One of the greatest fulfillments in life is to develop strong friendships that last the test of time. These are the types of relationships where you’re totally vulnerable but also totally pure, being able to share your deepest secrets with the ones you truly care about. Over time, this bond continues to build and despite some obstacles that do get in the way, that strong relationship is still maintained and nurtured in a remarkable way. Song of Memories shares this very same fulfillment in that it’s a visual novel title that touches on the basis of friendship, love, and obstacles that cross our paths, allowing us to experience various emotions over the course of time. There’s always something new waiting to be explored and in Song of Memories, those experiences are what provide that stepping stone into something refreshing.

Song of Memories isn’t just a pure visual novel, and there will be moments where you’ll have to make use of music in order to overcome dark paths along the way. By incorporating rhythm game mechanics to the structure of the title, it adds a new element of fun to the narrative, which helps to breathe new life into the characters during their adventures. Every song plays a significant role, and it’s up to you to decide how to incorporate these melodies to ensure that everyone in your circle of friends remains safe from the darkness that lies ahead. There’s over 40 hours worth of authentic voicing in the game, which features a beloved cast of very talented seiyuu that help to bring every character to life. It’s a romantic tale of high school love and you’re the main lead in search of finding the right soul mate to satisfy your hearts desires. Will you be able to find that love and bring peace to your soul? Or will you allow the sudden virus outbreak to destroy everything around you?

From a visual standpoint, Song of Memories is one of the most polished and well put together visual novels we’ve played in a very long time. From the very subtle yet incredibly detailed character animations, to the lip syncing when characters speak, everything helps to create a truly immersive experience. The many locations that you often travel around are all designed beautifully and set the tone for when you’re having conversations with various characters. While the text may at times suffer from syntax errors or misspelled words, it doesn’t rob you of the overall emotional thrill that you get while playing. Characters look and feel authentic, and that to us is what truly defines the overall experience.

As mentioned before, the voicing and music in this game is superb, adding so much more emotional value to the game. Sometimes you’ll run into visual novels that make you have to read and imagine what the character would sound like, which can be hard at times especially when you’re really trying to stay immersed for long periods. However, Song of Memories creates a very strong narrative because every character has a soul attached to it, one that helps to bring that character to life more so than you simply trying to imagine it. Every romantic encounter within the game feels different every time since you’re able to feel the emotions of the character, and so the way you develop relationships solely depends not only on body language but the language spoken. Speaking of which, Song of Memories allows the option to change the language to your preferred settings, allowing you to create a unique experience for yourself.

Visual novels typically don’t have gameplay attached to them, but with Song of Memories there will be moments where you’ll have to press a few more buttons in order to progress through the story. Now storywise, there’s a sudden virus outbreak that’s causing citizens in the area to transform into hideous monsters who are trying to terrorize others. During the game, you’ll encounter several of these creatures and will need to defend yourself by taking advantage of your D4U (Dream 4 You) squad, a mysterious team of beautiful females who use singing to cast away enemies. In these sequences, you’ll resort to rhythm game mechanics in order to defeat the enemy, and the more you win, your D4U squad will level up. You’re also able to choose which of the squad girls you want to battle with, which provides more variety but also some emotional connectivity as well.

We spent most of our time building a strong relationship with Azumi just because of her upbeat and charming personality, and so her power level throughout most of the battles was pretty high. As for our romantic high school love encounter, we tried our hardest to build a relationship with Natsume. Incredibly shy at first but a truly beautiful soul, Natsume is that sort of “girl next door” who comes off as shy but once you sit down and get to know her, she’s an incredible person. The shining aspect about Song of Memories is that you just never know what to expect from each character because over time, the more you develop strong bonds with them their actions start to change. Satsuki is a great example of that because she’s quite the cold and stoic character of the bunch, but over time she warms up to you. This will of course depend on the person playing, and since this game does have multiple endings, we encourage you to really dive deep and build the best relationships that suit you!

Song of Memories is a visual novel that we recommend all fans of the genre to try out, because its strong illustration, compelling narrative, and wide array of colorful characters. Not one time did we ever feel bored or bogged down by excessive repetition, and the added element of rhythm-based gameplay allowed for us to have a little extra fun when times got a little serious.

One other bonus thing to note that we thought was great about Song of Memories lies in the additional content, which serve as a good starting point to get to know each character before jumping into the main story. There are separate story plots that are available which you can dive straight into and each take roughly an hour or so to get through, but are definitely worth it. It’s fun and rewarding and only adds more depth to the plot.

We hope you found our review of Song of Memories to be an informative one, and that it spoke to your soul in some way. Please do give a try, especially if you’re looking for a story that’s very relatable and contains a cast of characters that are very entertaining in their own way. Be sure to check out our other visual novel game reviews and show some love by leaving your comments below! We’ll continue to create great content for all of you!

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