Described as an interactive poem by its developers, A Memoir Blue depicts a fantasical life of a swimmer reliving out her childhood memories, but is the game a deep dive into the ocean or a shallow splash in a puddle.
Let's face it, there isn't exactly a shortage of interactive novels for us cozy gamers to choose from. There's the chilling tone set by What Remains of Edith Finch to even 2005 suspensful adventure of Fahrenheit to name a couple but there are many more that have tackled this genre, some successfully while others were a half hearted attempt- which brings me to A Memoir Blue.
Classed as an interactive poem by its developers, A Memoir Blue follows the story of a champion swimmer who's reliving out alot of her childhood memories in a very stylistic way. Despite many of her achievements, she's unhappy at the start of the game, sitting on the sofa on a rainy day surrounded by medals and trophies. Uncovering a childhood photo, she dives deep into her childhood, both figuratively and quite literally.
Throughout the game, you'll follow this nameless character as she explores several locations dressed in aquatic life and solving simple puzzles, you will uncover snippets of her childhood through a series of beautiful 2D animations that give you insight into her tragic life. The themes are fairly heart wrenching from divorce to a child who has to live with a overworked mum trying to give her daughter the best life. I'm sure that this can resignate with a fair few individuals.
Infact, that last statement has been verified by Cloisters Interactive founder Shelley Chen herself who drew inspiration from her own life experiences and shaped the game's narrative on something that everybody can relate to, which is probably why there are many moments that hit the player hard. I mean, I'm not a child of divorce but I was definiately a lonley child who had to celebrate a lot of her personal achievements alone and that, that right there got me.
Yet despite the game's clever use of beautifully drawn 2D animations blended into 3D game graphics and the emotional undertones of the game's story, it does feel very bare boned. Unfortunately, even if you're going to pass your game off as an interactive poem, you're still going to be bundled in with games that produce a more indepth story and I guess that's what I wanted- more depth.
Also, I just want to briefly touch upon performance. At first, I was going to mention this as I played this for free via Xbox Gamepass and didn't encounter any issues, however upon further researching for this game, I noticed alot of people complain about the long loading screens and graphical glitches of the switch version. As I know that majority of the cozy gaming community favour this console, it's best to keep this in mind if you do wish to purchase this.
Overall, A Memoir Blue is a good attempt into this genre. Visually it is stunning and the story will envoke some strong emotions for many players however there are stronger contenders in the Interactive Novel category.