Path to Mnemosyne is a puzzle adventure game. Upon entering the game, you will be transported to a world of visual hypnosis. Immerse yourself on the Mnemosyne path and you’ll have a unique adventure with the aim of restoring your lost memory by solving dozens of tricky puzzles. Path to Mnemosyne takes the liberties of suggesting a deeper message but in actuality there is not much more than the satisfaction of solving its puzzles. To be clear, this isn’t so grievous a fault as to tarnish the experience, as there is nothing wrong with a game strictly focused on puzzles, but a little more clarity would certainly have.

Reading Time: 4minutes

Path to Mnemosyne is a game with a paradox at its heart. At once aspiring to be a relaxing, visually fascinating experience and a genuinely challenging puzzle game, it often seems to lose track of its own identity, undulating between overly-simplistic brainteasers and really difficult, innovative puzzles. Path to Mnemosyne’s puzzles stay fresh throughout. One minute you’re rotating tunnel sections to match cryptic symbols carved into arches. The next, you’re stepping on panels to play musical notes in just the right order. Figuring out the ever-changing rules of this dreamlike landscape is half the fun.

Game Details

Title: Path to Mnemosyne
Developer: Devilish Games
Publisher: Hidden Trap
Website: https://www.devilishgames.com/en/games/path-to-mnemosyne/
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: PEGI 12
Release Date: 16/04/19
Price: £8.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers say

Immerse yourself into Path to Mnemosyne, a hypnotic adventure created within an infinite zoom! Walk the path, explore your mind and recover all lost memories by solving dozens of imaginative puzzles.
A mysterious story, a minimalist script and disturbing sounds and graphics, will make Path to Mnemosyne a bizarre and memorable gameplay experience for any player.
Will you be able to reach the end of the path?
Features:
Overwhelming graphic style.
Atmosphere that plays with your senses.
Dozens of puzzles to solve.
Simple controls, challenging challenges.
Open narrative.

Introduction

I enjoy a good puzzle game, and the quirkier, the better, so when I was offered the chance to review Path to Mnemosyne, I jumped at it. And it certainly is quirky, also surreal and occasionally disturbing.

Gameplay

You play as an anonymous young girl as she walks along a seemingly endless path in a quest to unlock her memories. Her journey takes her through a surreal and occasionally grotesque landscape that reminded me at times of the works of Escher, Dali and even H.R. Giger.

The controls are very basic – the left stick moves her forwards and backwards along the path, with occasional left and right movements to either interact with a switch or rotate the environment in front or behind her. Pressing B will make her jump forwards, rather clumsily I felt, as this mechanic is used to solve a fair few of the puzzles.

So, on to the puzzles. Early on, these are relatively basic, as you would expect, but as you progress they become more complex, and some require a good memory (or a notepad) to solve. It’s worth noting that there are clues in the world to assist with solving most of these, although they can be a little obtuse at times and one or two seemed to rely on trial and error (or I was too stupid to pick up on the clues!)

It has to be mentioned that the game is quite short, it took me about 3 hours, but I’m sure it could be completed in less if you have your wits about you. Also, the story was a little too esoteric for me, but I felt satisfied when I finished it, nonetheless!

Audio & Visual

Graphically, Path to Mnemosyne is quite striking. It has a beautiful, greyscale hand-drawn look that I particularly enjoyed. Some of the imagery is quite surreal – there’s nothing particularly horrific or violent here, but the bleakness of the world, coupled with the eerie soundtrack, is quite evocative.

Speaking of the soundtrack, this game is best experienced with headphones. Apart from the occasional disembodied voices, which are delivered in a rather flat, uninspiring way, the ambience is heightened by the sounds you hear – in fact, some of the later puzzles rely on this.

Replayability

There were some collectables towards the end game that I might have missed out on completing, but it didn’t seem to affect the ending. I think I mentioned that I might go back to try and get these, but otherwise, I believe the end is the end, as obscure as it is!

Conclusion

I enjoyed my playthrough of Path to Mnemosyne. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but maybe that’s what won me over. The puzzles themselves vary from the obvious to the obscure, but a little patience will get you through them. The story is…well, beyond me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (although I think I may have missed something mid-game that I might have to go back to).

Path To Mnemosyne Trophy Guide

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

Path To Mnemosyne Switch Review

You can purchase Path to Mnemosyne from the Nintendo eShop at the following link, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Path-to-Mnemosyne-1542621.html