Memories of East Coast

[i]Memories of East Coast[/i] is a short and linear Ren'Py visual novel which tells the story of two destinies entwined by a tragic accident. You play as Sam, a young police officer who decides to take a few days off and revisit his hometown, 15 years after the incident. There he meets Lisa - a young and bubbly, yet mysterious girl who seems to have a hidden secret. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507006084 As he gets to know her better and finds out more details about her background, Sam becomes tormented by his own guilt and nostalgia. Linked by fate in a strange way, these two characters are brought together once again to support and heal each other during a rough time, without them even being aware of this. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507005988 Although there are various choices to pick, these do not affect the flow of the game. However, by exploring alternate choices, you can have various other details revealed (or different CGs unlocked), yet the outcome of the story will still be the same. In that regard, we can consider [i]Memories of East Coast[/i] to be a kinetic novel, with a slightly changed ending depending on the last choice. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507006119 It's a 1-2h sweet read, and the immersion is strongly amplified by the beautiful artwork and relaxing lo-fi, chill music. Additionally, the way the characters look is left entirely to the player’s imagination - they are not depicted in any way in the game. [i]Memories of East Coast[/i] also has integrated Steam achievements that are unlocked by exploring all sides of the story, plus one extra secret achievement at the end of the game. [quote]More reviews on the [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11354094]Lilly's Corner Curator page[/url][/quote]

I think it's the only game that made me cry...a wonderful game

[i]Memories of East Coast[/i] is a visual novel developed and published by Roomah Gaming. You take on the role of Sam, a police officer from the city who is now on vacation. After a bit of contemplating, Sam decides to take a trip to the East Coast, where he once went on vacation with his parents many years ago. As he's traveling, Same reminisces on the memories that he had going there with his parents. Upon arriving, Sam meets a teenage girl named Lisa and upon Lisa's insistence, Sam spends time with her and they end up becoming friends. However, being with Lisa ends up eliciting specific memories from Sam, especially a certain tragedy that I won't reveal for spoiler purposes. ;) As for the gameplay, [i]Memories of East Coast[/i] has several choices presented, and many of them will unlock Steam achievements. The achievements won't count towards a user's global total, though, until the game is out of "profile features limited". In addition, there are no Steam trading cards at the time of this review. There are no CGs although lots of beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds. Also, there's a varied (mostly calming) soundtrack. Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. After reading the store description page for this visual novel, I figured that I'd be on for an emotional experience, and I sure wasn't wrong. That being said, I'll go right into my thoughts regarding the story. I liked the whole premise of Sam going on a trip of nostalgia, recalling the memories that he had with his parents when they went on vacation. It starts off happily, and it's clear that Sam has fond memories of his parents. However, as the story progresses and especially upon Sam meeting Lisa, the story takes a turn, as I discovered that there's a tragedy that happened in Sam's past, which leads to him feeling guilty, even up to the present day. Overall, I had no issues with the story itself although I found a couple of inconsistencies when I learned about Lisa's past. [spoiler]Lisa mentions that she was an orphan after her parents died in a car crash. However, she mentions that she had a grandfather, so I found it unusual that assuming it was her biological grandfather, he didn't choose to take her in. As far as I know, children are only put in orphanages if there is no living relative who can take them. Also, how does Lisa (or Sam, for that matter) know about the actions just before the car accident that led to Lisa's parents' death? This just seemed weird to me that Lisa or Sam would have that knowledge.[/spoiler] As for the writing, the pacing was ok, for the most part. I had no issues with the whole being taken to the past and all that. However, I felt that [spoiler]the sudden revelation of Lisa being taken to the hospital because she has late stage cancer was too rushed, like it was forced in for the sake of plot. It would have been better if there had been some events that would have led to this[/spoiler]. Also, the writing suffers terribly from poor English grammar, so a proofreader should have definitely been taken on to help with that. For the gameplay, despite that there are choices, I felt like they didn't make a difference in regards to the story direction, so it might have been better if there had been no choices and the story played out as more of a kinetic novel. In regards to the art, I actually liked the hand-drawn style. It gives off a certain feeling that makes it stand out from a lot of other visual novels. There are no sprites, but I feel like this is fine. Also, there are no CGs, which is a bit of a shame since I am partial to them. Regarding the music, I liked the lo-fi soundtrack. The tracks gives off that nostalgic feel of going back to the past. It feels soothing to listen to the tracks although there isn't much variety. Overall, would I recommend [i]Memories of East Coast[/i]? I have mixed feelings about it, but considering that this is the developer's first visual novel, I'll give it a pass. I think that it could definitely be improved upon, but the story was quite emotional for me, and I can tell that there was heart put into it. For the asking price, I'd recommend holding off for a bit of a sale, as it took me around 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the story and get all of the achievements. However, if you're looking for a short story with the possibility of eliciting emotions, then this is worth taking a look. ^^ [quote]Flying free and writing reviews solely for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url].[/quote]

This is the beginning of something amazing. As a first project (You can find more on official site) it's a beautiful trip through time. Took me personaly 20 years back and I wasn't expecting how I've missed novels. It's expected from a debut to lack the thrill, the expensive visuals all the sparkles and golden dust but that's how it used to be back when I was playing my first flash games. It's a good story with basic choices to make where background music adds a lot to the atmosphere. There are not many slides and animations though as You can see from other projects it gets better and I can't wait to see this dev grow. Game has it's own style that I admire, plus some achivements. It's one of those titles You stick to even after the closing credits. Fair price for support and a beautiful story to jump into. Check out twitter for new content!

Memories of East Coast is a badly written visual novel with a somewhat milquetoast story. It's translated (badly) to English and contains badly illustrated MS-Paint/first day with a tablet and Adobe Illustrator style "art" that would be rejected rather quickly by local art galleries. Visual novels are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage. Now imagine that experience, but with much worse writing (because if these guys could write professionally, they'd be published authors and this would be on shelves in bookstores), and you have your average Steam visual novel. You can get better quality books and comics for free online or from public libraries, or from bookstores for a fraction of the price of this "game". Steam isn't a comic book store, neither is it Netflix, it's for games. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games. [quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote] The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says "Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to." The developer chimes in to advise that this is indeed their first attempt at making art with a tablet. Perhaps more practice would be good before they decided to fob this off Steam (and into cheap game bundles as a cash grab). They also acknowledge this is translated (badly) from another language. While this explains the poor quality of this non-game, it doesn't excuse it. My review stands as-is. Edit 2: The developer once more ignores Valve's guidelines and attempts to explain that you can also let the non-game dump words at you at a very specific rate instead of having to click all the time, which is really worse than just clicking at your own pace... or heaven forbid, just reading a book and turning the pages when you want. So they're proud they added a feature that's arguably worse than clicking every time. So thanks to the developer for doubling down on just how catastrophically bad this is. I thought my review was doing okay at warning people away from a bad product, but it's nice the developer is here to help by providing more reasons not to touch this with a badly written ten foot pole. So while the developer has keenly pointed out in several ways how defective this product is, it certainly doesn't change the impetus of my review.

I really wanted to like this visual novel, but no. I can forgive the weird English and the cringe additional commentary the developer makes but the story is absolutely way to unrealistic and so nonsensical that I just can't get behind it. I kept constantly thinking to myself "that is not how any of this works" the whole way through. The music is nice and the art is alright. Works without any issues on Linux with Proton (8.0-3).

Pretty short story with poor English translation. The only good thing about it is it's ost

This short VN brings a very good story on 'releasing' guilt in someone's heart that has been trap for so long, whether you are willing to accept your fate or not. I love the messages in the story. Simple and sweet towards the end.

Being the first game made by a solo developer, this is not bad at all. Keep it up!

[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34294631/] Follow Far2close - Visual Novel Playthroughs Curator Page [/url] Memories of East Coast Developer: Roomah Gaming Publisher: Roomah Gaming [b]Pros:[/b] 1. A matter of guilt and how one moves on with it. "Memories of East Coast" paints a story of how two lives collide with each other after an accident 15 years ago. Two parties with vastly differing ways on dealing with it. It doesn't try to be the most complex thing out there, it just lets its simplicity show throughout the story. It's melancholic and can be applied to the everyday person. 2. The characters are just like the story, simple. An adult male(Sam) living with guilt and a female kid(Lisa) who has lived a life with struggles but tries to bring the best out of each day. The two might be different but they help bring something to each other: closure. A not so lonely end of a story and a forgiving end of a chapter. 3. I felt the best set of choices when you meet Lisa is to be more wary of her (Concerned,Uncertain). It gave much smoother set of the dialogue that felt fitting to the story. 4. The music is actually pretty good. It's calming and fits the slow moving feeling of the story. It's like the type of music you'd hear when trying to remember a good memory. [b]Cons:[/b] 1. Some of the sets of choices are not needed (A: Go to East Coast / B: Sleep > A: Go to East Coast / B: ...) as it doesn't do anything for the story or overall progression of it. The choices for when you encounter Lisa could probably do better without the Curious and Friendly options, as when comparing both dialogues, the more careful and wary approach is better fitting to the story as it allows Sam to have some proper character growth later on. The Curious and Friendly options just don't feel like they give a smooth transition from a stranger to acquaintance relationship. 2. The end scene feels abrupt and a bit muddy. Whichever you choose whether Ignore or Accept, the dialogue between Sam and Fate feels flimsy like a slap on the back and being told "Nice!". Maybe if there was a bit more emotion to it, or dialogue that was more reflective. 3. As advertised, it is an immersive visual novel and it does do that, but sometimes the smallest thing can break that immersion or come out of nowhere to the point it makes you feel a little confused. At the beginning of the story, Sam is driving toward East Coast and you are provided with the option to turn the radio on or drive in silence. Choosing the radio, it plays the flute meme version of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and Sam being confused about it. Now there are good times to put in little jokes but they also have to fit in. In this case it kind of stands out, in an odd way. It feels sudden, maybe misplaced and it makes you think "What? Okay? Why?". 4. Some wording issues throughout. [b]Conclusion:[/b] Memories of East Coast strives to tell a simple and grounded story about guilt, loss, and acceptance. It is indeed a strong plot, but there are some oddities and weak spots on occasion. Overall a decent telling of a an experience the everyday person can relate to. [b]Score:[/b] 6/10 DECENT