Embracelet is a coming of age story about 17 year old Jesper on a journey to find out the origins of an enchanted bracelet that has the power to manipulate objects.
So you play as Jesper a Young lad living with his struggling mum and visits his granddad every day, he goes to visit and finds his granddad not in his room at the home and instead is sat out side by a fallen statue. Jesper is asked to go to his room and find a bracelet and then is shown that it has powers…now Jesper’s granddad is kind of shady on the details but he found this bracelet on the island of Slepp (where he grew up) and using the power of the bracelet we get the impression that he may have hurt some one (we assume by accident) and as a result had to leave the home he loved…well he asks Jesper to find the origins of the bracelet and he feels that it should never have left the island, so much so that after his death we find out he paid for a round trip allowing Jesper to just that.
The characters in this game are all quirky and yet grounded in reality…at least to an extent…Jesper is a curious person but aware of how odd the whole situation he is in is, his mother is exactly what you would expect loving but stressed and the Island inhabitants are all tired of their island being looked over and loosing any kind of trade though all appreciate how beautiful it is. This all just adds to the story and really makes you feel for them the island, if you’re like me and you’ve seen thriving towns just not thrive anymore it can hit you right where it hurts.
How you control Jesper on his journey is very simple and in the style of a point and click where you move Jesper with the left stick and an icon with the right to discover the secrets of the game, but that bracelet comes in to play and you will find yourself trying to manipulate everything around you, from hanging wheel barrows to old water mills using a ring system…basically hit the button when the two rings meet.
Visually this game is really quite beautiful with a simplified Cel-shaded style but every Cel has been clearly thought out to add scope to the island and brings its personality to the forefront, when its bright its welcoming and warm but then its grey and the weather is bad you really feel that atmosphere change…sometimes the art style and lack detail doesn’t work I would’ve love to seen highlighted items have a few more lines here and there to bring out what we are seeing but then that may take away from the work of Mattis Folkestad (the creator of the game). Mattis has worked with the Norwegian film institute to produce this game and after playing this I want to go to Norway even more than I already did and I suppose that was the idea behind this game to tell and intriguing story and show of the beauty of their country.
The music in the game adds to the story so well reminding me of Studio Ghibli pieces, most reminiscent I think would be Howl’s Moving Castle and I love Ghibli more than most films and a large part of that is the music (mostly the art) so Embracment gain a few points there.
Overall this is a sweet game that’s well worth playing if you enjoy a charming story, pretty art work and point and click style game play. At £9.99 I think is a great price for this game that will have you playing for hours and may even make you want to play again. I give this game a 7/10…this might seem low with amount of praise I’ve given it but this game isn’t for everybody but everybody should play it.
Guys thank you for reading, there will be a video review soon so look out for that on our YouTube channel and be nice to each other yeah.