Haruki Murakami’s fictions tend to surrealism, Kafkaesque notions of alienation, and outcast characters that seem to let fate steer their actions. He’s seen success and notoriety all over the world, and now his works are being siphoned into upcoming point-and-click adventure game Memoranda.
The team behind Memoranda cite Murakami as the game’s biggest influence. And you can see what they refer to in the trailer above. The characters that are introduced have all had something taken away from them – either love, sanity, or a talent – and have been left to a life of deranged loneliness.
The oddest character we see in the trailer is a large bird in a suit cleaning a bookshelf of what is, presumably, its own stately manor. It’s a bird that has lost its animal instincts and become remarkably human. It’s the kind of character that Murakami could probably write given its detachment from what is considered to be its own species (is that humans or birds?) – there’s also a bit of magical realism to the character.
It seems that we’ll be following the girl shown at the end as she happens across and interacts with these other characters in pursuit of her name.
Unfortunately, little else is known about Memoranda right now, other than that the team has been preparing a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. So, hopefully, that is successful and the game can, at least, come to PC.
