Not all endings are happily ever after, and language isn’t the only barrier to understanding. After choosing to remain in Ruka’s world, Rin begins to doubt her decision, haunted by memories of her best friend Yuuzu and others she’s left behind. Ruka, too, is troubled by Kanako, a classmate who seems to have it out for her. Unspoken thoughts, assumed feelings, and misunderstandings threaten to pry them apart as they face the challenges of communication involved in becoming more than just friends.
In the second chapter, we learn the tale of a distant past. Of a child and a young adult paired together by strange circumstances. This story of Rei and Ruka’s past will explore how the two met, why Rei took on the mantle of guardianship, and their attempts to understand one another across and age gap.
Distant Memoraĵo, Synopsis from MangaGamer
Technicalities
SukeraSparo and MangaGamer are back with Distant Memoraĵo, the sequel of a yuri drama visual novel The Expression Amrilato. The two are similar in many ways except Distant Memoraĵo is not educational anymore… kind of. Just like the previous game, this game also uses Juliamo (pronounced as you-lee-ah-moh), the in-game language based on Esperanto, in many parts of the dialogue. Do note that Esperanto in this game has been modified for the sake of the narrative. Distant Memoraĵo assumes you have already studied the lessons in The Expression Amrilato and, therefore, you will not have any in-depth lessons of Juliamo in this game. Distant Memoraĵo has two chapters: Days Ahead and Days Gone By which covers the future and the past respectively. This visual novel is short, and you can finish reading this in about eight hours if you get your choices right.
When you start a new story for the first time, you start off on Days Ahead chapter which covers the sequel of The Expression Amrilato. A Juliamo dictionary is available throughout the game which you can consult at any time. After finishing Days Ahead for the first time, you unlock the CG Gallery, Music Gallery, and Days Gone By under the New Story option. This also unlocks Juliamo translation settings so you can customize how you would like to see Juliamo in the game.
Completing the Days Gone By story unlocks Rei’s Recipe which is something like a cooking mini-game, except you only get to choose what meals to cook and not actually cook it yourself. Then, Ruka will judge the meal you chose. This mini-game is unlocked after finishing Days Gone By story.
Spoiler warning: this review contains spoilers for The Expression Amrilato
Art and Music
The art of Distant Memoraĵo is similar to the previous game: an oil pastel-like design for characters and CGs. Although, the background images do not feature the same art style as the character sprites. Despite that, the scenes and the characters blend well together.
As for the soundtrack, there’s nothing new in this installment. All music from the previous game are reused here. The music featured in Distant Memoraĵo has one theme but varies in emotions: sadness, mischief, peace, loss, chaos, conflict, resolution, and joy.
The ending theme song of Distant Memoraĵo is the same as the previous game but is performed by Ruka who sang it in Juliamo.
Plot
Distant Memoraĵo features Rin as the main protagonist of the series. She’s a high school student who was suddenly transported into the world without the darkness of night, with pink sky instead of blue, and speaks Juliamo instead of Japanese. Luckily, she was found by Ruka who adopted her in this mysterious world. With the help of Rei, Ruka was able to formally register as a prizorganto (guardian) of Rin who is registered as a vizitanto (visitor).
In The Expression Amrilato, there are three possible endings: to remain in Ruka’s world, go back to Rin’s old world without Ruka, or go back to Rin’s old world with Ruka. Distant Memoraĵo confirms that the canon ending of the previous game is to remain in Ruka’s world.
The Future
The future is mysterious and chaotic to Rin. After Rin defended Ruka against Kanako for bullying, Ruka and Kanako grew closer together that the two became best friends. This drove a wedge between Rin and Ruka with Rin failing to understand their relationship. Will Rin ever come to resolve the misunderstanding between them?
Days Ahead is a dramatic chapter that covers the events of what happened after Rin chose to remain in Ruka’s world. This story has three distinct endings at varying lengths so if you feel unsatisfied with the ending, try again with different dialogue choices. You can finish this chapter in at most five hours.
The Past
Explore a tale told by Rei from her point of view as she unravels Ruka’s past to Rin and Kanako. Discover who was Ruka, how the two spent their seven years together, and what it felt like to be lost in an alternate reality alone as Rei.
Days Gone By explores Ruka’s past along with Rei. As mentioned above, this chapter is told from Rei’s perspective instead of Rin’s. Rei presents the pasts in the form of backstories rather than doing it in a linearly progressing manner which is a great way to present it without making it too boring. It’s recommended that you turn on Juliamo translation to understand the dialogue of this chapter. You can finish this chapter in about two and a half hours.
Conclusion
Distant Memoraĵo presents a dramatic story between Rin and Ruka and a heart-warming past between Ruka and Rei. The beautiful element of The Expression Amrilato series in its narrative is the language barrier that exists to separate Rin from Ruka while highlighting Rin’s homesickness from time to time. Although, you might feel disappointed with the lack of Juliamo lessons which has been one of the main features of the previous installment. Nevertheless, Distant Memoraĵo has beautifully emphasized Rin and Rei’s emotions by putting Ruka as their common interests.
That said, we give Distant Memoraĵo the Green Mochi Stamp!
A visual novel that presents a dramatic story between two girls who are unable to effectively communicate with each other. Tackle the future and revisit the past in a world with a strange language.
Disclosure:
MangaGamer provided Anime Backgrounds a copy of Distant Memoraĵo for this review
Gallery
Anime Backgrounds 