I should preface this with a disclaimer: I hate soulslikes. I’m not good at them, I don’t have any real patience, I definitely don’t have enough time to “git gud” as it were. But I can, usually, see what others get out them.
A sense of achievement, having overcome a difficult, but fair, obstacle, a game that rewards mastery above all else and a world built with care and attention.
I have to be honest, I don’t see most of that with Memoirium.
Memoirium as the name may suggest, invokes the world of dreams and memories, tasking you, The Dreamer, with escaping this bizarre space between spaces. Explore these liminal spaces, find rewards, fight enemies, all whilst progressing through the levels to an eventual conclusion.
If we examine what makes a good soulslike, the first thing most people will point to is the difficult. Souls games are designed to be brutally challenging, but in a way that rewards patience, timing and practice. They are never unfair. If you die, that’s on you.
In Memoirium I found this to be untrue. I died, that’s fine, I expected it, I didn’t expect it because the level design is horrible, or because the controls (at least on keyboard) are clunky and slow, or because the enemies gang rushed me, or because the game takes very little time to explain the mechanics other than backstabs good, do backstabs.
Early on in the game there is a section consisting of a narrow walkways above a bottomless pit. All the enemies there have knockback attacks. I believe you can put together the rest. Wouldn’t be too much an issue usually, I have a dodge, a parry, I can make do. Except mid-battle with one such enemy, two more bull rushed me from behind. Alright, just try again, happened again. Such was my frustration with the map and enemy combination that I found myself skipping enemies just to make progress, which feels besides the point.
Combat is difficult, clunky but has a wide variety of weapons and effects that keeps things interesting. It makes finding loot a fun experience as the next drop could be the one that shakes up your whole build.
The world itself whilst mechanically frustrating is intriguing in itself, managing to strike a balance between real and ethereal that emulates the way in which dreams form very well. The sound design is very good too, striking that same balance of eerie and bizarre.
I really believe a soulslike fan would get more out of Memoirium than I did, but I also believe that even they would admit this isn’t the best in the genre by a longshot. But then, as with all Steam indie games, its not like the price tag demands 10/10. So if you’ve got some time and fancy a new challenge, this is one that might scratch that itch.
But there are many titles in this genre that has exploded since Elden Ring, at least anecdotally in my perspective. My rating for this game will try to reflect how I believe it places in the soulslike pantheon, without letting my biases get in the way.
