Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories, published by XSEED, is a story-focused adventure game about a girl named Honeydew searching for her friend Cantaloupe. Light exploration elements add a slight bit of depth to the experience, but ultimately you're just moving from screen to screen, talking to characters, and advancing the plot. Even though there's a charm to this world, it might not be enough to sustain its fairly brief narrative.

We meet Honeydew as she awakens for her morning shift at the melon soda plant where she works. The introduction to her quirky coworkers is a humorous one, and the comedic writing buoys the game and its tone. The central mystery involves the seeming disappearance of Cantaloupe after he fails to show up for a group social outing, and so Honeydew sets off to follow his trail and collect clues along the way. At the same time, an election is going on in the region, which provides a fun background for Honeydew's Journey.

Another funny element of Melon Journey is the way that melons themselves, the fruit that is, are considered simultaneously contraband but also incredibly ubiquitous. The characters and dialogue represent the heart of the experience, though. The writing actually reminds me a little bit of Earthbound and Undertale in its absurdity, and it definitely feels worthwhile to speak with every individual you encounter. You can even complete sidequests by collecting specific objects or entering certain conversations, but the way the actual quests are tracked could stand to be clearer.

One particularly thorny issue with Melon Journey is its save system, which can be activated from the pause menu at almost any time. For one thing, your save file displays basically no information about where you are or how long you've been playing. For another, despite how brief the game is (2-3 hours), it feels ripe for a checkpoint or auto save feature. My main reason for this is that twice the game hard crashed on me, and I lost about 20-30 minutes of progress each time. Hopefully an update for the game will solve the crashing issue, but saving often feels like good advice for the time being.

There's also an item menu that serves almost no purpose, outside of sidequests. It's really tough to ever get lost since there just aren't ever many places to go and also because Melon Journey does an admirable job of pointing you in the right direction for advancing the story. Characters regularly come and go, scenes change, and exits open up or become blocked off go; all of this signals to the player where to go next. The end result is an experience that feels brisk but also somewhat shallow.

The clean, pixelated look of Melon Journey calls to mind the Game Boy era, and the lo-fi soundtrack complements the laidback story quite well. It's unfortunate that there just isn't much else to do except strike up conversations and read object descriptions. The presentation is a highlight for sure, and I'm not sure I'll ever tire of seeing contemporary titles make use of retro aesthetics. Still, an enticing presentation can only carry an experience so far.

At the end of the day, I'm not left with much to remember about Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories. The charm of its characters and writing are readily apparent, but there's simply not much to do in places like Ham Town and Hog Town. While the hard crashes certainly put a damper on my experience, it was the fact that I really had to force myself to keep picking up the game that speak volumes. Those looking for a light and chill story-centered adventure may enjoy the handful of hours you can sink into Melon Journey. Others may want to stick to watermelon for their sweet memories.