Ren'Py - Daybreak Nightbreak [v12.4] [Mr. Scribbly]

No, no, no, I'm sorry, as a certified Math Geek, you can't promise me math puzzles while slipping me a simple yet decent actual math puzzle, then follow it up with an expression with half just multiplied by zero, and then something that is a RIDDLE, not a math puzzle. Words cannot express my disappointment, and yet I'm still here.

Other than that, the game's... fine. It's a western-made Koikatsu Ren'Py harem sandbox with an underlying darker story. Dime a fuckin' dozen nowadays. The porn is slightly better than some, but it's still Koikatsu at the end of the day. The game is restrictive and largely linear, the mechanics of Crests are poorly explained, the characters generally get their personalities erased halfway through their stories, and if you don't have a thing for mind control stay the hell away. Or cheating. The cheating is required.

I should really just catch up on LiL instead...

From recent version it started of a bit interesting and was looking forward to it as it says choices mattered but at a certain point you just start clicking through the story. the sex scenes weren't bad also felt the mc trying to be to good that it just felt bad like for everything he needs to go ask about his crest like let him decide if he will use it for lust or love.
like they try to make you feel bad for stealing a girl let us decide if we feel bad or not, I wasn't concerned if the crest mind influenced her because a bad ass mc would just influence her girlfriend to.
To end maybe he will become more active and using it for his benefit but for now just boring reading through dialogue.

Personal bias cause it turned out it had tags I didn't expect, like more a decent few LI falling under the cheating category (one way type of deal, no betrayal against MC). So this game is heavy with Netori and chicks helping you get more chicks obsessed with you. Lesbian getting dick and so on. I also found the MC easy to see as my own self insert as they never said or acted in a way I wouldn't, and there were options to skip actions some people would have objections to. Like molestation or being all buddy-buddy with strangers.

Now time for some critic. The first girl that the game heavily pushes on you and is mandatory that you get together with (think of her as the tutorial chick for what's this game's deal). You can very early on comfort and do actions that increase her love for you, but there is no real consequence for choosing not to, sans the possibility of missing some flavor text. Why is that? Well is cause these small interactions meant to establish a relationship can just be skipped and then substituted with a few hugs. Same thing with any other interaction that makes people love or lust after you more, you seem to have no failure condition or real time pressure. Is a real shame, cause I felt rewarded at first for making somebody like me for being frank with them instead of lying, only to realize it made no real difference in the end.

There is very limited gameplay in this, and shares the same lazy game design of these Koikatsu sandbox games. Yet I got invested and the way the story was told and the MC asking and thinking of all the right questions, made me not forget a detail of it. So is not poorly written. Is just a bit eager to get to sex with people who only draw is the scenario they offer. Like a sugarmommy or cosplay slut, and so on.

So in the end I like it, cause I got off to it more than once. So I say is more than decent enough.

Hot damn! One of my instant favorite games. It's a sandboxy adventure with magic, great models, and a good dose of lovey devotion. It's a great game to meet characters, not get overwhelmed with excessive exposition whilst still retaining a great original plotline, and have some extremely steamy sex scenes.

You will occasionally need to reference the quest log to make sure you're going where you need to, and the exploring is tedious and a bit annoying, but overall this is a great game that I'd recommend highly.

Daybreak Nightbreak is a harem VN pretending at a level of management sim.

I say pretending because outside of the VN aspects chatting up girls, the "management sim" consists of hitting the work button. Working gets you money which lets you buy upgrades to increase the amount of money you get by working in order to unlock more expensive upgrades. That's it. You get a number of oft repeated events while working that increase your money a bit, but as you need to work a hundred times or more in order to advance one of the stories, it's all just an annoying waste of time. It's certainly not an asset to the game.

As to the VN portion, it's fine but pretty thin. The girls are awfully one dimensional, the MC is uninteresting, and for some unexplainable reason the writer feels allergic to actually advancing the story. He hints, he insinuates, and he implies all sorts of things relentlessly but it never seems like we learn anything solid or substantially advance the story. It's frustrating because the game really needs an interesting story as the girls, the gameplay and the horny really can't carry it by itself.

Daybreak Nightbreak might have an interesting fantasy story hidden within it, but after many hours trying to find it I've got nothing. You can only tease about a story for so long before players are going to want some payoff. If the individual girls' storylines were stronger maybe the lack of advancement in the main story would be more forgivable, but instead most of the game feels like filler content.

Very well made, and there's a significantly higher amount of well made scenes, as well as content in general in this game as compared to many other first releases, characters are well written, but I would like to see a higher variety of things we can do with the girls.

This game despite using generic theme pulled me in at first. MC has hidden powers to get in to girls panties was done many times over and over, but for some reason I enjoyed the story to a certain point.

• Sandbox. Love properly made sandbox game. Sandbox in my personal view is where you have a lot of freedom. No grind, no click fest, but you can choose who you chase after first and the story changes depending on which u chose to chase or chose not to and decisions you made. This game failed in this aspect. Sandboxes in this game 90% linear and you have to sleep with all girls whatever you want it or not.
• Store management. Click fest. All you do is spam the same option to make money and then buy properties. So simply put no management. Why even put it in tags?
• Characters. Diverse but some stories ruined it for me since I cannot skip them. For example Tsumi. Fist as a player who plays the game through the eyes of MC I was ripped from the game into reality. MC in the story has 2 entities one that give power to get all girls and another that is the player (you behind the screen). Tsumi communicates with player and kind of falls for you the player not MC. Then she tells you that the only way to please you is to fuck MC lol. Ruined all role-play for me completely and the fact that I can skip her story made it worst. So basically her story is I love you the player, so please watch me fuck MC I hope it pleases you. If I wanted to see a girl being fucked by some dude I would just watch porn rather than playing game or read stories where I can live a life of MC from first person perspective. In this Tsumi’s story u either the cuck (the player behind the screen) or horny asshole (MC) who fuck the girl who like someone else, but she is such a good slut that she will fuck anyone for you to enjoy being the cuck. Another example would be Jodi. She is the WIFE of some wealthy businessmen. Your power corrupts her and you will fuck her. For me cheating is cheating no matter if the girl cheats on you or cheats with you on someone else. Again can’t skip her story. Also during her story you play as one of female characters, not watching her side of the story playing it, remember it’s sandbox. This part where I had to play the game through her angle also was a deal breaker for me since I like to play games through eyes of MC. Another one would be the girl in relationship with another girl that helps you to discover your powers, but she cheats on her loved on with you. Again can’t skip that crap. Why? Well linear sandbox game!!! You have to fuck all or don’t play.
• MC is a nice guy? Always tries to what’s right? At least I got that impression form dialogs, but considering examples I posted above is he really?

Overall this game left bad impression on me despite the fact that I enjoyed first hour of the game. By the way travelling system sucks big one and needs to be redone completely. As a developer you can’t please everyone with your stories, what I didn’t like might be someone else cup of tea. That is why other developers give players choices.

Review for v9.5

It's a harem game with some mystery involved. MC is a decent guy that suddenly got horny powers so he has no choice but to use them for greater good.

Pros:
- Girls with different personalities and skin colors
- Public sex as in sex in front of another girl
- Plenty of animated POV sex scenes
- Active developer that listens to user feedback

Cons:
- UI isn't great