Atri is a character driven visual novel bearing its main heroine’s name and within its story; a fabled and mystical robot girl shows herself in namesake. For this maiden promises you much toil and trouble. Or in this case hope. First a warning. Do not watch Atri’s anime adaptation due to being an inferior version of the story. Put simply, the source material is watered down and re-structured in such a way where they severely alter/skip some of the interactions between Atri and the protagonist. These dear moments are the highlights of Atri’s story, so it's a shame that the anime misplaces its focus and aims it at the lackluster villain. Of course you won’t have Atri’s story fully ruined if you happen to have watched the anime first. Just beware that if you have any interest in reading the Visual novel I highly recommend you do, before watching the anime. That being said… Atri starts off fairly strong with its introduction. The protagonist tries to salvage junk out of the ocean with some wild Catherine lass. Leading to the moment where the protagonist comes across Atri in a boy meet girl trope setup. And hijinks ensue. As for the presentation, it’s a bit odd with its 3D background. You can tell due to how much it clashes with the 2D drawings. Though to be fair, they’re consistent and manage to portray the apocalyptic sea setting. The 2D CGs are where my preferences lie. Arguably they’re the prettiest part of the game, even if a bit crusty. I’d recommend setting up an upscaler program called “Magpie” if you’re reading on a higher resolution than 1080p. That being said… Atri’s is not about its superficial qualities or mediocre production value. Frankly, I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding what makes Atri “good” or “great” with this review. So far I've only listed my initial impression and recommendations. Suffice to say, Atri has a human component that I initially failed to realize within myself. Which brings me to my point. Being human kind of sucks. Of course there’s a silver lining with pleasure and personal achievements existing at the other end. What I mean is that we as humans will always be looking at each other as sources of comparison. Either to fit in or see if there’s anything missing within us. There’s nothing wrong to be insecure about this, because this is an instinct that’s been hardwired into us. Kept us functional within our cultures, made us feeling and aware. It’s quite human in fact to be unsure and lost about your own identity. You might think you’re a machine only adhering to logic, which couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re more like people trying and figuring things out as we go along while utilizing this logic. Mainly to have a semblance of direction. Atri doesn’t give you the answer straight up because that’d be missing the point. This Visual novel prefers to make strides, illuminating and assuring that we’re not alone in this journey. I missed this and initially wrote this review as a form of “thanks” to my friend Samsterbirdies in an attempt to honor his recommendation, since I enjoyed Atri with its wholesomeness. Thankfully and tragically as a human I got insecure. It hurt me to be negative and honest about my experience. I resented feeling this way, forgetting what Atri had shown me. and defaulted to a “squeaky clean” review mode with no complaints. Which is ironic. Ironic how as a human I got quite emotional and afraid at the idea of offending my friend. I should be using logic and commands to make sense of the irrational tendencies. Realizing that there is an overidealization problem. How it makes us aim to be as “high performance” as possible. Stressing over being flawless in our execution and skills. I realized that we hold ourselves to a high standard without any room for forgiveness. Scorning each other and dehumanizing those close to us for our own idyllic models. There is a sadness in not living up to that. It's a stressful existence and we want to meet each other’s perspective, but that is simply unrealistic. There is no shame in falling for this trap or imposing this onto others since we’re all prone to make such a mistake. I’d say it's shockingly human to be like that. What’s important here is that we recognize the moment and make efforts to stop ourselves from getting swept by the waves of life. Drifting through, barely hanging onto a flotsam. What we should do is make something and get out, even if things look hazy. You'll find your own truth or in this case hope. This is what Atri helped me realize. That we aren’t people who just throw the “answer” to problems. We build these answers in our own personalized manners. That being said… this VN won’t necessarily act as your compass and be a story that will “wow” you with an epic conclusion and convince you of this information indubitably. Rather it’s a wholesome tale about building hope. It won’t hypnotize you and automatically make your life better with its artistry. At its core, Atri is a relaxed VN that’ll give you an entertaining story, with its message being a subdued one. I could be honest and point out the things that it fails at doing. Be its villain, an utter embarrassment to a consistently enjoyable experience. Or Atri’s character being weirdly spicy in her dialogues to an inappropriately suggestive extent. But that would be a disservice to Atri’s core theme of how we build hope through effort, redefining ourselves throughout our lives. Nothing is really set in stone within our person. Same goes to this review with how it has changed through the months with my struggle. And how It found its meaning from just blind praise, to now a reflection towards my foolish realization. That being… I wholeheartedly recommend Atri if you’re looking for a short (around 18 hours) hopeful story. Keeping in mind that it’s not a straight and loud answer. I’ll be giving Atri an 8/10 I want to thank my friend Samsterbirdies for recommending this visual novel along with another friend Nhovha encouraging me to keep on writing. And you for reading my review. Just one last thing. I’d like to recommend a supplementary review. Especially for anyone who has read Atri. https://steamcommunity.com/id/yamikaries/recommended/1230140/