Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace

''My Darling's Embrace is a spin-off from Steins;Gate'', and is a romantic comedy visual novel taking place in a different world line than those in the original game. In the world line the game takes place in, the characters still have the possibility to change the past by using D-mails, but SERN has little influence and does not have rounders hunt the main cast. Instead, the player character Rintaro Okabe's main problem is paying the bills for the laboratory, having to take a part-time job as a waiter. The game has multiple routes, each focusing on Okabe building a romantic relationship with one of the characters from Steins;Gate. The player affects the direction of the plot by picking choices, by answering Okabe's phone, and by clicking on highlighted text within text messages on the phone. The game does not feature any game over states or routes where the player loses. ==Production==

Development The game was developed by 5pb., and was produced by Naotaka Hayashi. The concept for ''My Darling's Embrace as a romance game, according to Matsubara, came from how there was a trend in Japan to develop secondary games after the release of a visual novel, that explored characters more in depth; he did however not want to water down the main Steins;Gate'' narrative by portraying Okabe's struggle from the original game again, so he decided to set the game in a "peaceful, fun worldline". Release ''My Darling's Embrace was announced in February 2011 by Famitsu, and was described as a fan disc. It was originally released for the Xbox 360 on June 16, 2011, the PlayStation 3 on May 24, 2012, the PlayStation Vita on March 14, 2013, and iOS on October 3, 2013. The Xbox 360 version became playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility on May 19, 2017, along with the original Steins;Gate and its spin-off Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram. The game was also released for the Nintendo Switch as part of the collection Steins;Gate: Divergencies Assort along with Steins;Gate 0 and Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram on March 20, 2019 in Japan. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita versions were both available separately and in bundles with the original Steins;Gate; the PlayStation Vita bundle also included a ticket to Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu'' and a metal charm. The game was published in English for the first time by Spike Chunsoft on December 10, 2019, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. ==Reception==

''My Darling's Embrace was met by "positive reviews", according to the review aggregator platform Metacritic. Richard Eisenbeis at Kotaku'' called the art excellent, and said that the game might "sate [players'] appetites" while waiting for the then upcoming game Steins;Gate 0. Famitsu gave the PlayStation Vita version of the game their "Gold Award". The PlayStation Portable version was the sixth best selling game in Japan during its first week, with 24,849 copies sold, while the PlayStation 3 version was the eighteenth with 5,397 copies sold and an additional 9,223 copies of the PlayStation 3 Steins;Gate bundle. The PlayStation Vita version, however, did not enter the weekly top 20 charts at all during its debut week. ==Notes==