Now that I've finished all routes, I want to give my final impression of the game (SPOILERS included, so beware). All in all, I had a lot of fun with Red Embrace.
What I like best is the diversity of the characters. No one is like the other. Everyone has their own unique personality. I especially liked Luka and Isaac. Thanks again to the developers for the free Luka route! If now Bishop would get his own route, I would be completely satisfied. I like evil characters, so it would be great to have one as a love interest. Especially since we don’t really know how he became the leader of the vampires and what motivates him.
What’s also good is that even some of the negative endings feel like an end and not like a “game over”. In many games you have the impression that only the good endings count. In Luka’s and Isaak’s route, however, I had the feeling of having come to an end, even if it was a negative one.
I also like the changeable interests and personality of the MC. That motivated me to play through the game several times. The only criticism I have is that the interests should have more impact on the actual story line. They were a nice addition, but not nearly as important as the shapeable personality.
In addition to the changeable personality, I also like the way how some dialog options aren’t unlockable if you pick the ‘wrong’ choices and thus the endings can be influenced in one direction or the other. Some visual novels give me the feeling, that they aren’t really games in which you can make wrong decisions, because it is often clear from the beginning, which answer you must choose to reach the "perfect" ending. I am glad that this is not the case here. As a result, the game feels more like a real game. That’s something I really appreciate!
The music is pleasant, too. The tunes are decent, modern and fit well to the dark, urban setting. I especially liked the music that played when Bishop appeared. It was so threatening and dark and always left me with a bad feeling, as if something unpleasant would happen soon.
I also like the character sprites and the CG’s. The characters look very attractive - not too childish or too “cute”, as it is often the case with other BL games. I also like the mix of anime and western style. The backgrounds could be a bit more detailed, but that doesn’t bother me that much. The overall atmosphere is great and it doesn’t take long for you to feel part of the world.
Since English isn’t my native language, I can’t say much about the quality of the dialogues. However, I had the feeling that they were good. I could always understand everything and didn’t notice any mistakes (except for the one part at the beginning of the game, where Luka was being addressed as a “he”, although the MC thought of him as a woman at that point).
At some points I had the feeling that the game was too short. There are some unanswered questions I have. I also think some parts are a bit illogical. in Dominic’s and Rex's route, the protagonist is thinking of becoming a vampire without a single thought about what it means to drink blood forever and endanger other people's lives. Of all the thoughts he had at that moment, I found it odd that he haven’t had moral issues. It is also a bit weird, that in all those years, no vampire became aware of the protagonist, although he has such a particularly tasty blood.
But I don’t want to over-analyze those things, because, as I said before, the game is a lot of fun! So I can overlook such minor discrepancies. I recommend it to anyone who likes vampires, urban settings and BL games. Argent Games stands for quality and you can tell that for this game too. Unfortunately there are only few English written BL games in the western part of the world. So I’m very happy Argent Games exist. I’m really looking forward to their future projects.
Please keep up the good work! : )