Experience a Meaningful Tale in the Puzzling Shards of Memories

Visually speaking, Shards of Memories is a fairly photorealistic game that looks downright gorgeous. The game features a dark and rich wooden texture background that represents a table, and the classic Polaroid-style photographs that represent each stage have a realistic aesthetic. The puzzles themselves also sport pieces of glass that have a frosted texture to them, and everything is complete with cracks once you put them together to fit the object that is the focus of the level you’re on. There are subtle animations in Shards of Memories that you’ll notice when the broken glass is put in its proper place, and the transitions from one puzzle to the next are smooth and seamless. This is important, because each photo tells part of the story behind of the professor, so the conversion from one to the other means everything flows together. Story text is presented in a simple but effective serif typeface that goes well with the overall serious tone of the game. The slow, ambient soundtrack feels rather emotional and the sound effects represents shattered glass well. The developer truly did a great job with Shards of Memories in terms of the graphics and audio, so kudos.

Following traditional puzzle game fashion, Shards of Memories has three chapters and there are about 91 levels total in the entire game, so do get a good amount of game for the price. The goal in each puzzle is rather simple: rearrange all of the broken pieces of glass so that they fit the object that symbolizes that part of the professor’s life at the time shown in the photograph. Each photo will have a line or two of story, and the bigger picture reveals itself over time. However, to make things interesting, Shards of Memories has multiple endings that can unfold, depending on how the player decides to go about playing the game. I’m still pretty early on in the game so I’m not sure how the endings are determined, but this is a great way to keep players coming back even if they beat the game once but still feel emotionally invested in the game.

Controls in Shards of Memories is a simple affair. Each puzzle features a cutout of an object, and several broken pieces of glass. Your job is to get those shards into their proper place in the cutout, and this is done by dragging them where you think they go. If it’s the right spot, it will snap into place. Sometimes pieces will have to be rotated before they can fit in the image properly, and this is done by tapping on it to make it rotate clockwise. Once you think it’s properly upright, drag it onto the board with your finger and see if you can find the spot for it. If you’ve ever played tangram puzzles before, you’ll understand that Shards of Memories is similar to that, and there may be a lot of trial-and-error involved before you figure it out, especially since things get more complicated as you go on.