A Memoir Blue review – An emotionally rewarding dip into memory

The relationship between a mother and daughter. While the topic has been explored on television, in films, and on the printed page, I can’t remember it ever sitting at the core of a video game, AAA or otherwise. Multinational studio Cloisters Interactive has changed that with their first indie effort, A Memoir Blue, published by Annapurna Interactive.

A Memoir Blue tells the story of Miriam, a swim star who has risen to the apex of her sport. Miriam’s accomplishments feel hollow though, because so much of her success has been achieved alone. As she excelled, her life path took her further and further, physically and emotionally, from her devoted mother (no Asian Tiger Moms here).

Overcome by a literal flood of memories – A Memoir Blue is extremely committed to its underwater visual metaphor – Miriam makes a deep dive into her past in an attempt to break through the resentment, guilt and other complex feelings that gradually pushed the pair apart.

A Memoir Blue is officially described as “An interactive poem” and there’s really no better way to put it. At less than 90 minutes long, you experience the wordless A Memoir Blue more than play it. There’s a pleasing diversity of scenes, and tasks asked of the player, but the gameplay is never onerous. You may perform more traditional puzzle activities like piecing together a mirror out of several shards, but mostly you’ll be doing things like turning on lights, peeling back layers of poster paper, clearing a path of seaweed, unpacking moving boxes, and tuning a portable radio. They’re mundane actions but they’re successful in immersing you in Miriam’s life.

A Memoir Blue unquestionably falls in the casual game category. It isn’t out to block players with challenges. If you’re ever stuck, at least on console, one tap of a controller trigger with snap the cursor to interaction points as a kind of hint system.

You can’t say that A Memoir Blue is particularly subtle. As an example, Miriam repeatedly encounters a pair of fish that represent her and her mother. However, like adult Miriam bounding weightlessly across the underwater environments, the game is elegant and incredibly beautiful. It’ll probably be too arty – read surreal – for some, but for players who are comfortable with quiet and leisurely paced games, where you’re given the hands-off space to shape your own meaning, A Memoir Blue is saturated with visual and emotional rewards.  

On the aesthetic front, the game pairs realistic-looking 3D Miriam with her childhood self, and memories, depicted in hand-drawn 2D. This contrast is both charming and effective in establishing the line between the present, and the past our heroine is revisiting. Enhancing the dreamy effect is a haunting and memorable soundtrack (on Spotify here), with a handful of songs by e.hillman and IMOGEN, and score composed by Joel Corelitz.

A Memoir Blue falls under the banner of magical realism, but the game also offers a different kind of magic: a special, slow-burn emotional kind. A Memoir Blue is consistently poignant, but like a punch being subtly drawn back, the game’s climax arrives with a surprising heartfelt wallop. There’s no ultra-dramatic, framed-in-flashing-neon moment of catharsis, but like a blow to the nose it’s hard to hold back (at least a couple of) tears as the credits roll. A Memoir Blue may float between fantastic vignettes mingling memory and dream, but emotionally it’s powerful and authentic.

If you’re a fan of Florence, a smaller scale but similarly poetic experience – also published by Annapurna Interactive – A Memoir Blue comes highly recommended.

One final note is that A Memoir Blue feels like a natural fit for mobile. With earlier press releases mentioning an iOS release, hopefully it will migrate to that platform as many Annapurna games have in the past.

A Memoir Blue is available now for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam, Windows Store). It’s also playable day one with subscription services Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.