The heroine awakens in a space between dimensions, confronted by a young boy calling himself Orion. He tells her that he is a spirit and was attempting to move between worlds and accidentally collided with her, and has now merged with her mind... and pushed her memories out as well.
Orion says that they must work to regain her memories and push him out, or else he will become further ingrained into her mind and she will lose all sense of self. With merely an idea of her name, Orion tells the heroine that they must return to the world that is most familiar to her and try to regain her memories.
Now the player has the option to pick one of the worlds that represent the game's routes. And observe the story of the heroine and her quest to figure out her identity, with Orion by her side.
Amnesia was released by Otomate in 2011 and quickly became popular because of its innovative story. Instead of having a heroine attempt to win over the heart of a guy and enter a relationship with him, she is already in a pre-existing relationship. And part of the gameplay involves helping the heroine adjust to this suddenly-unfamiliar world without arousing the suspicion of those close to her.
The game spawned multiple media platforms and games.
- Amnesia originally released on the PSP (2011) and gaining a port called Amnesia: V Edition on the Vita (2013), with another release on the Nintendo Switch (2019)
- Amnesia: Memories is the official English release by Idea Factory International on the Vita and PlatformSteam (2015) with an iOS and Android port published by Gloczus, Inc (2015)
- Amnesia Later released on the PSP and Vita (2012)
- Amnesia Crowd released on the PSP and Vita (2013)
- Amnesia LaterXCrowd released as a double-feature onto the Vita (2013) and the Nintendo Switch (2019)
- Amnesia World released on the Vita (2014)
- Amnesia created by Brains Base (2013)
- Amnesia as a manga adaptation
Not to be confused with the other Amnesia videogame series or the Amnesia: Yume Nikki fan-game, or the manga Dusk Maiden of Amnesia.
Amnesia contains the following examples
- Alternate Universe: The player can choose between four different worlds to enter, with a fifth to unlock, and each has a drastically different story for the heroine. The other games continue this pattern with different universes featured.
- Art Shift: The artist Mai Hanamura changed her style between LATER and CROWD. The in-game character portraits are still the same as from Amnesia, but there is a noticeable change in the CGs.
- Beach Episode: Clover World has several employees of the café head to a heated indoor pool because it's too cold to go to the beach for swimming.
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Ikki wished to be popular with women. He gained hypnotic eyes that cause every woman that looks directly at him to become completely smitten. Now he cannot walk outside without sunglasses to keep women at bay, and has never managed to hold a decent relationship with people of either gender.
- Ukyo had an important wish. Ukyo wished for the heroine's fated death to change and allow the two of them to be together again, no matter the cost. Lord Nhil merged with Ukyo and allowed him to travel to various alternate universes to meet the heroine, but because both of their existences create a universal anomaly, one of them must die by the end of August. This causes the wish to not be able to be fulfilled, as both do not survive, until the player reaches the Good Ending on Ukyo's route.
- Kent wished to be left alone with the heroine, so her dog had to disappear. It can be assumed that his wish was granted by one god or another with the dog dying as the result.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Kent's entire route is basicallby a deconstruction of this trope because the route reveals that the relationship between the heroine and Kent prior to her memory-loss was doomed to nothing but misery. The two were incapable of talking to each other without ending up arguing. And it shows that open communication between a couple, and trying to find a decent balance even between the most opposite of personalities, is important for a functioning relationship.
- Bizarre Seasons: Despite the game taking place in August, the characters repeatedly mention the weather and temperature being oddly cold for the middle of summer. Joker World reveals this comes from Lord Nhil having merely enough power to rewind time, but not the world itself. The world is currently experiencing late Autumn weather because that's the real season the world is in. Orion says that once Lord Nhil's powers have been restored, he can let time return to its original state and the seasonal weather will be appropriate.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: This is a given, considering it's an otome game.
- Color-Coded Characters
- Seafoam for the heroine, although she is also associated with pink.
- Red for Shin, and a brick-red for Waka, the manager of the café.
- Indigo for Ikki.
- Green for Kent, and light green for Sawa, the heroine's best friend.
- Yellow for Toma.
- Purple for Ukyo, and a purple-pink for Mine.
- Hot Pink for Rika.
- Cosplay Café: The Meido no Hitsuji café that the characters work at is a maid and butler café, albeit with a very Japanese-style for the maid and butler outfits.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble
- Shin is choleric/melancholic.
- Ikki is phlegmatic/sanguine.
- Kent is melancholic/phlegmatic.
- Toma is sanguine/choleric.
- Ukyo is melancholic/phlegmatic and his darker side is sanguine/choleric.
- Guide Dang It!: Given the numerous Bad Endings in the game, the player can easily pick a wrong option and land the heroine in a bad situation. The unlocked Joker World takes this up a notch because there's a very precise path to pick to actually avoid a Bad Ending, because of that route having the most in it.
- Happily Married: CROWD contains epilogue segments where the heroine marries her boyfriend.
- Hidden Eyes: Ikki's three main fangirls sport these, excused by their hats.
- Identity Amnesia: The heroine's problem, though she can figure out basic details about who she is rather easily. It's remembering everyone else that's difficult.
- Mini-Game
- Hit 'n' Guard Rock-Paper-Scissors takes the classic RPS and adds an attack/guard aspect. The winner of the round uses a squeaky hammer to attack the loser, who can attempt to guard with a hard helmet. The player's opponent is one of the five boyfriends, and the winner is the one with the most points after a minute has passed. This mini game appeared as a scene in Heart World, where Shin, Toma and the heroine play it with a rolled up newspaper.
- Air Hockey lets you play air hockey against one of the five boyfriends. The player controls their striker and must hit the puk into the opponent's goal. The first to gain 7 points wins. Heart World had the four boyfriends — Shin, Ikki, Kent, and Toma — play this at the Shinano lodge.
- Multiple Endings
- 5 Good Endings and 5 Normal Endings, one for each available route.
- 16 Bad Endings in total, with 7 of those being from the Joker World route.
- One-Word Title: Named after the protagonist's lack of memories.
- Only One Name: Each character only has a first name.
- Playing Card Motifs: The game uses one when it comes to representing the romance options, with their respective routes named after the suit. Shin is Hearts, Ikki is Spades, Kent is Clover, and Toma is Diamond. The fifth suit is the Joker, whom Ukyo represents.
- Punny Name: The name of the café is Meido no Hitsuji, which translates to Sheep of the Underworld. The background-sign says Meido to Shitsuji, which means Maid and Butler, and uses the similar pronunciation between Hitsuji (Sheep) and Shijtsuji (Butler) to jokingly inform the customer that it's a maid and butler café.
- Relationship Upgrade: Played with, as the heroine and the route's respective boyfriend have already had the upgrade into being a couple. However, several Good Endings involve upgrading to the next step.
- Ikki's Good Ending has her moving in with him.
- Kent's Good Ending has the two of them become engaged-to-be-engaged, until Kent 'formally proposes'.
- Ukyou's Good Ending plays with this again as the two used to be a couple in the original timeline for Joker World, but for the route's timeline, Ukyo decided to stay away from the heroine for her safety. The Good Ending involves the two of them upgrading to official dating status again.
- Shout-Out: The shopping district
◊ where the café is located has posters for Clock Zero hanging around.- When Shin gets to play the detective, you can see a pic with him versus the standart naked and bald culprit placeholder from Danganronpa series.
- When Shin gets to play the detective, you can see a pic
- What Does She See in Him?: Orion loves to ask this about the boyfriends.
- Heart World actually shows that most people had no clue why the heroine and Shin were a couple. Shin has a very honest way of speaking with the heroine and doesn't care much for mincing his words, leading many to think that he's rather harsh towards her. And the heroine herself seemed almost blasé in her interest in him. During the initial trip to Shinano, they even wondered if the love triangle rumor was true.
- Spade World has Orion wonder just why the heroine started dating the obvious playboy. Ikki also liked to act very differently towards the heroine when they were alone, but became almost cold and disinterested in her in public. When Orion hears that the heroine apparently didn't like Ikki prior to losing her memories, he's just more confused.
- Clover World makes Orion try to figure out how the heroine and Kent even got together. Kent being very rational and logical in his approach led to his words being harsh, and even considered belligerent towards the heroine. Even Kent implies that he and the heroine had a lot of fights before August.
- Finally, Diamond World has Orion ask why the heroine likes Toma, who has been drugging and imprisoning her in a cage.
- Yandere
- Ikki's fanclub can fall into this, as they are not above threatening to harm or bully the heroine in various routes, whenever they think she is monopolizing Ikki's attention. Three fangirls in particular are especially willing to prove their twisted love.
- Toma turns out to be one as well, having hidden their unstable mind and desires behind a friendly demeanor. It isn't until they feel they cannot properly fulfill their promise of protecting the heroine, unless she gets locked into a cage.
