After the wonderful Milkmaid of the Milky Way, of course I also wanted to play Mattis Folkestad’s other game, Embracelet. After almost 12 hours of playtime, I just finished it. (Yes, I am a very slow gamer. Smell the roses and all that.)
And I have to say… I am so disappointed.
Not with the game itself, it’s a very good game. Beautiful atmosphere, an emotional story, great soundtrack, interesting characters. I wanted to write about how much I loved being able to play it in Norwegian, how much I learned, what it made me think about and remember, the funny bits and the sad bits. Up until the very last minute I was ready to give this game another 5/5 or 10/10 or 100/100. That’s because up until the last minute I was hoping that it would let me hop off the rails again before the end. Because, see, there’s a point in the story where you have to decide which one of your two new friends you want to spend the afternoon with. And the game doesn’t tell you this, but this moment, the point before you make that decision, is your last chance to do anything other than the main story. The very last one.
I tried everything, in every situation where I could (seemingly) freely walk around, I tried to get back to what I was doing before the game took me hostage. But every single time, there was a “I should not leave the dog.” “I want to stay with my friends.” “I have to catch the ship.” “I have to find Karoline.”
I know I’m probably not being fair to the game, taking it from “near perfect” to “disappointment” just for this one thing. But hey, this is a private blog, not a professional gaming magazine, and I feel what I feel. I play games because I want to participate in the stories. If I wanted to see one specific story, I could watch a movie. When a game takes any and all control away from me, for the rest of the game, I could really stop playing at that point and just watch the rest in a Youtube video.
Plus, there were some “sidequests” I really wanted to finish. See, the first thing I did when I arrived on the island is accidentally destroying some kind old lady’s greenhouse. She had been growing flowers for her late husband in that greenhouse, and I promised to bring her some others in their place. I could not keep that promise. From the moment when I walked into Hermod’s room to hang out for an afternoon, I had zero chance to go back to the flower search. Or to the artist, for that matter. Or repair, look at, explore anything I hadn’t gotten to yet.
That could have been fine, if the game had deigned to put a warning in front of that decision. “If you have anything left to do, do it now, because after accepting the invitation to this hang-out session, you’re not getting another chance.”
Maybe it’s my fault for wanting to play an adventure game without having a “missable sidequests” guide open in the background. I just don’t understand why Mattis decided to do it this way. It is understandable that he wanted us on rails during the intense story moments, but once that was over, I don’t see why he couldn’t let me wander off and finish some things before the ship got me the next morning. And still, I was hoping. Imagine my joy when I discovered you could actually return to the island, even when you’re already on the ship, on open water! But Mattis was like: “Nope, forget it, there is this one way you’re allowed to go, don’t even think about leaving it.”
And so, I followed it. Went through the whole stupid “I came back for you” moment. Still hoping to be freed afterwards. And then the credits rolled. And I was back on the main menu. And when I reloaded the autosave, I could only repeat the ending.
This game is getting a 3/5 from me. Maybe I’ll replay it one day, just to get Evelyn her flowers. But right now, I’m just sad.
(I did rate it 5/5 on GOG. It is a beautiful game.)
