THE LONGEST FIVE MINUTES

Back in a Flash

This takes the familiar amnesiac hero scenario and turns it on its head. Staring at the final boss, you suddenly can’t remember how you got here, why you’re fighting, or even the names of your party members. As the seconds tick by, it’s up to you to flash back to different points in your journey to regain your memories and power to fight before the titular time is up.

It’s a novel idea, but while the boss fight itself plays out like a visual novel, the rest of it is a bog-standard JRPG filled with rudimentary random battles. The majority of these can also be cleared by selecting Auto and Full Attack almost every time, making items or special charge attacks largely redundant. 1 Memories are also self-contained, so any money or gear you acquire doesn’t carry over, although XP (or ‘Re-Experience Points’) does. But when the battles are already lacking in challenge, there’s little incentive to invest in your party, while bonus Re-Experience gained from completing optional objectives in each memory has no direct impact on the scripted events in the present.

There’s still charm in the interactions between characters, 2 whose sprites are more expressive than most JRPGs from the ’90s, as well as a world map’s worth of places to visit, even if it’s largely based on tropes we’ve seen in other, better games.

It’s admirable that NIS is showing the good old PS Vita some love, with classic JRPGs and visual novels making a great fit. But despite an initially unique premise that makes a tug of the heartstrings at the last minute, this adventure is also largely forgettable. Alan Wen

FOOTNOTES1 Outside of battles, there’s also a button to run and fully heal the party. 2 A warrior, and black and white mages seems predictable, but some memories do trigger party changes.