Break Chance Memento

I played it a few years ago, but I still remember the experience. It was an engaging story.

Very rich story, and with an amazing character development. It makes you become even more curious to know what will happen next. Truly recommend it!

A very fun visual novel with a very well done time travel mechanic which allows you to learn more about the other characters and solve the murder mysteries.

It is not properly speaking a dating sim, though there are two excellent gay romance storylines; it can be played purely as a sci-fi mystery if that's your cup of tea. But you learn so much baout the different characters by trying for the different endings, it's well worth it.

I really hope this time makes another game. I'd buy it in a heart beat.

This is such a remarkable game! You have to be rock-hearted to not feel touched by this amazing storyline. Despite the sci-fi plot, you can really relate with one or more characters from the plot.

Even though the backstory/time travel plot is a little convoluted, I've enjoyed this game, mostly owing to the characters and their relationships.

The game deals well with its theme of grief and guilt and I found Shuuki to be a very relatable protagonist, and his coming of age/personal growth throughout the game is well done and didn't feel forced at all. I actually was more invested in Shuuki's relationship to his brothers, especially Natsume, than his romance options, which may be a first for me... It's different from all the other (BL) VNs I've played so far, but not in a bad way.

And the CGs all range from adorable to beautiful.

Also all the kudos for actually having Shuuki refer to himself as bisexual, it's sadly rare for fictionally characters...

Really liked it, was fun to go back and see the difference between active and spectator mode. Relationships were also cute in there own ways, though some people might see the brotherly ones as a bit questionable. Story was a little confusing, but interesting enough that I didn't mind

If your on the fence on this one, and i was for a few monthes, I'd suggest going ahead and buying. After completing my first play through and some how managing NOT to get the bad ending I can say I was completely content with what the story had to offer. After a day spent thinking about it at work, I came home and played through again, and repeated the cycle all the way until I had managed to get all the good endings without ever messing up and getting that bad ending. Now that ending is the only one i need to unlock all achievements, and I can honestly say I have no desire to get it/them. I like all the characters too much to "do that" to them.

to the creators of the game a Big Thank You. In your Q&A you said that you hoped that the readers would be able to find something in the characters you created that they could relate to. In the end I can say i never really saw myself in any of the characters, but I definetly saw things in all of them that endeared them to me. Thank you for giving me hours of joy playing, and even more hours spent thinking about them. Hope to have the oportunity to read more from you in the future!

It was really easy to obtain the incestuous gay brother route, but not a good ending with the other characters. Weird and frustrating.

Bizarrely written. Felt like the game couldn't decide whether it wanted to be Japanese or not. The writing is comparable to what one might find on a fanfiction website from 2009. I feel it might have been better if they just went with a western setting.

HOWEVER! I am completely willing to acknowledge the serious effort that was put into this game. It must have taken a long time to make. I almost feel bad for wanting to critique it but I really want the devs to know where they can improve.

Even with the bizarre style choices as well as the somewhat...clunky...menu, I cannot deny these devs are on to somethig and I wish them luck wholeheartedly with their next projects.

This particular game just wasn't for me.

I bought this game quite a while ago, and just recently that I’ve finally played. And what can I say? I enjoyed this game more than I expected, even tho there are a few problems (at least in my opinion, I’m no “game expert”. But those were things that I’ve felt while playing it, so I want to talk about them as well).

The story: It was good, above average honestly. Ain’t no masterpiece, but I definitely enjoyed! The only thing that kinda disappointed me was the little twist in the end. If it was only Fuyuka’s doing, I’d have love it. But inserting the other guy was kinda… too much? I don’t know how to explain. It kinda broke the whole brotherly vibe somehow, at least for me) I also enjoyed the multiple endings and how just one or two different choices can change everything. Also, I have an undying love for family stories, especially when they have to be more united than ever to face their difficulties. Break Chance Memento was perfect for me on that aspect.

The brothers: Shuuki was an okay MC. It’s weird because sometimes he says something but then he acts completely different from his “normal” behavior, especially on the two romantic routes. I understand that he’s changing, growing up. But sometimes I found hard to believe that he was “the man who could have anyone he wanted”. Overall, I liked him and I found myself feeling sad when I read about his true feelings towards the accident. His brothers, Natsume (special angel cake sent from the heavens by the way) and Masaharu were good characters too. I loved their relationship, the family love feeling was pretty intense. Those brothers just deserve to be happy.

Romantic routes: Well, to be totally honest, I only enjoyed one of them: Chiaki’s. He’s a good guy, and his relation with Shuuki was cute. They make a good couple. But Yukinari’s route made no sense to me. Yes, he’s cute, but… just that?? I don’t know, I couldn’t feel that Shuuki and him were close to the point of dating. It was actually awkward. No offense to the developers, but I felt like Yukinari was “thrown” in the story, with little personality development.

Gameplay: There’s actually some gameplay here! You need to find clues (more like the “mementos”) in order to keep going with the story. Since I enjoy hidden objects games, I liked this aspect of BCM. Also, there’s a lot of special scenes to unlock with each memento. A bit hard to achieve, but satisfying as hell once you do it.

8/10. Even with the problems I listed above, I still think this game was good. If you enjoy family/brother stories like I do, you’re going to like it. But if you only came here for the BL, you might get disappointed.

This was a pretty fun game. I was worried that the art style would be a little off-putting (dem yaoi hands) but all the little bits and pieces worked together to create a really fun and interesting story. It was really cute and heartwarming and I would definitely recommend if you're into visual novels and time travel.

Cool Things:
It's a really interesting story and it drags you in real deep to figure out the mystery. Lots of choices and nuances to keep you coming back for more and trying out new things.
We have a bi main character who admits that they're bi! That's awesome!
Lots of character growth - especially for Shuuki our hero. Don't be surprised if you hate him at first, he's a teenager, they do that.
All of the characters are distinct - not just a bunch of tropes smashed together - and have interesting things to say and help direct the story and are good indicators of Shuuki's character development.
So many animations! Each character blinks, has multiple expressions and body postures to take to keep you interested and convey the nuance of the conversation.
Of the possible route endings, three are with Shuuki's brothers - and all of them vague and classy enough to leave it up to the player the definition of their relationship.
If you are a hardcore: get all the text, get all the achieves, get all the endings sort of person and are having trouble - there's a built in guide! Much appreciate.
The music was all great. I know it's all stock music, but each piece really captured the tone of the moment.

Some Meh Things:
Yaoi hands. I got used to them, definitely thought they were going to be more of a problem than they were - show up in a few postures and CGs but nice to handle.
We have a bi main character who only has men as romantic options in this game. Wish there had been a romance option with a woman.
We never see Ryo again. I was convinced he was going to play a major part in the story, feel like a boat was missed on that one.
You could use the same momento infinitely to change your decisions in the past - but it was unclear which past you were jumping to and modifying and how it was effecting the future. I mean, if you only do it once, fine, but if you keep going back to the same moment of time aren't you bound to run into your past time travelling self?
Yukinari's backstory was strange and sort out of nowhere (spoilers: it's not related to beaches and water at all)
There were two main things about all endings (except the bad ones) that I just don't understand and am bothered deeply by, but only really started to bother me when I went back through every route to get all the endings (and it became clear that they were never explained just... sorta there as mysteries).

A game where the protagonist is Bi but romance isn't the focus of the story lol besides only 2 out of 4 character routes are romance routes where the other 2 are sibling routes. You can still get a normal end if you don't specifically pursue someone.
Anyway the whole time travel gameplay is pretty unique and kind of like a hidden object game but an overly easy one at that. Some of the places to search were pretty pointless or simply red herrings where nothing shows up...ever.
I liked the story but due to my paranoia of causing a butterfly effect on my first playthrough I only used time travel for things that are necessary and got the true bad ending XD

Note: Feel free to mess around with the time machine

I recommend this game to anyone who likes visual novels with good story lines. I like the fact it's not easy to get all the achievements. I like having a challenge. Overall i think it's a good game

I've been on a BL visual novel kick since I played another game. Now, let me just start by saying I felt iffy going into this game. I honestly felt like the system for time travel was going to be difficult. However, after playing the demo, I've never bought a game so quickly before. So, I'm just going to give my pros and cons on the game.

Cons:
Plot- This is honestly a pro and a con, but for now I'm going to just start off with the problems I had with it. First of all, there were quite a few holes in the plot every so often. The game never really explains what's going on. I've played the game multiple times and have done almost everything but see the bad endings and get one of the mememtos. I've spent a lot of hours on this game. Still, I'm confused on the plot. Not much of it made any sense to me.

Routes- I don't usually put something as general as routes in the con section of my reviews, but I had to on this one. When I play a game like this I usually try to get a neutral ending first. I don't want to get involved in the other characters too much. Well, I was only able to get the neutral route after 4 playthroughs. It is so hard NOT to get on someone's route. I had to actually focus and make sure I was a d**k to literally every character in order to finally get the neutral ending.

System- I'm not talking about the time travel system, but the saving/loading system as a whole. It honestly took me a few mintues to figure out how to save while in game. This is very, very, very minor, but it was something I wanted to mention. I had to right click in-game in order to survive. I'm used to just hitting the save button on the bottom the screen next to the dialogue box. Not in this one. But as I said, this is incredibly minor and doesn't take away from the game at all.

Mementos- Ok, so it's not a big deal, but it is for me considering I still can't get one. The mementos are kind of difficult to get if you don't know where to look. This is especially frustrating if you like to 100% every game. While most mementos can be found within certain routes as rewards for getting all the flags, the one I'm missing is actually from failing a flag. It's an award and punishment memento and it's annoying how hard it is to go through the game multiple times to try to get just one memento.


Pros:
The pros far outweigh the cons, which is why I'm recommending this game in the first place.

Plot- Yes, this was in the con section, but it is also a huge pro. The plot, while confusing, is so interesting. The main character, Shuuki, is time traveling to save the ones you love from a mysterious killer, all the while trying to keep up his appearances in order to look like everything is fine and he doesn't have two sets of memories. The game is separated into 5 chapters, where one character is murdered per chapter and you spend that chapter trying to save them. It's a wonderful idea and I really enjoyed it.

Characters- The characters in this game were very well done. There is so much character development for each character. You play one route and think you know one character, only to play their route and see they are completely different from what you imagined. I don't want to spoil the game, so I'm keeping this short, but the characters and their interactions with each other kind of made the game for me.

Art- The art in this game is beautiful. Shuuki has this gorgeous long hair that I wish my hair could be. The CGI was well done and made it worth all the hard work in order to get them.

Neutral Feelings:
I'm putting this in as I didn't love these things, but I didn't think they made the game bad or upset me enough to put it in the con section.

Love Routes- There are 4 (technically 5) routes that you can complete in the game. Two involve Chiaki, you're childhood friend, and Yukinari, Masaharu's friend. These routes are great, don't get me wrong. Yukinari was probably my favorite route. However, it felt odd that the game actually pushed you to certain routes. It's sad to say the game didn't really put emphasis on Yukinari at the beginning. He was kind of there and if you decided to do his route you'll find this cute, little sadistic jerk that actually gave a crap about Shuuki. The other two routes....involve the brothers. It's more like brotherly love, and I'm no stranger to yaoi incest relationships, but it felt odd to continuously woo one brother or the other and then end favoriting one Shuuki's older brothers.

Secret Ending- I wasn't all that into it. I had to get a neutral ending in order to see it. That means no going after anyone. I can not say how many times I accidentally tripped flags. It got to the point where I almost wanted to give up on ever seeing this ending, but I was happy I was finally able to get it. The reason it's in the section and not the Pro section of my review is because it felt almost incomplete. It felt like the creator just decided to through the ending in and that's it, although it was obvious Shuuki could have easily romanced that secret character.

All in all, the game was wonderful. If you're still iffy, play the demo. The demo is going to give you a good idea on the game and if you really want to invest your time. Even though it's not free, there's enough content to back up the price. I have 10+ hrs on record and I'm still trying to complete CGIs and mementos.

I'm an idiot, it was hard for me to finish the game. I was on the Yukinari route and got the bad ending with the cg. It was enjoyable but for my first playthrough- I just don't see myself returning to the game.

I have mixed feelings about Break Chance Memento, and here's why:

Pros

Cons

=[ WHAT a let down! Annoying dialogue, a mediocre half-assed story and only two characters you can romance (who are by the way much less appealing than the main character's two brothers). What a waste of 20 dollars!

This visual novel suffers from what a lot of Western and English-translated visual novels are prone to; that is, pseudo-Japanese style dialogue. I understand why things are kept relatively close to their translation for visual novels that are originally Japanese, but is there any reason to choose to incorporate the Japanese style of speaking in a completely Western game? It just looks dumb. Real dumb. It bothered me throughout the whole game.

Also, there were soooo many instances where the main character found himself overhearing other characters speaking to themselves about conveniently crucial things. Nobody speaks to themselves out loud that much nor in such detail. It's so stupid! Those were my main issues with the dialogue in the game. The plot is a different story.

Time travel as a plot device is extremely tricky, it has to be done just right or else the plot ends up being too convoluted to believe or follow. This was the case with Break Chance Memento. There was just too much going on for any of it to really matter; just one big clusterfuck. The only death that really mattered was the first, because it was such a shock and so unexpected. But once you realize you can circumvent any bad situation that arises, the rest of plot complications are just meh.

The relationship with your brothers is pretty touching but you can't even romance either of them so who cares. The two non-brotherly routes were two missable characters with unappealing personalities and designs. I kind of wish the main character's brothers were like, step-brothers or something so you could actually romance them. I feel pretty jipped.

I ABSOLUTELY loved this game! Most visual novels cause you to feel like a bystander, but Break Chance Memento makes it seem like you have an active role. I actually started to emphathize and like nearly all of the characters. I enjoyed the music and atmosphere of Break Chance Memento as well. In my view, it is well worth the money and deserves more attention. Five stars from me! I look forward to more games by these developers.

I ... I can't say that I fully understand every minor detail of what's going on in this game, even after playing through the whole thing multiple times. Might be tiny plot holes, might be my own stupidity, but nevertheless I'm not bothered by it in any way.

The story, the characters and the art style are brilliant. And while it might not be a romance focused game (although there's a lot of that too), it's definitely relationship and character developement focused. It's supported by a great story, but what ultimately got me hooked for hours were the relationships between the various characters. Every single character feels like a real person you can easily get attached to. My first playthrough took me around 6 hours, but it left me wanting to see everything the game has to offer. And yes, it got me to spend 4 hours trying to get Yuki's ending. Yes, I can see that by looking at the time of my achievements. 4 hours.

I can only recommend this to everyone, and especially if you're into Visual Novels and / or relationship focused stories. Get it, seriously. It's so amazing.

<3
This game was great!
Very good story! A bit complicated though, which is nice. Though it feels there are small, super tiny plot holes. But barely visible, if you do not focus on them, are they invisible. But it was something that gnawed in my mind, not much since everything else was dazzeling. The story as whole was amazing, and well thougt anyway!! I really liked it, it was awesome and intressting!
Its a bit tricky to get all the endings, but its still easy to solve too in the end. Also that there is a lot one can experience in it! To look around to find and see! A lot of scenes to get between Shuuki and the others, due to different requirements and mementos. That makes it replayable, though, the beginning gets a little bit tiring if you want a specific endig and fail, and then you have to go throug it again. Luckly there is a skip button, and it stops when a new scene occour, so you wont miss anything.
The writing is easy to follow and do not use many difficult words, and it still manage to sound clever and pretty in the language, as it paints the situation in a simple, understandable way. But some sentences could have some rephrasing, but they are very, very few. And some things gets repeated, its not often, and does not stand that much in the way either. Since the overall text is, as mentioned, well written.
The art is very pretty!!!! The shading is nice and smoot, and the lightning really highligts their details in a gorgeous way, like Shuukis hair. <3 And Shuuki is almost irritating pretty (in a good way), since my brain could almost not comprehend it, haha ,long wonderful hair <3 and I just stared at how pretty drawn he was. The colouring is beautiful everywhere! From the characters to their surrounding! The bakgrounds are also well drawn! I really like the style the artist have!
The characters are deep in personality, and nice <3 I like all of them <3. And they speak in a natural way, not forced or anything. And they can say really funny things to one other. xD And act in different ways, yet very caring. Also following Shuuki's personal change is nice!
The music is good, but I did not always pay attetion to it, it does not stuck in my mind or anything. It just nice for the moment. At times I listened, then it vanish from my thoughts, even if the music is still played in the game, it lost is grip. ( Can also be that I was mesmerized by Shuuki... haha. )
Best of all ( In my opinion ), its boy x boy!!!! I have not seen this sort of VN on steam before! I have only seen Girl x Girl, and wondered, is there some VN with BL here on steam? Well here is one! And its awesome! They do not show anything, except for kiss scenes. And the relationships goes in a good pace. And can be very cute. If that is not your suit, then you do not need to pursue anyone! ( But you wont get all the endings if you avoid it. )

10/10, is my say in this. I do recommend this! For its story, art, and .. BL, heee. <3