The year is 1986 and Marcel, Embraced by Autumn‘s protagonist, is having the time of his life. That is to say, the worst, as he is the target of relentless bullying, for the simple reason that his father refuses to acknowledge the importance of fidelity. What’s a boy to do with a lust-driven parent reflecting so poorly on him, then? According to his mom, the solution is simple: transfer to her sister’s school. After getting dressed up in women’s clothing, that is, because… it’s an all-girls school!
Kinda makes you wonder if both Marcel’s parents have some kind of agenda, his father sleeping with every woman in town, married or not, while his mom… well… surely she doesn’t actually think this is the best solution? Oh well. If nothing else, it’s a completely fresh start for Marcel, and on multiple levels too. But seriously, Embraced by Autumn is billed as “a sweet romance story”, which means life at his aunt’s school might actually turn out to be a huge improvement, not to mention a refreshing change of pace.
Uneasy and afraid, Marcel expects only the worst when he arrives at his aunt’s school…
With 200,000 words and multiple love interests, each with a route pretty much entirely unique, beautiful depictions of the French countryside, and gorgeous character artwork, there’s every opportunity for Marcel to find happiness here. Even more so since it seems these girls are the exact opposite of the bullies back home: warm and welcoming, four, in particular, taking a special interest in our young cross-dressing protagonist. I do wonder just what’ll happen if/when they discover that all is not as it seems with their new favourite, however. Can’t imagine it’ll go over too well with everyone.
Then again, the game description does emphasize the inclusion of happy endings with a bullet point noting just that. Maybe Marcel is actually a smooth operator who can convince the lovely lady that’s somehow suddenly always on his mind that, well, his mom made him do it – or some such. Yeah. I don’t know. At least the visual novel is readily available as of yesterday, so now’s as good a time as any to experience the feeling of being Embraced by Autumn.
Embraced by Autumn is available on Steam and itch.io, with an $18.99 price tag.