When The Night Comes is an episodic fantasy otome game with supernatural elements. You are a Hunter, and you've been called to the quiet town of Lunaris to assist the local Enforcers with an investigation into a series of increasingly unsettling murders. Immerse yourself in the world of Witches, Vampires, Demons and Lycan's as you slowly unravel the mystery that lies deep within the roots of the town.
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The thing about this game is that the characters are lovable, the setting is interesting, there's some great voice acting, and a lot of the art is beautiful, but the politics of the story as presented through some dialogue -- specifically your limited choices as the player character -- really suck.
A partially voice acted fantasy visual novel with 2 polyamourous couples, one non-binary character, the ability to play without a romance and pronoun choices. I liked the story but I thought it dragged on at some points and made me a little bored. But I enjoyed it too :)
Good in its own way, but certain elements hold it back (unable to skip certain seen sections, etc)
i feel better about ragging on this one because the game is fully finished. but all the same problems i have with errant kingdom still stand. it's just on top of that, it does not do anything interesting with its premise. i get that it's a dating sim, that's where the focus is, the supernatural politics and worldbuilding is kind of background, but it REALLY half asses it. do wish someone was there to witness when i heard the vampire speak for the first time and screamed FENRIS DRAGONAGE???? at my laptop
One thing I noticed before buying this VN is that no one talked about the mystery/main story in any sort of depth, whether it was on the itchio page or Steam forums. There is a reason for this - it's fairly shallow, and no one in this story is in a rush to solve the various murders that have occured. Scenes also feel a bit disconnected from each other, as the player character moves from one area to another instantly, and the time frame feels very muddy
If you're in the mood for an interesting or unique overarching whodunit plot, then you'll find this incredibly disappointing as When The Night Comes is a dating sim, first and foremost, and I will admit, it does this aspect pretty well. My main issue is that characters fall in love pretty quick, these characters have known each other a week and are already like "wow I love you....I can't live with you...you're mine..." but I think this might just be how Dating Sims work. Another sort of problem is that the romance options feel pretty repetitive. Like 80% of the time a romance related choice is offered to the play, you can choose between "kiss them (romantic)" or "embrace them", and some variety in this aspect would've been really nice. Last of all, the game is very inclusive - you are asked your pronouns at the beginning of the game which I, as a non binary person, always really appreciate. However, because the game wants to keep the player character extremely ambigious (to the point where almost nothing about you is described) to accomodate all genders, it means that the steamier scenes can't really go into detail, as the game does not want to assume my genitalia. I did really enjoy the steamier scenes but a part of me wanted them to go a little further, although I'm not going to penalize the game for not doing so
As for the visuals, the game does look really lovely - the characters are well designed, I really loved August especially, and the backgrounds are very nice as well. The voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, some characters pronouce their S sounds quite sharply which is often a personal greivance in indie VNs, but overall solid. The game's queer focus is great as well - you have polyamorous routes which is very cool. The background music is very fitting for a fantasy/supernatural sort of setting but is slightly generic, and also just sharply cuts out when a scene transitions, which feels very jarring
Like, this really isn't a bad game and I see a lot of people enjoyed it, initially myself included, but about half way to three quarters of the way through, I started finding When The Night Comes to be a chore to read, because the main plot just wasn't that interesting or unique and almost felt like filler between romance scenes
If you're in the mood for an interesting or unique overarching whodunit plot, then you'll find this incredibly disappointing as When The Night Comes is a dating sim, first and foremost, and I will admit, it does this aspect pretty well. My main issue is that characters fall in love pretty quick, these characters have known each other a week and are already like "wow I love you....I can't live with you...you're mine..." but I think this might just be how Dating Sims work. Another sort of problem is that the romance options feel pretty repetitive. Like 80% of the time a romance related choice is offered to the play, you can choose between "kiss them (romantic)" or "embrace them", and some variety in this aspect would've been really nice. Last of all, the game is very inclusive - you are asked your pronouns at the beginning of the game which I, as a non binary person, always really appreciate. However, because the game wants to keep the player character extremely ambigious (to the point where almost nothing about you is described) to accomodate all genders, it means that the steamier scenes can't really go into detail, as the game does not want to assume my genitalia. I did really enjoy the steamier scenes but a part of me wanted them to go a little further, although I'm not going to penalize the game for not doing so
As for the visuals, the game does look really lovely - the characters are well designed, I really loved August especially, and the backgrounds are very nice as well. The voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag, some characters pronouce their S sounds quite sharply which is often a personal greivance in indie VNs, but overall solid. The game's queer focus is great as well - you have polyamorous routes which is very cool. The background music is very fitting for a fantasy/supernatural sort of setting but is slightly generic, and also just sharply cuts out when a scene transitions, which feels very jarring
Like, this really isn't a bad game and I see a lot of people enjoyed it, initially myself included, but about half way to three quarters of the way through, I started finding When The Night Comes to be a chore to read, because the main plot just wasn't that interesting or unique and almost felt like filler between romance scenes
i believe it's getting revamped, but even as it is it's a really good otome/visual novel! notable for being very lgbt friendly, having some polyamorous options, and just having sexy supernatural creatures.