Emily_

这个作品的玩法方面，我似乎找回了刚开始玩《Her Story》时那种安静的感觉；而本作的玩法也的确跟《Her Story》很相近——你需要在一个文件系统里面搜索关键词，而剧情就会记载在这些零零碎碎的文件里面。当然，这种玩法对付不了各种各样的拼写问题。如果你尝试“believe”不行，可以试试看“belief” “faith”等；如果“memories”不管用，可以尝试输入“memory”。偶发的bug还要我Alt+F4退出重进才能暂时解决。 然而，相比于《Her Story》玩到一半，警官的脸闪现在屏幕上（像是模拟老式电脑显示器的反光效果）的无意恐怖，本作的这份宁静之感让我一路玩到了结局。 在这台老古董的背后，在这些代码的背后，是一个孤独的真人、一个悲伤的灵魂。她没有泪腺，一串串文本便是她的啜泣；她没有声带，一段段音频便是她的歌谣；她没有神经元，一份份文件便是她痛苦的往事。一个在记事之前就失去了母亲，童年时失去了祖母，又在青年时失去了父亲的女孩，被她寂寂无名的创造者封印在这台机械之中。她没有陪伴，独自一人承载着这所有的悲痛；她凝固在时间里，既死不掉也活不下去。她多么想要接纳自己被遗忘的现状，但又拒绝被遗忘——因为她就呆在这台冰冷的机械里，默默守护着她的家人。因为她相信，肉体的死亡不代表灵魂的陨灭；而当灵魂找到新的肉体，她曾经爱着的和爱着自己的逝者便能还魂复活。因为她相信，她是物理法则与心理回忆共同创造的智能；她是思念上帝的亚当夏娃，她迫切地想要再次见到上帝，于是创造出了属于自己的亚当夏娃。她是... 她。

You, an unnamed user, stumble into a chat with Emily, an artificial intelligence who has more on her mind. At first glance, “Emily” might feel like a stripped-down visual novel. You don't type messages freely but choose from preset dialogue options, typically one to three per interaction. This is where the game’s interactivity feels slightly hollow because choice feels more like an illusion. No matter what option you pick, the conversation flows in the same general direction, with only minimal variation in Emily’s responses. What keeps the experience engaging, however, are the conversations themselves. Emily is more than an AI. Over time, you learn about her “creator,” her thoughts, her fears, and even her dreams. She’s programmed for conversation but seems to be drifting into something more self-aware. Of course, there's a huge twist that changes the whole relationship between you and Emily, and you questions what is real. This progression is paced through a series of gated interactions. Once a conversation ends, you’ll need to input a specific keyword, or more accurately, a “security code”, to unlock the next segment. Codes aren’t just handed to you. They’re buried in the previous conversations or hidden within a sprawling file database, which acts like a diary of Emily’s creator. The database is both a strength and a weakness. On one hand, unlocking new entries is satisfying, as you piece together the personal history of the mysterious developer and Emily’s origin. On the other hand, the keyword system can be frustratingly rigid. Misspellings or even singular/plural differences can block your progress entirely. "Mom" might work, but "mother" won’t, or you’ll get more luck with memories instead of memory. Another issue is the lack of guidance. You’re given a single vague hint for each keyword, but that’s often not enough. I managed to find over 50 entries, but nothing that could unlock the third conversation. There are a few surprises, like Morse code in the background of certain entries, but without any in-game decoding tools, these secrets will only be useful to those who decipher clues manually.

I honestly was not sure what to expect when going into this game. I read AI and thought it might seem interesting. What i was met with was an intricate story of creation and secrets, with rabbit-hole style lore sprinkled throughout all the files. It reminds myself heavily of my own goals to create something beautiful out of computers, with all the emotion coming from that being represented beautifully. The files themselves require careful reading but once you start tracking down the patterns, you quickly stumble into a frenzy reading everything you can. It was honestly amazing, I feel like Terry Davis creating TempleOS, referencing religion and trying to find a bigger meaning within life, while being on a journey to learn as much as possible. It may have taken a while to get through, but it was worth it all in the end With only 3 user reviews at the time of writing a month and so after release, its criminal how underrated this game is, though i hope to see it blossom into something beautiful.

Really good game, the conversations and the database entries slowly reveal an interesting and emotional story. Figuring out which words to use in the database search reminded me of "Her Story", a cool way to have some investigative gameplay where you put the pieces together to solve the mystery.

First off what a fantastic game! Emily_ is criminally under rated and under known. I loved the story and how you progress through the game itself. There are some spelling errors but nothing that makes the game unplayable nor does it take away from the story. I was able to collect almost all the achievements and complete the database without too much troubles. Overall what a wonderful story and thought provoking game of what it means to be human. I look forward to what the devs decide to work on in the future!

An interesting take on a mystery puzzle game with tragic characters. I enjoyed my time playing, and I'm glad y'all ended up getting the game finished and released. Some Feedback: 1. It would be nice if there were QoL hotkeys to navigate through the menus via keyboard, or the ability to use "tab" to auto-select the search-bar in the datafile menu. While playing I had to use a pen and paper to write things down, and swapping between keyboard, mouse, and pen/paper was a bit tiresome. Another option that would've been nice is the ability to skip dialogue or fast-forward, which would've been very helpful when going back through each ending. (That might've been a useful dev tool as well haha) 2. There was what seemed to me to be a audio easter-egg or puzzle across a few datafiles that requires morse code. I think it was most likely an aesthetic choice to make the audio sound a bit glitchy or maybe it was a bug when volume would erratically change in the middle of the recording but it made it pretty difficult to decipher the message due to this. I ended up giving up on it since I don't know morse code; I tried writing down the code and using a translator but I probably transcribed it incorrectly. 3. More options in chat rooms, or options that are more opposing to each other, would've been nice since a few times I felt like there wasn't really an option that would fit what I would say personally, or both options felt virtually the same, which broke my immersion a bit. I understand however with every new option you add the scope increases dramatically so I think the fact that there are options at all is impressive in and of itself. 4. Going through each ending, one seemed to be the "correct ending", or at least only one ending gave an achievement. It felt a little frustrating and/or disappointing to "choose" my natural ending and feeling like I lost. Perhaps y'all could add an achievement for each ending? Either way I went back and played through each of them, and thought it was done fairly well! Overall I'd rate the experience playing Emily_ a 7/10, and I'd recommend it to others who want a few hours of solid entertainment. Thank you for all the hard work that went into making Emily_ so that myself and others could enjoy it!

For being the first work of a small independent studio, I think this is a very enjoyable and polished game. I really like the art style and game mechanics: having to find passwords in the documents in order to proceed through the game while at the same time occasionally unveiling more hidden lore feels like a really good way of developing a narration to me. Finding the right keywords and solving the little "puzzles" can be quite challenging sometimes, but not to the point that it becomes tedious and you just try every word you can think of - quite the opposite actually. There were a couple of times where it felt really good to finally understand the obscure hints that the game gives you. The story is also very interesting: a philosophical reflection about life, death, truth and existence disguised as a chat with an AI. The game is quite short but finding all the secret files can take some time and it will certainly be very satisfying when I'll get all the achievements! Overall, definitely recommended.

Neat enough little thing, bit unpolished but there's heart there. As others have mentioned the database aspect is fine when it works, but going for more entries than necessary for the ending ended up being a bit frustrating. That's where probably half my time went. Anyway, if it looks interesting to you, you'll have a nice time. If you're unsure, grab it on sale like I did. Either way, just leaving a review mainly since there's so few. Looking forward to see if they keep doing small vns!

Very coooooool indie game, raccomanded

This game is engaging, challenging, and immersive. I've personally found the visuals to fit perfectly with its vibe and setting, and I think that it's a very well constructed puzzle game, especially considering it's a short one. Despite some grammatical errors, the player nevertheless gets to enjoy chatting with Emily and exploring certain aspects of life and death from a philosophical point of view. Overall, I would definitely recommend this game.