VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Dusklight Manor [Final] [Daniels K]

I simply do not understand the appeal of this dev...ok well he has ok premises and pretty good cg sex scenes. But that's literally it, he desperately needs a writer because he cannot write. The sex scenes all sound as if a 1 year old wrote them, the dialogue is stilted and generic, soap opera levels of content exposition. The main character is about as interesting as cardboard and the story itself is underwritten to the point of barely being an outline. I keep wanting to like these games cause the models are nice and the devs games are always highly rated but there's just not much to like.

I'm giving it two starts solely based on the the cg's and that is being very generous really, I was bored and then angry(don't even get me started on the "endings" ugh)dev desperately needs a writer and editor cause it tanks what should be a pretty fun game. Also the worst part about the writing is that the premise is always solid, he's really good at giving the girls unique and fleshed out personalities. Yet it feels like he writes a good half of a story the runs out of ideas or simply gets bored. Lancaster had the same problem of clearly running out of steam by the end and this one may be even worse in that regard. Which says to men he either needs to make his games shorter or spend more time thinking through his stories. But whatever based on the reviews he clearly had an audience, and I respect that he actually completes his games timely without the usual patreon jerking around shit you see from other devs on here.

tldr: If you can get past the writing it's fine I guess, but honestly I'd skip.

Pacing and characterization were all over the place. Plot points drop in and out. Very inelegantly written. Solid art, fairly hot. Good soundtrack. Decent, flawed, underwhelming. Have more of an outline!

Hated the ending with Lizzie
She's my favourite of the bunch
Since the beginning she acted like a slut and suddenly a weird bitch tells her to dye her hair red and she fell in love with her and acts all lovey dovey and wants to run away without giving a single fuck about the MC?
Honestly, it would've been a blast if there was a single Lizzie ending

Overall, this game definitely needs a script review and edit for grammar, word use, punctuation, and consistency of plot and character personalities.

It is undeniable that when the animations occur, it is actually quite erotic and arousing. My personal exception to that is the three to four scenes where anal sex is forced upon the player.

However, having played through every single ending for each of the individual female love interests, I can see how some players are disappointed. Certainly, a full on harem ending would be amazing but that is apparently not in the developers interest at this point for this game.

Perhaps the best ending in my opinion is with Mary, who does actively show progression after the ending choice is made with her. The other girls are basically unchanged. Obviously, I do not wish to reveal spoilers and how each path concludes.

I can definitely attest to the fact that the extra character who arrives as an exchange of students having an ending with the main character when literally they just met 5 minutes ago in real life gameplay timeline makes no sense. It's completely out of the blue and the plot switch around and player personality flip flop completely throws the player for a loop. To make it as easy to understand as possible, imagine Captain America Steve Rogers suddenly deciding to completely kill every single character in the marvel universe. He would just never do that. And when this outside student appears in the game play, she somehow convinces the main character to do such a thing.

The good part is that the models are not bad looking and the animations are very nice. Perhaps the worst part of the animation is that every single sex scene has a minimum of three different sex poses and a few of them up to seven different sex poses, meaning that they switch positions every three to four lines of text. This seems a bit unnecessary even if it's nice to see different positions.

The character of Audrey is perhaps the most arousing in the sex scenes, but she's the most hideous as far as hairstyle and personal habits. In my opinion, she needs a completely new wig or at least somehow styling that giant scrub brush of red wiry mess on her scalp as well as my personal preference of eliminating any mentioning or display of smoking cigarettes. But that's my personal preference not to see such a thing.

The game is long and very deep but also at the same time very shallow. To give context, I personally never got into the scene where smoking and drinking is normal. Consumption of alcohol is just something I cannot comprehend. Yet several times that becomes the focus of the story. And it's treated as if it's an everyday perfectly cool to do thing.

I would have given this game four stars if the animations were less redundant and repetitive all the time, if the text and script were cohesive, with grammar and editing, punctuation and word use as well as if a couple of the endings were less of a complete shock to the player, where characters switch personalities between lines of dialogue.

It's a good game with mediocre endings all around and a minimum of one ending that really made me very happy. I can see how the final ending of transformation is somewhat rushed. But that is true of many scenes in the game where descriptive text is used instead of dialogue and interactions between characters. This does make the game proceed faster, but sometimes those descriptions would be better if they were rendered out properly and examined emotionally through dialogue between the characters.

In the end, it's all about consistency. There is some consistency here and there, but for the most part it seems like between updates of the game, certain things in the story and attitudes switched directions entirely. Many things are glossed over briefly and yet others are focused upon very thoroughly. It's inconsistent and I think that's what makes the game less enjoyable for many players.

I will say that I liked the game overall. And with the walkthrough mod, sometimes you are stuck doing choices and actions that you would prefer to skip, because the mod removes menu options and instead places the choices in order sequentially one after the next, removing the option to skip any of them that you may or may not wish to see.

The house always felt unsafe, and like a place to get away from as fast as possible, but that also means he was doing something right. At least the story pulled you in. I preferred the story in My Girlfriend's Amnesia, and Chloe in Lancaster Boarding House remains my favorite love interest for a main character in any Daniels K. game. That said, the artwork in Dusklight Manor is very good, and you'll probably find someone in the house you'd like to escape with.

There are some characters in the game I never felt any connection with, but maybe others will. Overall, recommended.

To be honest, I can't really say why I don't like Dusklight Manor. Renders and animations are pretty decent, overall. But maybe it's the story or the character designs or something like that, because I never was able to get drawn into it and care for what was happening. Neither did I find the girls interesting or appealing, nor the events mysterious enough to drive me along, etc. That's why I rate it with 2 stars, because in the end I left the game a little after reaching chapter 2.

This is an excellent game. Great still images and fantastic video portions. I don't usually go for this type of storyline (I won't say why or it would be a spoiler), but it turned out that I really liked the way this story type was done here. Highly recommended.

Good work of Art and most of the time also a good Story but don't expect major decisions that impact the storyline. I have to admit the endings are better than that from previous Daniels K games but still feel rushed.
Maybe, as the games play at the same "universe", the endings will be linked together at new games some day.

A good effort by Daniel K. Nice art, nice story, lot of gaming time. With complete edition story has alternative ends. For me is one of the top games in site. Maybe someone finds the story bit strange, but it is a complete story.

Nice game with good graphics, some characters are more interesting than others but at least all have their own personality, multiple paths and endings available and some endings end game before last episode, silly story (normal on these games), plot has "few" holes but nothing biggie.

overall nice vampire themed sexgame with nice animations.

Review EP 16 Final

Great Animations and Renders are pretty good. The Story is enjoyable and Female Chars are lovley. Maybe the biggest Weakpoint are the Endings, most of them feels rushed from a Story Side of View.
Without a Doubt a Recommendation from me, also this is the fourth Game from Dev which i played and got Completed. Dev doesnt dissapoint in this regard.
Thank you for a great Game @Daniels K

So I just finished multiple endings in the final version. Figured I'll give my two cents on it. But before we do so, a bit of disclaimer: I was a bit let down by the developer's previous game Pine Falls, so I may be unknowingly biased or harsher than necessary. Also, since I've been playing it since episode 6 or something, I may have missed some new contents added by updates.

With that out of the way, let's get into it. A spoiler warning is in order.

The game started...alright. You got hired to work in a private boarding school or something and met some ladies, all of whom you can eventually sleep with. Most of them are pretty, and all of them have some level of clean-cut characterization. They did get a bit of development later on, but I still feel like there's something missing. Perhaps they felt a bit dull at times, since they don't have much of a backstory? The story may not work as well if you think too hard, but that's assuming you still have enough blood flowing to your brain.

Anyways, story progressed. Your employer Clara is a vampire and you met some sort of quantum ghost maid. I like Lemon's characterization. She became who she was because Clara fucked up and has since been holding a grudge. It would've been nice if she was the one who wanted to kill Clara instead of Julia, but more on that later. Clara...I don't care much for her, honestly. Her backstory is fine and it's nice to see a vampire that isn't a total asshole. However, something about this doesn't feel as satisfying as it should be. I guess it would've been better if the ending where you chose to stay in the manor was...more.

Before we continue, we should talk about you. Your character is pretty much a blank slate, so you could better identify yourself as him. There are obviously no perfect options however, and the downsides are especially visible when you take a hard turn story-wise. For example, you met Julia, an aspiring vampire hunter at some point. She wanted to kill Clara, and you could help her succeed if you decide the red flags around Clara are justification enough. I can't help but to feel like the player character was too cavalier about murdering his employee, who at this point had been rather decent, her nightly snacking habits notwithstanding. There also wasn't enough time to flesh out Julia's character, so the decision only felt more hollow, unjustified and abrupt. This choice also cuts your time with the other girls short, so there's that.

Assuming you didn't help Julia stake Clara, the story continued and the girls eventually decided they should leave Clara's manor, except for the nurse but she isn't a love interest. This is where you get to choose who you want to leave with. Since I've pretty much slept with most of the girls, I got to choose two polyamorous endings and Lemon's ending. I also learned that if I chose to become Clara's personal blood junkie and remained in the manor, I would begin turning into a vampire.

Now this would've been an ending worth experiencing, if there was more to it than possibly becoming sex partners with Clara and/or drinking Mary. I can't help but think the developer has a habit of creating a mystery, have the love interests encourage you to leave, only to leave those who chose to dig deeper a bit disappointed: When you decide to dig deeper than you should have into a mystery, you expect there would be consequences. At least this time, you get to briefly experience how a vampire may lose their humanity, instead of meeting a goddess.

Perhaps it's hard to write supernatural settings for an adult game, but it would've been nice if it didn't feel like meaningless backdrop at times. For instance, what if Clara chose to make the girls her blood junkies and the player could only stop this by having enough relationship points with the girls? Alternatively, what if you need enough relationship points to break blood bonds in the girls? That would've been another reason for the girls to want to leave.

All in all, this game is somewhat decent and has a rather coherent story, though the story would be a bit disappointing if you think too hard or want too much. If not, try it out and quickly forget about it after finishing it. I have to go check out updates on My Best Deal and Treasure of Nadia now. I'll see you when I see you.

This game was pretty decent at first. At least girls are hot and sex scenes, are animated. There was a hope, that girls will get more development later. Story wasn't very good from the start, but I thought, that if they will show some depth, I can tolerate some absurd stuff in the plot. But girls are flat, have no common sense, history, personality, nothing. Only some twisted form of loyalty to the mistress. And the story gets even worse. I made a choice, that I don't want to drink mistresses blood. Despite that fact, in all dialogues MC acts like he's getting some. And referees to some events, you clearly didn't see. The only good thing in this game is girls models, but you can't really enjoy it, because sex scenes written poorly. Yes, good models, nice renders, animations. A lot of angles and positions, but nothing more. Your involvement in the process is similar to watching porn without sound, you don't care what's this all about, but they're some people fucking, so you can jerk off.

I'm keeping this review field open so that I remember to put an acutal review once I've played this game.

All I can say right now is that I love the female designs and the mind control topic.

I'm amazed to see it's been made by the dev of my first adult game I've ever played and I can tell he came a long way since "My girlfriends amnesia"!

For now I'm putting four stars. Let's see what it will actually be. Getting excited!


EDIT:

Couldn't make it past episode 3. The actions the girls made weren't to my liking and the fact that choices can have different outcomes based on chances and not choices really pissed me off.

This is the type of game that "looks" great, has awesome models and interesting (at the first sight) story. However the more you play the more you see that most of the choices don't matter and sometimes there are not choices at all, MC just does dumb stuff. Also there is a case of "a harem without harem," where pretty much every girl is interested in new from the get-go but you still have to choose one (and have to play the game many times).
At least the renders are nice.

This is one of the games I looked forward to each and every time it updated from the very beginning...

It started out great with a really good storyline and then you start making your way through towards the middle and towards the end of the story and it goes down hill very rapidly with mind numbing story & ending content!!

The choices you make no longer start to matter and the story becomes a complete and utter mess! There are many forced scenes with no control over it from the player (basic choices at that) and on the Izzie ending you have no choice of how this ending plays out and are forced into a poly relationship with some women you have never met and are supposed to be just okay with it!! Even after lizzie goes away to try and find a way to help the mistress with a cure then goes and cheats on the mc after her and the mc become very close, especially after she visits for the party and they are all over one and other declaring how much they miss each other with no hint of her fucking someone else (was pointless in turning down any of the other girls at this point if you was only interested in her character)!!

The dev really fucked over the fans of Izzie with the way he written out her character and that bu*lshit ending without any options of a monogamous route!!

Really wish I could rate this higher and I suppose the one star could count for half a decent story and some nice renders and animations. Had high hopes for this after his previous work on Pine falls but this turned out to be the biggest let down in regards to the story and crap endings.

would rate it 5 if a harem was possible but as far as i saw its not bc there are branching ends that lead to specific persons and can end game the prematurely.

11/10 for the girls and render as far as i see it

there doesnt seem to be much of a story

Edit: after playing through it my day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable no harem ending with the vampire path its more like the MC turned into a horny beta male. 3/5

Played Version: EP 14
Hard Spoilers in this review.

There is a simple rule here on F95:
"You get away with everything, if the titties are big enough". It is like beeing
the dude in the Bar that ask: "Who wants a free beer?". Noone would say:
I don't want a beer from you because you have red hair .. Everyone would just say: "I wanna drink for free!"

In this game, for each bad storyline, the boobs grew a cupsize. At EP 14 you'll end up with lots of Girls with cow-uttter size titties. And Saggy Naggy is the endboss.

There are two girls with real sized breasts. Lizzie and Mary. Lizzie is gone soon because of idiotic inconsistend writing.
And if you have something going with Mary, then you will be forced to leave her and end the game.
No way staying with the lunatics for any longer.
Reward: A very disgusting Sex scene with mary, painted like a crackwhore and finaly an end of this game.


But even aside from the easy big-tittie trick, to grab the simple minded patreon pledges, this game is not worth even 3 stars.
The writing is a desaster. Most options presented to you don't change anything.
Not the slightest.

Do you know what is the most dangerous thing on earth?
It's the Human.
Do you know what is even more dangerous than the human?
It is humans with magic superpowers.
You play a guy that stumbled over the greatest discovery that human kind ever made in history of Earth:
Magic truly exist.

There are Sorcerer, Witches, Vampires, Ghosts.. and you are in the middle of it.
What do you do?
Freak out? Storm the Magical Abnormalies with an Axe?
Call the Authorities to end this suffering of nature?
Try to slip out and flee for your life?
See if there is an option not to flip and end at the dolphin-sound-therapie from your local psychologist?
I will tell you what the maincharacter chose:
He sleep a night over it. And next morning he goes to do some morning sports with one of the cows.
Yes.. that is his reaction to the most important thing that you can ever imagine.

That leaves you with the constant, stall feeling of aliens beeing landed in your backyard asking for the world-leader and all you do is: "Later, I need to go to the tennis field today, making a good workout."

And that will not end. Saggy Naggy is more and more unstable, threatening even. And your character is like a fluffy puppy, saying "yes" and "thank you" to each and everyone.
Never questioning anything.
A soldier. Put him into a direction and say "walk". And he walks.. never asking why, how long, or how far.

I was killing Saggy Naggy as soon as the lunatic cow that replaces Lizzy gave me the opportunity to do so. But at this point I knew I will write a review (I rarely do), so to be fair I loaded a savegame and torture myself with the rest of the game.

Just to see that Saggy Naggy will make the idiot girl a Superhuman .. yes.. no joking.
Homer Simpson goes bloodhunger and superpowers.
Altering Memories, Control People, Make them your puppets, Bloodthirst.. why not give it to the Junkey-Girl that is to stupid to drive bus?
Good Plot. High credibility!

So.. did I miss something? Lets see... we have the F95 Trick with the DD+ Cups, we have the inconsistand writing that neither makes sense nor that anyone can follow it... ah yes. The renders of the girls are good. Unless it comes to the onglued extraboobs ofc.
But the rest...
The wall of the manor that is visible in every fourth screen looks like Doom 1 from my old Pentium I. And he didnt even arrange the texture. So the Corner part (white tiles) stand out in the middle of the wall.
Also some poses are very bad, other very repetetive.
But some... eating pizza for example. .. Wow.. that is realy hurting.


The game is what it is. Sadly it's not a game version of the TV-Show "True Blood". Its more "Supernatural". Endless talk about nonsense, a Plot
that makes no sense in wich the over-top predator of humankind is threatening you and you dont care.
Boobs of the size of a soccer ball everywhere,
textures from 2001 around every place,
these poses that should be reworked from scratch,
groan sounds rendered into the 20frame videos (so you need to
block the game from your sounddaemon to turn them off) and
every girl is a pornstar (no slow virgin build-up sex. Hardcore it is)

The only positive thing on the game is, that it is not japanized already. No tentacles, no girls that wink all the time, no ahegao, girls have natural Haircolors.

From my perspective: Please consider to rework the game and pay someone that will write the dialogues, plot and such.

Reviewing as of Ep 14.

This game has really gone downhill. As mentioned, the premise of this game is actually quite good. An engaging hook of an ordinary guy getting roped into working a job for a vampire in a remote location, living among a group of girls who are all rendered pretty well and on the surface look to have different motivations for being there (unfortunately we find out later that they're all quite milquetoast and seem to stay out of shallow uncommunicated obligation).

But past this initial hook, the game quickly collapses under the weight of its own expectations. The story doesn't really progress anywhere, character motivations are never really fully explored, and you're left with a supernatural setting that feels painfully empty and at times even dull.

Events in this game seem to happen purely out of hamfisted convenience. When you need a plot point moved, dial up Lemon. Clara is hungry apparently only when it's plot relevant. The MC is panicked or concerned only when the story needs him to be and is fine the very next scene. This all contributes to the sensation that the world is very on demand. It's remote and inaccessible only when it needs to be. It's busy exactly when it might matter. There's no strong atmosphere or tension because consequences seem to appear and disappear from one hour to the next.

Then, as the story progresses, it becomes more and more unraveled. There doesn't seem to be any clear direction to the plot. They introduce a nurse who seems superfluous at best or outright derailing at worst. A major character just ups and abandons you regardless of any action you take in the game. The author starts to run out of ideas and character progression completely stalls.

The more you read the more you are simply left with the question of, "Why?"

[Ep.14 Update]


I think the premise is pretty interesting. You, the MC, accept a job in a remote manor, who you later discover to be owned by a vampire. There you meet the vampire and her"students/adopted daughters", who end up being the romantic interests of the game.

I think most of the characters are likable and the renders aren't bad. Yes, they do follow similar tropes (pretty one, hard to get one, free spirited one, shy/smart one, older one), but its hard to make many different characters that won't nowadays. I think the branching works for both the player and dev (you don't have to grind every love interest and they don't have to program a difficult algorithm) I think the beginning of the story starts off strong. You're introduced to the setting, love interests, supporting characters (Lurch + Flings).

The game isn't an overall bad game, but it lacks direction.

The lack of character development before the sex makes it anticlimatic and not gratifying. Sex is important. I mean, its an adult game, but it should happen after you build up the relationship more. Common tropes nowadays can cause characters to seem bland and adding slight personalities to those tropes make them more human, which we tend to like more. She doesn't have to just be pretty, or shy or...... . Its the lack of background to the character that causes them to be just another conquest. Their lack of issues, goals, etc., their choices (or yours for that matter) don't really change the plot in any considerable difference, making them forgettable.

You didn't have to have just that direction either. You are introduced to a vampire path later on in the story but it's only barely branching into this path as the game is coming to a close. There could have been a vampire power struggle, families, other creatures, MC personality change, or whatever, but it becomes an update where the former Nurse becomes a vampire and is goofy and annoying with it. The introduction to these other vampires could have created some drama in the story but the "you can't disobey the mistress" prevents all of that. The lack of direction causes the game to have updates that give little to the overall story and development to its characters.

I also don't agree with the character replacement between Lizzie and Cora. Lizzie was a better character. Lizzie did like sex, but was not ashamed and did not care whether the MC thought she was easy. She also wanted to find a purpose to her life, which was new. Building on that could have served as a more interesting addition to the story, but its brushed off and she is then sent away. Cora basically likes sex, wants to be a vampire, and thinks vampires should have maids. I literally summed her up in a sentence. It's not bad to just like sex but when you make her into a larger character there's no substance to keep the viewer entertained. The lack of real care the mistress has for her "adopted daughter" makes their relationships seem more superficial and sidelines a character that you should have wanted to be interested in.

I rate it a 4 because I'm not a developer and developing a satisfying game takes a lot of effort and time. I do think the game was enjoyable. I wouldn't have rated it a 4, otherwise, but it just doesn't deserve a 5. It excels at being an adult game because it offers the sex that comes with them, but it lacks the adult aspects of reality and complexity to make you remember the experience or the game.