Embraced by Green - Review

"... that weakness, it felt like death."

"And my mind, it can't paint Yumiko's picture for myself anymore."
WARNING: Potential spoilers ahead

Like most ATP games, the game’s story is largely driven by one emotion – for Embraced by Green, it seems to be an aspect of loneliness, examined through the relationship between Etsuya and Yumiko. This is juxtaposed with the setting of the story; being trapped within a garden while on a scientific field trip and trying to escape from it with Yumiko – the ‘science’ side of the story. Each question asked by the game contributes a point towards one of these areas if answered correctly. The questions focus on the two themes of the game separately (both have to have enough correct answers to get the good ending), and if you get the bad ending, the game tells you on which theme(s) you have made mistakes (mikey mentioned on the Embraced by Green thread that you are allowed around 2-3 bad choices for each theme).

Normally the choices in a Ren’ai game revolve around pursuing a particular character, eg deciding who you will talk to and what you will talk to them about, and to a certain extent the player does not need to consider the personality of the protagonist, and can focus only on the ‘winnable’ character. However in Embraced by Green, the choices are almost all based on Etsuya’s inner thoughts or thoughts leading to action, and to find the good ending the choices have to be made according to Etsuya’s personality, (particularly his approach to science). This gameplay mechanic, where you have to become the protagonist to succeed is rather unique, and because the game requires this non-standard approach, it can easily become frustrating if you come into it with the wrong intentions.

There is a variable tracker integrated into the game (see the Embraced by Green thread in the Lemmasoft forums) which lets you see which choices give you points – if you get stuck trying to reach the good ending, this will help you.

The good ending is definitely worth seeing – it explains the mystery of the garden, and through that it validates the choices you have made. You also get to see the start of the relationship between Etsuya and Yumiko (there’s also an easter egg reference for one of the previous ATP games).

Aside from the storyline, the other really strong feature of the game is the overall atmosphere created. The music, the highly effective backgrounds (heavily processed photographs), the effects in Ren’Py and Yumiko’s art all combine to draw the player into the game – the feeling of being trapped in the garden.

Overall, while I prefer some of the other ATP projects VN’s above this one, this is still a very good game, and it is worth playing both for the storyline, the overall mood, and the good ending. The experience is something that would be virtually impossible to replicate in a print form and the gameplay mechanics of Embraced by Green, are completely new compared to any other Lemmasoft VN
Review by Ignosco