Kagome, Kagome... The bird within the cage... When, oh when, will you come out? In the evening lit by the dawn... The crane and the turtle slipped and fell... Who's that behind you?
The third game in KID's Infinity series of visual novels. Remember 11 follows the stories of two characters.The first is the story of Fuyukawa Kokoro, a psychiatric student traveling to the SPHIA (Specified Psychiatric Hospital for Isolation and Aegis) facility to interview a patient residing there. Following an accident in which the plane on which Kokoro was traveling crashed in the mountains, the survivors of the crash attempt to survive in the mountains with limited supplies until they can be rescued. The other survivors include Mayuzumi Lin, Yomogi Seiji, and Kusuda Yuni.The second ongoing story follows Yukidoh Satoru, a resident of SPHIA, where he resides with Utsumi Kali, Inubushi Keiko, and Kusuda Yuni. Satoru's story revolves around several incidents which make it appear as though somebody is trying to kill him, as well as Satoru's investigations into the mysterious "personality transfer" phenomenon which causes his and Kokoro's minds to swap between the two of them...See also: Never7, Ever17, and 12RivenThis game is part of the Infinity series, so expect spoilers while reading the tropes list.
This Visual Novel contains Examples of the Following Tropes:
Absurdly Youthful Mother: As revealed by the tips, Utsumi, who going by the timeline would have had Junichi when she was fourteen.
One of the Drama CDs explains this by revealing that Junichi was an accident from the one time Yomogi and Utsumi had sex before they were married. Otherwise, the relationship was mostly sexless.
Alice and Bob: Used as an example by Enomoto while explaining quantum teleportation
All There in the Manual: Much of Satoru's true motives and answers to several unsolved mysteries can only be found in a timeline of the Infinity series in the PSP version.
Cassandra Truth: Satoru and Kokoro fail to convince their companions of the personality transfer, although most of them do recognize that the two of them have multiple personalities.
In one scene, Kokoro says "Pain, pain, fly away, all the way to Andromeda!" to Yuni after he hurts his head. Similar scenes occured in the Infinity series between the protagonist and the youngest member of their group, such as in Never7 (between Makoto and Kurumi) and Ever17 (between Takeshi and Coco).
Complete Monster: In-Universe example: At the beginning of the game, Kokoro mentions that she can't see Keiko as human due to what she's done in the past.
Creepy Child: Keiko Inubushi. Also Yuni, at times, and in a much younger (and MUCH creepier) example even than usual, Yomogi and Utsumi's infant twins.
Dead Twin Sister: Sayaka to Satoru, which is only revealed in the TIPS. She's also the real reason for the space time transfer experiment. Satoru blames the Transcendental Will aka "Self" for her death and he's looking for a way to get even/get her back
Also the "true" ending, which is disguised as a generic bad end, along with the "The story isn't over yet! It's an infinity loop!" text, though it's the only ending where people (apart from Enomoto) won't die. Many mysteries are not revealed (especially if the player didn't encounter the "Apoptosis" bad end beforehand) and the game ends in a cliffhanger.
Drink Order: Enomoto repeats a few different times that he very much prefers black coffee (and yes, this actually becomes important in the Apoptosis ending). Satoru mentions that he does as well.
Driven to Suicide: Kokoro in one ending; feeling responsible for Yuni and Yomogi's deaths, she takes the only way out.
Dummied Out: In the game's data, full sprite sheets for the real Hotori and Sayaka (with a lot more expressions than in her one scene) can be found, suggesting they might have had a bigger part in the story. Furthermore, "Extra Voices" much like the ones in Ever17 can be found in the data, but were never implemented.
Dying Dream: Several Bad Ends turn the whole game into one, as a result of a Time Paradox created by those endings.
Fan Translation: A full translation was released by TLWiki during October 2010.
Fetus Terrible: Subverted with Yomogi and Utsumi's children — they appear to be this due to their actions in Kokoro/Satoru's bodies, but the TIPS reveals that they aren't aware of what they're doing or that it's wrong.
Fission Mailed: Satoru's good ending finishes with the same message given on all of the bad endings.
Four Philosophy Ensemble: The 4 characters trapped in the shelter cabin can be categorized as such:
The Cynic: Lin
The Optimist: Kokoro
The Realist: Yomogi
The Apathetic: Yuni
Freaky Friday Flip: Satoru and Kokoro and one of Utsumi's twins. Hotori and Inubushi have the same thing happening with another twin.
Satoru and Enomoto exchange personalities either sometime before or during the prologue.
Freak Out: Satoru goes through two of these- once after Enomoto finishes his explanation about how the transfer phenomenon works, and again in Bad Ending 28 when he comes face to face with his past self (actually Enomoto in his true body).
Fridge Logic: Junichi was born in 1999. Utsumi is only 27 in January of 2012. Do the math.
Genki Girl: Kokoro and Hotori, in the Satoru chapter can border on this.
Gollum Made Me Do It: Some of the more "destructive" actions that Kokoro and Satoru do (Eating all of the remaining food, murdering Enomoto, destroying the living room) are blamed on the other party. As it turns out, none of these actions were either of their fault, and were committed by a third personality in their bodies.
Many are also extremely difficult to access if you don't know what you're doing. to And god help you if you decide to try for 100% completion, which, due to a few events that occur at random, may be literally impossible without a guide.
Infant Immortality: Averted. One of Inubushi's victims had just turned nine when he was killed. We later find out that he was Yomogi and Utsumi's son. Additionally, the game ends with Hotori/Inubushi holding another one of their children with a crazed look on her face.
Insanity Defense: Due to having Dissociative Identity Disorder, Keiko Inubushi was merely sent to SPHIA instead of being jailed.
Inspired By: The event that sets the first part in motion may have been inspired by the Japan Airlines Flight 123 disaster, in which a 747 crashed into a mountain after losing control, leaving only four survivors out of the 524 passengers and crew on board.
Ironic Nursery Tune: Keiko frequently sings Kagome, Kagome, a song used in a Japanese children's game of the same name.
I Will Find You: In the past, Mayuzumi and Satoru had a conversation that pretty much boiled down to this and was referred to a few times during the game. The timeline shows that the transfers were initially set up as a gambit by Satoru (with Enomoto's and Yuni's help) to save Mayuzumi in particular, as well as everyone else, from dying on the mountain, making the entire game a quasi-amnesiac extension of this.
Kill 'Em All: Yomogi and Mayuzumi, in certain bad endings.
To a lesser extent, Yomogi and Utsumi; the Tips reveal that, despite outward appearances, he's nine years older than her.
Meaningful Name: The original Roman alphabet spelling of Yuni was "Uni" — he's the one character who exists in both 2011 and 2012. His last name, Kusuda, also comes from his archetype — pronounced in Japanese, it's "To-ri-KU-SU-TA".
Seiji Yomogi's name is composed of two words - "Seiji", which is the Japanese pronouciation for "sage", and "(yama)yomogi", the Japanese word for "mountain mugwort".
Kali's name comes from "Mahakali" — a Hindu goddess who is considered in the religion to be the aspect of Kali that represents the "Divine Mother".
Hotori Suzukage: Her name comes from "kage", or shadow, which is Keiko Inubushi's archetype, as she "shadows" Inubushi.
Kokoro's and Satoru's names are also meaningful. Satoru goes into a very in-depth explanation near the end of the game, but even on the surface, Kokoro (meaning "heart") and Satoru (meaning "enlightenment/wisdom") serve as good shorthand for their respective ways of thinking.
Mercy Kill: Hotori's justification for killing a sick rat. Theorized to have been a possible motivation (or justification) behind Keiko Inubushi's killing spree at the hospital.
Nobody Poops: Played straight in Satoru's route, but averted once in Kokoro's route for the Rule of Funny: where Kokoro (in Satoru's body) realizes that there's one extra step she has to take as a guy to go to the bathroom.
Oh Crap: Kokoro and Satoru in the ending when they realize Keiko is in control of her body. Holding Yomogi and Utsumi's twin daughter at the edge of a cliff.
One Degree of Separation: Everybody has at least one connection to a person at the other location.
The Tips reveal that many also share birthdays.
Panty Shot: Not seen by the viewer, but Yuni and Yomogi are appreciative of the fact that Satoru hasn't learned to sit with his knees together while wearing a skirt.
Well that, and being a guy he didn't really care anyway.
Pet the Dog: Mayuzumi's flashback scenes with Satoru and Kokoro-pretending-to-be-Satoru.
Poor Communication Kills: Many of the bad ends towards the end of Kokoro's path result in people dying because Kokoro doesn't bother to explain why they should or shouldn't do something before running off.
Rescue Romance: According to the Drama CDs, Yomogi and Utsumi's relationship is a result of this.
The Scrappy: Lin Mayuzumi, treated this way in-universe as well (except by Satoru).
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Kokoro reads the newspaper from the future that says that she and her companions will be killed 1 km east of the cabin, and concludes that they must have gone there in the "original" timeline to pick up emergency supplies. She concludes that the presence of the newspaper would cause her to reach the conclusion earlier, thus allowing her to pick up the supplies before the avalanche. This results in the group being in the path of the avalanche when it occurs
Serial Killer: Keiko Inubushi (although she technically is a spree killer)
The Speechless: Keiko Inubushi but only the personality that controls her when Kokoro is at SPHIA
The TIPS reveal that this is a combination of the shock Hotori is experiencing from the aftermath of the plane crash and her naturally shy personality.
Hotori actually gets better by the end of Satoru's route, only to lose her speech again after getting caught in the avalanche.
Spell My Name with an S: The romaji from the japanese version of the game spell the main heroine's name "Cocoro", while the translation patch uses the more common "Kokoro".
Not to mention Yuni, whose name was written in the original OP movie as Uni.
Sayaka, Satoru's twin sister, also had DID, and one of her personalities murdered her parents.
Stable Time Loop: All attempts to avert the cabin residents being killed in the avalanche result in them being killed, or somebody else taking their place. Averted in the true ending, where they are saved.
Spoiler Opening: the opening for the PSP version. Blink and you'll miss them, but a few characters you're not even supposed to know exist until the final quarter of the game appear.
The same applies to the PC version opening, though said characters flash by so fast that most people barely notice them on their first time.
Team Dad/Team Mom: Yomogi and Utsumi, respectively, each in a different location. Unsurprisingly, they're married.
Third Act Misunderstanding: Mayuzumi taking the rations that everyone else has pooled together as just Yomogi's rations and assuming that he was holding out food on her.
Third Act Stupidity: Once you recover from the Third Act Misunderstanding, if Kokoro guards the remaining rations, she finds after another switch that the she's somehow eaten the rations and thinks that Satoru ate them in an act of this. Subverted. When you see that switch from Satoru's point of view, he's already found the rations to be gone and assumes that Kokoro ate them. Like most of the inexplicable occurences, this is actually to be blamed on one of Utsumi's twins (the male twin, specifically), who got into Kokoro's body before Satoru, and not knowing any better, gobbled them up.
Tomato in the Mirror/Tomato Surprise: As revealed in the tips, the one who's responsible for everything that's going on is Satoru. Seriously.
Bad Ending #28 also reveals that the character we really thought was Satoru all along was actually Enomoto, and that the two switched bodies before 2012.
Judging from hints given throughout the game, it seems likely that the Satoru the player plays as (I) is in fact Self, and therefore he has no memories, apart from what they've learned from Kokoro's route about him. Furthermore, Satoru's original personality (I) has left his body, thereby taking all his memories.
Two Lines, No Waiting: Played straight up until the plane crash. Afterward, there are two plots running simultaneously, but they're both being observed by a single viewpoint character as they switch between bodies
Voices Are Mental: Subverted- while this appears to be the case with Kokoro and Satoru, it seems that it's just for the convenience of the reader, as Satoru leaves voice recordings to Kokoro on her recorder, and the voice is still Kokoro's (though with a deeper pitch).
Either played straight or subverted in Bad Ending #28: Original!Satoru in his own body (Enomoto's by 2012) is still voiced by Takehito Koyasu, while Enomoto in his own body (Satoru's by 2012) is still voiced by Shunsaku Nishigaki. Whether this is also for the convenience of the reader or not is unknown.
What Year Is This?: Satoru asks this to confirm that the personality-swap is also accompanied by a time-jump.
Wham Episode: "Apoptosis" bad end. It's one long chain of reveals, concluding with Satoru being killed by his own past self (which actually is not even his past self).
Mayuzumi: You're not... the Yukidoh Satoru I knew...
In a similar vein, one of the last lines of "Apoptosis" bad end:
Past!"Satoru": Don't you agree?... YUKIDOH?
White Void Room: The Hotarubi Mine transfer point room. Justified as it was specifically designed this way so that no one inside could tell where they were.
Wild Mass Guessing: Practically required in order to understand the game.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Utsumi. This is horribly subverted when you learn her plan is to kill Keiko in revenge for her dead son.
0 reviews 