Yeah, that doesn't sound fun :(. The game does have quite a few decisions and they do impact the game. You give your character a name before choosing a world and in the first world at least your character is somewhat passive and never speaks (other than in memories) except for the choices you make (sometimes it doesn't seem likely to matter what you choose but often it does with different scenes based on the choices). It isn't blank slate at all but it seems like you are partly supposed to try to recover your previous personality to help bring back memories; it feels more like being a particular person and this is one of the things I really like about it. It sounds like you can choose a different boyfriend and still get your memories back, however there are a number of ways you can mess up and make wrong choices even in the easy introductory world that I played. I suspect the later worlds may be quite difficult.

Even in the easy intro world, I didn't get full memory recovery due to suspecting the wrong person, even after restoring a save game before guessing who did it. What must have happend hit me the next day, so I think I know where the parts I need to change are. There was still a mostly-positive "you should get your memories back eventually" ending, but it is a challenge to get full memory recovery. Even the romantic resoltion that I complained about I think may have been due to a decision I made early on not realizing how it would be taken (although playing through to that point again it is possible to anticipate); the resolution still feels a bit unfair to me based on the many later decisions, but I suspect it is possible for that to end differently.

I was complaining too much about it; it is a good quality game with full Japanese voice acting. Depending on how the remaining worlds go it might end up being one of my favorites and already I wouldn't regret even the full $10 price (although I think I got it in a previous sale). I think there is a chance that the narrator will be less chatty in the later worlds (that might have been partly to make the first world easier).

So would you recommend Amnesia Memories? I have a steam key and keep hestitating if I should activate it or not (I haven't played otome before and such).

Why wait? 3 is the absolute high point of the series. Write down your guesses. Get what's on GOG as you read them (not all at once).

5 explains the plot of 2 and is infuriatingly cruel, torturing and taking a shit on its two sympathetic characters. The author himself tells you in the ending you're a bad person if you're not cool with generational child mutilation. It's entertaining but it sucks.

7 has the rest of the answers that exist for the series. The answers are stupid.

6 fills in some details for 7, to make it extra stupid and for 7 to make 6 extra stupid in retrospect. Here's its entire script (character names are anonymized to preserve the intriiiiiguing myyyyystery):
A: We're friends! Friends believe each other! You've got to believe me!
B: A, you're full of shit! We're friends! Friends believe each other! YOU've got to believe ME!
x1025

There are no answers for the central mystery of 3. People on the wiki weren't able to come up with anything better than "it was all a dream". You've been had.

Grandia 2 was great on the Dreamcast! ^_^

btw GungHo has contact email, like if you want to encourage more Grandia games to come to GOG:

https://www.gunghoonline.com/about-us/ -> support at gunghoonline dot com

Hi there. I played the game to the end with all 6 characters and only after that the prequel DLC.

Honestly, it's a mixed bag. On one hand, playing the prequel first would spoil the answers to some questions you're supposed to be asking at the end regarding some characters' past. On the other hand, it would give you a clearer view of the kingdom the story is set in and its sovereign. Lord Levante's friendship with "the Ravager" is also much better explained in the DLC.

Gameplay-wise there's no preference. The DLC characters have great skills, but there are pretty good ones in the main game as well. (You'll quickly come to love Ylliana.) You'll probably just realize soon enough that you'd better not put some of the characters in your party unless they're the character you've chosen as main character. In that sense Reynard is my least liked character.

I think it better to play the DLC only after the main game - at least with the characters whose past is affected by the events from the prequel - , tho I admit it gets a bit boring by the 5th time you're going through the same story. But it's worth it. The setting was really well done, you'll see it in details like the class conflicts.

Sorry for only seeing this when the sale was about to end, but at least it wasn't a matter of affecting your purchase, you just wanted to know where would be better to start.

The "romantic from a woman's perspective" aspect is a major part of the story; there are also interesting characters and figuring out what decisions you should make is a challenge. There hasn't been any sex in any of the paths I have played so far. Many of the decisions are subtle and a few seem to depend on implications that are lost in translation (there was also one word obviously mistranslated in one spot so the translation wasn't checked all that carefully). There are also cultural aspects (relating to the guys being posessive and what particular expectations they have) that many people won't appreciate and some won't be willing to look past for the story (you can't choose your own path and get the good ending; you need to find the correct decisions for the story).

So it depends on how you feel about all of that, but if you like stories that put you in someone else's head and aren't too put off by any of the above then I would recommend giving it a try.

I finished a second full playthrough of the first world and got the good ending; it turns out that getting the good ending was due to making the right relationship decisions (and I what I though happened turned out not to be correct). I also tried the second world and got two bad endings, backtracking just a short bit after the first to get to the decision that caused it. Again in the second world I thought the relationship should have been considered stronger than it actually was. I don't think you need to make every decision perfectly to get the good ending but you can't miss too many. Overall, I didn't like the second world, although it was with the guy I liked least in the first world and was better than I expected. The characters have similar personalities in each world but the stories are quite a bit different.

Thanks! I did start playing the prequil and made it to the point of getting lost in Anon Taure (the elf guide is not really doing much guiding :/ ), after a rather shocking and unexpected development. I'll switch over to the main game before finishing the DLC.

I would recommended it. finished it a while back and loved it especially having the story from a Female main character's perspective. I love the different characters the VN has to offer.

Thanks for the reply! Probably still not the sort of game you'd enjoy, but it still sounds more interesting than the anime. I guess the anime somehow took a visual novel where the player did have some influence/input and ability to make choices that influence things, and stripped all that away. Rather than feeling "more like being a particular person" than a blank slate (as you describe the visual novel), the anime somehow made the main character - who they left nameless - into a total blank slate, because she essentially has zero personality to speak of. I'd assumed this was something they carried over from the visual novel (since many visual novels *do* have the player character be a blank slate, with their personality/characterization determined entirely by the player's choices), but I guess that in this case they took a character with existing characterization and just made them more bland for some reason.

Even though I have some complaints I have enjoyed it quite a bit and IMO the writing is better than most. One thing I like that I think visual novels often do is spend more time on "ordinary" scenes that aren't that related to the plot or at least go beyond what is necessary just for the plot. Even with the text heavy Falcom games that do more of this than most I always want them to slow down more at times and take note of the scenery, talk about random stuff, or listen to music for a while. My favorate part of Grandia II was the fireside chats that Falcom finally copied in Ys VIII. I guess there really aren't many of those types of scenes in Amnesia: Memories either but I liked the ones they did have (and it doesn't sound like they would be nearly as nice in the anime).

Also, often even when main characters in games are women they are often still written by and primarily for guys so it is nice when that isn't the case.

Although not on GOG yet (and you can choose the main character's gender), another one I liked is Hustle Cat.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/hustle_cat

Also, whlle not a VN or narrative focus at all, one I liked with an "ordinary" focus is Rainy Season (like Gone Home/Tacoma but just focused on one day the author remembers from childhood).

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/meiyunorirainy_season
https://inasa.itch.io/rainy-season