Gameboomers announced this back in June and while visual novels aren't my thing, I dipped into this one recently to see if there was something more I could tell you about it.
Check out the announcement for more plot details but in short, Nayara is a 'painter of memories,' someone who through the use of a Memory Channeler can alter or erase memories.
Chromatic Memories AnnouncementShe wakes one day to find holes in her own, and what follows is an investigation into what it was she wanted to forget.
It is wordy, which shouldn't be a surprise given its pedigree, and you read it all (there is no spoken word). Click to advance the dialogue, which enables you to read and reflect and not move on until ready. I would though have liked an option for it to advance automatically, there being an awful lot of clicking.
Fauvism is the artistic style and I found it rather engaging. I can't tell you what makes it Fauvist but I understand Henri Matisse was one. Colourful, brash, bold are all words that come to mind when thinking about his works.
From what I can tell you will use the Memory Channeler a lot, and the little mini-game you play each time in order to access it, while not at all difficult could become a tad irritating. As well, you also seem to have to visit the same memories more than once, and in doing so have to work through sequences you have already accessed. In short, you play the scene over again. Clicking fast will progress more quickly, but in the cafe scene memory I revisited, it would have been nice not to have to work through all the dialogue I had already done in order to be able to access the particular element I wanted to revisit. There might be a bigger point to this down the track when it comes to putting all the pieces together, but the prospect of having to click though scenes I have already played is not appealing.
What I wanted to do in that scene was utilise the new pigment I had created back in my studio on those memory elements that had not previously been available to me. I could "see" for instance a bag hanging over the chair, but it was opaque and not accessible. Perhaps 'colouring it in' would elicit something new. My colour palette suggests I will create six pigments, and perhaps I can combine them to create even more. Certain colours will also apparently enable me to access different points in time.
You can chat with people and just click to pick your topic of choice. Some topics were in Spanish, despite having chosen English as the language, but the resultant conversation was all in English.
The game is point and click and saves automatically. It seems there is a single save point, so starting a new game won't enable you to load an earlier point.
Moving between locations is via little pictograms right of screen. The scene in front of you might slide left and right, achieved by just moving the mouse to the edge of the screen.
Explore the scene with the mouse and items or areas you can interact with will be highlighted. Click to do so. You might also have to 'hold and slide' for some interactions.
Limited ambient sound and a bouncy flamenco-ish soundtrack accompany your endeavours.