts like bushes or seeing that folks nonetheless take pleasure in issues like magical woman collection. I suppose what I’m attempting to say is that it’s a properly actualized, in order that even it might probably nearly really feel alien as a result of colour schemes, expertise, and sorts of encounters, the mix of the work put into the lore, design, and artwork makes it really feel believable. 

In fact, a giant a part of what makes Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver work so properly is the script. The story is completely incredible, and it’s participating and thrilling. Characters’ personalities are dealt with properly and make all of them really feel memorable, even if you happen to solely work together with them briefly within the grand scheme of issues. The thriller is dealt with properly, with a climax that builds up in a satisfying means. To not point out I discovered it fairly well-paced. Add a stellar solid of voice actors, and it truly is a delight to play. 

Now, it’s been years since I performed the unique 2064: Learn Solely Reminiscences. So lengthy that, by the point I performed Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver, I admittedly forgot rather a lot. However the advantage of that is that it nearly made me really feel like I used to be coming in as a brand new participant. As such, I can say the sport is extremely accessible and pleasant to somebody who didn’t play the primary sport. There are references to occasions and returning characters, but it surely actually does really feel like a brand new expertise, with new heroine ES88 serving to us ease into issues.

Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver is well worth the wait. As you play by it, you possibly can see why it took Midboss a lot time to craft the journey, its characters, and its world. As I went by completely different folks’s reminiscences and delved into the thriller, it continuously felt like a labor of affection for everybody concerned.

Learn Solely Reminiscences: Neurodiver will seem on the Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and PC on Might 16, 2024.