Tokyo Dark: Remembrance – Review (Switch)

By Holly Furman Last updated Nov 10, 2019

Tokyo Dark: Remembrance creates a tale of love and mental health combined with murder and the supernatural. With a great plot, relatable and expressive characters, and the stress of a butterfly effect due to your choices, this visual novel provides a suspenseful, yet fun venture into the Tokyo underground. By combining this story with the ease of Switch mechanics, Tokyo Dark: Remembrance is a horror story that is difficult to put down.

The story line of Tokyo Dark: Remembrance is a captivating horror story. By slowly investigating a murder mystery, Detective Ito stumbles into a supernatural tale involving prejudice, love, confusion, forgiveness, and the occult. Her discoveries fuel her desire for truth, and stand on the fulcrum between choice and fate. Certain locations and opinions in the story are deeply rooted in Japanese folklore and history, so a Western audience without much knowledge of these may find parts of the unfolding story or choices confusing. Overall, these details are quintessential to the story line and even add another level of complexity to the game.

Though moment to moment the story is enticing, there are points where it is not fleshed out in detail, or even passed over. Occasionally this is due to the necessity to withhold information to create a separate ending but, for those who want the full story without multiple playthroughs, it can be frustrating.

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The mechanics and gameplay itself are simple to pick up, as choices are easy to switch between without a need to drag a cursor to each point.
The Switch controls are great without any need for clarification and are incredibly responsive. There is a mechanic within the game known as the S.P.I.N. system which keeps track of Ito’s sanity, professionalism, investigation, and neurosis – all of which are directly affected by the choices made. Without making an effort to keep these traits in line, the only ending Ito can hope for is one of insanity.

The protagonist’s sanity can even be gauged through the art style and its consistency. The characters and backgrounds are mostly similar to a graphic novel or manga – though, at times, there are shots closer to a painting, digital map, or simple animation. With certain choices, the art is changed to reflect what is real, the past, or possibly even a figment of Ito’s imagination. Stylistically this is an interesting choice and mostly works, though once or twice it created a distraction from the game itself. The animation is occasionally clunky and a little off-putting, but this style is consistent throughout the game.

There are a few fantastic pieces in the storytelling and visuals that make it much more than a simple visual novel. This includes a cat peering at you over the edge of your Switch, optional interactions with NPCs within the game, and a juxtaposition of animated scenes with exploration artwork that is fitting for the location within the game as well. This adds to the ambiance of each location visited, but can be confusing if it is not obvious if you are controlling a character to move, or just choosing between multiple options to investigate.

Any players who enjoy visual novels, choose your own adventures, or supernatural murder mysteries would enjoy this title. As the game itself can be played through to one ending in just a few hours, Tokyo Dark: Remembrance is a great casual game with minimal time commitment. Playing through multiple endings on New Game Plus is still enjoyable, though a bit tedious.