Be missed and remembered - Review of a visual novel that could have been more

Between the 1970s and 1980s, Japan experienced a radical change that redefined the country's social, cultural, and geographical fabric.

An economic miracle that laid the groundwork for the technological transformation of the Asian state, but which at the same time also widened the already deep internal fractures: with a center that expanded immeasurably, devouring everything in its path and giving rise to megalopolises like that of the Tokaido, and a periphery that saw its spaces become smaller and smaller, experiencing the phenomenon of Kaso, or the constant flight of young people to the cities.

This transformation not only changed the country's economy but also disrupted its traditions and culture - strongly linked to the folklore of rural areas.
The Shinto religion ceased to be a social glue, the observances related to nature and the search for balance with it became something to escape from, and the fear of Yokai and nature spirits was driven away by city lights and high-speed trains.

And this transformation of the Land of the Rising Sun serves as the backdrop for Be missed and remembered: The letter from Mayoiga, a visual novel born from the collaboration between Overlap Games and Nekoneko Soft that takes us through different eras of Japan with the aim of discovering more and solving the secret surrounding a young girl and a curse linked to an ancient shrine.

The letter from Mayoiga is a classic, overdone Japanese story

Be missed and remembered: The letter from Mayoiga tells a classic Japanese story, one of those that anyone familiar with anime, manga, and video games has already seen and heard hundreds of times. And this is just the first of the production's weak points.

The title takes us to the 1970s and puts us in the shoes of Naofuyu, a student from Tokyo who decides to spend his summer holidays at his grandparents' house in a remote village far from the noise and frenzy of the city.
Accompanied by his younger sister Risa, the two are soon warned by the villagers that an evil spirit, Susu, lurks among the paths of Mount Oyama overlooking the village.

Naofuyu, a child of an era of space exploration and moonwalks, decides to investigate and discovers that the evil spirit is nothing more than a young girl afflicted by a curse linked to a water temple.

Naofuyu and Risa decide to help Susu break the curse, in what quickly becomes a race against time before summer ends.

I avoid going into too much detail in this review for two simple reasons: the writing is already weak on its own and becomes predictable and unengaging after the first two hours of gameplay; furthermore, it must be emphasized that the plot is the only thing the title has to offer - so even the slightest spoiler would ruin your experience - which is already not thrilling on its own.

The absence of gameplay in The letter from Mayoiga

Usually, visual novels follow a well-defined pattern: there is an initial phase that introduces the characters, settings, and presents the player with the first, minor choices to make.
A central part where some of the choices made begin to weave the game's plot.
A final part where all the choices made accompany the various turning points until the conclusion, or one of the conclusions, leading us to the credits.

If you decide to play Be missed and remembered: The letter from Mayoiga, forget all that. The game offers no choices to make or narrative forks. It will simply ask you to click to read the dialogues between the various characters.
A decision that, while I don't agree with it, I would understand for a title of a couple of hours, but not for a visual novel that easily exceeds 8 hours of (non) gameplay.

The combination of absent gameplay and a plot that doesn't shine with imagination means the title laboriously drags itself towards the credits, with the only result being that at some point it becomes automatic to click frantically to skip all those secondary conversations that add little to nothing to the plot: because, frankly, I care little about a watermelon seed spitting contest.

It lacks that creative spark that could have made a difference

Technically speaking, Be missed and remembered: The letter from Mayoiga offers nothing that makes it stand out from the mass of visual novels on the market (which, however, offer more articulated and mature gameplay and plots).

There isn't a stylistic signature that catches the eye or design choices that aim to give depth or even identity to the production. The result is that if I showed you an image from The letter from Mayoiga and another visual novel, you would hardly understand that they are two different products.

On the positive side, there is the Japanese voice acting, which avoids a simple wall of text to read, and a soundtrack that boasts the song "Rainy 1970's" by Nami Kawana, which brings strong pop-rock vibes from that decade.

Be missed and remembered reminds us that not everything has to be a video game

In an interview, the game's producer stated that the idea for Be missed and remembered was born from his love for Narcissu, a 2005 visual novel by Tomo Kataoka, which touched on powerful themes such as the dignity of end-of-life care, the emotional isolation of terminal illnesses, and the acceptance of death.

And it is because of the excellent work done with Narcissu that Overlap decided to entrust Kataoka with the writing of Be missed and remembered, asking him, however, to avoid overly demanding stories and sad endings; a decision that, in my opinion, cut off all narrative potential from the story.

All those ideas I mentioned in the introduction that could have given enormous depth to the experience simply remain in the background, without ever being explored or incorporated into the narrative.

The final result is therefore a bland product on a narrative level, which seems to belong to another era and speaks to an audience that perhaps no longer exists in the world of video games today.
And here comes the focal point of the review: Overlap, the production company behind Be missed and remembered, is an anime and manga publisher that decided to expand into the video game sector by proposing a production made for the analog market to a sector that follows totally different rules.

Because I am convinced that there is an audience out there for Be missed and remembered, but most likely it is an audience that usually flips through the pages of a manga on the subway or watches an episode of an anime before going to sleep; it is certainly not an audience eager to click the spacebar for 8 hours straight to see a story that could have been presented in other formats and reached a more suitable target.