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The multimedia giant ASCII Entertainment organized its fourth entry in a series of annual competitions where contestants were required to submit a self-made game created using either RPG Maker or developed from scratch. This strange project was developed with the help of RPG Maker '95 but didn't have anything to do with the RPG genre at all. It won the contest and not only a nice money sum of ¥10,000,000 (around $100,000) but also a contract for a commercial retail remake of the game to be released on the PlayStation by Enterbrain (titled "Forget Me Not -Palette-"). One night, the psychiatrist Sianos B. Sian is requested to counsel a girl called B.D., who has lost her eyesight and memory in an accident.
Through conversations with her over the phone, the past that hides in her memories comes to light... Palette may not have had the success Yume Nikki would later achieve years later, but not only does it have its own merit as a solid and enjoyable game, but it still can be considered an ahead-of-its-time spiritual predecessor anyway. Its true the game design isn't really all that similar. Palette's gameplay is subordinate to its final goal, but it definitely has the merits of foreshadowing the eventual popularity of conceptual horror games that make heavy use of cryptic storytelling. The psyche of the main character B.D. is full of striking surprises, and so is the potential output of the RPG Maker software. The game was translated by a fan to English in 2012. |
