*SPOILERS AHEAD*
(If this game sounds at all interesting to you, don't read past the fourth paragraph. Go out, buy it, love it.)

Shadow of Memories (Destiny in the US) was a criminally overlooked game. Combining time-specific puzzles with four aesthetically unique eras and a convoluted plot worthy of Jonathan Blow, it could be considered a spiritual predecessor to Blow's masterpiece.

Though there was never truly a "direct" antagonist in the game, the implication that the main character (a tall blonde by the name of Eike Kusch) should have never existed is undeniable. Time itself is the enemy.


The game begins where most others wouldn't even tread (outside of player-controlled deaths), rather ominously with Eike's death. You have to feel for the guy at this point; he's literally just strolling along, minding his own business, when he's brutally stabbed in the back, seemingly unprovoked. The world around him darkens as he succumbs to his wound. He appears to wake up in a disjointed room filled with miscellaneous items and a disembodied voice calls out to him:

"How does it feel to be dead Eike?"

Eike is startled, believing at first that he's in Hell and that the voice is Satan, but it eventually convinces him to take another stab (so to speak) at life and alter the threads of fate. The voice grants him a digipad, which allows him to travel through time provided he possesses enough power units. Following this, Eike departs to his own time, a half hour before his fateful end (pfft, you'd think he'd be given a bit longer, eh?). The waitress at the café (who eventually plays a vital role in the story) rouses him from his slumber and he leaves, praying that it was all just a crazy, coke-fuelled nightmare but this glimmer of hope vanishes when he discovers the digipad in his pocket.

He visits a fortune teller (unbeknownst to Eike, this woman is another major player in the story), who predicts his death at 2:30, giving him a half hour to change his destiny. She leaves him with the cryptic message that if he should somehow achieve his goal, he should return.

There are a number of characters who could be considered enemies in the game; Homunculus, the puppet master behind the scenes, pulling the strings to suit his favour; Eckart Brum, the curator of a private museum (though not at first); Hugo Wagner, a teenager from the 16th century who is ultimately responsible for much of the destruction seen throughout the game. But all of these pale in comparison to the overarching malevolent, unstoppable force that is Time. Time dictates everything in this game. Almost anything you do in the past will be reflected upon your return to modern times, and this is the crux of many of the puzzles.

This guy's a dick.

There are quite a few endings to unlock and most of them leave the player with more questions than answers. It has to be said that the two EX endings (only attainable after beating the game with the other six endings) end on a confusing note. In EX1, after Eike saves Dr. Wagner's ailing wife, he disappears from existence, though he is happy. In EX2, he throws the Philosopher's Stone at Homunculus, killing them both. In both endings however, the last scene is alike. A guy who looks like Eike is strolling through the street, like before, when he is hit from behind again. It turns out to be just a harmless football fired from a young kid who looks like Hugo. He returns the ball, and keeps on walking. This suggests that those two people are descended from the Wagners, which provides even more questions.

The use of time as a persistent, omniscient threat hasn't been thoroughly explored enough in any medium. Sure, we've had our Braid's, our Donnie Darko's and our Douglas Adams books, but they've not even come close to the potential for a plot element so unusual. Granted, it could be because we don't fully understand the mechanics of time travel (or any sort of element that pertains to time itself) or paradoxes (which, if physically possible, could lead to destruction on a metaphysical level).

Despite the gameplay mechanics being pretty stale (the game is essentially a point-and-click adventure without the pointer), this turned out to be one of my favourite games ever. I'd be really interested to see what others who've played this game have to say, as I've never met anyone else who has.