Forgotton Anne (PS4)

The strange thing about losing things is how it lends a new sense of importance to that item. You can be putting on your socks every day without a thought, but the moment one sock goes missing, that disruption suddenly makes that lost item’s usefulness known by being absent. Ownership of something inanimate can be wrapped up in plenty of emotions no matter how valuable the item is, but to lose it by accident leaves an imprint on our memory. In the world of Forgotton Anne, the act of losing something is given far greater importance still, for each item lost in our own world is transported to the Forgotten Lands where they long to be reunited with their owners.

 

In this realm all of the lost items are able to come to life, and while they are able to speak like humans and find some way to ambulate, they still remain the very same item that got lost in our world. A sock is still a sock even if its hole opens like a mouth, and a quill is a quill even if it turned its point into a pair of little metal legs. Sometimes you might see something like a teddy bear or voodoo doll that has little trouble springing to life, but one of the most fascinating aspects of Forgotton Anne’s world is seeing all the citizens who reside in it. As you travel through this world you’ll find them living their day to day lives, working jobs, and reflecting on current affairs. You can be walking through a residential district and eavesdrop on a bickering couple and it sounds almost like two humans fighting until one of them calls the other a cup. Ascribing these human traits to these animate objects not only makes it easier to empathize with them and their way of life but is very much part of Forgotton Anne’s big exploration on the nature of memories and identity, especially since the game’s main character is one of the few humans in this captivating setting.

 

Anne is a young girl who works for the only other human in this realm, Bonku. Bonku has a special understanding of the Forgotten Lands that has allowed him to harness a force known as anima for the area’s technology. The objects that live in this world, known collectively as the Forgotlings, have developed a small society based around producing more anima and working towards Bonku’s goal of building a device known as the Ether Bridge that will allow everyone to return to life on Earth. Since most Forgotlings gain memories of their life back with their human owners on Earth, many have a great sense of attachment and wish to return to it, but a Forgotling rebellion has formed as well, their goal being to stop the anima collection and the building of this Ether Bridge. Since Anne has been made The Enforcer by Bonku, her job is to help this society run optimally, stepping in when people step out of line, but as she goes to investigate the latest rebel attack, her motivation begins to waver as she learns there is much more going on in the background of this seemingly straightforward situation.

Forgotton Anne’s characters do a lot to invest you in the world, especially since the player gets to influence Anne’s responses to them as the game progresses. While the dialogue choices you are given ultimately don’t alter the ending in any manner as it comes down to one big choice regardless of how you behave, the path there has many moments that will change based on whether or not you choose to be heavy-handed as The Enforcer. Anne is able to rip the anima out of Forgotlings to essentially kill them, and the morality of doing so is one angle the game goes for as it explores the nature of sentience. Anne has befriended many Forgotlings during her time in the realm, but even the Forgotlings themselves can’t ignore that before they came here they were simply objects that were discarded or slipped out of their owner’s possession. What value does a worn out shoe have? What kind of life can it lead even after it can speak and think? Even when you do reach your conclusions on the validity of their lives, the Forgotlings still can commit criminal acts, so are there points where treating them violently is justified?

 

While some of these answers may be straightforward for the player, the characters in this world grapple with them, Anne especially since Bonku raised her in relative isolation and only now do her encounters with the rebels raise questions that need direct answers. Fig is the most interesting and charismatic of the rebels, this posing mannequin with an odd face in his torso intelligent and kind but aware that drawing attention to the importance of his cause will require dramatic action. He is the one who opens Anne’s eyes most to the reality of the Forgotten Lands while also pointing out that things are not as clear cut as they might seem. This is not a fantasy world where everyone of a specific breed will think the same things, some Forgotlings don’t desire to return to Earth or find more value in their life away from it, but Forgotlings also can undergo a process known as crystalization where they’ll die once they’ve spent too much time away from our world. Despite being the important mouthpiece of such aspects of Forgotling life, Fig is also a charming companion for much of the story, the game evoking films like Howl’s Moving Castle and The Cat Returns with the female lead having her eyes opened by a suave and confident male lead.

 

The comparison to Studio Ghibli movies is likely one the developer desired, as the art style for this cinematic sidescroller feels like a good match for those beloved anime films. Both in devoted scenes and regular play everything is hand-drawn, the environments meticulously detailed and often dripping with atmosphere while the characters are simpler while still being colorful and creative. Even a blanket can be expressive in this game thanks to the solid animation on show, and with full voice acting all of the characters spring to life even more. The orchestrated music drizzled atop it all completes this lovely package, and while some gameplay movements aren’t the smoothest, this is very much a game that sucks you in with its story. Small characters like Inspector Magnum immediately endear themselves to you as the police officer/gun trips over himself in excitement as he tries to impress Anne since her role as The Enforcer makes her the highest law enforcement authority in the land. An old camera and blanket both easily evoke the feeling of meeting an elderly relative due to their history with Anne, and even small characters can have memorable personalities like the collectible obsessed chest Grab and the fast-talking forger Quill.

Anne’s relationship with Bonku is rather complex as well, and it plays into perhaps one of the game’s biggest themes about whether or not we should let our memories define us. Bonku raised Anne but the rebels are opening her eyes to new ways of life and ideologies, but it’s not easy to throw out an attachment to someone simply because your life is potentially moving down a new path. Marrying revelations about the world with your understanding of someone is a difficult and often not immediate task, and whatever results you decide upon are rarely done cleanly. Anne’s diary she keeps during her adventure helps us to see a bit more of that inner struggle as well when it can’t be displayed naturally in a scene, and it can also be a good source of humor as well. While you come across moments of moral quandaries you also find silly situations along the way, the story balancing its light moments well but knowing when it needs to adjust its tone to embrace something more tragic or complex.

 

For all of its compelling characters and elaborate world-building though, Forgotton Anne’s actual gameplay comes out a little rough. It is essentially a cinematic platformer in the vein of older games like Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssee and Flashback, meaning that your movement isn’t as clean to control as it would be in a platformer more focused on the play experience. Anne’s jump is a little awkward to grapple with, her positioning needing to be precise if you want to grab a ledge above her and your running jumps needing a good lead-in with there being no hope of adjusting the jump while in midair. You do get a pair of metal wings powered by anima that can smooth out moments where more height or distance wouldn’t hurt, but these can also be required for a jumping puzzle that still might be a bit finicky to execute successfully.

 

Puzzle solving is more often given the focus at least, and while it’s not often ambitious conceptually, these do a better job of intertwining with the story. Anne wears a special glove known as The Arca that lets her move anima around as she pleases, although its range feels artificially limited since very rarely is its maximum distance relevant to a puzzle’s solution. Using the Arca you can power up objects or rob them of energy, and in conjunction with your using of arca-powered devices, you work your way through little obstacles that block your path. Often these can involve just activating the right object or utilizing something to open up your path, but there are some more exciting moments like trying to stop a runaway train or having to manipulate Forgotlings by subtly tinkering with technology nearby. Essentially if the story does not grab you then the actual puzzles and action don’t really help, but they’re a decent enough interactive element to carry you through a game that continues to engross you with its focus on the plight of the Forgotlings and how Anne’s world view shifts in relation to it.

THE VERDICT: Artfully realized in sound, art, and writing, Forgotton Anne’s captivating world of forgotten items serves as a wonderful stage for its characters to explore the game’s moral quandaries. The puzzles are serviceable while the platforming can be a little rough, but when it has its focus on the storytelling even the actions you perform can be made better just by playing into such a compelling narrative. It has its weaker moments, and it is a shame that your actions and dialogue choices don’t hold as much weight as they seem to at first, but Forgotten Anne develops a setting and fills it with great characters who approach the game’s narrative themes from many interesting directions.

 

And so, I give Forgotton Anne for PlayStation 4…

A GREAT rating. If you desire a game that stands on the strength of its mechanics, Forgotton Anne is sadly not that, but its little mechanical flaws are easy to overlook due to the strong showing from most of its artistic elements. The artwork, animation, and voice acting do a lot to make the Forgotlings feel like characters with history and personalities, and this allows them to serve as the main focus of this adventure’s exploration of the impact of memories and what should be left behind to focus on other important matters. Anne isn’t just an eyepiece for seeing this all from a human perspective either, as her ties to the machinations of the Forgotten Lands means her personal investment lends more weight to the plot events that unfold. This teenage girl coming to grip with changes to her world view allows for new angles to enter the story that still remain relevant to the core concepts of Forgotling life, and the game does this while featuring talking refrigerators and a section where Anne needs to impersonate a box to trick a Forgotling rebel. I don’t think having one intended interpretation is a detriment to the title even if you are given the option to go against it at points with Anne’s actions, but Forgotton Anne could have done a bit more to make your choices feel impactful. At times it can very much feel like Forgotton Anne is a film that’s been adjusted to be playable in both good and bad ways, the bad just being that the action is often unexceptional. Keeping that narrative focus is key to making sure its themes come across well and to encourage the player to question certain aspects of the setting, so ultimately the writing and the attention given to making it a story told with more vivid detail pay off as those are the elements most important to this experience.

 

Before we wrap up, Forgotton Anne’s title is indeed misspelled intentionally by the creators, this being some strange comment on the concept of language drift and how older spellings for words are forgotten over time. This doesn’t really play into the game’s core themes since linguistics really doesn’t involve emotional investment in the same way possession and mutual attachment do, but the odd title is certainly not going to drag this game down. People who aren’t interested in video game storytelling might find little to chew on here, but those more interested in a game that artfully tells an engaging story will appreciate the level of care that went into bringing this story to life, this video game’s detailed world not one to soon be forgotten.