I loved this game, from the beginning to the end.
For all intents and purposes it's a regular point and click game, a lot like Daedalic other games, but the story.. Oh, the story. I can honestly say that Memoria has the best story I've ever seen in a game, and it left me feeling empty and sad, as if I'd finished a great book. It's one of those rarities where you actually discover the twists and turns in the story along with the main characters, rather than long before they do.
Also, the Staff's voice is awesome.

The only negative thing about the game that I can think of is that it's actually more demanding on your computer than one might think. My laptop has been able to run previous Daedalic games perfectly, but this sometimes crashes, especially around the cutscenes. So, yeah, not recommended for old laptops, but for everyone else it's a must play.
9.5/10

The first game in this series, The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, was a promising start to our adventure with Geron and Nuri (feel free to check my other review of that game here). Therefore, I had high expectations for the sequel. Unfortunately, Memoria left me somewhat surprised and dissapointed. It's still a great game though... all in all.

The graphics are great (as usual with Daedalic adventures) and many of the letdowns with Chains of Satinav have been adjusted in the sequel (good job listening to your audience, Daedalic!). My main dissapointment with Memoria was that it felt completely different from its predecessor. Players who had hoped to catch up with Geron and Nuri again will definitely spend most of game waiting for "the real" story to begin. More than 90% of the playing time is focused on a separate story, with a completely new set of characters (for good and for worse).

Pros

- Great graphics
- Good athmospheric music
- A chance to (briefly) meet up with Geron and Nuri again

Cons

- Almost no Nuri in the game at all (why? WHY? hands down the best thing about Chains of Satinav!)
- The main story feels way too disconnected from the prequel.
- Several of the puzzles are poorly constructed and you'll end up relying more on trial-and-error instead of solving the riddles with logical thinking. Since the puzzles makes up the majority of your play time, it's a downer that Daedalic couldn't make them more intuitive and fun.

Compared to The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav:

- Better animations (still a bit stocky, but I guess you get used to it after the first game)
- Better overall voice acting
- Easier to get the achievements in one playthrough (as long as you save often)
- More and also better jokes/puns
- The new side characters are more developed than their counterparts in the first game
- Almost as good music (i liked the main theme better in CoS)
- Not as intuitive puzzles
- Not nearly as interesting main story
- The game felt a bit shorter, but I guess that's very subjective

I recommend everyone to play The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav before playing Memoria - otherwise plenty of in-game references and puns will pass by unnoticed. I like that Daedalic decided to reward loyal players who played the first game, but in Memoria I could never shake the feeling that the developers could not make up their minds about whether to make it a standalone title or a sequel. For the first few chapters, I just waited for "the real" story to begin...