Another Code: Two Memories

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Ashley Robbins is searching for the truth.

Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memory in America) is an Adventure Game for the Nintendo DS.

Ashley Mizuki Robbins, a White Haired Tomboy who is about to turn 14, suddenly receives a package from her dad who she hasn't heard from in years--mostly because she thought he was dead. It contains a DTS, a device that looks suspiciously like a Nintendo DS. Her aunt and caretaker Jessica takes her to the island where dad has been doing research, and leaves to go find him.

When Jessica doesn't come back, Ashley decides to go after her. Finding Jessica's glasses on the ground, she starts to assume the worst. She finds her way across the island, through a graveyard, and to a mansion. She meets the ghost D, who can't remember anything about his past life, and who decides to follow her as she tries to figure out just what is going on. At the same time, as they navigate the Edward mansion, D starts to remember things about his past life, closely mirroring Ashley's realizations about her own family.

Oh, and did we mention there's no way to know which ending you'll get till you get it?

The game was followed in 2009 by a sequel, Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories for the Wii. The sequel takes place 2 years later, as Ashley is called to the Lake Juliet campsite for a camping trip with her dad, only to find there are still a few issues to be dealt with with regards to her past, including a new device that looks like the controller to a hit video game console. Sadly, the game wasn't published in America, as the game didn't perform particularly well in Japan or Europe and received only moderately positive reviews.

A Video Game Remake of both titles, Another Code: Recollection, got released on January 19, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, not only changing the gameplay to a third-person adventure, but retooling the story to give it a sense of closure.

The Hotel Dusk: Room 215 series takes place in the same universe, twenty-five years before, but is not connected otherwise.

Tropes used in Another Code: Two Memories include:

• Aborted Arc: Matt's sub-plot regarding his father is left unsolved. It was supposed to be a Sequel Hook for a Spin-Off game, but that fell through when the company went under. Thankfully resolved in Recollection.
• Accidental Murder:
  • The first game had Henry Edward shooting his brother Thomas in self-defense, and then indirectly setting up his nephew Daniel's death.
  • The remake's version of Journey Into Lost Memories had Judd Fitzgerald trying to use the prototype ANOTHER to get his son Ryan to recover from the trauma of losing his mother, only to end up killing him.
• Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed. Ryan's surname goes from Gray to Fitzgerald in the remake.
• Adaptational Heroism: Ryan Gray (now Ryan Fitzgerald) in Recollection.
• Adult Fear: A lot of family ones. Secrets about your parents, abandonment issues, rejection by your family, loss of family members and something happening to them and either not knowing or being forced to sacrifice for it.
• Adults Are Useless: Why else is the teenager girl the one running around and solving everyone's personal problems?
• Adventure Game: With all the examining, inventory management and puzzle-solving involved.
• Adventure Narrator Syndrome: Ashley's constant stream of "that doesn't seem to work" and the like.
• Already Undone for You: Despite Richard living on the island and knowing you were coming, you still have to solve all the puzzles to get to him.
• And I Must Scream: D has been stuck haunting Blood Edward Island for 57 years by the time Ashley meets him. He apparently has had nothing better to do over the years than to count the days after he died, which makes sense when you realize that he remembers nothing about his past and practically no one visits the island anymore (and even then most people can't see him anyway). And if you fail to get the good ending, he will be stuck haunting the island forever.
• Anti-Villain: Ryan Gray/Fitzgerald in Recollection is this, a far cry from his original counterpart.
• Ascended Extra: Sayoko Robbins has a lot more relevance in the sequel and Recollection, even though she's dead at that point.
• Back Tracking: CONSTANTLY.
  • Just remember that in the first game, once you enter the Edward mansion or the laboratory, you can't go back.
• Bare Your Midriff: Ashley's outfit in both games. Averted in Recollection, though the original outfits can be unlocked after completing the first playthrough.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: This turns out to be the motivation of Ryan Fitzgerald's Living Memory in Recollection. He wanted to bring Sayoko back to life since she was the only one who acknowledged his own existence. He transfers this sentiment to her daughter Ashley in the end.
• Big Bad: Bill in the first game, Ryan Gray/Fitzgerald in the sequel.
• Big Damn Heroes: Rex saves Ashley and Richard from being shot by Ryan.
• Bizarrchitecture: An admittedly mild example, but the Edwards' mansion features things like hidden doorways that respond to certain sounds and a wall that opens up when the candles on it have been lit the right way. Rather impressive when you consider that these things were already there by the early 20th century.
• Brain Uploading: A large chunk of Sayoko's memories are stored in Ashley's pendant.
• But Not Too Foreign: Ashley is half-Japanese on her mother's side. Her other half is either American or British, depending on which version you're playing.
• But Thou Must!: During all the sequences where Ashley repeats the plot points so she can remember later, if you choose the wrong option, she chides herself for misremembering, then goes back to try again. Especially obvious in the last conversation, where Bill asks you to remember the face of the killer.
• By the Eyes of the Blind: Being able to see ghosts apparently requires a certain level of mental clarity and perception.
• Cain and Abel: A tragic case with Henry and Thomas Edward from the first game.
• Call Back: Near the end of the sequel, the game starts using music from the first game. The final showdown with the villain is extremely reminiscent of the first game's climax as well, albeit with a happier ending.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Ashley finally snaps at her dad near the start of the second game.
• Captain Obvious: Ashley gets like this at times when examining objects.
• Chaste Teens: Played with. At one point, Sofia asks Ashley if she got a boyfriend. You can either have her say "No!" or the more coy "Maybe...".
• Chekhov MIA: Ashley's dad in the original. Matt's in the sequel seems set up to be one, but he ends up not showing (though Recollection fixes this).
• Chest Insignia: Though not a superhero, D has a marking on his chest that ties in to how he died.
• Continuity Nod: In Another Code R, Ashley's bag has Pinkie Rabbit on it, and a series of photos on the wall of a house show various Hotel Dusk: Room 215 characters, as well as the captain from the first game.
  • Ashley's bag also contains the shirt she wore and her teddy bear from the first game.
• Continuity Reboot: The Recollection remake functions as this, adding dramatic changes to the narrative in order to give it a sense of closure.
• Cool Big Sis: Ashley becomes one to Matthew in the sequel.
• Cute Ghost Boy: D.
• Daddy Didn't Show: Twice, Ashley starts the game going to meet him and twice he's not there. In the first game, instead of leaving it at that, she decides to go looking for him. It's a bit more understandable when you discover he was drugged and unconscious for some time while Bill gave Ashley the runaround. When it happens again in the second game, it's more the workaholic/absent-minded reason. That time, she's ready to turn and leave, but can't.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Two reasons, actually. He wanted to finish Trace/Another in Sayoko's memory and also to use it to determine if he'd killed her or not.
• Dead Little Sister: Kelly for Matt, though he didn't know of her death until he met her ghost.
• Demoted to Extra: Jessica. Her role in the first game wasn't huge, but it did help advance the plot. In the second game, she's only seen in the beginning and in a single phone call. Recollection has her showing up more often.
• Dialogue Tree: Revealed beforehand when the Rainbow Speak shows up.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Sayoko, in Richard's arms.
• Disney Villain Death: Played straight in the first game, averted at the last minute in the second.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Just when it seems Ashley and her dad have managed to reconcile in the first game, the bad guy basically reminds them he's still there and they go off to confront him.
• Driven to Suicide: Ryan Grey, after Richard refuses to kill him. Richard ends up saving his ass.
  • Henry after killing Thomas and indirectly causing Daniel's death.
  • Speculated by Greg Davis in Recollection in regards to Judd Fitzgerald.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Though they have their bitter parts, this is present in all the games, particularly in Recollection.
• Easter Egg: Plenty. If you get 100% Completion and restart on that same save, there are a lot of differences. Also, a book on one bookshelf is entitled "The Legend of Zelda Chronology".
• Engineer Exploited For Evil: Both Sayoko and Richard have shades of this.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: With Bill's Disney Villain Death and Daniel (who was already dead by that point) peacefully passing on, the Edward bloodline is officially extinct by the end of the game.
• Evil Counterpart: Recollection retools Ryan into an anti-villainous counterpart to D/Daniel Edward. Complete with Ashley getting them to pass away peacefully at the end.
• Fake Memories: The titular device can implant these. It's a set of these that cause Richard to think he might have killed his wife.
• Fifteen Puzzle: It's randomized each time too.
• First-Person Snapshooter: The DTS has a camera function, used for puzzle solving and sometimes unlocking extra conversation options.
• Flashback Cut: You can expect to see at least one or two of these per chapter, usually in Monochrome Past style.
• Flashback Nightmare: Ashley recalls the night of her third birthday this way.
• For Science!: Several JC Valley members.
• For the Money: Thomas' reason for attempting to murder his brother was to get his hands on their grandfather's inheritance. It is actually a subversion, as he needed the money to pay for his son's medical bills.
• Freudian Excuse: Ryan's past childhood experience for his actions? Having his childhood memories wiped clean due to his trauma of losing his mother, which affected his emotion growth and turned him into a sociopath.
  • Recollection makes him have a wildly different one: Instead of becoming emotionless, Ryan died from his experience with the ANOTHER prototype after his father tried to get him to recover from his mother's death. The Ryan Ashley has been interacting with was a Living Memory born from the original Ryan's memories.
  • Elizabeth's behavior at the start of the sequel stems from her mother abandoning her when she was twelve and her father keeping secrets from her, which only gets worse with his engagement with Sofia.
• Genetic Memory: Ryan tries this on Ashley near the finale of the second game and Recollection, though for different reasons.
• Ghost Amnesia: D.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Ashley gets a teddy bear at the end of the game and has the most adorable picture of her hugging it during the credits. She still has it in the sequel.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • In the original games, Ryan Gray, as he manipulated Bill to kill Sayoko, leading to the events of the first game.
  • In Recollection, there's Judd Fitzgerald whom, while not exactly a villain, did set up the events of the series by starting the memory research and his Accidental Murder of his son Ryan leading to the creation of his Living Memory clone and all that follows in said timeline.
• Guide Dang It: Every. Single. Puzzle. Except the one where you put together the sign out in front, which no one bothered to do, since you could read it anyway. But wait, you have to do every puzzle to get 100% Completion? Guide Dang It!
• Hate Sink: Sofia Callaghan from the Wii sequel is nothing more than a selfish, manipulative woman willing to commit atrocious deeds for money. Made even clearer in Recollection, where the Big Bad is retooled into a much more sympathetic character.
• Heel Realization: Ryan Gray/Fitzgerald in Recollection, after learning Sayoko refused to be brought back if that meant sacrificing her own daughter.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sayoko Robbins. Both her real and memory self in Recollection.
• Hot Mom/Hot Dad
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Naturally. Usually justified in that the stuff she carries is of reasonable size, but it does make for an odd moment in the second game when she pulls Ryan's suitcase out of nowhere to return it to him.
• I Can't Reach It: So there's a trunk up on a shelf too high to reach. So how about you pick up the baseball hidden in the corner and throw it at the large piece of luggage!
• Ill Boy: D had a heart condition when he was alive, which was the reason he and his father went to the Edward mansion. His heart condition set in while running from his uncle, losing his balance and dying by falling off a cliff.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: D referring to himself and Ashley as "kindred spirits". Ashley lampshades how lame that was.
• Infant Immortality: Hell no. The series has at least one case of a child dying, with D in the first game and Matthew's little sister Kelly in the second. Recollection adds the original Ryan Fitzgerald into the mix.
• Inner Monologue: Ashley has a number of these. Matt starts lampshading them in the later half of the game.
• Interface Spoiler: There are five buttons on the DTS. You can use four from the start, but the fifth doesn't work until The Reveal.
• I See Dead People: Ashley. It later becomes I See Them, Too with Bill and Matt.
  • Both Ashley and D are quite shocked when the Captain can see him too.
• Just Between You and Me/Motive Rant: The bad guys have something of a tendency to give monologues when you encounter them, partially because Ashley and her dad keep asking questions. At least one of them lampshades this.
• Kid Hero: Ashley, of course.
• Kidnapped Scientist: Ryan captures Richard late in the second game to force Ashley with his plans.
• Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand: The climax of the second game.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Ashley is like any good adventure game hero in that aspect in the first game, but she gets away with it since the original owners of the location all died. D lampshades this by calling her strange for taking charcoal. It's a little more toned down in the second game.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: One of the original intentions of the Trace/Another machine, as a means to remove traumatic memories.
• Late Arrival Spoiler: Double Subverted. The sequel dances around the first game's revelation of Sayoko's killer's identity for most of the game, only for it to be rather bluntly brought up again near the end.
• Late to the Party: Ashley's fifty-seven years late to the events on Blood Edward Island.
• Lock and Key Puzzle: There are a few standard locked doors to deal with.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Elizabeth.
• Love Makes You Evil: A common theme is that people will do things from questionable to flat-out evil for the people they love.
  • In the original game, Bill was all but stated to have been in love with Sayoko, which Ryan exploited to get him to murder her.
  • The tragedy of Blood Edward Island was caused by Thomas trying to kill his brother Henry for the inheritance because he needed to support his sick son.
  • Recollection has Ryan Gray/Fitzgerald's motivation being bringing Sayoko back to life since she was the only one who understood him.
  • Also from Recollection, Judd Fitzgerald's experiments with ANOTHER were all done to heal his son Ryan from the trauma of losing his mother, and later on bring him back to life.
• The Man Behind the Man: Ryan Grey.
• Master of Unlocking: The TAS gives Ashley the ability to open any electronic lock.
• Memento MacGuffin: Ashley's pendant in the second game.
• The Messiah: Ashley in the second game. Her actions end up solving a number of the personal problems of the other characters, as well as uncovering a pollution scandal that drove Matt's dad's business into the ground.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Richard, due to his memories being tampered.
• Mood Whiplash: You can eat the candies the Captain gives you at any time, even right after Ashley finds out her mom is dead, resulting in Ashley gleefully exclaiming, "I love candy!".
• Motionless Chin: Pretty jarring in the sprites when they talk.
• Mr. Smith: Yup, there's a dude calling himself John Smith wandering around Lake Juliet. As if the sunglasses and black formal suit didn't make him suspicious enough.
• Multiple Endings: There are two in the original game, the "good" one where D recovers all his memories and moves on to the afterlife or the "bad" one where he doesn't get back all his memories and continues to wander the island. Recollection does away with this by making the "good" ending canon from the start of the sequel.
• Neutral Female: Ashley may solve all the puzzles, figure out the sub-plots and pull her dad's fat out of the fire, but she just kind of stands there in the final confrontations. It's justified in that she's a teenage girl up against a gun-toting maniac and her dad is the one they have issues with.
• New Game+: Going back and replaying on a beaten game file unlocks all kinds of Easter Eggs.
• Nice Guy: While she does have flaws, Ashley is generally kind and helpful to a fault, particularly in the second game.
  • D is pretty much the same way.
  • Sayoko Robbins was similar to Ashley not just in appearance, but in personality as well. Especially evident in Recollection, as she was the only one who bothered to understand Ryan when no one else did.
• Not What It Looks Like: A downplayed, but incredibly tragic version. After witnessing his father's death at his uncle's hands, Daniel saw Henry as an Evil Uncle who wanted to kill him as well and ran away from him. In reality, Henry only murdered Thomas in self-defense and wanted to explain himself to Daniel and calm him down. It didn't end well.
• Obviously Evil: Ryan Grey in the Wii version.
• Offing the Offspring: Recollection has a completely unintentional example with Judd Fitzgerald trying to cure his incredibly traumatized son Ryan by putting him into the ANOTHER prototype.
• One-Letter Name: D because he can't remember his real name, only the one-letter nickname. His real name is revealed to be Daniel Edward.
• One Degree of Separation: Sayoko met with quite a few people during her time at Lake Juliet.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Rex takes a bullet to the shoulder after his Big Damn Heroes moment and manages to stick around to long enough to tie up some plot points, though he doesn't help go after him.
  • Averted with Gina, who takes a taser shock bad enough to render her unconscious and still deals with shooting pains in her arm afterward.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: It's not quite clear what exactly D's powers are, but in the first conversation with him, it seems like he can read your mind. This is never mentioned again, however.
  • The other difference is that only people who can perceive things beyond what's in front of them can see or hear ghosts.
  • Apparently, they have working olfactory preceptors as well, as Ashley is surprised when D comments on the smell of one room.
• Pamphlet Shelf: You only get plot-relevant info from the books you read.
• Parental Abandonment: Again, Ashley's dad.
  • Elizabeth's mom in the second game.
• Parental Substitute: Jessica, Ashley's aunt whom she stayed with. Ashley even says she's like a mom to her.
• Parents as People: A constant theme, particularly in the sequel and Recollection.
• Parents in Distress: Jessica and Richard in the first game, just Richard in the second.
• Parrot Exposition: Ashley sometimes begins conversation points with others by repeating a statement they said earlier.
• Photographic Memory: Ashley has ridiculously good memorizing abilities, able to recall things from the age of three, albeit with some sort of trigger.
• Pixel Hunt: Most the first game. The second game is better about it by highlighting what you can examine, a trait picked up from the Hotel Dusk series.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The one time Ashley really needs the TAS to pop open a lock, the batteries run out.
• Point and Click Game
• Poorly-Disguised Pilot: As stated above, a lot of time is spent on Matt and his sub-plot with plans for his own game. However, it still ties in well enough with what Ashley is trying to do to avoid being too intrusive. This is done away in Recollection, when he gets an actual conclusion to his story.
• Pop Quiz: One per chapter. Justified in that Ashley is trying to keep track of what all is going on and remember it.
• Puzzle Reset: Just press the "back" button!
• Rainbow Speak: Key descriptive terms and conversation choices are given colored text.
• Revision: In the second game, Ashley and her dad show particular concern over Ashley's pendant, which she got from her mom on the night of her third birthday, even showing her getting it in a flashback, and supposedly never goes without it as a memento. Said pendant was never seen or mentioned in the first game or its flashbacks despite covering everything else that happened on that night.
• Rich Bitch: Elizabeth Alfred starts out as this due to her complicated family situation. She gets better, though.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Ms. Graham, who's a pretty grouchy person at first. She gets better as Ashley gets to know her.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ashley attempts this at the start of the second game, but she blew most of her money before the start of the game and ends up unable to pay for the bus fare.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Thomas Edward's motivation for having his grandfather's inheritance is to take care of his son since he had a severe heart condition that could kill him if not treated. Him trying to kill his own brother set a chain of events that led to said son dying from said heart condition anyway (on top of falling off a cliff).
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Both Henry and Thomas Edward as a result of World War II, which eventually caused the tragedies of Blood Edward Island.
• Ship Tease: Quite a bit between Ashley and D. Especially the conversation after Ashley's mom is revealed dead.
• Shout-Out: In Another Code R, Ashley can examine a stepladder in the boathouse. She then thinks to herself, "It's a ladder. No, wait, that's called a stepladder. What's the difference anyway?"
  • A rather easy-to-miss example in Another Code R: "It's dangerous to go alone."
• Solve the Soup Cans: One particularly baffling case is when Ashley can't open a bottle with a message in it. You have to retrieve a hammer from another room and then use it to break the bottle. Can't she really smash a bottle any other way? How about throwing it against a wall or something?
• Songs in the Key of Lock: One early area has you play the piano to open a secret passage, and later using a music box to open a fireplace passage.
• Sound Test: You can pick up a music player in the second game to use. Of course, you can only unlock all the tunes in a New Game+.
• Spiritual Successor: Another Code R at times has more in common with Hotel Dusk: Room 215 than the first game.
• Story Breadcrumbs: You can find several hints about the history behind the Edwards family and Richard's life alone on the island.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Matthew for D in the second game. Ashley occasionally lampshades this by telling certain characters that Matt "reminds her of her very first friend."
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: One of the last rooms is full of objects, all with plot relevance, but no major puzzles.
• Talk to Everyone: Whenever you run into someone, you have to go through all the conversation options to continue.
• Tell Me About My Mother: Ashley inquires Jessica about both her parents at the start of the game.
• Time Skip: Two years pass between the first and second games.
• Together in Death: In Recollection, D finally passing on has him reuniting with his father in the afterlife.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Richard is a bit of a chocoholic. One of his office drawers is loaded with chocolate bars.
• Tragic Villain: Ryan, though the reasons vary between the Wii game and Recollection.
• Transferable Memory: Yup, the machine can do that too.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Ashley after witnessing the events of her third birthday. Also Matthew forgetting his sister's death.
• Trial and Error Gameplay
• Tsundere: Ashley has a bit of Type B in her. She's normally a very nice person, but she's prone to hissy-fits when she gets mad.
  • She inherited it from her mother, who was a genuinely kind person yet fiery when she has to put her foot down.
• Undeath Always Ends: At least once per game.
  • D is finally laid to rest in the good ending.
  • In the sequel, Kelly is able to move on after seeing her brother again and having him give her her old doll.
  • In Recollection, Ryan passes away after Ashley promises him she will remember him.
• Unexpected Inheritance: The DAS and TAS.
• Unfinished Business: D and, in the sequel, Kelly.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The root cause of the Edward family's downfall? None other than D/Daniel Edward himself, either by his heart condition when he was alive or by scaring Bill (the Edward's last descendant) in the present, which made him fall off a cliff to his death. Ouch.
  • The whole ANOTHER project in Recollection happened because of Ryan Gray/Fitzgerald being horrendously traumatized by his mother's death, making his father try to get him to recover by putting him in the ANOTHER prototype with disastrous results.
• Video Wills: Sayoko left a message for Ashley in the TAS explaining some of what she did.
• Villain Exit Stage Left: Sofia manages to get away scott-free at the end of the game, though Ashley does manage to inform Rex about what she was up to. Averted in Recollection, when it's mentioned she got arrested.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ryan has a remarkably calm one in the Wii version, until he goes batshit at Ashley for crying.
• Visual Novel
• Welcome to Corneria: Played straight in the first game where you can endlessly select conversation options, averted in the second as they disappear after you choose them.
• Wham! Episode: Chapter 4 of the first game. You find out what happened to Ashley's mom, meet the last person on the island and find out what happened to Jessica all in short order.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Ashley has her mom's eyes, which Jessica says were quite beautiful.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Part of Richard's problems between games.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Ryan Grey in Another Code R.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: The protagonist Ashley, of course.
• Would Hurt a Child: Bill, Sofia and Ryan from the Wii version.
• You Can See Me?: One of D's first statements upon meeting Ashley.