Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace

Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace (STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理のだーりん) is a romantic comedy spin-off visual novel that occurs in the Delta Attractor Field.

Publisher's summary
Fall in love with the lab members all over again in this sweet and slapstick romantic comedy!

Follow Your Heart ''Explore the private life of Rintaro and your favorite lab members in a series of "What if?" scenarios.''

Love Isn't a Science The hard science of Steins;Gate takes a back seat to let the slapstick story run wild!

Phone Trigger System ''Interact via Rintaro’s cellphone to answer or ignore calls, and send and receive emails. Your everyday choices in life steer the story!''

Plot
The story takes place after August 6, 2010 in the original visual novel, when Rintaro Okabe suddenly finds himself in a Delta world line after conducting multiple D-mail experiments. There the Phone Microwave was placed aside and never used in multiple experiments. The Phone Microwave still exists, however the function was not discovered until a later period compared to the original game, thus few experiments were ever held due to Delta Attractor Field Okabe interrupting the members beginning to experiment on the Phone Microwave. There are several new Future Gadgets, and Kiryuu Moeka and Amane Suzuha are lab members. Also, neither Tennouji Yuugo, nor Kiryuu Moeka are Rounders.

When Okabe comes to, he finds the lab members preparing for a party and that due to successive experimenting the Future Gadget Laboratory's electric bill has skyrocketed. To compensate for this Okabe tries waitering and decides to sell the latest Future Gadget.

This Attractor Field is seemingly peaceful. Amane Suzuha of the Alpha Attractor Field's hostility towards Makise Kurisu is absent, and neither Makise Kurisu nor Shiina Mayuri die. However, little is known about its future, and what its convergence point could be.

The story pans out in six possible possibilities, or "routes", each revolves around Rintarou's romantic relationship with either of the 6 main female characters (Rukako remains male throughout the story though), including the newly added Kiryuu Moeka story path.

International release
My Darling's Embrace was released in English by Spike Chunsoft in North America and Europe on December 10, 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.



Walkthrough
Guide originally written by /u/Enorovan

Disclaimer: This guide is spoiler-free. As you most likely know, Steins;Gate uses a mail system. This guide won’t be covering how to get every mail, as the game makes that process pretty simple with the newly added mail list. It is generally advised to save when multiple answers are available. Additionally, if you are anticipating a mail at a certain time from a character in order to continue progressing according to the guide, do not respond to any mail from other characters around that expected time. There are no tips hidden in alternate scenes.

The recommended play order is Route 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6. At the very least, playing Route 6 last is highly recommended.

Route 1: On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, continue to not open your phone when asked to, and you’ll branch into Route 1.

Route 2: On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, send the mail as soon as you can.

Route 3: On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, send the mail after not opening your phone when asked to one time.

Route 4: On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, send the mail after not opening your phone when asked to three times. (Important!: If your new route's initials are 'FC', you have accidentally branched into Route 6 early! This can be remedied by starting from the top and replying to no mail from anyone. You will know you have reached your desired Route 4 when the initials are 'SA'.)

Route 5: On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, send the mail after not opening your phone when asked to two times.

Route 6: Start a new game and hold the skip text button. Do not reply to any mail before the date and time mentioned below, unless the game forces you to. On August 6th, at 14:10, reply with the first option. Do not reply to any mail that isn’t from the person that sent you the mail mentioned above unless the guide says otherwise. On August 6th, at 14:42, reply with the second option. On August 6th, at 15:08, reply. On August 6th, at 15:29, read. On August 6th, at 21:39, reply with the second option. On August 6th, at 21:48, reply. On August 6th, at 22:13, open the attachment. If you are on the right track, a certain place is mentioned in the mail's text… (no place is mentioned at all if you aren’t). Keep skipping, and... On August 7th, when prompted to, open your phone, navigate to your contacts list, and choose the only contact that the game allows you to. After this, send the mail after not opening your phone when asked to three times.

Trivia

 * Suzuha comes back in time in order to retrieve lost technology through ages which are required to decrypt certain information, in this case -*floppy disks, cassette tapes, etc. (not IBM 5100)

Etymology
The name 比翼恋理 (Hiyoku Renri) is a wordplay on the phrase 比翼連理 (hiyoku renri), which means "marital vows". The "連" (ren) character, meaning "entwined", is here replaced with the "恋" (koi/ren) character, meaning love or tender affection. "比翼" (hiyoku) describes two birds flying together ("翼" means "wing") and is often used to refer to (married) couples with a deep, postive relationship. "理" (ri) generally means, reasoning, principle, or logic. However, when paired as "連理" (renri) it denotes an intimate male and female relationship, and, as mentioned previously, when combined as 比翼連理 (hiyoku renri) it denotes "marital vows". As such, by changing "entwined" to "love" the phrase can be read as "loving vows", or alternatively as "比翼 hiyoku" (happily/deeply/strongly bound), "恋 ren" (love), "理 ri" (reasoning, principle, or logic). The substitution of 連 by 恋 also connotes the fact that Okabe doesn't really get married in those lines, but simply have relationships instead.

Newly Introduced Future Gadgets
Future Gadget No. 12 "Darling, You Idiot!" This gadget was named by Daru, in which the Lab mems had all agreed upon, and is a reference to Lum from Urusei Yatsura who uses this as her catchphrase. Mayushii thought that the name "Love Love Bracelet Chans" would be good, Kurisu suggested "Affection measuring instrument" and Okarin suggested "ETERNAL ENGAGE".

Future Gadget No. 12's function is to measure the degree of affection between two wearers. The devices' sensors measure body temperature, blood pressure, heartrate, sweat, and psychological changes through sensors on the inside of the matching bracelets. The bracelet's display also seems to monitor mood/feelings. If one wearer is determined to be cheating through detected changes in the user's condition, an electric shock is administered by the bracelet. This gadget was suggested by Faris NyanNyan as a way to prevent affairs, though the concept was later modified by Kurisu as a method to not only prevent fighting, but fix relationships; claiming to want to avoid making a 'glorified lie detector', adding that a device built only for detecting adultery would be far too bleak. The device has an activation switch, but was never fully completed before a deactivation safety was added.

The functions of Future Gadget No. 12 are:


 * Having an affair zaps the offending user
 * Attempting to remove the bracelet by force zaps both users
 * Getting too heated in an argument zaps both users
 * Moving further than one meter away from your partner zaps both users
 * Holding hands with your partner immediately stops the electrical discharge and prevents any further discharge
 * If your hearts and minds are deemed to be in sync, the bracelets will deactivate, sliding off easily

Future Gadget No.13 can record the thoughts of a person as a video. Kurisu designed this gadget using progressing research into projecting what the brain sees. This research has already reached implementation stage. At the same time, research into recording visual information as a video has reached the advanced stages. The university that Kurisu attends, "Victor Mitochondria University" has developed a technology called "Visual Rebuilding", which is a technique which converts nerve pulse signal into video data. By using this technique, it emulates what a person see's right in front of their eyes as neural data is fed into the brain. Kurisu utilizes the idea that if they could do this, then they could do the opposite, since she also studied the analysis of the nerve pulse in human memory. "If we were able to convert memories into accessible data, I thought maybe we could access what is seen as data". The actual appearance of Future Gadget No.13 is something like a VR headset.

Future Gadget No.14's "Electric Signal Jacker" (Kurisu names this gadget as "Broadcast Signal Intrusion") purpose is to send data which has been recorded on a hard disk by stealing TV broadcast signals. Instead of just uploading a video on the internet, because only the people who wanted to watch it would watch it, it makes sure that the video is publicly seen. It looks like a regular black hard disk with a collapsible antennae attached.

Music

 * Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling OST - Popping Steiner
 * Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling OST - The eight members
 * Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling OST - Serenade -Piano-
 * Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling OST - Serenade
 * Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling OST - To new world line -piano-

Adaptations
My Darling's Embrace has been adapated into multiple manga series and light novel series.
 * Hiyoku Renri no Sweets Honey adapts Kurisu's route.
 * Hiyoku Renri no Future Honey adapts Suzuha's route.
 * Hoshikuzu no Duplet adapts Mayuri's route.
 * Hiyoku Renri no Nyan2 Crysis adapts Faris's route.
 * DROPS adapts portions of each route.
 * Hiyoku Renri no Underling adapts the entire visual novel.