Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER

[h1]I wanted a trip to the past, but the memories were too heavy by the end[/h1] I've seen some other reviews sharing the same story: it's with a heavy heart that I have to push a negative review on a game I anticipated for so long. Let's rewind a bit: Neurodiver is a sequel (or at least, a follow-up) to Read Only Memories, originally released in 2015 after a successufl Kickstarter. While there might be criticism to be found in that game, it gathered some attention and touched many people, myself included, with its overall story and gameplay reminescent of something like Snatcher, while bringing a dark cyberpunk-like world that was still less oppressive than usual, bringing forward discussion around identity and sexuality. The game went on to acquire some success and ended up getting a major update/rerelease under the moniker "2064 - Read Only Memories", bringing along voice-over for the characters and some bonus content (admittedly, I haven't replayed through the original ever since this update) Strengthening the reach of the game, multiple references were shared with VA-11 Hall-A, another successful Visual Novel dealing with the same topics, in both games. So it's fair to say that, while much time had passed between my playthrough of Read Only Memories and Neurodiver eventual release in may 2024, it was never too far of my mind, though the the hype had long vanished. You also have to bear in mind that the sequel was announced as far back as 2019. Was the 5 years-development worth the wait? I ordered the game as it released, happy to delve into the past ; that ended up being the downfall of Neurodiver. Let's start up with the good: the presentation is still top notch, you really believe you're playing a weird 90s era game imported from Japan on an exotic hardware. Graphics are charming and its pixel artworks are jaw-dropping, just as Read Only Memories was. Music is nice but never manages to become iconic ; voice-over remained and is rather good, though at odds with the pacing. So, the package seems nice and engaging.... and yet it took me about a year to finish a game that only lasts around 6-7 hours. My memories (see what I did there ?) might be embellishing how the first game played, but it felt more akin to old-style adventure game: roam around different locations, talk to the characters and get the right items to make the plot advance. In Neurodiver, the game is on a rail-road, and you're barely moving around much more that 3 locations; items are almost absents (sometimes replaced by "acquired memories") and the puzzles themselves are truly lacking. But hey, it's a VN; it doesn't need to be about gameplay, as long as the characters are relatable and the story engaging! Which is where I think the game fails: you're playing as ES-88, a young and cheerfull Esper, who's able to dive into the memories of others thanks to her trusty Neurodiver. You end up repairing the memories of some characters which were invaded by a mysterious figure called Golden. The overall plot is interesting and promises to deal with memory manipulation, false souvenirs, and perhaps the dangers of such a technology. But it ends up staying on the very surface of its thematics, with barely one choice along the way about manipulating a memory. As for the mysterious Golden, its origins are dealt with in mere seconds without much context and is rather anti-climatic given how threatening the initial idea ended up. The characters, while nicely acted, also feel a bit too much on the on-dimensional side. To add up to the injury, several characters are coming back from the first game throughout the adventure, but are barely recognizable in their attitude. I also felt like the overall writing made all characters sound somehow...identical? Needless to say, the game ends up feeling a bit shallow; with a gameplay that's almost limited to clicking from dialogue to dialogue and a story that ends up on the boring side, the only thing that kept me up was trying to see if the ending was worth enduring the tedium. And if you've read through all this, you've guessed that, to me at least, it didn't. I feel very sorry for the people who've worked on this game, because it feels like a labor of love, but it must have had a troubled development which ended up with a story too thin to be able to go through in the end. I can't in these conditions recommend the game; I guess I've been fooled wy my memories, and sometimes the best things are best kept in that special part in our brains and heart.

Kinda mid as a VN, really disappointing as a long-awaited sequel. Neurodiver has none of the appeal of the first game, all of the characters from the original feel like completely different people (because they were written by completely different people), and the game is so short and simple that it doesn't really get to flesh out the things that make it unique either. 2064 didn't need a sequel badly enough to justify wasting time on this.

Beautiful art, but the characters don't really have much personality. The characters from the first game are different in this game. Also, the ending was a let down and I'm pretty disappointed. It felt like they couldn't decide what to do with the Big Baddie and so there were just loose ends everywhere.

Its not a BAD game, but that ending was so lacklustre. sure it was neat lore wise, but that game should gave had another 2 hours to it at LEAST. The art and design, plus the game-play itself is solid, but it feels like it was never finished, with placeholder VAs in a bunch of places, and an under developed story. i did truly try to like it, i did, but its just not good.

I wanted to love this game. Like many other fans of 2064: Read Only Memories, I was eagerly awaiting another entry that explored the game's world. I knew it was going to be a different kind of game, and I was ready for that, but this feels more like a visual novel than a game. It feels empty. Positives: Character Designs, Pixel Art Negatives: Music, Story, Gameplay

I love this developer and I loved the first ROM. This one had such potential, but unfortunately falls apart by the ending. Would have loved to seen this be more developed. Worth picking up on sale if you enjoyed the first, but be prepared for it to not match in quality.

Passing kidney stones is more fun then dealing with these characters

This game has a bit of a history, I'm pretty sure it was stuck in development hell for a few good years and had a lot of changes in-between the original trailer and the release we got. The big details: This is less a sequel to 2064: Read Only Memories, and more of a Side-Story, it explores the same world but in a lens that's different from the original, by virtue of it's themes. it plays as an adventure game like its predecesor, but most of the dialogue is voice-acted now, and the changes to the screen format makes it feel like a proper 1990's diskette-CD game. But story wise, it feels more like playing an anime OVA, there are choices, but i don't think they affect the game as hard as in 2064? no Split routes, but you will have to replay it for every achivement. Do I reccomend it? If you wish to enjoy more of Neo-SF, then buy this! At worst you just end up a bit confused, but enjoy the throwbacks to 2064. At best the story will be really interesting even if it has some issues! [h3]here be spoilers ahead for 2064 and Neurodiver[/h3] The early start of the game is almost solid gold, but the later sections feel like the thread of the plot is lost a fair amount beyond what the writers actually intended, a lot of whats set up early is not well explored at all and leaves a lot unexplained, even by the nature of its ending and the whole "Golden taking over as the active personality, and Luna fighting Golden Sol to resolve the issues, including the big reveal that is only BARELY alluded to at the start of the game. Or how little the Neurodiver as a living being is explored, and how it's relationship and nature are a driving tool for the story, yet its character is never elaborated upon beyond stating Luna considers it a friend. It really feels like they had to wrap up and speedrun the second half to ensure the project shipped (at least, from what i read on the steam forums) and it really feels like a shame, especially as the game attempted to follow through with 2064's decisions and the Relationship your character had with Turing that heavily affected which ending you got, but because of development hell we never got to see these features beyond a few choices. I would not be against getting a Director's Cut, or at least a novel or re-release of the story in some form that can better do justice to the original idea of the story, because i love everything this series is. still, i am really glad i finally got to play it, i can't say I'm dissapointed, because that would be lying to myself, but i really hope that we can see more games from this series, there's very little series that actually are so open about themselves

If you played the previous Read Only Memories game, this one is going to hit you hard for the strong Magic Girl Anime feel and over-the-top silliness. Is it good? It's good. Is it great? It's...good. Can you play Neurodiver without playing the first ROM game? Yes but it doesn't have the world-building of the first game. Furthermore, it has small engine glitches that take me out of the story but nothing that breaks it. I can't downvote this game as I'm enjoying it, but I won't be shouting its praises from the rooftops.

I really enjoyed ROM:Neurodiver, even though it starts a bit weird, I found it very compelling and thoroughly enjoyable!! Luna Cruz de la Vega is a wonderfully pompous character, and I love her sincerity and kindness!! I highly suggest to anyone to give the game a shot!!