Ren'Py - The Haunting Nightmare [v0.3.2a] [Dofla Studio]

Early Review of Haunting Nightmare

I normally review with pros and cons but this game is far too shallow for that at the moment despite being 3 updates in.

Content is a breeze, you could finish this in 5 mins without minigames. As for lewd content there isn't much because 80% of the lewd scenes are basically you raping girls in their sleep.

The ones you can earn through the story are like 2-3.

It features a sandbox gameplay which you can opt out of the grind. So that's a plus but there's just far too little content to justify playing a grind.

Might change the rating in the future but right now its just an branching storyline with good and bad karma choices, majority of the lewd content is meaningless and unlocked through deplorable acts.

2/5

Good game , good girls ,

Some girls could use better hairstyles but they look fine overall and body wise...

Waiting for more updates would be nice for now since it doesn't progress the plot further right now , i guess dev is doing sex then plot follow script which is ok.

Story 4/5
Story is good, MC has some kind of mental issue that has a high chance of killing him, so goal is to become better in im guessing a good or an evil way, i only tried good but i guess its possible to do either route.
MC will have nightmare where he fights hes mental issue and he can get killed in the dream which kills him for real as well.

The writting needs a little improving, heres a hint for devs if they ever read this, "has and have" theres quite a few times where "has" should have been "have" insted, it just messes up my reading when the worng words are used, not the biggest deal but still a little annoying.

The fighting system is a bit boring, i mean its just rock,paper,sissors so it really dosent get more plain then that, it does have some card stuff as well but they dont really feel importen.

So far choices seems to matter, i havent seen any LIs being forced on you so thats great and it feels like you can clearly pick who you want to be with by either flirting or not with someone, hope this keeps up for the hole game.

It does have some sandbox as well but its very easy and pretty much a way to pick what you want to do twice a day, make money or talk with a LI and so on so very basic which i personaly like.

Girls 4/5
I liked most of the girls in this one, it might not have the best diversity in builds but im a big fan of it not being yet another big tit fetish game, finaly some that looks normal.

Animations 4/5
There arent really much yet but that stuff there looks good and above average, some nice tounge movements and face movements so its enjoyable to watch, its possible i missed some as well due to the way game is build.

Music 4/5
Diffrent kind of music to set the mood for diffrent scenes so it dosent get boring to thats good.

Choices 5/5
So far they work perfectly and your free to romance whoever you want to, well maybe except the lesbian but thats fine to, its still early days so alot can change but for now its perfect.

Content 3/5
There isent really that much content yet, its mostly just story and very few sex scenes, there is some with the exgirl friend but shes put in such a light that i wouldent want to be with her so i skipped her.
Game stops out of nowhere, even though there could be more content i mean when you get to the end of content you can pick workout, then miss out on real content like visiting your friends parrents house which holds real content, not sure if not going will make you miss it altogether? but it feels like game has more content but you will never be able to see it all unless you do multiple playthroughs and i just dont do that, i might try both good and evil route but only once, so im not really a fan of the way game is build up right now since i would rather be able to see all the content that are already in game in one playthrouhg.

v0.2.1a

The primary reason for 1 starless than 5 is that it is still in relatively early development. That said it is well done so far for the most part.
It has been successful in getting me to replay it to see alternatives as well, though the paths aren't deep enough to really get much out of them.

I *love* the unconscious kink stuff. I was disappointed that there was not more in some situations that it would suit. But what there is, is pretty good.

I will definitely return to this one when it is finished to see what fun our boy gets into, and how the endings differ etc.

Currently I don't recommend as it isn't done or overly satisfying just yet.

0.2.0a.

4 stars so far. Very promising game. Giving it 5 because I hate seeing people tanking reviews for dumb shit and/or unconstructed criticism.

Disclaimer: It's a light sandbox. Very few locations and not much to do yet but it's still a sandbox. If you are completely allergic to sandboxes don't play it. Otherwise, give it a go. The sandbox is very simple as of 0.2.0a. However I have one gripe with it but it's not directly related to sandboxes. See below.

The good:

There seems to be a morality/alignment system which dictates what path you on (loving/dark). It's still underdevloped but there is potential.
From what I experienced, darker content is optional which is always good for vanilla players.

There are very few good rapey/darker themed renpy VNs out there but this one left a very good impression and I can see it become a great game if the dev is consistent with it.

Renders are good. It's not among the best visuals I've seen but it's still enjoyable. Scenes are animated as well and it's good. Models are good too.

I found the story great personally and rather intriguing with the dream world or whatever it is. The writing is good as well.

The bad:

The game forces you to choose between events. Alignment and LIs specific paths divergencies are perfectly fine and coherent but I've never been a fan of gatekeeping events outside of it. For instance, during a given day, you get to choose to do A or B and the one you missed is gone forever. As of this game version, it's nothing too constraining but I'd hate it to see it evolve into mutually exclusive paths, like how Banking On Bella (which I globally love) is doing it.

0.2.0 was indeed bugged towards the end (90% of the content was bug free btw) with an infinite loop of errors but from what I gathered it has been corrected in 0.2.1a. Very few games come out completely bug free so it's totally fine in my book, as long as it gets patched fast enough.

That being said, the game is definitely worth a try. Good luck with it!

Good looking girls, but as of 0.2 it's a buggy mess. Most events just give me errors and I have to quit.

Translation or writing in general is just pretty poor quality anyway so I'd wait until it either gets polished or has a gallery unlocker further down the road.

Gonna describe it simple as possible.

-Dialogue 2/5
-Proofreading 0/5
-Characters 1/5
-Premise 3/5
-Story 2/5
-Renders 4/5
-Audio (muted it) null/5
-Sandbox (hated it) 0/5
-UI 4/5
Overall score 2,0/5 . Go next.

Great start here dev, 0.1.0 version already seems to have a nice plot and amazing renders with lots of choices, which shape the dialog and personality of the MC as well as the relationship with LIs. At time of this writing there are 9 characters, and I love the girls, especially Luna and Lanxin.

I am quite into the cardplay setting part, as it’s quite fun and distinct from other similar games. But I suppose the setting cannot cater to everyone. Making it entirely optional and allowing users to choose whether to turn it off would be a cool feature in the future.

Congrats! Keep it up looking forward to more!

Promising start. The demo has good amount of choices and different paths depending on them. There is a wide variety of LI the MC can choose from. The writing is good and the sex scenes are good as well. Overall a good start.