Thank you Tortita Studio for sending us this visual novel to review via Steam Curator!

Remembering Emily is a short story told from the perspective of Thomas, our protagonist. He meets Emily in a coffee shop, and has an encounter that changes his life. What brought about their meeting? What about the future? Why did Emily die? These questions and more are explored in this relatively short (approximately three to four hours long) visual novel (VN).

For those not familiar, a visual novel is a written story with graphics. Words are shown on the screen describing what is happening in more detail than the accompanying still images can show. Or, conversely, the images bring more life and visual context to what's being described in text. Whatever the case, being a standard visual novel, there are choices that you can make that help shape the story and ultimately lead to one of multiple endings.

The way the story is told is pretty interesting. It starts off with Thomas talking with his therapist, Noah, discussing how to process the trauma of the death of Emily, and pulling out his complicated feelings for her. After talking with Noah, he begins to tell the story. Occasionally, Noah will ask him what happened next, or try to help him remember and clarify his thoughts. There are a decent number of choices throughout that help shape the story, though sometimes it's not clear what ones lead to what ending. Thankfully, there are achievements that act as a bit of a checklist to knowing if you saw everything if you want to see all choices and options in the story.

The story is fairly short, so it's hard to talk too much about it without spoiling it. Thomas, Emily, Kate, William, and a few others have a pretty interesting time as they walk through several months together. Thomas' friendships with Kate and William are disrupted as his life goes in different directions after meeting Emily. Noah continues to be a stabilizing presence as Thomas works to process it all.

The story is available in English and Spanish; I believe the creator speaks Spanish, but the English is still pretty decent, despite some typos. The music is nice; while the credits list it as royalty-free music, I feel it fits the themes and story pretty well. The art is simple, but actually really nice. The artist should be complimented; while this is hardly the most detailed art I've seen in a visual novel, it is clean, expressive, and easy to understand. The characters are simple, but distinct. Emily is drawn to be quite pretty, lending strength to the narrative. The locations looks great, also. It's also clearly drawn by a person, which is great.

Morally, it's a mixed bag, because some of the characters have really messed up lives and it's hard to describe without spoiling things. While sex is suggested, nothing is shown. Emily is seen wearing underwear as is shown in the Steam page trailer, but nothing worse is shown in-game in that respect. There are mentions of drugs, and drinking (legal, adult) alcohol is part of the story. Weapons play a part, as does violence, abuse, stalking, and death. Blood is shown around a dead body.

Technically, it runs great on Windows and Linux, which I tested. No issues at all to report. It also supported keyboard and mouse, but also gamepad for players who prefer that.

Remembering Emily is a short but interesting visual novel from Tortita Studio. It appears to be a first effort, or at least their first game on Steam. I commend it for being a decent first effort, and the two endings are distinct and interesting. While I wouldn't say it's my favorite short visual novel, it's certainly a great first entry, and I really enjoy the simple yet expressive art style. It gets a lot right, and for visual novel fans, it's probably worth the short yet affordable entry price, especially on sale.