Ren'Py - Dying Dream [v0.7.0.1] [Skoegul]

It's one of the best renpy games I've ever played. It's fun and immersive, and has a unique structure. Abs that's interesting. The richness of the characters is perfect and also the development of the main character. The influence of the side characters are effective for hall the story. Very good with a wealth of options. I really like it.

Dying Dream is one of the rare nicely designed sandbox visual novels that actually works with players kept interested with story development and minimal grind. It has great potential although it's pretty short (6 - 7 hours playtime) for a game that has been in development for a while and labelled V0.7.01.

Story
MC died and got resurrected in an alternate world whereby his mission is to stop its destruction due in a year's time. There is a lot of talk about his peers, representatives of the seven sins and virtues, who also come from different worlds and how they might be involved, but as of now there is little revealed.

Instead, the bulk of the story so far is slice of life events surrounding school life, common material for an AVN, but kind of a let down considering the strong start initially.

Game Mechanic
DD has a very comprehensive game mechanics that blend tradition visual novel, mini games, sandbox and RPG growth attributes elements. Players can roam the sandbox and play mini games that will affect the skillsets and character attributes of MC.

These skillsets and attributes are either needed to complete certain quests and advance the mission, or can lead to additional scenes, items or money. Personally, I find the entire attributes system too convoluted, do we really need dozens of them in MC and his sidekick Alice like a full-fledged RPG?

Unlike many other setups, money is very critical in this game and not easy to come by. Grinding is by and large kept minimal, but there are a couple of quests which require excessive grinding that I recommend players to just mod and get on with it instead of spoiling the whole experience.

Background / Character Renders
Background is a combination of HS stock images and perhaps some custom renders that serve its purpose. Due to the free roaming nature of the game, the quantity of background maps is impressive although in most cases the quality of the renders are average.

Characters are standard HS2, but the number of potential LIs is massive and diverse - most players should be able to find something that appeals to them. Problem though is as at V0.7, most of them do not have any lewd scenes beyond teases.

Character Development
Because of the large number of characters and the free roaming nature, there is little room for character development - most are just touch and go to the point you struggle to remember who is who. The only two LIs that have some meaningful relationship building so far are Alice and Penelope.

Sex Scenes
There are many teasing scenes like MC sneaking around to take nude photos, touching LIs, rubbing, masturbating etc., but the number of full-fledged sex scenes is quite limited. I counted 5 - 6 of them currently including one dream sequence.

For what they are worth, the production values are top notch. Nice animations with passionate dialogue, sound effects and multiple angles. The scene with Penelope introduces new controls that are extensive and may be a blueprint for future updates.

BGM and Sound Effects
BGMs and sound effects are standard fare and do their job well.

Conclusion
Dying Dreams is a good example of how to implement a sandbox for a visual novel - there is moderate freedom to complete your quests, earn money, increase attributes without too much grind. The mini games also keep players engaged occasionally beyond just reading.

The sex scenes are good, there is certainly no shortage of LIs, but this comes at the cost of character development as there is little interaction between MC and most of them. The game's a little short for the time it has taken to develop, so I hope somehow production can speed up in the future.

I really wanted to love this game as I love the aesthetics of the game itself and how the sandbox is implemented but it's simply not enjoyable for me, gave up after unlocking the main sandbox part and the new events/explorations became available. Tried a few but I felt like everything I was reading was meaningless and had nothing to do with the plot.

I was expecting a VN sprinkled with some sandbox but this is a dnd/rpg game with character traits locking you out from certain actions, inventory system and rolling for stats behind the scenes in certain scenarios. I don't want to play a dnd/rpg game when I'm looking for AVN-s and this is maybe on me because I haven't researched the game well enough before playing.

After playing for 10-12 hours I've seen 2 H scenes and that's it, maybe I was about to unlock 5 more if I played for 2 more hours, I don't know, but it felt like I was making no progress about the main plot which is to f*ck as many girls as possible since MC's life is depending on it.

The render/dialogue ratio was also not to my liking, many times I was looking at 1 render and 2 minutes worth of dialogue later it was still the same render, also the game is quite verbose but it's not about world building, just unnecessary dialogue. The writing is good and I was interested for quite a while but later on I was not enjoying all the meaningless dialogue.

All in all it is a good game for someone who is looking for a big sandbox game with lots to do and lots to read. I recommend it for anyone who is looking for that, it's just not for me.

If at some point this game gets a VN mode or a real 'Story mode' I'll check it out, but right now it feels like a game and not a VN.

Good luck to the dev!

Well...i gotta say the sandbox isn't very bad, could be worse or maybe i'm just coping.

Anyway, the game still feels very empty even after 3 years (i just discovered it recently) and it lacks directions about what you supposed to do and all that, you don't know where it ends exactly and it's not clear how gallery works, i have no idea if i unlocked all gallery scenes or not because for some reason this is not clear at all.

Judging from the images posted here, i guess i still missed some scenes which is too much of a bother to go back and try to get them.

Another thing that i have a problem with is the stats mechanic, i spent time to increase the stats and there are still things that you can't do probably because you need for more content for story to continue, you have to meet certain stats requirements to choose certain decisions which you have to choose carefuly in order to increase your stats.

Except sometimes it's not told exactly how, basically it's a game that really requires a guide or a mod in order to show you the right decisions you need to make to increase your stats in such a way that you can unlock dialogue options.

Regarding the story and the characters, they are fine, except the MC which is pretty boring and it feels like a robot that lacks a personality, there's really nothing interesting about him except that he is a pervert.

You can mold him into whatever kind of person you want him to be like a good guy who helps people or a bad guy who exploits people for his own interest, but it still feels like he lacks personality, it doesn't seem to change anything regarding his person.

At least all the other characters have enough personality to make up for it instead.

The models are again fine too, nothing special, and the best part about the game i guess are the animations which are really good.

Overall the game could be much more, but at this point it still feels very clueless and you just point your mouse around hoping for something to happen while you have to be careful what choices you make because your stats depend on it.

The game needs much more directions like i said, it needs some improving regarding this area, don't make players waste their time wondering around places and countless of choices to get what they want.

Good stuff! Love the concept and gameplay, a bit grindy but oh well, at least the whole thing looks good and it's a good game overall. I hope the dev will focus on the lewd contents more for the next update. I really love that lewd scene with Paige, I actually feel in control and it's so satisfying.

I'm bookmarking this and look forward to the developments

Finished new upd. (0.7.0.1) It is 3/5. Filler-tier. Dev, if you ever read this, please less features, skillleveling, items, "sandbox" and other mechanical grind shit. There is no need to invent another D&D "porn edition" again. If i want grind leveling, items, skills and sandbox i will download asian gacha. Invest more into story, plox, dude.

You got fine idea and setting (+3 score from me, it is pretty generic, but i do love this stuff) , more than enough mechanical features (-2 already for this, you are becoming really annoying here. Throw into window inventory with all items, and get rid of fighting. Renpy/HS not made for this, stop raping it. Just make proper scenes, like you did in bank robbery), overall decent visuals (+1, passable) and adult content (+1, passable), you need more novel in this VN.

Develop plot more. I appreciate your work. Thank you.

Its a good game, its 4/5 because the h-content is pretty light.
Likeable enough mc and sidekick, mostly non-grindy progression (the ones saying its not grindy at all are lying; it decides to introduce grind late into the game for some reason, instantly dropping the quality of the game), very few repeat scenes.
MC is mostly a consistent character, veering more evil or not depending on your actions. Only 1 encounter, in a bank, felt completely OOC for my guy, who was purely nice, yet molested a woman completely without my input, only asking if I wanted to outright rape her. That's it. In every other encounter he was nice.

Can be annoying to tell where to go to actuall progress, since your quest log is mostly full of "To be added sorry" notes and doesn't tell you where to go to even start quests to begin with.
Would be better if the menu had an "!" or something on areas with quests, because sometimes you'll visit an area like 5 times for one and see no progress because its purely rng, but you still get the "wasted day" message as if there's nothing there.
Quite a lot of encounters are also locked behind completely unrelated tasks that aren't worth doing otherwise, like being a janitor, which pays like ass yet is how you access the training area.
As noted, quality takes something of a nosedive later on, when you get the option to train. You need to spam repeat the same talks with the same guy over and over again to gain str, spam talk to with another guy to train fighting and spam a third task in the morning to train agility. Absolutely no indication is given to if you've grinded enough or not.
You need to make multiple purchases during this time, but I never found a good way to make consistent cash. He can apparently somehow sell lewds for that but
A: Didn't figure out how
B: I'm playing a nice guy
Janitor work pays like actual garbage. This matters since you have multiple money drains simutaniously active.
The training is to get rid of one of those drains btw. Except you beat up the guy, then his buddy just... beats you up anyways. Seemingly regardless of stats.
Why introduce this tedious effectively 4 part (including the cash) grind if the results are me losing anyways? Made me drop the game.
Was fun until the gym was introduced.

This game is really great. Now, what makes it great? It certainly doesn't come around the corner with any super innovative new ideas However, it takes the established "Sandbox AVN" genre and simply perfects it in all ways. Let me elaborate:

1. There more or less 0 grind in this game. No repeating scenes to get some affection stats higher.
2. The game uses a trait system well for once! I actually feels like all my small decisions leave a meaningful impact. You also have a fun little skill system
3. The story, again, is nothing groundbreaking, but serves well for what it is.
4. Many hot girls with different personalities
5. The larger quests are amazing. They give you a free roam environment where you get to know all avenues and solve small puzzles. They feel like amazing intermissions in between.
6. The UI is clean, no complaints.
7. (One) longer, interactive sex scene

In summary, I feel this game takes the best of sandbox and VN and puts it together: no grind while preserving the "I'm doing something" feel of sandbox.

To the dev: kudos, please keep going!

Warning, long review, TLDR at the end:
Intro:
I had a 50/50 whether I was going to try this game as the reviews were a bit up and down. However, I decided to give it a chance and soon discovered that I had in fact given the game a chance before but gave up around the time of the 1 month exam. I was close to doing the same thing this time, as I worried the MC would be a classic MC with potential to grow, but then he just never does and you are stuck as a MC that simply isn't fun to play as.

MC:
However, this time I decided to stick with the game, and I'm so glad I did. I don't know how it would be if I picked different dialogue options and focused on other traits and skills, but by the end of the game my MC was a really enjoyable character to play as, and I really enjoyed his character development.

Gameplay:
Similarly, once the game opened up and you could choose what to do each day. I really enjoyed the gameplay loop of choosing which quests to focus on. I found the bank section and fishing competition immensely enjoyable.

Character arcs / writing:
The character writing, at least with Penelope that is the most developed for now, I found very satisfying and enjoyable. I was iffy about her when she was first introduced, but by the end of her route I really liked her and wanted her and the MC to spend more time together.

H scenes:
Furthermore, the H scene at the end of Penelope's route was one of the best H scenes i've played in a long time. I really enjoyed the H scene minigame of increasing the LI's arousal, and the scene was really hot and suprisingly showed a dominating side from the MC (at least in my playthrough) I didn't except him to have at the start of the game.

Character designs:
It's very rare that a game has this many characters that all consistently look amazing. The game keeps introducing so many great looking LI's with great setups for a potential full character arc similar to what Penelope already has. I am extremly excited for them all to have a minigame H scene eventually.

Development time / worries:
However, that is also the only thing that worries me about the game, there are so many characters introduced where if I never finish their arc I will feel unsatisfied, but given that it's taken at least 1 year of active development to finish the arc of just one character, I am worried that a lot of the great potential LI's will be abandoned, have rushed arcs or the game itself will be put on hold.

Best wishes:
I choose to believe that the systems implemented in the game took a lot of the time, and eventually the development of the plot and character arcs will go much faster, and that the developer can prove my worries unfounded. I really hope so, if the game finishes all the LI's introduced this far with the same quality as Penelope it will be way up there among my favorite games.

Conclusion sfx / current content:
Finally, I really enjoy the use of sfx, especially the moaning during H scenes. It adds a lot. Love the the moaning has it's own volume slider. If the game never get's finished it's still a 5/5 game for me with hours of great content. Several great H scenes especially the one that feels more fleshed out with Penelope. It's a lot of fun. Hope it get's finished though, and makes it's way as a top contender for my personal favorites.

TLDR:
great writing, good usage of sfx and music, fun sandbox gameplay, great H scenes, mc with actual character development, hours of content, and a lot of character arcs that are started and have potential for the game to become something truly special.

This game really breaks the mold when it comes to what you expect from a Ren'Py game.

I don't know how strongly different choices actually affect outcomes later in the game because I've only done one playthrough and only explored different paths through certain quests briefly. So, what I can say for certain is that your choices have extremely different immediate consequences, and the game at the very least gives you a convincing illusion of long time consequences.

The minigames are nothing groundbreaking, but I think they're appropriately designed for each situation and well balanced.

Quests often take the form of area exploration, where you need to solve various problems in a locale to get items, information or resources and use them to solve problems or puzzles, and sometimes you have to make choices between using them for immediate rewards, possible long time rewards, or sex (which is basically a way to gain more powers in the long run.)

It also offers a surprisingly meaningful stat and skill system. Your choices can make you "proficient" in various social skills, giving you bonuses to dialog checks. You also have stats like knowledge, fame, and a couple others that also offer you certain dialog options. Lastly, at one point you gain other skills that have (non-renewable?) point costs. These are either one time use for a new passive benefit, or specific boosts that last for one day or one interaction.

I can't emphasize this enough, your choices really feel important. I think the game will throw you a lot of lifelines so you don't end up in a failstate. I'm not even sure if it will let you fail at all. But so far I haven't been at a point where it forced me to take an opportunity if I didn't want to.

I don't want to hype this game up too much, but at some point I almost felt like this was made by an ex Larian Employee or something. Yeah, good job me not hyping this up.

Goddamn...

Do you know how rare it is to have a GOOD sandbox AVN?

This is one of them. The user interface is great and gets even better once you complete the first collection of quests. It never wastes your time and each task has story moments that really add to the experience.

That is so fucking rare for a sandbox AVN.

There are fun little game elements that add to the sandbox game and it's GOOD. There's some minigames, character perks, etc that make your choices a little more meaningful too.

The story is really good as well, especially after you complete first and and is really worth the read to learn more about the MC and the Isekai world it takes place in. There's magic and it's fun. The ladies are interesting, especially the genius character that suddenly appears.

The renders and animations are a bit rough at first, but they also improve over the course of the game.

9.5/10

I hate sandbox but this game make it enjoyable. Story is cliche but well executed. (i really enjoyed bank robbery and fishermen arc.)
Dialogs are not fill with boring text but engaging and entertaining.
Music and sound done well.
Art is good. I love Honey select 1,2 art when its done right. And author is done well.
Ui and game menu really nice and clean. Skill and dice mechanic is enjoyable.

Overall is very engaging and entertaining game.

Hey Skosha ! First of all I have to say, It takes alot of time to finish yer game, i even thought I will gonna finish yer game in 2 or 3 days but again I thought nah let's finish this today, now I finally finish yer game.
Ok, now back to point.
1st thing about yer game is sandbox mod, tbh I fcuking hate sandbox mod, but, but, but, I think, I think sandbox totally suit yer game I mean if we play in VN mod, then we're gonna miss lots of interesting minigames, well we can still play minigames in VN MOD but it's suit much better in sandbox, so sandbox is one of the thing I like about yer game.
2nd thing is MC, man we can totally change MC however we want this is really good, but still we can't be always a kind guy, sometimes ya have to become little bit of perv and a little bit of jerk, if not then you will gonna make MC a weak-ass.
3rd thing and this is the most interesting thing I found about this game, lots of NPCs not some black shadow but a real character even in backgrounds I saw alot of NPCs and side characters, about this i have to give that ya really put alot of effort and I really like it.
That's all I have to say, you said yourself that it's a harem game then please add a harem tag, because of this you're gonna miss lots of players, well I hope in next update we'll gonna see Joe in some action, he always beat up by this dude, Tylor? I think.
Okay that's all I have to say good luck with yer game.❤❤

This is one of the few games that are sandbox and at the same time fun, interesting and at the same time you are encouraged to explore it without getting bored, the story is a 10/10, I hope you don't give up and leave the project and that you can move forward.

I posted the same thing in discussion section but pretty sure new people usually check reviews first. Also the review is long so sorry in advance lol.

The game is fun storywise the aspect of being in new world and transforming mc from a loser to a confident chad is really satisfying.
The characters are also interesting but I seriously hope the dev doesn't cluster it too much unless he can insure that the story that he is weaving can handle the weight.

There have not been any really super original or groundbreaking story aspects and has bit of generic energy at FIRST like any other games with kinda similar plot,

But as I kept on playing, I got hooked on this and enjoyed a lot with how the mysterious the world is the other sins, Alice the best partner and the landlord lady the best villan lol, I must say the Penny or Paige is seriously the best character in it with dynamic personality, I thought she was going to be super annoying but as the story progressed I am super hooked on her, and glad the dev decided to follow up on her story.

I really like the skill thing that the dev did clearly inspired by the slime anime. Hopefully there will be a guide to how to unlock different skill in future. The gameplay is also cool and the interactive aspect of it is not annoying like generic sandbox types (I skipped the mini games so no comments on it lol, glad the game has an option to turn it off).

BUT I SERIOUSLY DON'T LIKE THE DICE THING. Only way to get good result is to save at the quest menu and try it bunch of times. Please make is so that backing the game a bit resets the variables and not when on the quest menu.(Or just get rid of it lol).

I really don't understand to why the dev decided to put it on hiatus, it is a really good game and could have been more popular. Hopefully this time it goes better.

ALSO PLEASE DEV LET US LEARN FIGHTING IN THE NEXT UPDATE I SERIOUSLY WANT TO FUCKING PUNCH THOSE ASSHOLES TO OBLIVION also those thugs in the latest update. Please . Best of luck man really looking forward to it.

This game is great. The renders are good, you have choices that actually matter. The game might not be the most original or groundbreaking but it's really fucking fun. Really excited for future updates!

Reviewing v0.5.3

Short Version: Clichè plot but done it good, unexpectedly pleasant characters, graphic a bit above basic HoneySelect 1 but still overall good, the dice-stuff is not random but not a major problem.

The Good

- Even in an isekai context, MC feels like a real person, ups and downs, the personality-system (Cruel/Benevolent/Smartass/etc.) is a good way to enhance MC's personality while keeping in mind the player's choices.
- The overall plot is a bit clichè but written in a way that is pleasant, god knows how many times we got the "embodiments of a sin fight each other and possibly the embodiments of Virtues" plot, and how many times i got disappointed, is not original but it's a good remake of such concept, not perfect but excellently written
- You can hate a character at the beginning to love it later, and this is fantastic when it's done the right way(see Paige/Penelope)

The Annoying

- The graphic is very hit or miss, it's honeyselect1 which i prefer more often than not, but the colors are often faded like they spent lots of time in the sun while washed with too much bleach. Even characters humble and down to earth like Chisa wear makeup and lipstick, nothing against it but it doesn't fit her, nor it fits the color of her makeup.
- The rolling dices mechanic is scripted, no luck, no chances, if you fail a roll, just accept that it's meant to be like that, i even tried by cheating and save editing, nope, the failed rolls are meant to fail.

The Bad

- The amount of content is abysmal for the time this game has been on development(or at least in this website), first release on f95 is dated September 11th 2021...3 year of development for this little amount of content? It's just sad.

Conclusion

- Despite the things i find annoying and bad, this game has a great unexpressed potential for being at least in the top60 best VNs on this website, which considering the amount of VNs, it would be an amazing achievement.

Story 2/5
Game had some potential, story isent bad even though the plot is the same shit you have seen a million times over by now, my issue is the lack of diversity in builds and the lack of choices which game talks so highly about which is also why it came to my supprise that it forces LIs on you which means no choices...and to make it worse the first girl your forced to sleep with is a whore who just uses sex as a tool couldent really be more of a turn-off, MC is even a virgin and thats who he would pick as hes first? one that is mostly doing it as part of a job and who barely likes him..... it just makes him an even bigger loser and again i hate that theres no choice in it.

MC dies and turns into a spirit and make a deal with the a god/devil/demon or whatever it is, where MC will get a new body in a new world which he has to protect, as for the plot MC needs to grow stronger and the way he gets stronger is supprise supprise...by fucking girls...it really is a overused plot so its a bit boring, MC needs to fuck atleast one girl a month and it has to be a diffrent one each time, problem is theres nowhere near 12 girls i would even want to touch in this game, its made for people with big tit fetish which i personaly hate so that really hurts the game.

And with forced LIs its just one turn-off after the other when your forced to fuck some big tittet bimbo and arent into that shit and you cant skip scenes either, dont think ive seen any smols, maybe a few with more normal sizes but not many, so far i think MC can fuck 3 girls all ugly bimbos with big tits where 2 of those are forced LIs, not sure about the last one.

MC is a whimp who gets hes ass kicked over and over all pretty standard stuff which you have seen many times and girls still fall in love with him.
Cant say for sure if main girls are forced or not since theres only really a single one in game with any content, i did pick the worst choices doing the 3 dates with her but after the last date you can choose to save her or not and if you dont its end of content and if you do you fuck her.

When you read about the game on the front page it says stuff like
"Choose your own path " or "20 girls to choose from" note the word choose..
then it says "The game is designed in such a way that you will not miss a single scene" which could mean everything is forced on you just like the first girl MC loses hes virginity to and it does seem like there is no choice and it feels like a mindless fuckfest game, i say that since 2 girls has already been forced on you where MC fucks them, first the catgirl then a random girl sleeping outside school.

Doing the game the catgirl ask what you want and the choices is "true love one girl" or "harem with those you select" or "fuck everyone" again choice means nothing at all and giving a choice to say true love after forceing a girl on you seems a bit idiotic, pick any choice you like but only the fuck everyone seems to be true or it wouldent have forced LIs.

And at another time it ask you what you want with a girl where choices are slave, friend or lover, again no clue if choice means anything, i picked friend and MC says she can still be hes lover? so yeah... oh and MC is also sterile making it even less fun.


I did like the RPG aspect having to pick skills and having the catgirl do stuff as well, but its to little when theres so much that drags it down and its not really a part of the game yet either.

Girls 2/5
I do not have a big tit fetish and that seems to be the main focus for the girls so it loses alot of points on that, faces looks cute and unique atleast and they have diffrent personalities which is nice, but there needs to be alot better diversity in builds and not just focus on a single fetish, i counted around 8 girls already with big or huge tits and maybe 3-4 normal and 0 smols maybe teacher has small ones not sure.

Animations 4/5
This is harder to rate, the animation at the end of current version with Penelope is really good and fun due to all the interactions you have in it, but all of the others which arent many are more average.

Music 3/5
Its pretty standard background music, but it does change for diffrent scenes so it dosent get annoying or boring.

Choices 2/5
Some probely matters but 90% means noting, and trow in a few fake choices wont help either, like ask for water in the bar and you get told to pick someting else since alot of the story is kinetic and game needs you drunk, so its better to not add choices if they dont matter.

Short Summary:
Good: Well writting, Good sandbox, Animations, RPG/Skills system.

Bad: Forced LIs. Main focus big tit fetish so poor diversity in builds. Missing rape tag. Whimp/pervert MC, lack of choices and fake choices. Overused plot and still to little content, story has barely even started and its been about 2½ years in the makings now and very few H-scenes.

Game could have been a 4 maybe even 5 star game but it would take alot of improvements, most importen things would be no forced LIs and alot better diversity in builds would go along way.

this is hardly a game at this point. srsly there are hundreds of games that "look promising" but which of these really deliver? under 1%. Not worth playing at all at this point. There is still a huge amount of work that needs to be done here and i doubt it will be in the near future.
Conclusion:
setting is nice and writing good
hardly any H

(Version v0.4)
A small review as encouragement. And a good one because this game is very promising.

Story is pretty interesting and shows some potential for the future.

There are numerous and interesting Characters to meet and their design are varied and realistic, which is a good point.

Gameplay is fun, if you like sandbox as I do. As only the prologue is available currently, there's not so much to do but I'm confident this will improve later.

Graphics are average and lightening is irregular, but the dev already knows it and, as I am writing this review, is remaking the game with improved rendering so that's why I do not take it into account in my current review.

Keep it up dev! That's a very good start!