Haruki Murakami, the Japanese author of works such as 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore, has a talent for creating surrealistic and often melancholic works and is considered by many one of the world’s greatest living novelists (he was even in the running for the Nobel Prize in literature this year). So, when I heard that Memoranda, an upcoming adventure game, was inspired by various Murakami short stories, I was immediately intrigued because it’s not often we get to play games inspired by melancholic magical realism. This point and click (tap?) adventure tells the story of a young lady who gradually realizes she’s forgetting her own name. But is she really losing her memory, or is there another explanation? The story takes place in the kind of quiet town you would expect to find in a Murakami novel: a town where a soldier who’s survived WWII and an elephant hoping to become human coexist.
This is just one taste of the weirdness that will be Memoranda, and I can’t wait to play it. The game is filled with 2D hand-drawn art, includes an original soundtrack with more than 15 tracks, and will let you interact with more than 35 characters in 40 locations. Memoranda has already released on Steam to positive reviews, so I’m really looking forward to this one. Head over to our forum thread for more on the game.
