Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace

My Darling's Embrace is a spin-off from Steins;Gate, and is a romantic comedy visual novel taking place in a different world line than those in the original game.[2][3] In the world line the game takes place in, the characters still have the possibility to change the past by using D-mails, but SERN has little influence and does not have rounders hunt the main cast. Instead, the player character Rintaro Okabe's main problem is paying the bills for the laboratory, having to take a part-time job as a waiter. The game has multiple routes, each focusing on Okabe building a romantic relationship with one of the characters from Steins;Gate.[2] The player affects the direction of the plot by picking choices, by answering Okabe's phone, and by clicking on highlighted text within text messages on the phone.[4] The game does not feature any game over states or routes where the player loses.[5]

My Darling's Embrace was met by "positive reviews", according to the review aggregator Metacritic.[20] Zenji Ishii at Famitsu compared My Darling's Embrace favorably to other bishōjo games, saying that it manages to create drama and tension despite how the game does not have a tragic element to it like the original Steins;Gate. He praised the writing as the work of a skilled scenario writer with a great understanding of the characters and world, and said that it manages to develop the characters and world further, giving them more depth, and that the portrayal of characters' emotions was well handled, allowing the player to feel immersed in the world. He particularly cited Luka and Moeka's routes as interesting, due to the different atmosphere that comes with a romantic route with an otokonoko character, and how the game manages to make the player reconsider their opinion on Moeka from the original Steins;Gate. He did note that because of the story's sense of safety and how it does not go off into a more serious direction, the game might feel unsatisfying of something impactful to some players, but also said that it fits in with the tone of the early chapters of the original Steins;Gate, where he considered the characters' everyday activities and light conversation part of what makes the game good.[5] Richard Eisenbeis at Kotaku called the art excellent, and said that the game might "sate [players'] appetites" while waiting for the then upcoming game Steins;Gate 0.[2] Patrick Gann of RPGFan described the game's opening theme, "La*La*La Labolution", as "wretched", particularly noting the singers' "super-cute, super-nasal unison choir thing".[21] Famitsu gave the PlayStation Vita version of the game their "Gold Award".[12]

During its debut week, the Xbox 360 version was the fourth best selling game in Japan, with 31,666 copies sold, and with the Steins;Gate bundle in fifth place, selling an additional 11,041 copies;[4] this boosted sales of the Xbox 360 console, putting it in seventh place on the Japanese hardware charts for the week.[22] The PlayStation Portable version was the sixth best selling game in Japan during its first week, with 24,849 copies sold,[23] while the PlayStation 3 version was the eighteenth with 5,397 copies sold and an additional 9,223 copies of the PlayStation 3 Steins;Gate bundle.[17] The PlayStation Vita version, however, did not enter the weekly top 20 charts at all during its debut week.[24]

• Official website
• Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace at The Visual Novel Database