This is an expanded version of a review from review blog Dragon Quill. The original post can be found here.


The premise of Null Regrets is the existence of technology that allows people to erase bad memories by taking a journey to the center of the mind and beating them up. It follows a patient and his friend, a doctor who’s helping administer the procedure, as they go through various bad memories and states of mind.

I thought everything about this game was very well-structured – we’re given very few explicit details on the characters, but I felt I understood them well by the end through their dialogue and the environments in the patient’s memories. I found both of them highly relatable – maybe that says a bit too much about me? – and I enjoyed the nuance with which the topic was presented. So many sci-fi stories that revolve around some new invention that changes our lives end by saying that science is terrible and the new invention is useless. I always hate that because it's so demoralizing, like it's saying there's no point in trying to fix things and we should just wallow in the status quo forever. That's not the case here. There are good arguments both for and against deleting the patient's memories, and it's a real question whether this is addressing the true cause of his issues, but the doctor respects his decisions and he doesn't get a last-minute epiphany that all must be sacrificed unto the LORD Status Quo.

I also liked how the main character's ex-girlfriend was portrayed. When I learned she was a memory he wanted to erase, I was worried we would go down the misogynistic path of "women who reject me are black-hearted harpies", but the situation was actually far more complex and realistic than that. The story overall had a very strong focus on understanding and relating to others and not seeing things in black and white, a theme it pulled off amazingly well given that it only had two characters.

The gameplay is... not quite as spectacular, and the only reason I'm not giving this a 5. It is quite clever – it really encourages you to think differently than in a normal RPG, and each character really has a unique fighting style and contributions to the field. I particularly liked the central mechanic of summoning constructs to help you – you can only summon two at once, but they're all rather situational in use, so you have to swap them out occasionally, expedited by the fact they all have a special ability that requires them to sacrifice themselves. I also liked the streamlined way progression was handled, with everyone getting a new skill at the end of every area – it gave you time to get used to everything while battles slowly became more complex. And I loved the high-minded metaphorical naming conventions – some might find them pretentious, but I eat that stuff right up.

The only problem is that battles tend to drag on for quite a while if you don’t know what you’re doing, and sometimes even if you do. Most bosses have healing abilities, meaning you can easily get stuck in a holding pattern if you can't outdamage them. And it can be very hard to outdamage them – I often spent so much time desperately healing that I could barely get any attacks off at all. I think the battle system may have gotten a bit too bogged down in the buff/debuff game at the expense of actual action. I get the impression the constructs were meant to help you with that by filling in some roles for you, but it just wasn't enough most of the time. It's basically required for Health and Momentum to work overtime just to keep up with enemies' attacks. At least two bosses actually have instant game over attacks if you take too long to beat them, and I triggered both on my first attempts, which should speak to how drawn-out these things are. The gameplay definitely could have been expedited quite a bit. (To make matters worse, fighting regular battles provides no benefit at all, so you're better off just running. Fortunately they don't take nearly as long.)

But! To be honest, I don't actually mind that too much. I've played too many RPGs where battles are over in the blink of an eye, and, what's the point of that, really? Battles are the meat of the game, they're what I'm here for. I'm okay with being forced to think a little. Overall, I really enjoyed this experience, even if it was a little unrefined.