Amnesia (PSVita)
Blog Entry: Amnesia (PSVita)
Blog Entry: Amnesia (PSVita)
Though I've basically retired from the world of fansite making in order to concentrate on web-design and art, if I was still active I would have definitely made a small site to this character. Kent is one of the dateable bishonen from the otome game series, Amnesia. I have only played Amnesia: Memories, for the PSVita and the game stands out as being different from any other otome I've ever played. This is not at the center of this blog, since the biggest difference lies in the fact that Toma is a psycho, but it was after playing his odd route and the routes for Shin and Ikki (who are thankfully not insane like Toma) that I came to appreciate Kent more.
Kent's route is the most normal in the game, yet it has a sort of charm to it that I couldn't quite figure out at first. It seems anti-climactic at first, there's no insanity, no attempted murder mystery, no supernatural powers, just a nerdy young man with poor social skills. This is not to say that Kent is mean, he is simply not good at reading between the lines and sadly, before the heroine loses her memories and the player takes over to fill in her personality, she was really bad at communicating herself. They even constantly confirm this in the game when Kent requests that she tell him if she is dissatisfied with any aspect of his behavior. If you look further in, you'll notice that the heroine had previously taking the "he should already know" attitude that I advice all my friends never to take with their significant other.
Kent isn't a mind reader and he spells it out pretty clearly, thus when clear honest options are chosen he is happy to receive a proper explanation, when he says something, he means exactly what he says and when he is told something, he takes it at face value. He gets better at taking hints as time goes by, though he (like real people) needs to be provided with a reasonable amount of accurate information and context in order to see those hints.
Writing this, as it often happens when you meditate on a subject, makes me realize just what is so unusual about a story of students with a crush, it's how they communicate. Kent isn't made to constantly have an encouraging reaction unconditionally as some unrealistic otome boys are, but rather if he is confused, he states it and is honest instead of overly romantic, which makes the moments when he shows affection come out much more sincere.
While I was playing Amnesia, I wrote the following blog post. http://mikaristar.deviantart.com/journal/Amnesia-PSVITA-556825985
It gets a bit ranty at the end, mostly because of my annoyance at the heroine, making me wonder how a smart, sweet, loyal and generally awesome guy like Kent even managed to put up with someone so unreasonable. Though I suppose we are meant to identify with the heroine in her emotional state, and Kent actually does later on and apologizes for not being more aware of her feelings, I still never identified with the heroine since I would be much more aware and logical, instead of panicky and emotional to the point where it makes the situation worse as the heroine is portrayed to have been.
I got all the gallery pictures for Kent and even triggered one of the bad endings on purpose and even then Kent out as at least a good friend, as if I can't make him fully disappoint me even if I try. My favorite scene with Kent is when he talks to Orion. Before I triggered it, I wondered how he would react to the truth. Being so logical, would he refuse to believe in Orion's existence? Yet if his level of trust is high enough he will believe in the heroine's story about a spirit only she can see and hear and even communicate with him through the heroine.
I would often say that Kent is by far my favorite character in the game, he's the only datable character I really like. Of the non-datable characters, little Orion is definitely my favorite and makes a fine "little brother" type of character. I would also say that Kent's only shortcoming was his math. I don't like math and he loves it. He even has math quiz events. My internet went out while I was answering his quiz, so I couldn't look up the answers and solved them with a calculator instead. Question 9, which deals with measuring liquid, made me realize that I don't remember how to calculate volume (if I ever knew), though the other questions were easy to solve. In short, there's just too much math, but something happened that made me reconsider if this was really such a bad flaw, or if maybe I should see it from his perspective.
Right before I decided to type this, someone posted on twitter and at a forum asking a question about web-design. Due to some technicalities in how the code is interpreted, certain CSS was not working as it should, and it took me a while to realize why. The whole time, far from being frustrated, I was happy to work on the web-design puzzle and hurrying towards an answer, wondering if I would be the first one to solve it. It was fun, it was geeky fun. The layout that was in need of some CSS background tricks featured Shizuo from DRRR!! which kind of looks like Kent, though their personalities are different. My brain somehow made the connection and I realized that maybe Kent was supposed to be feeling that same geeky joy from math that I felt from web-design. I get it, the last aspect of his character that didn't seem to fit in with my tastes as much as the rest has been resolved. I lack the interest to fully get into the other stories in the game, but it was worth it just for the Clover World. <3
Kent's route is the most normal in the game, yet it has a sort of charm to it that I couldn't quite figure out at first. It seems anti-climactic at first, there's no insanity, no attempted murder mystery, no supernatural powers, just a nerdy young man with poor social skills. This is not to say that Kent is mean, he is simply not good at reading between the lines and sadly, before the heroine loses her memories and the player takes over to fill in her personality, she was really bad at communicating herself. They even constantly confirm this in the game when Kent requests that she tell him if she is dissatisfied with any aspect of his behavior. If you look further in, you'll notice that the heroine had previously taking the "he should already know" attitude that I advice all my friends never to take with their significant other.
Kent isn't a mind reader and he spells it out pretty clearly, thus when clear honest options are chosen he is happy to receive a proper explanation, when he says something, he means exactly what he says and when he is told something, he takes it at face value. He gets better at taking hints as time goes by, though he (like real people) needs to be provided with a reasonable amount of accurate information and context in order to see those hints.
Writing this, as it often happens when you meditate on a subject, makes me realize just what is so unusual about a story of students with a crush, it's how they communicate. Kent isn't made to constantly have an encouraging reaction unconditionally as some unrealistic otome boys are, but rather if he is confused, he states it and is honest instead of overly romantic, which makes the moments when he shows affection come out much more sincere.
While I was playing Amnesia, I wrote the following blog post. http://mikaristar.deviantart.com/journal/Amnesia-PSVITA-556825985
It gets a bit ranty at the end, mostly because of my annoyance at the heroine, making me wonder how a smart, sweet, loyal and generally awesome guy like Kent even managed to put up with someone so unreasonable. Though I suppose we are meant to identify with the heroine in her emotional state, and Kent actually does later on and apologizes for not being more aware of her feelings, I still never identified with the heroine since I would be much more aware and logical, instead of panicky and emotional to the point where it makes the situation worse as the heroine is portrayed to have been.
I got all the gallery pictures for Kent and even triggered one of the bad endings on purpose and even then Kent out as at least a good friend, as if I can't make him fully disappoint me even if I try. My favorite scene with Kent is when he talks to Orion. Before I triggered it, I wondered how he would react to the truth. Being so logical, would he refuse to believe in Orion's existence? Yet if his level of trust is high enough he will believe in the heroine's story about a spirit only she can see and hear and even communicate with him through the heroine.
I would often say that Kent is by far my favorite character in the game, he's the only datable character I really like. Of the non-datable characters, little Orion is definitely my favorite and makes a fine "little brother" type of character. I would also say that Kent's only shortcoming was his math. I don't like math and he loves it. He even has math quiz events. My internet went out while I was answering his quiz, so I couldn't look up the answers and solved them with a calculator instead. Question 9, which deals with measuring liquid, made me realize that I don't remember how to calculate volume (if I ever knew), though the other questions were easy to solve. In short, there's just too much math, but something happened that made me reconsider if this was really such a bad flaw, or if maybe I should see it from his perspective.
Right before I decided to type this, someone posted on twitter and at a forum asking a question about web-design. Due to some technicalities in how the code is interpreted, certain CSS was not working as it should, and it took me a while to realize why. The whole time, far from being frustrated, I was happy to work on the web-design puzzle and hurrying towards an answer, wondering if I would be the first one to solve it. It was fun, it was geeky fun. The layout that was in need of some CSS background tricks featured Shizuo from DRRR!! which kind of looks like Kent, though their personalities are different. My brain somehow made the connection and I realized that maybe Kent was supposed to be feeling that same geeky joy from math that I felt from web-design. I get it, the last aspect of his character that didn't seem to fit in with my tastes as much as the rest has been resolved. I lack the interest to fully get into the other stories in the game, but it was worth it just for the Clover World. <3