Remember Me – unfortunately the name proved sadly ironic (pic: Capcom)
GameCentral looks back at Remember Me, the first major game from the creators of Life Is Strange and one of gaming’s most poignant Black heroes.
DontNod, creators of Life Is Strange, released their first game, Remember Me in 2013. Published by Capcom, the game centres around Nillin Cartier-Wells, a Black woman with the ability to access and remix memories of other people.
Within a few minutes of meeting her in-game, one thing becomes clear. Nillin knows who she is and no one, not even Memorize – the evil, capitalist corporation running the entire city – can take that from her.
Looking back, Remember Me was the first game I played where the main character was a Black woman. The first time I played Nilin I was struck by how she moved. Confident in her own body and skills, she did not crumble under the attacks on her mind. Nillin fought against enemies who were intent on erasing her very core. She believed so fully in her mission that she did not stop while having moments through the game where her vulnerability shined.
So often Black Women in the media are portrayed as strong, angry, and stone-faced – especially within fantasy and sci-fi spaces. But Nillin, despite kicking ass and making tough decisions, was given the freedom to be tender and concerned many times throughout the game. It resonated with me, to see Nillin be powerful and also embrace her emotions and complicated feelings.
Remember Me is not a perfect game, though. Some of its mechanics are clunky. There is a learning curve when it comes to remixing people’s memories. DontNod has a character-driven method to their writing, which at times leaves the world wanting. Neo-Paris’ design and the way Nillin fought left many people, including myself, frustrated at times.
There was also a complicated development process that resulted in its delay. However, when looking back at reviews the most consistent praise was for its graphics and story decisions.
Despite the criticisms, Remember Me maintains a Very Positive rating on Steam and a 4.8/5 star rating on Google. Its highest rating on Metacritic is 72. One could argue that as gamers matured and sought out IPs with female protagonists, Remember Me earned a second audience.
Nillin is the main character in her own story. She is not undercut by a male protagonist. She does not end up dead by the end of the game, due to conflict or illness (cf. Marlene from The Last Of Us, Daisy Fitzroy from Bioshock Infinite, and Lee from The Walking Dead Telltale series).
However, she was not the first Black female main character, as that distinction goes to D’arci Stern, from the 1999 title Urban Chaos (a British-made game, while Dontnod is French and publisher Capcom is Japanese).
As it stands, none of the early, prominent Black female protagonists were created in the US, as Aveline de Grandre from Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation was made in Bulgaria by the British creator of XCOM, for French publisher Ubisoft. 2009’s Resident Evil 5 is Japanese, but as welcome as it was to have Sheva Alomar as the co-protagonist other elements of the game were deeply, if unwittingly, racist, including the depiction of Chris Redfield fighting hordes of Black zombies.
Remember Me sets Nillin up as a freedom fighter that refuses to accept the world as it is. Memorize is a powerful, rich, and out-of-touch corporation that runs Neo-Paris on its terms. They believe everyone is better off forgetting.
Forget rejection, death, and pain. Forget the wars and revolutions that led to the liberation of the people. They decide to rid the city of its past burdens.
Ridding the world of pain is a worthy cause.
Ridding the world of its history is irresponsible.
Remember Me was what Dontnod did before Life Is Strange (pic: Capcom)
Nillin’s mind has been wiped of her history by Sensen Technology, after being arrested for being an ‘Errorist’. Which essentially means she is a revolutionary in a hellish city built on the exploitation of others. Despite the assault on her mind, she still remembers her name. Which does not happen for most of the people processed in the prison.
What is even more startling is she still holds her ideals.
Nillin does not accept that the world they live in is fair and right. She witnesses Leapers, citizens who have become corrupted by Sensen and are ordered to attack rebels. People bump into Nillin, desperate for freedom from their own memories. Sexbots and bottomless bars are there to comfort people who cannot afford a fix. Some set themselves up for prison so that they may be wiped of their horrific thoughts and pasts.
Their desperation to forget leads to physical ailments, emptied bank accounts, and listlessness.
The one thing Nillin and the helpful rebel leader of the Errorist movement, Edge, knows is that something must be done. The technology used to make citizens docile needs to be broken.
It is why, when I think about Black characters in video games, Nillin is at the forefront. She may possess a few European beauty standards (straight hair, blue eyes, thin nose) but she is still a Black liberator. A Black woman who stands up in the face of injustice and says: ‘No, this is wrong. And it’s up to me to fix it.’
Nillin’s story weaves around revolutionary ideals but it also touches on generational trauma.
Not only is Nillin set up to save the inhabitants of Neo-Paris, but she is also the one who sets the Cartier-Wells family free from generations of pain and the desire to forget.
What began as a bright idea from her grandfather, Antoine, morphed into harmful technology to oppress an entire city, as well as his family. Nillin does not allow the pain of rejection from her mother, Scylla, or the misguided actions of her father, Charles, to guide her. What stuck with me was how she rose above their choices and refused to take part in their dynasty.
The Cartier-Wells legacy was built on suffering they longed to forget. However, Nillin burns all the façade and filigree with her truth. For most of the game, the only thing she’s sure of is her name and the feeling that she needs to fix the broken system she’s in. She breaks the barriers her own bloodline has created for not only the city but herself.
Nillin’s morality and values drive her to the end goal of destroying Memorize and Sensen from within. It reminds me of how children are often left with the task of fixing the mistakes of their ancestors and parents. It may not be their mess to clean up, but if any progress is to be made, the cycle must be broken.
At the end of the game Nillin emerges from the wreckage of her family’s insidious work. Neo-Paris is in upheaval. People are given their memories and by association, their identities, back. And in the middle is Nillin who bravely steps into the world ready to deal with the chaos. Because now she knows who she is and where she comes from.
Nillin accepts that she is a woman who comes from a broken family and a grieving city. But she does not shy away from the truth. She makes no moves to hide who she is or what she’s been through. It’s a powerful message in a game that does not feature a typical main character. It asks the audience not to forget and set aside who they are, but to accept that the past cannot be changed. But as for our future? We can make decisions to improve ourselves and the world.
I revisit this game every couple of years by playing it or watching others play it on YouTube streams. I admire DontNod’s creativity and desire to make their first major game about a Black woman who is dedicated to changing the world.
The music is sharp, the design is stylised and bright, and the performances of the voice actors are solid. There is a dire shortage of games that feature Black leads and an even smaller margin for Black women. The fact that this game features Nillin, a woman who is not overtly sexualized or trivialised for being Black, is a huge narrative accomplishment in my opinion.
Despite having her mind wiped and her entire life turned upside down multiple times, Nillin’s agency is intact by the end of the game. She emerges as a hero who made the difficult choice of rejecting false happiness for authenticity. As someone who values transparency and the uphill battle of improving mental health stigmas across the board, Nillin is a video game hero that sticks with me.
‘I am Nillin Cartier-Wells… for the first time in my life, I remember exactly who I am. Outside my fortress, I have a family to go back to. And a world to confront. A damaged world. A world to heal.’
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GameCentral looks back at Remember Me, the first game from the creators of Life Is Strange and one of gaming’s most poignant Black heroes.
