Adventure games have long since been declared dead by critics and
players alike, but those who hold onto the genre will quickly point out
that Myst V, Syberia, Dreamfall and Indigo Prophecy are keeping things
out of the grave and in intensive care. Trace Memory for the Nintendo
DS, then, serves to give portable game players a taste of the
pixel-hunting, story-driven and puzzle-solving gameplay style that is
so rare these days. By virtue of the infrequency of such adventure
games, Trace Memory succeeds in being one of the only point-and-click
affairs on the Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, it's a little rough around
the edges, and by the time you get used to its quirks you'll find it
over way too soon.
Trace Memory tells the story of Ashley Robbins, who receives a
mysterious letter from her father Richard on the day prior to her
fourteenth birthday. Accompanied by her aunt, Ashley takes a boat to
Blood Edward Isle - no doubt more mysterious than the letter itself -
to find that her father isn't waiting there. Ashley's aunt goes in
search of Richard and turns up missing. Meanwhile, Ashley meets a ghost
named D who requests that she help him recover his memories. What
ensues is a wild goose chase for Ashley's father, exploration of an
abandoned mansion, and the unraveling of a cryptic scientific
experiment called "Trace".
The story starts off slightly intriguing, but your mileage may vary
depending on what you're expecting to see from an adventure game. The
localization is just fine, but the actual writing quality is
hit-or-miss. The story avoids some level of convolution by being, well,
a bit too straightforward. You can probably guess everything that
happened to Ashley's family as you meet characters, and there's only
one real twist that you'll find.
It's likely that publisher Nintendo's focus was on keeping the player
focused on experiencing the DS rather than trying to unravel a
complicated story. Typical adventure gaming fare abound, as you'll find
yourself pixel hunting for items and using your brain to discover
exactly when and where to use said items. The Nintendo DS' two screens
are put to decent use, with 2D renderings of your environments
populating the top screen and a birds-eye view polygonal representation
of the environment on the bottom screen. Ashley moves about down there,
and as she walks by areas of interest, the top screen shifts to show a
new view of that area. With every new view that pops into play, you'll
want to stop and look by bringing that view onto the bottom screen. At
that point, you can touch objects of interest to examine them and pick
them up, or manipulate levers, cranks and buttons to solve puzzles.
The graphics in the 2D pictures are crisp and detailed such that any
objects that look like they should be examined will stick out, but not
unnaturally. The 2D character art is also very well-drawn. Utilizing a
sort of paper-doll method, similar to Sprung!, Phoenix Wright and Tony
Hawk's American Sk8land, the character art is drawn in a
non-super-deformed anime style with clean lines and solid coloring.
Characters' mouths animate as they speak to you, and their eyes blink
as well. There's not much in the overall movement department though -
no dynamic arm-crossing, finger pointing, or head shaking.
Where you'll see a majority of the movement is in the bottom screen as
Ashley walks around the environment at a brisk 60 frames a second and
never skipping a beat. Nice effects such as birds flying above while
outdoors, and the sun shining through windows as you explore the
mansion's interior, add some life to counter the inanimate nature of
the 2D views up on the top screen. Much of the time you spend indoors,
however, gives way to a somewhat monotone color palette. With the
exception of some choice rooms that have many objects of varying nature
to look at, most of the indoors environments just aren't interesting.
On top of that, there's some severe graininess to some of the textures
used in the environments that can be a little jarring.
Fortunately, the music doesn't offend in this manner. Gentle, whimsical
tunes keep a relaxed mood for the majority of the game. Instrument
quality is to be commended as well, with developer Cing not resorting
to Gameboy-esque sound samples as is too often seen in many other
Nintendo DS games. The myriad violin and piano tunes are accompanied by
Ashley's footsteps, which change according to the surface, creaking
wooden shelves and floors, the squawking of seagulls outside, and the
sea washing up against the shore of the island. In the end, the audio
package does a good, consistent job of accompanying the visuals to
provide for a decent aesthetic presentation.
The gameplay isn't quite as steady and wastes some potential. You'll
get the normal touch-screen interactivity as you'd expect from an
adventure game - grab a lever with the stylus and crank it around to
lower or open something. The best moments soar above and beyond typical
mundane fare such as this. You'll be using your DS in incredibly clever
ways, and not just by blowing into the mic or lining up photos you took
of the environment to get more clues. We're talking about physically
using the actual portable machine outside of the realm of just pushing
buttons and touching the screen. To say anything more specific would
spoil things, but let's just say that for a few puzzles, you'll really
need to think outside the box.
The lows, however, really make you wonder why better moments couldn't
have been more prevalent. Key in hole. Medal in slot. Use knife to cut
wire and rope. Could things be any more trite? At least, then, Cing
spares the player from solving ridiculous puzzles like the ones that
are arguably killing the genre - no getting the cat hair to roll into a
ball to throw at a candle to make it ignite the wall to burn down the
wood after which the fumes will drive a cheetah out of hiding as it
runs outside where it'll drop a gold coin which you can use to bribe
the security guard to let you in the bank.
But some inherent design flaws bring you back to wondering just what
the development team was thinking. Why is it, for instance, that in
most cases you can't pick up an item until you've found what you need
to use it for? For a fictional example, let's say you're rummaging
around someone's room and come across a computer mouse. There'd be no
option for Ashley to pick it up. Then, you come across a computer with
no input device, so you can't poke around. Direct Ashley back to the
computer mouse, and bam - she'll pick it up. Why not have her pick it
up at the outset? Why can't you just pick up any item that might be of
interest? The spirit of adventure games is looking through an inventory
and using logic to deduce what you're supposed to use, how, and when.
This design flaw, then, makes for some annoying backtracking and - as
it limits the variety of items you can pick up - actually takes away
from some of the challenge in trying to solve a puzzle. Let's forget
about the fact that for some puzzles D will say to you, "Perhaps you
should try this..." and proceed to spill the beans.
It's really a shame that the balance of puzzle challenge is skewed
towards the more dull, and that some of the game design is flawed. More
intriguing puzzles would have extended the game's life beyond the short
five or so hours it takes to blaze through this game. Playing through
it a second time won't net you any cool unlockable items. There are
very, very minor changes if you replay the game that give some more
insight to the game's entire story, mostly revolving around D. But by
that point, you'll be wishing for more inventive puzzling instead of
finding out an extra little tidbit that you already lost interest in
during the first playthrough.
Trace Memory isn't bad - it's a decently executed title that gives DS
owners a solid adventure. The simple fact of the matter is, however,
that a good adventure game should have a lot of meat on its bones and
brain-busting puzzles that keep the player wanting to solve the next
one. Failing that, there's almost always an intriguing story to at
least lessen the blow. You won't find yourself challenged on a
satisfying level with a game that only throws a handful of these your
way. But Trace Memory is a solid effort that shows how creative a
developer can get with using the DS to create new, devious puzzles.
There just needs to be more - much more.
