Vote now on your phones: will you be able to get Subaru to choose someone else besides Emilia in Re:Zero Lost in Memories? Well, I wouldn’t know just dipping in to the game for first impressions, but enthusiasts who are Japanese literate can probably try and find out for themselves. Employing the use of both Live2D and clips from the anime, we dive into Subaru’s life in a new world! Unlike most games, Lost in Memories plays on the vertical screen, making for easy one-handed play. If you’ve seen the gameplay preview screens, you’ve seen the flowchart. I can confirm it’s only for chapter 1 of the story.

You swipe left or right depending on the choice you want to make when it presents itself to you. While I ragged on Higurashi: Mei for not having a fully voiced story, considering the depth of that flowchart, I think I can give Lost in Memories a pass. It’s not just about the time and money that’d go into the game, just imagine the storage space to account for all the options! Some story beats will also have obtainable “Memory Points”, which goes towards upgrading the skill boards for characters. Your choices will increase/decrease any extras you get.

Besides upgrading a character’s skill board, you can further uncap them. You’ll need shards to do so, and certain uncaps will provide new art. Dupes of characters will give shards, which appear to be a flat 100 per dupe no matter their rarity. Without getting dupes of the Memory Crystals, I can’t tell how else to strengthen them, and if they get different art when fully uncapped.

You can set characters  on your homescreen, though I’m not sure what unlocks them to be placed there. A 2-star Emilia doesn’t seem enough. In any case, as you take your characters through the quests, you can increase their bond. Not sure what that does either – presumably new voice lines when you tap on them – but that is something you can do.

The arena and tower mentioned in the gameplay preview is locked behind doing the story quests, so I didn’t get to try them out. The quest themselves have a gradual and decent jump in power requirements, so you’re probably meant to alternate between regular quests and story for the upgrade materials.

Meanwhile, the important bit: a full 10-pull takes 3000 currency, which will probably take a while to accumulate. Story quests can give up to 50, while quests give 15, besides milestone missions. The base 3-star rate is 2.5%, which is on the lower end. No immediately obvious pity system is in sight, but the game does start you off with 21 gacha tickets and one (random) 3-star character ticket, so give it a go at rerolling. The initial free 4 gacha pull does not guarantee a 3-star.

All in all, I can say the production quality is quite high, so if you have the time to really immerse yourself in the story, by all means, there’s a lot you can get lost in, pun maybe intended.