Secrets In Green is a very short but equally engaging visual novel about a Victorian-era young lady, Alma, with a perceived history of mental problems, as seen from the highly patriarchal society of the time. Whether she actually has a mental imbalance, or is merely a misunderstood, independent woman who does not willingly meekly submit to the whims of those who expect nothing more than a passive, subservient girl to be ordered around is one for your own conscience to conclude.

Despite the brevity of the story (I finished in 80 minutes, with a little of that time idling), or perhaps due to it, the writing is sharp and succinct, ensuring that the reader is fully immersed from the opening caption right through to the end. Alma is sent to her uncle's cottage in the countryside to convalesce in a peaceful environment as a last-ditch attempt by her father to “cure” her of her “wild episodes.”

With a love of nature and the cottage having a large garden, she slips easily into tending that and appears to be making progress, until she finds an attractively leaved plant at the rear border fence. Upon inspecting this, she finds a word written upon one of the leaves – a word clearly not written by any pen. Alma believes that the plant is trying to communicate with her, a theory compounded when she writes on a leaf and subsequently finds a response on her next visit.

Alma mentions this to a “companion” despatched by her father. A companion who, in reality, is more of a custodian. This, of course, leads to a belief that her mental instability is becoming worse.

But we, as the player, know that she hasn't imagined this. In which case, what is the true source of the mysterious wording upon the plant's leaves? There are just a couple of choices in the game, but they are very important ones, and will ultimately lead to either of two bad endings, or one good one.
With plenty of save slots available, it's easy to save at an options point, and find all endings in one comfortably-sized playing session.

The game does well in bringing to life the era which it portrays, with echoes of fake mental illness being attributed to someone – notably a woman, and therefore, in this time, a second class citizen – who does not fit the accepted, and expected, norms of the time. The bad endings in the game are appropriate to the nature of the story, though one may be apportioned a trigger warning for those of a particularly sensitive nature.

The good end, on the other hand, delivers on the store page promise of female empowerment with its emotionally satisfying conclusion – so much so that I was brought right to the edge of a happy tear or two upon reaching it. I do love it when a story can do that to me.

+ Well written and entertaining narrative.
+ Good graphics and respectable score.
+ Impactful choices, no superfluous ones there solely to give the impression of player agency.
+ Very satisfying good ending, especially for its primary target audience (I mean us, ladies!)
+ All of the essential basic VN functions are available, including skip, back-up and escape to menu.

+/- Some limited voice acting, mostly exclamations.

- The in-game menu is the standard tiny text word list along the bottom.
- The more advanced VN features like assisted voicing and a CG gallery are not included.
- There is window or full screen option, but not a windowed-full-screen, you have to manipulate that manually.
- A personal negative here: the “companion” character sprite dips on screen each time she speaks in a new scene. I found this distracting and unnecessary.
- Although the game is very much in the budget price range, it still felt a little “Wow, have I really done already?”. It's difficult to suggest what more content could have been added, but do be prepared for your entertainment to be concluded within one hour-long playing session, or thereabouts.

The negative points above are solely for awareness purposes, they do not notably impair player experience. I found the story captivating and Alma an easily supportable lead. Despite the short reading time, I have no difficulty in giving this game a fully committed thumbs up.

I wish to thank my wonderful friend for gifting me Secrets In Green, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it through.

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[i]Secrets In Green[/i] is a very short but equally engaging visual novel about a Victorian-era young lady, Alma, with a perceived history of mental problems, as seen from the highly patriarchal society of the time. Whether she [i]actually[/i] has a mental imbalance, or is merely a misunderstood, independent woman who does not willingly meekly submit to the whims of those who expect nothing more than a passive, subservient girl to be ordered around is one for your own conscience to conclude. Despite the brevity of the story (I finished in 80 minutes, with a little of that time idling), or perhaps due to it, the writing is sharp and succinct, ensuring that the reader is fully immersed from the opening caption right through to the end. Alma is sent to her uncle's cottage in the countryside to convalesce in a peaceful environment as a last-ditch attempt by her father to “cure” her of her “wild episodes.” With a love of nature and the cottage having a large garden, she slips easily into tending that and appears to be making progress, until she finds an attractively leaved plant at the rear border fence. Upon inspecting this, she finds a word written upon one of the leaves – a word clearly not written by any pen. Alma believes that the plant is trying to communicate with her, a theory compounded when she writes on a leaf and subsequently finds a response on her next visit. Alma mentions this to a “companion” despatched by her father. A companion who, in reality, is more of a custodian. This, of course, leads to a belief that her mental instability is becoming worse. But we, as the player, know that she hasn't imagined this. In which case, what is the true source of the mysterious wording upon the plant's leaves? There are just a couple of choices in the game, but they are very important ones, and will ultimately lead to either of two bad endings, or one good one. With plenty of save slots available, it's easy to save at an options point, and find all endings in one comfortably-sized playing session. The game does well in bringing to life the era which it portrays, with echoes of fake mental illness being attributed to someone – notably a woman, and therefore, in this time, a second class citizen – who does not fit the accepted, and expected, norms of the time. The bad endings in the game are appropriate to the nature of the story, though one may be apportioned a trigger warning for those of a particularly sensitive nature. The good end, on the other hand, delivers on the store page promise of female empowerment with its emotionally satisfying conclusion – so much so that I was brought right to the edge of a happy tear or two upon reaching it. I do love it when a story can do that to me. [h1]Positives & negatives[/h1] + Well written and entertaining narrative. + Good graphics and respectable score. + Impactful choices, no superfluous ones there solely to give the impression of player agency. + Very satisfying good ending, especially for its primary target audience (I mean us, ladies!) + All of the essential basic VN functions are available, including skip, back-up and escape to menu. +/- Some limited voice acting, mostly exclamations. - The in-game menu is the standard tiny text word list along the bottom. - The more advanced VN features like assisted voicing and a CG gallery are not included. - There is window or full screen option, but not a windowed-full-screen, you have to manipulate that manually. - A personal negative here: the “companion” character sprite dips on screen each time she speaks in a new scene. I found this distracting and unnecessary. - Although the game is very much in the budget price range, it still felt a little “Wow, have I really done already?”. It's difficult to suggest what more content could have been added, but do be prepared for your entertainment to be concluded within one hour-long playing session, or thereabouts. [h1]Verdict[/h1] The negative points above are solely for awareness purposes, they do not notably impair player experience. I found the story captivating and Alma an easily supportable lead. Despite the short reading time, I have no difficulty in giving this game a fully committed thumbs up. I wish to thank my wonderful friend for gifting me [i]Secrets In Green[/i], I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it through. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]