When The Night Comes -- No Spoiler Review
When The Night Comes
System: PC
Price: $12.99
Voice Acting: Partial (English)
ESRB Rating: Not Rated, Reviewer Suggests M (17+)
Overall Rating: Stole 7.5/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: Monster hunter MC that falls in love with some supernatural spookies. There’s upgraded voice acting with this re-release, and a poly route, so I’m looking forward to how adult and inclusive this gets.
Morning-After Reflection: An interesting story with much more depth of its characters than was available to be put into the game. The concept was solid, but the execution was a bit messy. A good blend of action and romance, even if parts felt a bit repetitive.
Story: “Play as a renowned Hunter; a creature slayer who has been called to the quiet, strange little town of Lunaris to assist the local Enforcers with an investigation into a series of unsettling and unexplained supernatural murders.
Immerse yourself in the world of witches, vampires, demons, and Lycans as you slowly unravel the dark mystery that lies deep within the roots of the town.
The question is, are the creatures of the night the ones you should really be afraid of? You might even fall in forbidden love along the way.”
Interest Rating: 4/10. I’m really not big on the supernatural, and everytime there’s a vampire game I sigh and wonder why we can’t just forever date anything but vampires. I’ll admit, the Hunter part interested me; a game that slides towards horror catches my attention. But I still slept on this one for a long while until the ReVamp (oh ho ho, vampire humor…) version came out with partial voice acting.
MC: Oh me, oh my, my first game with a non-binary option available for the MC! There is, of course, the standard binary as well, and at the beginning of the game you choose “She/Her”, “He/His”, or “They/Them”, and I just had to check out this NB MC. You also select a name, first and last, with no default available. MC is never seen, on screen or in CGs. MC has no voice acting, which makes sense since you can play male, female, or NB. And although I enjoyed how ambiguous the MC is so anyone can insert any character, it also leaves me with not much to say in this part of the review. Honestly, the pronouns came up maybe three times total in a single route. I can understand that, and I think it was written well so that you’re never taken out of the moment by being referred to as a gender that you’re not. Perhaps this is the reason I liked the MC so much.
MC was the right amount of playful and serious for me. When I got the first option to flirt with my boss, I enjoyed that the MC went for it with no hesitation. Or you could pick the serious/professional response and not insert any romance at all for that moment. The story flowed well no matter what option you chose, imo, except for a few parts that I’ll get into later because they are not MC related. I thought that the MC was written in such a way that although they had a clearly set general tone and demeanor, they felt highly customizable for whatever type of MC you want to play. I didn’t ever get whiplash from picking an answer that was then overridden by a predetermined personality after two lines like I have in other games that will not be named. Maybe it just works for me, and maybe it wouldn’t work for someone who needs more to go on to enjoy the story since all physical traits are completely left out of the game. It certainly isn’t written for the “observer” type of reader since everything is first person.
Likability Rating: Shu. Truly, the best written blank MC I’ve ever played. You’re given enough internal monologue to determine what MC is feeling, but I never felt steered towards an answer that I didn’t want to give.
Plot: The plot of When The Night Comes is pretty straightforward, written perhaps a little too straightforward because the game uses the tactic of keeping information from the reader as a means of creating “mystery”. It was obviously not just a written choice to keep the plot concealed, but also a character choice inside the game since the MC grumbles to themselves about how everyone in the town is keeping secrets and they’re sick and tired of people not giving them information that is necessary to do their job of hunting down the thing that is killing people. Eventually it is revealed why, but it felt like such a ridiculous reason that it didn’t come near assuaging the frustration I felt for having so many parts of the story go, “Hey, I know something! But I won’t tell you… because!” as if that worked for an answer at all. Having said that, let me let you in on what the plot of When The Night Comes is about, that way I’m not just telling you it’s there but not what it is… because!
As a Hunter - which is not just a title and profession, but almost a birthright like Witchers from the Witcher series - you are called to Lunaris to investigate a string of murders. You hunt and kill monsters that harm society. Pretty cool, right? I thought so. Once you meet all the important people, you then get down to business trying to find what monster is killing people and all the while adding in some romance along the way– or not if you don’t want to! The game allows for a non-romantic route that isn’t a bad end. That’s really it. The main game is one story, and even when you select which route you want to take, it’s still largely the same story with only the romance portions being different. Whichever character you decide to keep close by ends up being your buddy cop during the big climax, but the climax is exactly the same save for who is there. This isn’t a terrible idea, imo, but it does lend itself to being less replayable because you’ve already played the story. You’re just having the same conversations with a different LI and that can get kind of boring for me.
I’ve played another game like this, and I wasn’t impressed at all with it, but that’s because the story felt so generic that changing out the love interest didn’t seem to make any significant difference. In When The Night Comes, at least the game is written to put your love interest choice as the supporting character for most of the game. It’s the little things, like during a scene when you’re walking back to your room, you encounter your LI on the way and have a personalized conversation. It felt like every LI could be the true route, and that everyone was given as much attention as everyone else. But I still didn’t replay the game 6+ times just to have those sweet and spicy moments for each LI.
Replayability Rating: ★★☆☆☆ I don’t think a linear storyline is for me. With no additional information in each “route” I quickly got bored of all the skipping needed to get to the new scenes dedicated to the LI of my choice for that route. The payoff just wasn’t worth the effort for me.
Love Interests: We’ve got some interesting love interests for you today with vampires, demons, and wolves! Oh my! When The Night Comes not only boasts a cast of all supernatural beings (counting witches and Hunters as supernatural), but it also has a female love interest, a non-binary love interest, and two poly routes from the six LIs provided in this game. If you want to date your boss, you can do that! If you want to date the monsters that you have hunted, that’s totally up for grabs! And what drew me most to this game is the option for a realistically portrayed poly route that isn’t just a harem route with a bunch of “what if”s. No, you definitely get down and dirty with your boy toys if that’s your thing.
In total, there are nine routes you can choose from. That’s 6 LI routes, 2 poly routes, and one non-romantic route, and all of them are valid and no less full than any other. I really appreciated that. There is a bad ending for the game, or multiple bad ends I suppose depending if you count each route coming to the same conclusion but with some different events based on the LI you chose as different endings. So beware of the bads. There is no route order seeing as how nothing is spoiled or revealed in any other route that you wouldn’t get from another. However, there are some scenes that transition better with some LIs than others, but overall it does an okay job of making everyone fit where they’re supposed to go. So, in lieu of no route order, I’m just going to introduce the LIs in the order you meet them, making a note of which are available for the poly routes.
That brings the soft-spoken Ezra to the front of the group. You meet Ezra on your first night in the town, and he is everything he appears to be. There is no hidden agenda with this witch. He instantly offers you some tea and tells you to chill for a while. It’s been a journey, so why wouldn’t you accept the kindness of a stranger? And he is kind. Probably too kind. The kindest. He kind of takes on the role as the go-to for everything you could want, except a murder machine, because he’s entirely too kind for that. Not that he couldn’t, there are just better options if you want someone dead than the guy that heals the wounded and takes in orphans. He’s very much like his shop in that he collects the interesting - both magic items and people.
Romance notes: Ezra is more subby than other LIs. If you want to take charge, choose this pretty man. My kind of romance. Ezra is also available for a poly route with Finn, choosing either of their routes will eventually allow you to unlock the poly option during the route you’re on. Or reject it with no hurt feelings. The choice is yours.
Speaking of doing things with kind witches and the interesting people they collect, Finn is the second LI you meet. He–uh… he makes an impression. This golden-eyed vampire that has to be centuries old is way more human than you might expect. I don’t know what I expected, to be honest, but Finn wasn’t anything at all like I thought he’d be. He’s funny, he’s considerate, he’s passionate, he’s very much a man that lives on the edge of the human world and seems to want to be part of it, knowing he can’t any longer. He’s full of sad, but never really sad. For a guy that has been dead for several hundred years, he has a lot to offer a young(ish) hunter like the MC. One of those things is incredible support in any way he can, even if he isn’t your LI for that route.
Romance notes: Finn is a vampire and so there is bloodplay, or at least biting in his route. Finn is available for a poly route with Ezra. Picking either Ezra or Finn will give you an option to pursue a joint relationship further down their route, or not if you’re not interested in sharing your manicpixieman– scratch that, Finn’s too rock solid to be a raver. My kind of romance.
Are you like me and enjoy romancing the taboo? I mean, dating a vampire is pretty taboo in When The Night Comes since you have probably killed vampires and all that, but I mean the more mundane taboo… is that a thing? What I’m trying to get at is: Do you want to date your boss? I do. I will always choose to date my boss. You can do that with Augustus. August is non-binary and goes by they/them, and also dropped the “us” part of their name at some point - probably some unresolved trauma there… August puts up a demanding and dismissive front upon first meeting, but you’ll soon find out that they’re just love-starved. And I love love-starved characters. I cannot get enough of needy, clingy, vulnerable, emotional vampires– but not real vampires, just ones that feed off your feelings.
I picked August first for a variety of reasons, but mainly because when I got to throw down that first really flirty line about doing amazing things together, they responded with interest and then made sure to remind you to call them General no matter what sort of “things” you get into. Yes, General! Whatever you say, General! I’m all yours, General! It’s the power dynamic that I love, I know, but August is pretty interesting to me as well.
Romance notes: August has a softness that usually isn’t seen with the “boss” type LIs, which lends them to being a good partner, imo. They are not the aggressor, nor are they passive in any of the sexytimes, it feels very balanced with them as a lover. My kind of romance.
And then there was Piper, who comes in like a storm and is an incredibly unbridled woman that I thoroughly enjoyed getting cozy with. Piper is the female LI in this game, and she is just like the MC in the fact that they are both Hunters. She starts off swinging, but is easily redirected if you know how to take all that power and aggression that she has just waiting to be used for some fun, and frightening times since this is a murder mystery and all of that. I found Piper to be a very compelling character since she exists outside of making any other LI look better, which is usually what female characters in games are regulated to. A low bar to pass, I know, but it’s the truth. Piper says what she is thinking. She acts on what she is feeling. And she thinks and feels a lot and I never tired of hearing her thoughts or seeing where her feelings would take us while I was on her route or on someone else’s.
Romance notes: Piper tends to take charge in the relationship. Even if MC was considering doing the thing, Piper usually ends up suggesting it, or taking over in the middle of the act. She’s fiery and rough around the edges, but also so very, very soft.
Alkar is the resident tsundere character of the pack, though he doesn’t consider himself part of the pack at all. In fact, he kind of hangs out on the fringes of every route and only really gets involved with the MC and Omen (the last LI to be introduced). He swears a lot, and I guess that’s cool; as someone who also swears a lot I know that it has absolutely no bearing on one's intelligence. But he also likes to spin things up, and I’m not into the bad boys that are assholes just because they can be. This was a tsundere that I didn’t care to pursue, so I’m sorry, but I don’t know what kind of romance this half-werewolf would give you. I assume a very aggressive dom who probably makes some “alpha” jokes. He does seem to like to joke.
Romance notes: Able to pursue a poly route with him and Omen by choosing either of their routes and getting an option later to include the third party. Or not! Your choice and neither is going to complain.
Lastly we have Omen, who isn’t sure if he’s a good omen or a bad omen, but I’m going to say from my time with him that he’s good. He’s a soft-spoken demon that illusions himself as a humanoid, and when he gets emotional he catches fire. No, seriously. You heard about people burning up from embarrassment? Omen will literally burn up. It. Is. The. Best. He doesn’t understand humans or humanity all that well, and is basically a puppy that needs to be constantly watched over, and I think there’s something really cute about him being hopeless and helpless in almost everything. I didn’t manage to get around to dating Omen, because the game is linear so I didn’t spend the time working my way through every character when ¾ of the story is the same. Which is unfortunate for Omen because I would have set his world ablaze. Probably.
Romance notes: Able to pursue a poly route with him and Alkar by choosing either of their routes and getting an option later to include the third party. Or not! No one is going to make a fuss about it. I’m guessing that Omen is an adorable, shyboi in intimate moments. He seems that way to me.
Boy Lover Crazy Rating: 82%. They’re a great group of gentlefolk that know how to romance like no tomorrow, but not enticing enough to keep me replaying to get all of them in the sack. Someday I might come back for those I didn’t date, but I doubt that will be anytime soon.
Romance: Have you ever played a game where the romance feels 100% natural and you’re not left wondering why they got together when they have nothing in common? I’m not sure I have either, until this game. So, obviously I didn’t romance everyone, and perhaps the romance was weird in other routes, but for the ones I did it was very nice. The writer uses a lot of descriptive words to evoke feelings from the reader, giving a taste of not just some cute and sweet moments, but a scene you can feel and even taste at times. …That sounds kind of lewd, but the romance descriptions are so spot on that I felt they were the highlight of the game.
The really cool thing about When The Night Comes is that you get to choose when to be romantic and when not to be. Every choice is marked with a ♥ to indicate it could get sensual, and even notes when teh secks is about to happen if you choose that option. There’s also a choice to have no romance at all, which isn’t my thing, but I think is an amazing feature for those sex-repulsed and/or aromantic people out there. When The Night Comes has so many inclusionary options available that I seriously wish they were standard across the board for all VNs.
If I had one complaint, it was that the choices for leading into any romance were pretty much the same every time. You could either kiss your LI (♥) or embrace them (with few other options at times), but a kiss was always the indicator for romance and I think that’s a rather shallow way of considering romance. I, of course, picked every romance option, and enjoyed the response, but sometimes I wanted to be sexier with some of these sexy peeps. Maybe an ear nibble? A neck nuzzle? There’s so much more than just kissing and making out.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A-. When The Night Comes asks if you want romance and then delivers on the romance. The romance and relationship are not overshadowed by the plot, nor is the plot forgotten for some kissing time. Get your love on while hunting monsters.
Spice: When The Night Comes is as spicy as you want it to be. Well, it isn’t AO content, but it still offers a burning sensation when you fan the flames with your choices. The voice acting only makes it that much hotter, imo. As I mentioned in the Romance section, you determine when you want to do the tongue tango and even the horizontal mambo. This can lead to some very hot scenes in, say… your boss’ office, or the middle of the woods, and of course there is a fade to black sex scene, or two, or three… Your choice! They’re rather short in execution, and I suppose that’s because they can’t be detailed because of the writing that would have to be included for each pronoun choice to work. But that was fine with me. There are some rather sexy CGs and bare torsos, but no genitals are shown, or female nips. There are male nips! I found the lack of Piper’s boobs a nice inclusion in the game since I get rather tired of boobs being considered okay to show and never bare ass or peens. I’m in these games for the D, and though I liked Piper, I feel they did her a service by not having her bare her breasts.
Cold Shower Rating: Pass. These LIs are hot to trot, and some of them will make you burn up in more ways than one. Cool yourself down with a cold shower. No smut, but things get steamy.
Angst: This one is a hard one to measure in some games. Have I said that before? :makes note to look over all previous reviews to see if I’m just regurgitating the same faux problems: But really, there’s The Angst games, like Nightshade and Hakuoki, where even good ends feel like they have a hollow happiness; and there are angst games where there’s a lot of drama and feels, you know, tragic backstories and emo characters and the usual. Both are angsty, but one makes it the forefront of the game while the other leaves it in the background as a reason for characters and development. When The Night Comes falls more into the second category.
The game has drama, and can get suspenseful, but it isn’t something I’d consider really angsty. Yes, it is a murder mystery, but I’m not sure suspense really qualifies as angst. Or does it and I’ve been looking as angst as only tragedy and thus skewing every review I write? Well, let me lay it out for you. Most of the characters have some sort of slightly dramatic or tragic past. The game is about grizzly murders and a town afraid of its own citizens, though that doesn’t get brought up all that often so it kind of feels superficial to me. There’s a lot of emphasis on found family and having no one who you can count on in your life, both with the MC and all the LIs. There is also combat and the tried and true Daddy Issues thrown in for good measure. Overall, more of a middling angsty game.
Drama Llama Rating: 6/10. For a game about monsters and murders, the angst doesn’t deliver. The drama llama is moody, but that’s about it. Watch for biting and spitting, but otherwise this temperamental beast is just barely too angsty for public interaction.
Voice Acting: This was my first English-voiced game in the romance department. The First! I was simultaneously excited and apprehensive. I’ve heard so many people talk about how fully understanding a language can make the romantic lines and scenes way too cringey, and while I’m learning Japanese, I’m far from fluent or even understanding 50% of what is said, so I had to just nod and accept what native (or bilingual) speakers say about how embarrassing those lines are. But here we are! Partial voice acting in an OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) and I was ready to get wet– I mean my feet wet. Come on, guys, get it together.
So, how was it? I think the voice acting was probably the second best part of the game and I never found the romantic moments to be cringey, in fact, I really enjoyed them. It turns out I still really enjoy the husky whispers, no matter what is actually said at that point, and I still found the scenes titillating. I think this is something I’m very much looking forward to in the future with more OELVNs moving towards hiring partial VAing. And the cast was nearly perfect, imo.
My favorite voice was Chris Patton as Omen, but only in everyday conversation because of how cute his character is being lost and confused all the time. Gideon Emery as Finn was so smooth. So, so smooth. I didn’t think I’d like him at first because he was so sophisticated sounding and I thought, “Great, another intellectual and proper vampire.” But the more I got to know Finn, the more Gideon’s voice made him into something sexy and sincere and not what I thought he was going to be. I also think that Jonah Scott did a perfect job as August. He was great at putting a lot of emotion into the things August said, and I may have replayed a few lines when August did those husky whispers I was talking about earlier. Ione Butler managed very much the same thing with Piper. I liked her as a character, and I think Ione Butler knew exactly when to be aggressive, surprised, or even sensual in her voice acting. I can still hear Piper. And that giggle-snort?! Perfection! I loved it.
My only complaint, and it’s a small one, was how odd it was that it was only partially voiced, but there was no way to determine if the line would be spoken or not. It was odd the first time there was no voice acting after everything had been voiced before that point. Then it just randomly cropped up in conversations. And while I agree that the lines chosen were probably some of the best to voice, there didn’t seem to be a reason for it and not the one before, or the one after. Yes, I know voice acting is costly, and I’m not complaining that the entire game wasn’t voiced; I’m happy with what we were given and thoroughly enjoyed what was produced. I’m just noting that sometimes I’d sit there waiting for a line that never came, or suddenly getting a line when nothing previously had been spoken in that conversation.
Expression Rating: Yu. Great cast that put together some great work. A shame there wasn’t a budget available for full voice acting, but I got a lot more than I get with other “partial” games and it was some goooood stuff.
Art: I really like the art! I know this comes up as a controversial topic when it comes to indie games, especially Western indie games where the drawing style isn’t always anime-esque, but I think people really put too much stock into if indie art is “good” enough. I really hate trying to convince someone that the game is worth it even if they don’t like the art, because art is such a subjective preference. And I don’t think there really is such a thing as “bad” art. Even when reviewing Japanese titles, if I find something about the art unsettling, I say “Hey, there’s proportion issues.” Okay, rant over. #SorryNotSorry.
Back to the art! All the characters are drawn with great proportions. Each character is unique and each sprite has a unique pose that’s all them. There are several outfit changes per character, and I really enjoyed that. Plus, the sprites blink! Which I’ve learned is something I really like in VNs. Unfortunately I managed to catch so many screenshots with sprites blinking when hitting capture, just like real life! The backgrounds come off a little cartoony, mainly because of all the thicc lines that are drawn in, but I think they’re well designed and decently detailed.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many thicc. Such consistent. Very outfit.
CGs: They are hawt! The artstyle gives me a very “Disney Princess” vibe in the way it’s drawn. I think it’s because they use flat colors and thick lines like Disney tends to do as well. So if that sort of cartoon is not to your liking, you might not like these CGs either. I, however, find them very good. The CGs are rather simple since MC cannot be in any of them, but I think they’re all very well chosen. It gives a lot of personality to the LI who is in the art, and most of them are sexy/sensual. If I could draw pretty characters all day long, I would do it. That’s the kind of feeling I get from these CGs as well, that someone with a lot of love for the characters took the time to make them look their best. I don’t think there’s an unflattering one in the whole bunch. Even for the conflict scenes, they’re still really flattering.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 90% Extra points for the “next morning” CGs that I really enjoy. I’m going to be looking at some of these from time to time because it’s art I like.
UI/Mechanics: When The Night Comes is a standard VN with choices to advance the plot/romance, and no other real gameplay mechanics. The UI is nicely designed, but there are few choices on how to adjust the UI to someone’s preferences, like no single toggle for character voices (some I would have rather been silent, tbh). You can either have voice acting on, or off. The skip function is fast, which is nice, but if you want to skip to the next choice, it’s kind of a hidden feature that doesn’t entirely work unless there is no new content, otherwise it just skips to the next line you haven’t read, even if you have, sometimes it thinks you haven’t. I’m not sure why this is. I experimented with it in the common route with all the same choices and it still forced me to read the text, so I know it isn’t any change in the story. I suppose that’s more of an error than a mechanic and should be mentioned in the next portion.
What’s this button do? Rating: C+. Game and UI are pretty standard. Rating moved up to a C+ due to the ability to choose your pronouns.
Errors: I’m more particular about OELVNs because this is their native language and I expect someone writing to be able to manage that language well. Sometimes errors happen, and I get that, but I’m less forgiving since less people have to handle the dialogue and there are less steps to ensure the writing is sound. Saying that, When The Night Comes is impeccable. There really are just a handful of issues, and those are very minor ones. I think I found one word that passed through the spell check though it was incorrect; and only a few about actions that took place that didn’t make sense because of what was described right before, but that’s less an error and a writing issue. Maybe.
I did mention that the skip to next choice feature is both unidentified (though it exists) and doesn’t work fully - which may be why it wasn’t listed. And that’s it. I had no issues at all with any of the game’s other features, functions, or spelling and grammar.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. This game has been well tended to, there are no cobwebs, no pests lurking beneath the surface, it is a solid game with plenty of attention to proofreading.
Background Music: Okay, even if you don’t like background music because it often is very generic and you’d rather listen to your own thing, you might want to give this one a shot. It isn’t some amazing OST, but the music slaps if you ask me, and since you’re here reading this, you are asking me. Not only that, but they did an amazing job on compilation to make it match each scene and bring forth an atmosphere that ramps up the spookiness and tension. I know the music was the biggest factor as I read a scene and could feel my chest constricting and my breathing starting to shallow out. Give it a go in game, and if it’s not for you, then there’s nothing that you really lost besides being able to rock out to a banger of your choosing.
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