Shadow of Memories
| Shadow of Memories | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Konami | ||
| Publisher | Konami | ||
| Senior Developer | Junko Kawano | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
March 30, 2001 | ||
| platform | PlayStation 2 , Windows , Xbox | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Controller, keyboard and mouse | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM , CD-ROM | ||
| language | English; German subtitles | ||
| Age rating |
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Shadow of Memories is a Japanese video game by Konami from 2001. It was released in Germany in March 2001, initially exclusively for the PlayStation 2 . It was released for Microsoft Xbox in September 2002 and for Windows in February 2003. In the USA the title appeared under the name Shadow of Destiny .
action
It is April 8, 2001, 2:00 p.m., in the small old German town of Lebensbaum, whose design is based very freely on Rothenburg ob der Tauber . The young Eike Kusch is just leaving his favorite café and strolling down the street when he is suddenly stabbed from behind with a knife. A moment later he suddenly wakes up in a dark and strange room full of old antique objects and is spoken to by a mysterious voice. This voice belongs to Homunculus , who reveals to Eike that he can give him a chance to find out why he had to die and that he can give him the opportunity to prevent this deadly attack. After some hesitation, Eike agrees. The voice now explains to him that he must travel back in time to find out the cause of his death and to prevent death and thus to change his fate. To do this, Eike needs a kind of time machine in the form of a so-called digipad, which Homunculus makes available to him.
Eike suddenly wakes up again in the café. It's 2:00 p.m. again, and from now on Eike has to try, under time pressure, to escape his fate and clarify the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. He can now travel back half an hour in time with the digipad to find out why he is being killed and how to prevent it.
Characters
- Eike Kusch: The main character in Shadow of Memories who dies under bizarre circumstances. The blond youth now has to find out what the reason for his death and who is responsible for it.
- Dana: She works in the cafe where Eike wakes up after meeting Homunculus. Eike meets her several times later and has to realize that she is part of his fate. She is a very strong character, is very concerned about and interested in Eike's strange circumstances.
- Margarete: daughter of an alchemist, whom Eike met on his journey through time to the Middle Ages. She is very interested in Eike and the world he comes from. She wants to help him and tries to help him with tips.
- Homunculus : This curiously mysterious figure gives Eike his life back so he can find out why someone wanted to kill him. He later reveals himself to Eike and introduces himself as Homunculus. But he also has other reasons for helping Eike, and he plays his own devilish game on these strange happenings.
- Eckart Brum: The head of the small town's museum. He, too, has a secret that is cleared up in the course of the story and which is related to Eike's death.
- There are also a few other characters in the game such as Alfred Brum, Miriam Brum, Sibylla Brum, Dr. Wolfgang Wagner, Margarete Wagner, Hugo Wagner, Helena Wagner and Oleg Franssen, whom Eike meets on his journey through time. By solving tasks related to these people, the player can influence the ending of Shadow of Memories.
Game principle and technology
As a player, you have to watch the main character fall victim to a brutal murder right from the start of the game. You are then given the task of finding out from level to level in the course of the game why Eike had to die, and by traveling back in time to find a way to escape death at the last moment and to solve the various puzzles. The time travel now gives Eike the opportunity to visit the different epochs of the city and to put the individual pieces of the puzzle together with the tips of the residents and thus jump to death from the shovel.
The DIGIPAD is used to control various time periods and is also needed to get back to the present as quickly as possible. Furthermore, it is possible to pause and save the time with the DIGIPAD so that the game can be continued at the same point at a later point in time. In order to be able to use the DIGIPAD , you need energy balls that can be found all over the city. Without these units of energy it is not possible to travel in time, which can cause problems if one does not have enough time to search for such spheres.
Death occurs again unexpectedly during the game when one is in the past and does not have enough time to return to the present and prevent one's death. It can also happen that you are in the present and the murderer strikes when the time to solve the respective puzzle has run out.
The game runs in real time. This means that a clock is displayed on the screen, which gives the player half an hour at real speed to prevent Eike's death. If you fail to find out how to survive, the clock will start blinking and Eike will have to die again after the allotted time has expired.
reception
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Shadow of Memories received mostly positive reviews. The GameRankings review database aggregates 41 reviews for the PlayStation 2 version with an average value of 78% and for the Windows version 15 reviews with an average value of 72%.
The trade magazine Adventure Gamers placed Shadow of Memories at number 68 in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 2011 .
For the gameplay to make time travel to make self-induced events or negative experiences reversed, the German computer scientist and coined Ludologe Klaus Peter Jantke using the example of Shadow of Memories about the internationally little-received concept of "Time Travel Prevention Game" (in German journey -Prevention game ).
Web links
- Shadow of Memories at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.adventurearchiv.de/s/memoriesreview.htm ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Shadow of Destiny. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Shadow of Destiny. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
- ↑ AdventureGamers.com: Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. Retrieved May 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Praeventionstag.de: Time Travel Games - a concept for crime prevention through fascinating gaming experiences. Retrieved January 16, 2019 . (PDF, 2.5 MB)
