Honestly, I didn't expect to enjoy playing a detective game in the visual novel genre. Despite its flaws and imperfections, getting to know the characters and following the story was incredibly enjoyable. I especially liked the narrative style used in the storytelling. It felt like reading a book. Also, the conversations felt much more natural than in a game or movie. This is because the development team analyzed these kinds of natural dialogues and chose this narrative style. If you prefer reading pessimistic and depressing books, you should definitely try And Yet We Dream. To be honest, it doesn't offer much in terms of gameplay. It's more like a movie where we interact. And the interaction we have isn't negligible. We also make choices in the dialogues. You can think of it as an RPG. But it's not an RPG like Baldur's Gate. We're talking about an RPG like the Witcher games. The answers I could give in the conversations were exactly the answers I had in mind. Of course, it's very difficult to achieve this in every conversation. But I found that I was able to give the answers I had in mind in almost ninety percent of the dialogues. Being able to choose the answer that comes to mind in a game that relies so heavily on characters and story is truly a different dimension. The team deserves credit for this.
On the other hand, the side characters don't feel like ordinary NPCs. They give you the feeling of talking to a real person. Each has a different personality, making them stand out. They are well-thought-out, well-written characters.
There's not much to say about the gameplay, but I'll mention as much as I can. We move by clicking with the mouse. Don't confuse it with point-and-click, but it's not. The character progresses by jumping from scene to scene. I have no problem with that. However, some combat parts felt unnecessary. It could be improved with a few adjustments. The combat isn't very compelling. Enemies are generally much stronger than us. This is where the items we can buy come into play. Items like boxing gloves that boost attacks or restore health. Honestly, I only bought two things: a lollipop and a lockpick. Earning money is already difficult. Spending my limited amount of money on something I don't know what will happen to it didn't seem logical. Although we can go back to previous saves in the game, I could restart from a previous save when I died. But in games that tell a story and involve choices, continuing from a previous save doesn't feel right to me. I feel like I need to reach a conclusion based on my decisions, both right and wrong. Because of this, I didn't get the full benefit from the battles. Since I couldn't find much more to say about the gameplay, there are a few points in the story and mission design that seemed illogical to me. Let's get to those. However, when I shared these illogical points with the development team, they immediately fixed the ones that could be fixed. I saw them fixing them with my own eyes. They noted a few more troublesome issues and said they would fix them as soon as possible.
First, let me mention something that disrupts the plot. When we first arrive at Kat 42 and start exploring, we need to talk to Bob first before entering the town. Because he's the one who will give us our main mission. If we go and meet the people in the town without talking to him, we unknowingly complete a mission we didn't receive. Then, when we return to Bob, the conversation we have is strange. Also, this isn't a one-off. After the first night ends and the second day begins, Bob asks us to meet the pirates and the Skelesans. However, we can go and meet them without Bob saying anything, which is another thing that breaks the plot. In short, we should receive the mission from Bob first, and only then should we be able to access certain areas. I encountered similar plot-breaking situations later in the game, but not many. When I mentioned this to the developers, they said it was a significant problem and they would fix it as soon as possible. I only noticed one inconsistency while playing. That happened when Joe was planning to go into the church and steal the flower from Sister Pam. Joe says, "We'll go in and get it after the nun finishes her evening prayers." So, I think this error was a mix-up. A Christian nun praying the evening prayer in a church doesn't make sense. When I mentioned this to the developers, they fixed it immediately, thankfully. Also, when the elderly couple were talking about their grandson Jim, we could see the memories they were recounting thanks to our special power. However, we later learned that this elderly couple were never actually human. They were creatures who escaped from hell. Logically, they shouldn't have any memories with Jim. But we could see these memories thanks to them. This seemed like another inconsistency to me. When I mentioned this to the developers, they explained that our special power doesn't actually work that way. As I understand it, we can see the things the person is talking about as if we were there. So, the person whose memory we're listening to doesn't necessarily have to be physically there. There's also the report-filling process, which I think is worth mentioning.
Throughout the game, we encounter many characters, talk to them, and listen to their stories. We jot down the clues they give us during these conversations. Even if we don't note every clue, it's better than nothing – just a few clues. When you reach the report-filling screen, you can't access the hints screen. I tried to go back and check from the screen you see now, but you can't. You're forced to reload from an old save. Luckily, I saved before filling out the first report, so I continued from there. At least if we could access the hints we gathered about the characters on the report-filling screen, we wouldn't have to go back or reload from a save. The development team said they actually did this intentionally. They chose this design because they thought that being able to access the hints screen from the report-filling screen would make the game too easy. But even if we could access the hints screen, it would create a different kind of satisfaction when filling out the report. These things aren't unchangeable.
Leaving aside the illogical aspects, the game's music was really good. Whoever composed it did a great job. It fits the game's atmosphere very well. Although it didn't fill the gaps in gameplay, it gave me a reason to return to the game. I was going to finish the game anyway, but there are some games where you just don't bother going back. It happened in this game too, of course, as it does in almost every game, but there were times when I genuinely used the music as an excuse to motivate myself.
The most important thing supporting the depressing atmosphere is, of course, the visuals. I think everything we see in the game is hand-drawn. The art design and color usage are quite suitable for the atmosphere. My only problem is that the image is only in a certain part of the middle of the screen. Honestly, I would have preferred it to be full screen instead. Also, it would be much better if there were a few more animations besides the walking scenes. Because what we see is just plain images at the end of the day; only eyes open and close. I don't know, for example, the candle in this scene could move. Or some small, different animations. Maybe these kinds of improvements will be made in the next installment. By the way, according to what it says on Steam, I finished the game in 8 hours. Looking at the screen recordings, it's about 6 hours. There were times when I didn't quite understand what to do and had to wander around the town. I stopped the recording in those situations. So, as you can understand, it tells a story that lasts at least 5.5 - 6 hours. If you like reading books, you should definitely check it out.
