SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky – First Impressions
The brand-new visual novel SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky, from the long-running Memories Off game series, is releasing for Western audiences on October 23rd for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Steam. Memories Off was first released in Japan in 1999, and with the release of SINce Memories, the West is seeing a game in this series for the first time. Fortunately, according to the game’s publisher, PQube, you don’t have to be familiar with any of the previous games in Memories Off to jump right into SINce Memories.
As a decade-long fan of visual novels, I was eager to get into SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky, as its art style quickly intrigued me. The slice-of-life visual novel promises an alluring story, varied discussion options, and affectionate characters. At the time of this writing, I have completed the first four chapters of the game, so here are some of my first impressions of the title.
Small Town, Big Personalities
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky follows Junya Mizumoto, a third-year college student who is struggling with grieving the loss of his older brother within the last year. At the start of the game, you meet your first two beautiful girls, the wealthy Chihaya Hojo and the smart Hinata Ise. Right off the bat, I appreciate SINce Memories for giving us a college setting with adult characters. While some of my favorite visual novels take place in a high school setting with younger characters, a more mature setting is refreshing and more relatable to me.
Even in chapter one, the story kept me curious. How did Junya’s older brother pass away? What’s the deal with Chihaya Hojo and her rich family—apparently with secrets to hide? The biggest story draw happens quickly and sets a dark tone when a mysterious girl appears before Junya and claims that he is at fault for his own brother’s death. But even these parts of the game are not what completely kept me playing, but rather the interesting characters that pop into the story one by one.
A character addition I really appreciate is that of Chunyu Haung, an exchange student from China. In real life, Japan is constantly growing in the number of foreign exchange students it receives, and I love seeing characters from other cultures interact with Japanese culture within Japanese-made media. Chunyu is interested in old Japanese architecture, and I was drawn into her character the first time Junya got to hang out with her.
While I am a character-driven gamer, this component can’t stand alone. SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky has a beautiful soundtrack that, while not particularly unique in the visual novel space, creates a nice backdrop for the scenarios and scenery within the game. All the lines outside of the MC’s lines are voiced in Japanese, which I feel is the peak visual novel experience. I also appreciate that the conversations don’t stay in a single place for too long. With impressive pacing, I haven’t gotten bored with any of the backgrounds or settings, as none of them have overstayed their welcome.
However, my biggest (and really only) gripe so far is with some of the character dialogue. Chunya, the Chinese exchange student, says a phrase to Junya in Chinese and proceeds to explain what the phrase means in Junya’s language, which is obviously Japanese. The localization text makes Chunya say “English”, but she says “Nihongo” (Japanese language) in the audio. The two clearly aren’t using English. This is a small nitpick, but I think if someone is going to pick up SINce Memoriesthey probably aren’t new to otaku culture and/or visual novels and don’t really need their hand held when it comes to understanding that the setting is in Japan and that these are Japanese characters speaking Japanese.
Other than that minor detail, I’ve been having fun relaxing after work with SINce Memories: Off The Starry Sky. Every time I start to think I might be getting a bit bored with the slice-of-life aspects of the game, some new piece of information regarding Junya’s brother’s death pops up, and I stay up for a few more scenes before going to bed. Visual novels aren’t known for being short, but I’m looking forward to playing through the rest of the story and putting out a full review in the future.
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky is available on Nintendo Switch, Steam, and PlayStation 5.
Anime Corner received a copy of SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky for review purposes.
©MAGES
