True Remembrance – Kioku no Kakera

True Remembrance – Kioku no Kakera is a Visual Novel game developed and published by Arc System Works for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released exclusively in Japan on February 22, 2012. It is a remake of the original freeware PC game by Shiba Satomi. The story begins with an introduction of its setting: a dystopian scenario set on a modern-day timeline where severe depression has become a worldwide pandemic and is given a proper medical term – The Dolor. The only way to combat this disease that has taken the grip of humanity is the complete erasure of the memories that have triggered depression in patients.

Mnemonicides, doctors with inborn telepathic powers capable of memory alteration and specially trained for the task, are individually and periodically assigned with patients, termed as Guests, to cure the latter’s condition. The series of treatments takes place in a town specifically designed for Mnemonicides and Guests to live together for the length of the entire medication. Blackiris is introduced as a top-notch Alpha-class Mnemonicide, who takes on a Guest named La. The ensuing storyline unravels the daily strides that they take together and the mysterious connection that they share. Like most visual novels, the gameplay consists entirely of reading text and clicking the left mouse button to advance the text.

The text is accompanied by a still background, sprites of the characters in the foreground, whose expressions change during conversations but are not animated in any other way, music, and sound. At certain points in the game, an event CG, an image of the current situation, is shown instead of a static background with character images in front of it. True Remembrance also features an auto mode, which advances the text automatically so the player does not need to click, and a skip mode, which quickly skips through all text until either the player interrupts by clicking or the game encounters text which has not yet been read by the player.

Unlike some visual novels, True Remembrance does not feature any decision points, where the player must choose between different options that may alter the story depending on the option chosen. Another feature that is common in visual novels but absent in True Remembrance is voice acting: none of the dialogue in the game is accompanied by the character’s voice. True Remembrance is also one of the rare free visual novels to have an animated opening movie, accompanied by a vocal song.