Memento Mori

Memento Mori – A Witch’s Tale Woven in Idle Combat and Symphonies

Memento Mori is a mobile idle RPG that places you in command of cursed witches fighting a world consumed by calamity and fear. Instead of frantic tapping, you assemble a team, set formations, and watch automatic battles unfold with Live2D animations that feel fluid and expressive. The real draw isn’t just the combat—it’s the oppressive atmosphere and the soundtrack, which often overshadows the gameplay itself. I picked it up expecting a typical grinder, but stayed for the emotional weight of each girl’s story.

What the Idle System Actually Means

The idle mechanics do exactly what they promise: your witches keep fighting and earning resources even when the app is closed. That sounds liberating, but in practice you hit a wall around chapter 5 where progression slows to a crawl unless you check in frequently to manually upgrade gear or reallocate skill points. The autoplay removes finger fatigue, yet the strategic layer feels shallow once you realize the optimal lineup is often just stacking your highest-rarity characters. I found myself missing the need for real-time reflexes—at least that gave me a sense of agency.

Another quirk: the “full auto” option can’t be customised beyond a simple toggle. You cannot prioritise targets or save mana for burst windows. It’s fine for casual sessions, but if you enjoy tactical control, the lack of manual intervention becomes frustrating after a few days. The game also requires a stable internet connection; offline progress is limited to offline earnings that are modest at best.

The Audio-Visual Experience – Strengths and Weaknesses

I cannot overstate how polished the art direction is. Each witch is rendered in a painterly style, and the Live2D makes their idle animations feel alive—hair swaying, eyes glistening. The soundtrack, performed by artists like Daoko and Kana Hanazawa, is genuinely worth listening to on its own. However, this comes with a downside: the game is huge. The initial download is over 2 GB, and updates add more. On older phones (like my 2019 model) the app stutters during heavily animated ultimate scenes, and battery drains noticeably after 20 minutes.

Also, the music is so prominent that it can become overwhelming during long grinding sessions. There’s no option to lower the volume of battle effects separately from the BGM—you either mute everything or accept the full orchestral blast every time a witch uses her ultimate. I ended up muting the game and playing my own playlist, which somewhat defeats the purpose of the advertised “epic soundtrack.”

Honest Limitations You Should Know

Memento Mori leans heavily on the gacha system. Pulling a new witch gives a thrill, but the rates for SSR characters are low, and duplicates are required to max out abilities. The game does shower you with free currency early on, but after two weeks the flow dries up noticeably. If you’re sensitive to pay-to-progress walls, this will test your patience.

Another limitation: the narrative is relentlessly bleak. Every witch’s backstory involves tragedy, betrayal, or death. There’s little comic relief or lighthearted moments. That suits the dark fantasy theme, but I occasionally wished for a breather between the heavy lore dumps. And the English translation, while functional, sometimes feels stilted—certain dialogue lines lose the poetic nuance present in the Japanese voice acting.