Cloister Interactive’s A Memoir Blue describes itself as an “interactive poem” about a superstar athlete and the all-encompassing love between mother and daughter.
As an author who is a sucker for tragedies and dramas at a glance, this type of thing should be right up my alley so I was excited to dive on in and see what all the fuss is about.
Title: A Memoir Blue
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Developer: Cloisters Interactive
Platform: PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Gamepass, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed on PC)
Release Date: March 24, 2022 (PC)
Players: 1
MSRP: $8.00 (Review Copy Received)
A Memoir Blue takes the simplistic approach to graphics, relying on style over substance and minimalism. The game… sorry, poem, consists of various set pieces designed like a children’s picture book using visual imagery like flashing lights and simple queues to guide you in the right direction.
In order to tell the story, the graphics are split into two styles. They include: the present and dreamworld, represented by 3D graphics that at times look like they’re from older point and click adventures like Myst – and 2D animations from a Disney short story.
I found the disconnect in styles an odd choice for furthering the narrative, often being more disconnected because of the style change rather than immersed. There were no performance issues during my playthrough and I wouldn’t expect there to be considering the specifications to run a poem like this are minimal.
A Memoir Blue calls itself an interactive poem, and because of this, there is not much to the gameplay which consists of you clicking on various parts of the set pieces until something reacts to your cursor.
You’re not given any real queues or hints at what you’re supposed to be clicking on and in most of the scenes, this is perfectly fine as they are really self-explanatory.
There’s no difficulty here in the game, this is an interactive story designed to challenge the mind with thought, not skill.
I did find that some of the interactions weren’t very smooth, often moving in pre-determined paths that had to be pixel perfect. Sometimes clicking just 1 pixel too early would send the item jutting back to its original state, forcing you to try again.
This can be frustrating at times and can leave you clicking around the set pieces looking for the “correct path” when in reality you’ve already done so, the game just never registered your action properly.
Considering the fact that this is supposed to be an interactive poem there are two things that, for me, are far more important than gameplay and that’s music and story.
Most of the music in A Memoir Blue consists of relaxing chimes and ambient noises. The kind of sounds you’d find in meditation apps designed to help you sleep at night. This works uniquely well with the water-based theme of the visuals and story.
Where audio in A Memoir Blue falls apart is its use of songs. Through key moments of the story, cutscenes will play out to acoustic songs that I can only describe as the wish version of the band Daughter, with acoustic guitars and the soft vocals of a depressed teenager.
The lyrics being sung in these moments are almost nonsensical and don’t completely tie in with the visual narrative playing out on screen. This results in A Memoir Blue feeling more like some 16-year-old’s school project and less like a thought-provoking narrative designed to strike emotion.
The story of A Memoir Blue is the most important aspect of the entire experience – considering this is an interactive poem and not a traditional “video game.” A Memoir Blue is about Miriam, a woman whose name I only know because I read it on the steam page.
Miriam is an accomplished swimmer who is struggling due to a few events that happened during her childhood. The Poem has you reliving these specific memories, often clearing the path or turning on a light to guide Miriam towards the closure she so desperately desires.
Typically in stories like this, the viewer is supposed to have an emotional connection with the characters or the story is designed to invoke a particularly troubling memory from your own childhood.
These emotional bits set up you, the viewer, and the protagonist for a journey of discovery, realization, heartbreak, and growth together. Stories like these often involve the death of a friend, an abusive upbringing, or a messy breakup.
Miriam’s story is none of that and feels rather mundane, and without trying to spoil things, comes across feeling more like a spoiled teenager than a broken one. Her troubled past mimics that of pretty much everyone I grew up with, except with a better outcome.
The height of Miriam’s trauma is the fact that her parents got divorced and her mother didn’t give her enough attention during her childhood. Her mother neglected her because was too busy working long hours in order to keep a roof over Miriam’s head, and to allow her to pursue her dream of swimming. Because of this, Miriam grew apart from her mother and began to resent swimming.
Due to this, the story feels more like a pity party and throughout my playthrough, I was constantly asking myself ‘that’s what this is all about?’. With the underwater representing depression, and the somber music and hipster song playing during the intermissions, everything feels like a child wearing a grown-up’s clothing.
With a playtime of just under 50 minutes from start to finish, including a platinum trophy and a price of only $8, it’s very hard to compare this to many other games on the market. I really wanted to like this game, I’m a sucker for stories of the sort like Anohana, A Lull in the Ocean, One Litre of Tears, or anything by Makoto Shinkai – these types of stories are the ones I live for.
As much as A Memoir Blue wants to follow in their footsteps it lacks the nuance and understanding that makes other stories of the genre great. There are some great concepts here and with some practice, I can see Cloister Games making something very special in the future and I’ll be there to play it when that day comes but A Memoir Blue failed to invoke any real emotional response from me, and that’s a shame.
A Memoir Blue was reviewed with a code provided by Annapurna Interactive. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. A Memoir Blue is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
