Nintendo Character Profile | Ashley Robbins Page 1

Nintendo Character Profile | Ashley Robbins

Ashley Mizuki Robbins
Searching for lost memories...

We were first introduced to Ashley as a depressed teenager, believing that at only thirteen she had lost both her father and mother, until two days before turning fourteen her Aunt Jessica informed her that Dr. Richard Robbins was indeed alive and carrying out memory research on Blood Edward Island. Thus began a perilous adventure in which she befriended a boy called 'D' who was in fact a ghostly apparition. Europe has only recently received a sequel to Another Code (Trace Memory in the US), this time on Wii and taking place two years in the future at the sleep resort of Lake Juliet. As of now there is no confirmed US release.

Statistics

Age: As of her latest adventure, Another Code: R, Ashley is now 16 years of age. Her birthday in the first game she featured in depended upon what date the player had put as their own anniversary in the DS system set-up. However, in the Wii sequel, which is set in 2007, has her birthday locked to 25th February, with her being born in 1991.

Species: Human, the female variety…In the European edition of Another Code: Two Memories Ashley is British-Japanese, yet deemed as American-Japanese in Trace Memory, the US translated edition. The matter of her origin is not clarified in the Wii sequel.

Location: Either practising her guitar playing skills in her bedroom at home in preparation for a battle of the bands competition, or traipsing around places like Blood Edward Island and Lake Juliet, attempting to not only uncover memories of her own but those of others as well.

Birth: In addition to the constant flashbacks Ashley has of her mother being shot by Bill Edward when she was only three years old and hiding in a closet, young Miss Robbins also has the unusual 'pleasure' of actually seeing her mother's memories of her own birth due to a warped experiment that takes place towards the end of Another Code: R on Wii...

Main Features: Being the offspring of US scientist Dr. Richard Robbins and his wife, a Japanese genius called Sayoko, Ashley has quite a unique look. Quite interestingly whilst her father and mother have sandy blonde and black hair, respectively, Ashley's hair is a pale silvery white shade. She is also told that her large, dark eyes remind people of Sayoko. Other than that, she carries around a special pendant containing mnemonic fluid, remnants of her mother's memories.

Clothing: Typical teenage casual fashions - blue jeans, sneakers/trainers and a stylish, T-Shirt/vest top. Pinkie Rabbit also makes an appearance in Ashley's Wii adventure in the form of her carry-all, returning after last being seen in Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Ashley actually has her Pinkie Rabbit bag stolen right at the beginning of the game, though, causing her great distress.

Concept

The idea behind Another Code is 'memory manipulation'. Work was carried out on something called 'Project Another', with the eventual aim being to be able to remove painful memories from people who are suffering too much in life due to past grievances. However, the ability to simply delete various areas of recollection suddenly made light-bulbs shine in the heads of many a devious person, and thus the original project was put on indefinite hold by its initial creators. Shortly after this, one of the lead people on the research team, Sayoko Robbins, was brutally slain in front of her three-year-old daughter. Subsequently Dr. Richard Robbins decided to vanish to Blood Edward Island to continue researching Project Another.

Poor young Ashley Robbins was, therefore, left thinking she had been orphaned. That is until the eve of her fourteenth birthday when she found out her father was indeed still alive, but simply too busy in his research to spend time with her. Then, in the Wii version set two years later, even after she had convinced her dad to come home and he promised that even when doing new work he would visit her every weekend, he disappeared for a complete six month period without any contact, before eventually inviting Ashley, out-of-the-blue, to Lake Juliet to have a camping trip and learn more about her mother.

Rather than get too down and frustrated by her life, though, Ashley soldiers on, trying to uncover aspects of the past on her own...

Appearances

Best Appearance

Whilst only two Another Code games have been released so far, both have been of a very high quality, with developer CiNG including some stunning uses of the Nintendo DS features, the most jaw-dropping being the stamp puzzle that requires players to close the top of the DS, thus putting it into automatic sleep mode, then re-open it to inform the game you have carried out the action, thus solving the conundrum faced. However, after the massive success of Hotel Dusk, CiNG took many idea from that, mixed in the cleverly-devised puzzles and crafted the sublime Another Code: R for Wii, easily the developer's best game to date.

Do Not Mention...

Bill Edwards, someone who called himself a close friend of Ashley's mother, but in the end was coerced into murdering her by a work colleague jealous of her intelligence, shooting her at point-blank range right in front of Ashley's eyes, thus leaving her having nightmares even thirteen years after the event took place.

In closing...

After great success in her DS outing, Two Memories, so far the Wii sequel has struggled to penetrate the market in Japan anywhere near as well. With no US or Australian releases confirmed as of yet, the onus is put on the game's performance here in Europe, as was the case with Disaster: Day of Crisis in October 2008. It is hoped that given the open-ended nature of Another Code: R, we will be seeing future adventures featuring the charming Miss Robbins and her innovative puzzling antics, but it all comes down to sales. So you know what to do...

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Echoes221 10.07.2009#1

It's a shame that it's not doing well over in Japan, it's difficult to find it here! I went to brent cross and game had 1 copy and HMV had none! It will be a popular one for the casual audience but I love the games regardless.

TM was much much shorter but much harder too, you had to think a lot and remember where certain objects where.
R is much more linear so it there is less wandering round due to the ammount of NPC's in the game compared to TM, I've only come across one puzzle (still figuring it out) that i'm trying to locate something other than a battery and a coin (or some how combine them) to solve the puzzle, everything else has been plain sailing.

GET THIS GAME!!!

jesusraz 10.07.2009#2

Oh yeah,

Show Spoiler

That was a nice touch!

The game lept from No.18 to No.10 on the Wii Top 40 in the UK and I keep hearing about the advert being on TV a lot (I don\'t catch much telly nowadays). I\'m hoping it\'ll climb even higher on Monday\'s chart update.

With any luck with the bits and pieces I\'ve been doing via C3 people will be convinced to pick it up as well Smilie

( Edited 10.07.2009 11:17 by jesusraz )

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Echoes221 10.07.2009#3

jesusraz said:
Oh yeah,
Show Spoiler
using the special token.
That was a nice touch!

I did just say I was still figuring it out! Damn, Now I know what to do Smilie

I would of got there eventually, I literally remebered just before that I had a can to recycle. O well, i\'m sure there is harder. Probably didn\'t get it because I have a load of gumballs and no Tokens Smilie

Still brilliant game. diferent to the first, but still good.

On the review people said they would buy it straight away, yet nobody has,as far As i\'m convinced, i\'m the only one that has bought it Smilie They are missing out.

( Edited 10.07.2009 11:17 by jesusraz )

jesusraz 10.07.2009#4

Dammit, because you mentioned the coin I thought you knew Smilie D'oh, sorry! You've still got PLENTY of intriguing puzzles ahead, though, and I'll say no more Smilie