Day Dream ~When Butterflies Flutter~ is a 2D platformer where players take on the role of Yuki, a troubled schoolgirl. It begins with her awakening in a gloomy and shadow-like world while having no recollection of how she got there. While in this confused state, the game provides a quick tutorial and teaches the key bindings to the players. Aside from your standard movement and jump keys, you’ll also learn how to heal and activate objects. All of this will soon come in handy as it wastes no time showcasing just how much danger Yuki is in. Whether from an enemy attack or a trap, it’s three strikes, and we’re out. In some ways, the intro is the most challenging section as we gradually increase our overall health throughout and can sustain far more damage later.
Starting off, we have few options and can do nothing more than jump over our foes. If we try to land on top of an enemy, it will be entirely unharmed, and we’ll be down a hit point. The white flowers scattered around the level will be your lifeline. Picking these up will refill that crystal-like icon in the middle of the screen used for healing. Once that meter is empty, we’ll no longer be able to heal and be in quite a precarious position until finding more flowers. We have a single checkpoint at the start of the level. This is where the blue butterflies in the bottom left of our UI come into play. They allow us to set additional checkpoints in any place we wish. It leads to interesting decisions about whether we should push through a complex area or use one of them right away. Blue flowers are needed to refill them and are rare.
It won’t be long before we gain a stomp attack to slay our foes from the air. Before even hitting the ground on our first kill, it’ll be instantly apparent how awkward the combat feels and looks. Our only means of offense in the game is functional, but not enjoyable. The absence of an impact sound effect and the potential for enemies to harm you post-death make it feel unfinished. Thankfully, this isn’t a combat-based game. Many foes can’t even be killed, and those that can are often placed at an angle you can’t reach. Boss fights, on the other hand, are definitely let down by the lack of visual impact or sound effects. If not for their health bar, we’d have no idea if we were damaging them. It’s such a shame, as the boss designs are pretty cool and have gimmicks to them that this game’s combat just isn’t polished enough to execute well.
The platforming mechanics fare far better. Eventually, you’ll have double jumps, the ability to climb walls, and a mid-air dash, among other things. Our character has a pleasing weight to her, with the controls being both precise and responsive. Movement is more than adequate for the near-pixel-perfect challenges it throws us. Day Dream is neither easy nor slow-paced, despite what its atmospheric visuals may suggest. By the midway point, you bet I used the F1 function to remove the colossal portrait of Yuki to see further ahead. On that same note, pressing F2 will make you invincible to all damage once you reach two hit points. This is a great addition for those who struggle with the challenge since it has no drawbacks. However, I’d prefer it be bound to a key further from F1. Yuki’s portrait reappears after dying, so you may accidentally trigger invincibility while getting rid of it again.
There are 12 stages to conquer. All of them are wide open and require a fair bit of exploration. This is largely because our main path is blocked until we find a lever. Day Dream has more in common with MS DOS-era platformers than their side-scrolling console counterparts. The way is never a straightforward road to the end, and the level layout can be labyrinthine in nature. Despite this, a player is unlikely to get lost even if they have a poor sense of direction. Levels are on the smaller side, all while containing several helpful signs that point to the correct path for progress. I found those signs useful to avoid progressing and explore more instead. There are many beneficial items to find that permanently extend your overall health and how many checkpoints you can carry at once. They are not a necessity, but whoever can beat this game with only three hit points is far more skilled than me.
Day Dream has a bit of Metroidvania flair to it. Some locations will only be possible to reach with the abilities you gain later on. We can also walk between levels and backtrack, even if using the level select screen is much easier. Most of the story will be told through hidden fractures in the world, which hold parts of your memory. They offer new CGs and a chilling look into Yuki’s past. The incredibly bleak narrative caught me off guard, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. I was expecting each of the 12 memories to be primarily sexual in nature, but no, it is story centered. What few hentai CGs there are hold a great deal of meaning to them. If nothing else, these are worth exploring for. From what I know, there is no cheat code or alternate way to unlock them. It could also be considered a game design flaw, as there is next to no story or context if you don’t collect them.
Let’s talk about the hentai, shall we? Our primary source of sexual content will be after being defeated by an enemy. This will lead to a multiple-step scenario in which we can control when to show the following animations. These events are represented in both the pixel art and the portrait of Yuki. All of them are of high quality and make meeting a new enemy an exciting affair in more ways than one. The curiosity of how each Lovecraftian monster will have its way with you is always there. Luckily, we don’t need to lose against them. After running across a foe for the first time, their H scenes will be unlocked and freely viewable in the Gallery Mode. Something I found slightly disappointing was how there is no nude state to Yuki’s portrait after taking enough damage. Your clothes will rip off until she is down to her undergarments, but no further. Memory fragment CGs lack animation, unlike the in-game H scenes. You can still immerse yourself in the moment due to its well-drawn art and excellent voice acting.
On the technical side of things, Day Dream has a strange glitch if you enter fullscreen mode at the 4K resolution. The background assets will have irregular lines running across them, which is how they were stitched together. If you experience this, you will need to set your desktop at 2560×1600 or lower, and you’ll have no further issues. There is no fix to the warped fullscreen borders at the top and right side of the screen. It is such a tiny sliver of the screen that you’ll quickly stop noticing it, but it is worth mentioning. Gameplay-wise, I had an issue with refilling that last hit point on my meter. You’ll always be at nine out of the total ten that you can collect. The next problem is the absence of gamepad support. With how precise the required platforming is, this is not the title to learn how to use keyboard controls. If using the cursor/arrow keys seems foreign to you, I recommend finding a third-party program to bind buttons to your controller.
With all said and done, this adventure will last around an hour and a half. Double that if you aren’t experienced in the platforming genre and refuse to use the invincibility feature. There is some replay value to be had, thanks to some memories being unable to be reached the first time through. As for those purple gems littering the stages, I still don’t know what purpose they serve, if any. My guess is they are merely for bragging rights since they are often placed in perilous locations. The controls are tight and responsive. That makes it hard to resist collecting those shiny objects, even if they’re of little use. Alongside the incredibly appealing art style, its strengths lie with platforming and exploration. Since combat is infrequent, it kept its flaws from being much a problem. This title ultimately delivers an enjoyable and unique experience. If you enjoy atmospheric platformers with some challenge to them, Day Dream ~When Butterflies Flutter~ will provide in spades.
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