SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky Review (Switch)
I don’t care what anyone says, I get bad vibes from Chihaya’s fiance.
Publisher: PQube
I was drawn to SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky mainly due to the art and then found the story interesting enough for me to be interested in playing it. Though, I do have to admit that a certain featured CG almost did stop me from even picking this game up. I also did learn that this game is actually part of an already established series, called Memories Off. I’ve never heard about it before, but it makes sense why as none of the Memories Off games were translated into English before. Luckily, I did also hear this entry is friendly to newcomers as it does take place a decade later and there are only quick references to the previous games. So it shouldn’t come to a surprise that I’m coming in with SINce Memories being my first Memories Off game.
To be honest though, I was a bit hesitant to start SINce Memories, which resulted in me getting this review out way later than I planned. This is partly due to me hearing about the reception this game got and I’m someone that has a low tolerance for slow slice-of-life stories. Well, let’s see how SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky faired.
Taking place during modern day in a fictional town called Sumisora, we get into the head of Junyu Mizumoto. He’s currently in college and working part-time at his family’s business, Suigendo. Suigendo is described constantly as a “general store”, but it’s more where you can go to hire someone to get some odd jobs done. The jobs submitted and taken on varies, but it usually involves handyman jobs, fieldwork, or moving things whether it’s helping someone move or picking up things to drop off at a donation spot for them. Anyway, SINce Memories does not wait to introduce the main internal conflict Junya has and why the game’s title is written in the way it is. A year prior Junya’s older brother, Takaya, died. That’s not all as we learn that Junya was in the vehicle with him at the time, Takaya dragged Junya away from the wreck and before going back to the car to look for…something before it exploded, and Junya doesn’t remember much about the accident. Junya holds a lot of guilt over that day and always questioned why he had to have survived and wished he died instead. After all, he sees himself as the total opposite of his brother, who was looked up to, reliable, and was pretty sociable when he was alive. It also doesn’t help that Junya doesn’t remember the accident much and he feels guilty over not being able to remember his brother’s final moments.
SINce Memories does have a focus on Junya’s guilt, dealing with it, and finding his own place in the world throughout the game, but other things do happen. Aside from doing the odd jobs for Suigendo, he hangs out with his friends, meet new people that ends up playing a big part in his progress and become friends with them, searches for answers on some mysteries surrounding his brother, and helping out with some big projects or jobs. In fact, the Common Route (which takes place over the first three chapters) splits when you’re asked which long term job you want Junya to take. You can either help your childhood friends renovate an old family estate into a place where people can congregate, like a shop, after spending the Common Route in the planning and clean up stage. Or you can choose to take up another long-term job where you search for jade sake cups that have some family history for the woman you met this year and just finished giving tours to.
There are some dialogue choices that are sprinkled in every so often. Most of them just change up what Junya says and how the other character(s) react. At first, I thought only the few choices mattered, that being the few that determine if you get an early bad ending (if that route has any), a Normal Ending, or the Best Ending, but it does seem like the game does keep track of what choices you make. If you pick enough dialogue choices that are deemed as the best responses, you’ll be able to get the Best Ending. Otherwise, both options at the end will be the Normal Ending. That saying, I do recommend getting all the Best Endings. They give off the most pay off and a most of the routes will leave one of the focused aspects of the route unresolved in the Normal Ending.
I honestly liked the Common Route here. It does a good job introducing everyone, characterizing them, building up to the route split that’s going to happen at the end of Chapter 3, and does a good job setting up the mysteries surrounding Takaya. It also does set up that this is going to be a slow, slice-of-life visual novel. For me, it did enough to keep me interested enough to keep coming back and it didn’t take too long to progress the scene, the story, or the characters. And trust me, I have a low tolerance for really slow slice-of-life stories. Perhaps it also helped that this dealt with grief and how its main character was dealing with it.
Talking about the main character, I ended up liking Junya as well. Junya is an easy character to get into the head of, it’s easy to tell why people liked him and even some women had crushes on him, his internal conflict felt heartbreaking, and it’s great seeing him grow throughout the routes. Although, I have to admit he does get annoying when he goes down a self-deprecating spiral, sometimes he doesn’t show growth until the very end of a route, and the way this is structured does feel like he’s constantly backsliding (alongside one route ending where he did backslide). Also, man, is he dense and makes some stupid decisions. I can’t deny that I wanted to grab his face and tell him “She likes you, ya dummy” with how oblivious he can be. As well as calling him an idiot multiple times when he did something stupid.
This visual novel may not have been one where I felt compelled to spend every hour reading it, but the story, themes, and characters were interesting enough to keep me coming back and the writing didn’t push me away.
SINce Memories has five routes for each of the five heroines in this game. The first three chapters are dedicated to the Common Route and then you’ll get a choice to pick between two routes. Which in turn also splits into two routes later down the line where you pick to either stick with the one that started that path or go with the other girl(s) that are in the route as well. With how the game is structured after the Common Route, I decided to talk about the heroines themselves and then their shared routes. So, let’s get started!
There is no recommended route order, so I’ll be tackling this by the order I decided to do them in.
Chunyu Huang
First up is Chunyu and her introduction is certainly memorable as she hoped it would be. I’m just going to leave it at that as you gotta experience it yourself. Chunyu is an exchange student from China and she’s in the same year as Junya, but doesn’t share any classes with him so they had no reason to meet until now. She’s from an affluent family and she came to Japan as she finds ancient Japanese culture deeply fascinating and is majoring in Japanese Folklore Studies. She also has an interest in tradition Japanese houses, which ends up jumpstarting the friendship between her and Junya. Due to the unfortunate combination of not being able to read maps and getting easily lost, she seeked out Junya to hire him through Suigendo so she can have someone be a tour guide for all the houses she wants to visit. Plus, it might help her not look like much of a weirdo when she takes pictures. Junya and Chunya not only become friends over the course of this fieldwork work request, but Junya went above and beyond, making it a wonderful experience. Over the course of this, Junya also gets to learn more about Chunyu. She’s cheerful, you can tell when she’s passionate about something as she runs to places or is all jazzed to show talk about or show Junya something, she’s pretty blunt and forward, straightforward and direct, can be a bit overbearing sometimes, and is not at all shy. She’s very much the definition of a true “I’m not mean, I’m honest” as a lot of the time she’s being direct or blunt she’s pointing out the truth that forces others to confront it and evaluate themselves (which can be quite satisfying). Chunya’s personality plays a big part in it and it also helps that she does have moments where she shows that she is self-conscious or timid and she apologizes when she realizes she went too far.
Also, due to her family owning a well-known company, she does know quite a lot about the fundamentals of business. She is adamant about people not being taken advantage of, being fair herself towards her business partners, and she knows a lot of those old sayings (like haste makes waste).
Honestly, Chunyu is one of the heroines that I would want Junya to be with as she does treat him the best. Chunyu doesn’t take advantage of Junya, she advocates for him multiple times, she doesn’t forcibly pull him into whatever shenanigans are going on nor pressure him (instead she asks him and gives him room to decline), and she doesn’t go glaring at him or make jabs towards him. Even when she does make a comment that upsets and hurts Junya or another character, she makes it clear she didn’t mean to and apologizes. She also sets aside what she’s doing to help out, helps out despite being forced into it, and she gives some really sound advice that always ends up helping the person she gave it to. Plus, you can really tell Chunyu was a good influence on Junya by the end out her route. If you can’t tell, I loved Chunyu.
Yuriko Oyama
Yuriko is up next and she’s the last character that you meet in the Common Route and naturally the one you know the least about. She also acts pretty suspiciously the first two times she appears, but you do eventually learn why. Anyway, she recently moved to Sumisora and she became acquainted with Junya through her putting a request through Suigendo to help her move. It doesn’t take long for her secret to come out as while Kunya only mentions that she looked familiar, the people around him surely recognized her as Yurika Ayase, the leader of a really popular idol group called Palsate. In fact, two heroines are big fans of hers. She’s currently on a leave of absence and once you go into her shared route you learn that she also knew Takaya (and his death may or may not be the reason why she’s taking a break). She’s dealing with her grief throughout the game, but as you get to know her more you do see how she’s polite, can be quite determined, she really is great at singing and loves it so much that she gets lost in the feeling, and she has the kind of personality where you can’t help but be drawn to her (which definitely helped her in her idol career). She also has a tendency of hiding whenever she’s sad, rambling whenever she doesn’t want to talk about something, and bottling up her emotions until they spill over. She also is a bit like Junya where she has a low opinion of herself and her abilities. However, she can be quite manipulative, insensitive, and is super messy.
Yuriko started out as a character I was pretty neutral on and ended up hating her. Well, hating is a bit too strong of a word, but I really did not like her and found her to be so frustrating and manipulative. She does have some good moments and she is likable for the most part, but I just hate what she does to Junya in her route; as well as what she does to Chunyu and Junya in Chunyu’s route. Like, girl, just talk to them. Tell them. I also just can’t see her being super messy as quirky as I feel the game was trying to make it. To make this a complaint sandwich, I do have to say that I did like her plot line of trying to go from being a part of a JPOP idol group to striking it solo, her struggle with self-esteem, and actually trying to fight for her dream rather than quitting. I’m also pretty sure it’s implied that Yuriko has impostor syndrome.
Overall Thoughts on Chunyu-Yuriko Route Split
Chunyu and Yuriko share the same route split and thus their stories do happen side by side. Though, one does take most of the focus once it comes into play. This route is where you pick to help Chunyu with her search of the fabled jade sake cups that hold an important story in her family history and connection with another family. Funnily enough, Junya makes it a split second decision that even surprises his dad. Anyway, Junya’s reasoning is because he finds himself drawn to the jade sake cups and wanting to see if they were as beautiful in person as Chunyu described them. At first, he does have a hard time refocusing, but he soon settles into this new focus as Chunyu brings a picture of the sake cups as quickly as she could and they go to do some research. It doesn’t take long for Yuriko to be reintroduced, where she is acting a bit suspicious again, but she reveals that she knew Takaya and the influence he had on her life. As Chunyu is a huge fan of Yuriko, she makes another formal request to team up to help Yuriko get back on her feet, help her rediscover her passion in singing and performing, and help her return to her idol career. Whichever route you go down basically just determines how Yuriko’s solo debut is handled, which one you hang out with, and if Chunyu’s search is successful.
In addition, this route split also reveals some of the mysteries surrounding Takaya. You learn more about him (like how secretive he actually was) and what job he took on and was unable to finish. We also do get quick check-ins on how Chihaya, Hinata, and Azusa are doing with renovating the old estate.
Overall, I did like the Chunyu-Yuriko shared split, but it does have its own set of problems that do bring it down. I really did like the growth all three had through both routes, the storyline of Yuriko carving out her own place in the idol industry, finding out more about Takaya, and there were a lot of good or sweet moments. However, it was such a letdown that Chunyu’s route puts her search for the jade sake cups in the background and puts the focus on Yuriko’s career. I loved Chunyu, but her route did feel it was more Yuriko’s route and the conclusion to her search did feel anti-climactic. Yuriko also did two things that I really did not like and was when I started to see her in a negative light. I gave her a chance in her route, but it sadly forecasted how she would be towards Junya.
Forgive me for not being able to really explain this well, but I have no idea why they went the direction they did with the Yuriko-Takaya connection and the Yuriko-Junya romance in her route. For me, all it did was make me irritated with her and it makes me even more annoyed that I guessed the reveal that happens in the epilogue cause it only cemented my negative view towards her. I so wanted to like Yuriko, but she is so manipulative underneath her lively demeanor.
I did also get annoyed during Yuriko’s route as Yuriko and Junya did some stupid things not caring about the consequence that happens in her route’s first chapter. It also did cause some confusion for me when I went into Yuriko’s route as similar things happen. The end of Yuriko’s storyline is more different, but the beginning is just slightly different and I honestly thought Junya and Chunyu were already involved with helping Yuriko take a new step in her career and was so confused before I realized. Yuriko’s route also did feel like I was slogging through it, half because I did not like how she was being written and also because it felt like it was just retreading the same events with just a slight difference until the end.
So yeah. I liked this split, but I would have rather preferred if it was just one character route. Preferably Chunyu.
Chihaya Hojo
Next up, and first for this route split, is Chihaya and she’s one of Junya’s childhood friends. She’s also one of the first characters you meet and the first one Junya talks to. She’s actually rich as she’s from a high class, reputable family. While Chihaya definitely does have characteristics that come from her background, being oblivious, expecting Junyu to just do what she wants, not worrying about money, and having things done for her that wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t rich; she does have some other qualities. She never cared about social status, barely flaunts her upbringing, gets sidetracked a lot, has a hard time making decisions (especially when she has multiple good ideas), decides things on the whim and usually don’t follow through on ideas, struggles being independent, a bad liar, has a good poker face where she hides her true feelings (like how she clearly doesn’t like her fiance), and is genuinely a lovely and kind person. Her route’s story actually starts super early as she comes to Junya to help her renovate her family’s old estate to save it from being demolished as she doesn’t want to lose all the memories she, Hinata, and Junya made there (even though Junya never revisited past age 5).
Aside from getting the feeling that Chihaya sometimes treats Junya like a servant, I do like her character. Chihaya is definitely the character here that I had the same opinion of all throughout. I liked her during the Common Route and I liked her when I was going down her route. I did get a bit annoyed at some of the choices she made, but at the same time they weren’t egregious and I found it to be perfectly in line with her character. I also did like how her route tackled her flaw of being indecisive, not being able to make a decision herself, and breaking out of the habit of just going along with whatever someone else says as a suggestion. It’s not the focus, but she does promise to change and you see that happening. Not to mention you get to learn she wasn’t always like this and see why she changed so much. Though, I really hate that Junya and Hinata (but mainly Junya) take the blame when it’s super obvious that it’s Chihaya’s dad’s fault. Could Junya be part of the reason? Sure. Did Junya and Hinata make it worse by enabling it? Yeah. But they’re all ignoring the obvious main reason. Also, I got big vibes that Chihaya is meant to be the one that Junya canonically ends up with (based on my past experiences with true routes and with all that her route delves into) which I don’t mind as I really did like her.
Also, can I mention just how weird her family is? Like what do you mean you’re in an arranged marriage with your father’s secretary? One who, while looks young, gives off a “he’s likely too old for Chihaya” vibe based on what we hear about him and the fact that Chihaya was put in an arranged marriage when she was 14 or 15. I also get bad vibes from her fiance. It also must be a family tradition since we know her father was also her grandfather’s assistant too. Not to mention that it’s implied that her father is just humoring Chihaya going to college and she’s expected to drop everything after the wedding right after she graduates. Bad vibes all around.
Hinata Ise
Hinata is next and she’s the other childhood friend of Junya’s and Chihaya, though she definitely likes Chihaya more. Hinata is also rich, her family and Chihaya’s family have been friends since forever, and Hinata is Chihaya’s attendant. Their families in fact has a tradition where the Ise Family act as attendants for the Hojo family. The interesting thing about Hinata is that you don’t actually get to know her, the real her, until you go down her route (and this even includes Junya). You start with knowing aspects of her that stems from her being Chihaya’s attendant and then eventually learn who is is outside of that. Like Hinata clearly cares for Chihaya and her safety, supports her, respects her, and is proud of being her attendant even though you later learn how much pressure and pent up emotions that built up since she was put in that role very young. Outside of that, you do learn that she does care for Junya and is grateful that he’s in their lives, modest, is a bit indecisive, feels better when she atones for her mistakes even when those she hurts forgives and forgets, she loves anime/manga, and has her own share of secrets. Though, strangely, she is shown to worry about how much she spends, but also is like Chihaya where she is pretty nonchalant about expensive prices and can’t tell if something is expensive. She also bottles all of her negative emotions, which causes Hinata to have a tendency to make some awfully rash decisions and quick to chastise and lash out at Junya (even when it’s something small) since she’s at the point when anything that ends up annoying her too much causes it to leak out.
You particularly learn the most about her in her route, where you obviously have way more interactions with her. You get to see how she is away from Chihaya and without having to worry about her heavy responsibility, and there are some cute interactions that happen between her and everyone else.
I honestly thought I wouldn’t like Hinata. During the Common Route I really wanted to like her, but there were moments where I got so annoyed at her. Like when she glares at Junya, hinting that she wants Junya to disagree with Chihaya with her, but then it turns out it was actually her idea or that she actually does agree with Chihaya. Like, what do you want me to do Hinata? It made her look so hypocritical to me and you’d think she’d find a moment to text Junya what she wants him to say since she sees him as dense. It also didn’t help what she does when you go down the route split and leading up to the first character route split. However, I came to really like her once I went down her route (plus I’m sure it helped that I was coming around on her during Chihaya’s route). Yeah the first half of her route has her lashing out at Junya for small things, but she does get better, it does somehow become a cute little joke between them (Hinata calling Junya dense), thankfully she never sent Junya into a spiral, and there are a lot of really cute and good moments. I overall really loved her, loved getting to know more about her, and I loved how all the characters grew in her route.
Also have to mention her family is also weird and her father is a piece of work. I feel so bad for Hinata, but at least in this route she’s able to find the strength to escape from her doomed fate, we got to see the true colors of Hinata and Chihaya’s fathers (without the veil of them still trying to look good), and they recognize it’s primarily Chihaya’s father’s fault why Chihaya is the way she is.
Azusa Satomi
Lastly, it’s Azusa and she really doesn’t make a good first impression. After stalking Junya for a while after spotting him one day out on a job and thinking he was his brother, Azusa quickly goes to blaming Junya for his brother’s death. Why? Because he dates to smile and views Junya taking over the jobs his brother had as replacing him. Yeah she does not at all help Junyu’s guilt and she’s really lucky that he and his friends were kind and kept reaching out to her and Junya’s family were never told what she said. Anyway, as you’d suspect, she knew and idolized Takaya, but you won’t know how she knew him until you go down this route split. Azusa is very closed off during the Common Route, but she does start opening up towards the end (thanks to being buttered up with sweets) and she actually does interact with everyone during this route split in her own way and opens up more. We learn that she’s also still grieving Takaya’s death, she’s not one to visually show her emotions but shows them through her actions, brutally honest, strict, smart, and doesn’t like anyone pitying her or making decisions for/on behave for her. She’s also not that sociable, but she is hardworking, very reliable, passionate about what she does, and values taking care of those around her whether it’s customers, her neighbors, or those at a place that I won’t say because it’s spoilers. Cracks also do occasionally show through her cool shell, usually when her emotions get too much to hold in, when she’s really passionate about something or when she’s so annoyed she rants or confronts someone, and gets embarrassed if others outside of those she’s talking to overhears the aforementioned rants or confrontations.
Azusa is the character I did not like starting out. Her dictating how Junya should be and yelling at him that he was the reason his brother died put her on my dislike list. Plus her stalking Junya throughout the Common Route did not help things. I understand she is grieving too, but that is just not how you treat the deceased’s family member. However, she does actually grow on you, apologizes to Junya for what she said, becomes a character that does actually interact with everyone else, and she does have some really great scenes. I especially really liked how the game goes about revealing her connection to Takaya, her spoiler-y background, and implies her childhood (even though I did wish it was a bit more explored). I also liked her personality once she was off the Junya hate train.
Also, she’s the only heroine here that isn’t rich.
Overall Thoughts on Chihaya-Hinata-Azusa Route Split
This route split is shared by three characters: Chihaya, Hinata, and Azusa. Picking this split has Junya help Chihaya despite her saying not to so she can start being more independent. While at first this seems to be a bad idea as it’s going against Chihaya’s wishes, in reality no one believes she’ll be able to do it as they knew her for 15 years, Hinata herself asks you to not run away and that Chihaya needs him no matter what she says (which the Chunyu-Yuriko route pretty much confirms this). It also means Junya is going with his instinct of helping his childhood friend. Plus, he does see it as a way to get an opportunity to be able to get closer to Azusa and learn about what connection she has with his brother Takaya. Everyone does head into the next phase of the renovation plan, but things do get a bit messy. Technically the renovation does get put more in the background, but the old estate itself isn’t and plays a role in the conflicts here. Chihaya’s route is the main route here and while she does work on being more independent, she does also have to deal with conflicts that pop up that threaten her future or the old estate. They also find puzzles left behind by her grandfather that they also aim to solve and see the reward at the very end. The split to Azusa’s route happens pretty late and pretty much is the same as Chihaya’s route, but is slightly different since events happen differently, information are found differently, you hear different information, and the end of the route is different. Meanwhile, Hinata’s route splits off very early on and her route has her escape from being an attendant, shows the real her, and the conflict was quite a surprise.
This route split also reveals the majority of the mysteries surrounding Takaya, the accident, and Azusa. Chunyu and Yuriko also make some quick appearances, but Chunyu is the one that has some impact due to being helpful (whether through her actions or through advice) while Yuriko just appears and don’t really do anything.
Overall, I really liked the Chihaya-Hinata-Azusa shared split. This one did a better job at balancing the plot lines and when you’re in a specific route it doesn’t feel like another character’s plot line is taking the focus. I think it really helps that this is focused on renovating the old estate and almost everything connects to it. I did guess the reveals here like I did in the other route split, but the difference here is that it was not connected to a manipulative character purposefully stringing Junya along. Also, I got to mention I’m not saying the fact that I was able to guess the reveals before they happen as a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing as the game does give you enough hints to make a good guess and Hinata’s route even plays with your expectation. Not to mention that Hinata was allowed to have her own route without it being hijacked (while still having the old estate be in the background). I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s pretty clear the writers knew what they wanted to do with the characters and storylines here (while they didn’t with Chunyu). I also wouldn’t be surprised if this route split was intended to be what Junya canonically did, with Chihaya’s route being the canon route. I did really like how the mysteries were revealed, in particular how Junya’s memory of the accident were unraveled. Lastly, I felt so justified for what I thought about the side characters that play a prominent part here.
Granted, this does also have problems of its own. This split is longer and while it does have enough content to justify it, Chihaya’s route in particular is the worst for having parts that were a slog to get through. The last couple chapters all had big chunks that were a slog to get through and the Best Ending epilogue as a whole was a slog to get through. This is due to the scenes just going on for too long and seemingly going in circles or rehashing the same things. I also felt Chihaya weirdly ended up more independent in the other two routes rather than her own. Yuriko’s appearance in Hinata’s route felt like it she was supposed to show up again to actually help (or play a part in the conflict). Azusa’s route also felt to be an unnecessary addition. I liked the alternate way things happened and the interactions, but Chihaya felt pretty out of character (I actually thought it was an act but it wasn’t), the new information you learn about Azusa didn’t feel worth it since it’s basically a longer version of what was implied beforehand, there are a couple plot points that weren’t followed up on, the new information you learn about a certain character was just shock value, and how the conflict is concluded felt so unsatisfying and anti-climatic.
This may not be an otome visual novel, but I’m still going to show off my personal route rankings!
Hinata > Chihaya > Chunyu > Azusa > Yuriko
I’m sorry Azusa, but your route just felt so unnecessary.
All in all, I did like most of the routes here. There are problems, but I did enjoy the majority of the game and I really liked the interactions and growth that the characters go through. I do want to mention that I really liked the significance that the game’s title ended up happening. The weird way the first line of the game name drops the title aside, I liked how each piece of the title ended up having significance. There are characters that have sinned (whether they actually have or they just believe they did), there is a focus on memories and what’s happening since those memories were made, and the subtitle “Off the Starry Sky” turns out to have significance in a route split. Plus “Memories Off” was worked into the title to point towards this being part of the series.
Of course, SINce Memories have negatives like any other game. To reiterate the negatives I mentioned: Chunyu’s plotline gets sidelined in her own route, I have no idea why the Yuriko-Takaya connection and the Yuriko-Junya romance was handled the way it was, consequences for actions are forgotten even though part of the conflict was dealing with the consequences, there are two sets of routes where the other will feel like retreading the same events with slight differences depending on which one you do first, some information isn’t acknowledged or isn’t acknowledge in the route where it’s most important (which can be very annoying), Yuriko and Chihaya has parts that were a slog to get through (with Chihaya sadly having a big chunk of her route being a slog to get through), some things weren’t followed up on (despite seemingly implying it would be), and Azusa’s route felt like an unnecessary addition. There were also some endings that were anti-climactic and thus unsatisfying. The romance here did feel like a bit of an afterthought. It also took me a bit out of it that there was no character that pointed out how weird it was that Chihaya’s family had a family tradition of putting their daughters in an arranged marriage with the father’s secretary. Especially when Azusa is right there.
I’m not sure if this was a problem in the game’s original language or just a localization problem, but there were many times where there were contradicting information or it was just plain changed after a certain point. You could argue that one instance is due to getting new, definite, info instead of relying on a memory, but every time the game acted it never said otherwise. Even if a couple lines ago there’s a contraction. It was bad enough and happened so many times for things that were both significant and insignificant that I felt the game was gaslighting me (or at least trying to). The game also flip flopped between saying they were renovating the old estate or remodeling the old estate. I only noticed this because there’s a conversation that kept switching between the two (and I’m not just saying different characters were referring it by different terms, the same character will call it a remodeling and then will call it a renovation their next line).
Also, as much as I do love a lot of the interactions, scenes, and growth that happened thanks to this being structured into multiple routes; I almost wish this was a straightforward visual novel. The routes do really help the pacing and keep storylines apart (for the most part), but there were two sets of routes that could have been combined and I just wanted everyone to have their good ending. It just hurt knowing that there’s always at least three characters that get their bad ending whenever you get a good ending in a route.
Chihaya had a fiance finance
Lastly, the translation turned out to be subpar and kind of does hurt the game. For me, I don’t notice problems with the script unless it’s bad and I couldn’t stop noticing the many, many errors that were left in the script. There are words that were spelled wrong, the wrong word being used (whether it’s the wrong form or it’s a homophone of the intended word), a word being left out, a word being in the wrong place, and there were some lines that I swear had the wrong pronoun or character name due to the context. There were also some lines that were a bit confusing due to how it was written. There were several text messages where the end would get cut off and you could only read the rest through the text log (which, to be fair, isn’t totally the fault of the translation I did love Junya’s sister had her own slang as it does contribute to her characterization, but I just don’t know why the Suigendo was localized as being a general store. Suigendo is more of a handyman business that also take odd jobs.
That said, SINce Memories’ visuals and sound are great. The characters are well designed, whether it’s the cute female characters or the side characters, every location and CG looked fantastic, the music was great, and the voice acting was great as well.
Verdict
Overall, I found SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky to be pretty good. There were some lows, some pay offs could have been better, and the script really needed another run-through, but I overall liked the story here. I liked most of the characters, I liked the mysteries and how they were revealed, the themes were handled well, I loved the interactions and scenes everyone had, the game looks and sounds great, and it kept my interest throughout. I feel silly being so afraid to start SINce Memories as it wasn’t as slow or bad that I heard it was. So yeah, if you like slice-of-life visual novels and the story interests you, you might like SINce Memories too. However, I do lean more towards waiting for a discount due to the many negatives that I had by the end and the subpar translation.
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