The Kids We Were is a 2020 mobile phone game released for the Apple iOS and Android systems on December 15, 2020 by GAGEX. The game was released in Japan and overseas in various languages. A Steam release was made for January 12, 2022, followed by a Nintendo Switch on January 26, 2022.
Players assume the role of Minato, a young boy who goes with his younger sister Mirai and his divorced mom to the town of Kagami to attend a memorial service. While she attends it, Minato and Mirai look for clues on the whereabouts of their father, who they haven't seen since the divorce. The two head to a local shrine and discover a mysterious spaceship that was buried on the ground. And with Minato's mysterious visions of people and places that he hasn't been told, he gets told by his future self that his visions are a sign that he can do something to change the past in order to improve the lives of his family for the better. Especially when his mom and Mirai are seemingly sick.
The thing is... how can Minato change the past? And how is it related to the Seven Mysteries of Kagami that Minato uncovers?
The official website is here
, but it's only available in Japanese.
The game contains examples of:
- Butterfly of Doom: The reason Minato's parents developed cancer was because they were near the old storage room when it collapsed from an earthquake, causing old building materials to spread into their lungs. Also, his father's bone marrow transplant is the one that can save Mirai, so she's doomed in the old timeline due to his early death.
- Central Theme: Children and their relationships with their family.
- Driving Question: A lot...
- What happened to Minato and Mirai's father? He passed away from cancer a few years prior to the kids heading to town.
- Why did Minato and Mirai's parents divorced?
- What's the spaceship that crashed in the shrine? Some of the people in the past in Kagami say that it's from a comet.
- Who can help Mirai and the mom recover from their sickness and secure a bone marrow transplant? His dad.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: When Minato fails to save his dad from dying, he decides to go back home with his mother as the credits start to roll.... only for her to suddenly collapse, making him realize he has to go back to the past again.
- Hide Your Children: Minato's mom attended a memorial service in Kagami due to an incident where at least two kids were killed. Part of Minato's time travel mission is to save them from dying.
- Kid from the Future: Turns out two of the kids Minato befriends are actually his parents, making him this.
- Loose Lips: Future Minato warns his young self not tell anyone from the past in Kagami that he's from the future or something may go wrong.
- Seers: Minato has visions of the future throughout the story.
- Race Against the Clock: Minato has three days in the past to set things right.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The future Minato tells his young self that if he can fix things in Kagami in the past, it's possible that Mirai and his parents will be okay. The young Minato agrees to do it to help his family and the future Minato helps him out from behind the scenes.
- The Seven Mysteries: Minato's main goal is to solve all seven mysteries in his notebook, which are the key to saving his family.
- Stable Time Loop: Realizing the only person who could've made the notebook was himself, Minato hands the notebook to his dad for safekeeping.
- Street Musician: Minato can talk to a guy playing a banjo in the streets of Kagami in the past and present. His presence is only meant for players to play the game's music without playing the game entirely.
- Urban Legend: The legends that Minato has to investigate involve actual Japanese urban legends like the Tsuchinoko, a Kappa and a haunted train car.
- You Can't Go Home Again: When Minato asks to go back to the past, his future self warns that this time, it's a one way trip. Subverted by the end though, as his friends from his past wish on the comet to help him go back safely, and Minato wakes up in a new timeline where the rest of his family are all alive and healthy.
