Ashley's parents were assumed dead after their disappearance ten years ago. One day, she receives a letter claiming to be from her father, stating that he's still alive on Blood Edward Island. Upon arriving on the island, Ashley discovers that her parents were working on a computer called Trace, which can generate memories. A ghost named D appears while Ashley is searching for her parents, and her journey becomes of interest to him because he has lost his memories and can't remember how he even died. Together, they search the island for clues of Trace and the whereabouts of Ashley's mother and father.

Doesn't that make the title of "Trace Memory" more appropriate? The computer is named Trace and it has something to do with memories. Ashley's quest is to trace the whereabouts of her parents and the ghost she teams up with is in search of his memories. It all fits together nicely, doesn't it? The story is the most crucial element of an adventure game in the style of Trace Memory, and just the foreword to the plot makes you curious as to how the rest of the game will go down.

How the game plays is just as important too, of course. Players navigate through the game via a 3D top-down perspective on the touch screen and a 2D first-person view on the top screen. By touching the screen in the area that you want to move to, Ashley will go in that direction and the top screen will update with a still image of whatever she would be looking at. Items of interest that appear on either screen can be closer observed by touching them the lower screen. Dialog between Ashley and the people she meets is displayed on both screens for easier reading of conversations, and there's likely to be a lot of talking going on as she sleuths the trail of her folks.

The unique features of the DS are taken advantage of for Trace Memory's many puzzles. Similar in style to the classic Myst series for the PC, these puzzles will literally have you piece together clues found on different areas of the island. For example, you may find that a road sign has fallen apart, and you need to put it back together by dragging pieces around on the touch screen so you can see which direction you should go. The puzzles and tasks range from hitting the correct notes on a piano to rubbing a piece of paper to find hidden notes. Also included are puzzles that use sound, both audibly with stereo sound and verbally with the microphone.

Trace Memory is scheduled for a September 29th release here in North America, almost eight months after its initial Japanese debut. Let's hope that the long wait for the game was worth it.