eternights is a game ive had my eye on since the state of play it was revealed at. despite having bizarre design decisions, mobile game tier graphics, and just an rough feeling overall, i cant help but love it. the same rough feeling exhibits this raw energy that can only really be felt through passion project like these. i was expecting a horny dating sim with persona elements, i got exactly that.

much like neon white, the writing is hit or miss depending on who you are. i dig this super cheesy anime esque writing, so it clicked for me. its really crude and horny, way more than it's inspiration, but if youre the niche this game is targeting, youll feel right at home. the story was nice, but felt undercooked at times. also, i'm not sure if it was just me, but the dialogue didn't feel completely fluent in english, there were weird grammatical errors and stuff from time to time.

the graphics are really rough around the edges, and there's some weird artstyle discrepencies. the game swaps between two 2d artstyles and that's kinda jarring, not to mention there's technically a third artstyle with the cutscenes. despite this the game still end up looking cohesive enough. the cutscenes are also pretty nice, if a bit short.

combat is janky as fuck. dodge and parry timing is inconsistent, the game also takes away your healer at multiple points and becomes infuriating because there's no other way to heal besides her, so you have to keep trying with the dodge rng until you get good enough timing to kill the boss. there's no way to restore mp outside of leaving dungeons either, kinda like tartarus. but it's still fun once you get enough of a hang on the timing as you can. the upgrades are also nice and fleshed out. i had enough fun with combat but that wasn't why i was there

i bought this game to date anime girls. there's three options and im definitely save scumming for the best girl's ending tomorrow. i did( 😏) yuna first but then i decided min was best girl but didnt want to harem ending it so decided to save scum min after getting yuna's ending. sia is kinda annoying and i dislike her but i might do( 😏) her just for the hell of it. min best girl tho my beloved. theres also a twink for you to date if you swing that way, you cant date chani tho. chani's slink follows a set beginning and end of an arc, but the female slinks are weirdly just random events, their growth happens in their respective dungeons. also like persona 3??? i think this guy loves persona 3. anyway i just thought it was weird chani's growth didn't happen in the main story.


actually, theres this one line in sia's dungeon about this game her boss made her play. "the game definitely isnt the greatest game of all time but it had an undeniable charm" or something like that. that describes eternights at it's core. its a game driven by the passion of it's creator and despite it's rough edges i fucking loved the charm it had. twas a fun little romp for a week or so. the ending didn't make me cry but it was pretty sad. seeing the credits roll, with a silly little song about the power of friendship in the background and screenshots of the characters, i just felt satisfied. it might not be for everyone but for those it is, youll like it. cant wait for this guy's next game tbh.