On 16 June 2026, Light and Night mobile otome game went live for players in SEA, and it is available in English dub too! After Love and Producer (Mr Love: Queen’s Choice) decided to close its global servers, I’ve been hoping for a game that is similar in nature. One thing Mr Love did really well for me (better than Love and Deepspace) is its storytelling. It felt like the story came before the romance and which I personally think was the right approach to take.
I’ve invested a lot of effort and money in Love and Deepspace since its launch and it was great for about a year or so. But when the memories just became raunchier and raunchier, and they decided to focus more on the new skins than the main story, it made me realise that this was a game that put the romance (and the money) before the story. It’s still a great game with so many features and mini-games packed into one. And the developers have been generous. But it no longer feels like my cup of tea.
I’ve heard positive feedback about Light and Night from those who have already played it on the CN server and given it is backed by Tencent, it gave me some confidence about its quality. I’ve been playing the game for about a week now and here’s my take on it.
Storytelling
Set in the backdrop of Guangqi City, the protagonist is an up and rising fashion designer who’s returned home to live her best life and become a designer like her grandmother. We only know both her mother and grandmother have passed away, and she was living with her father overseas until recently. We follow her as she navigates her life as a fashion designer in one of the city’s top fashion brands Warson Corp, as she unwittingly learns more about the real nature of the city. She’s accompanied by a colourful cast of NPCs who are surprisingly voiced too, as well as five gorgeous and complicated love interests. But of course it is an otome game.
The stories are split into chapters. At launch, there are 8 chapters available with more gradually released over time. In the CN server which has been around for 5 years, the story is only at chapter 33. Given the time span, the releases are actually pretty slow. That said, I am impressed by the depth of storytelling in each chapter which are rich in narrative and nuances. For example, in one of the arcs, it discusses a sensitive topic around abuse and freedom. I won’t go into details about the story here without spoiling it.
In addition to the main story, you also get to read the points of view of other characters which provides interesting dimensions. As you progress through the chapters, you get to choose between legit responses that affect outcomes, i.e. who you get more screen time with depending on the Light or Night ending. The good news is that you can exchange for the Retrospection Ripple item from the Gallery Exchange once a day that allows you to change your choices if you want to achieve 100% completion.
In order to progress the story, you’ll need to pass two kinds of tests – battles to collect inspiration fragments, and a rhythm game to complete a design. The rhythm game is fairly easy and the music is pretty good too. The battles, on their hand, get increasingly difficult as a way to level gate the story. From Chapter 6 onwards, you’d be forced to be strategic about how you spend your daily resources because they are actually limited (unless you put real money into the game). I was dutifully levelling up all my 4-star cards equally until I realised this mistake so don’t make the same one.
Battle System
You don’t fight monsters in the game. Rather it is a card levelling game where you collect Bonds of the five love interests via the Courier’s Garden which is essentially gacha/lottery system. You spend either Quill Pens, Ursa Minor (300 = 1 Quill Pen), or Stars (1 = 1 Quill Pen) to draw a letter. The easiest currency to earn is Ursa Minor which you get through reading the stories, Constellation Research, levelling up Bonds and completing your dailies.
The letter can range from 1-star to 6-star draws so there is actually a whole lot of Bonds you can collect over time. For every new banner, the pity system guarantees a 6-star from the pool (with 50% chance for the limited Bond) after every 70 pulls. I’ve drawn a total of 100 pulls, and I’ve gained a collection of three 6-stars, eight 5-stars, and twenty-eight 4-stars.
Needless to say ignore all the 3-stars and below. They are only great for giving out Ursa Minors, BUT only if you have nothing better to use your resources on. In the early game, you’ll be forced to level your 4-stars to complete the battles, but please learn from me and be strategic about it. Only level a handful of them because you’ll be needing your mats for those 5 and 6-stars Bonds instead. And boy are there so many mats that they need!
Here’s a lowdown of the mats you’ll need from left to right.
- STAR – for 4-star and 5-star Bonds, you can raise their stars by obtaining Moon Time or Galatic Debris from the store exchange. The currency needed comes from recycling unwanted Bonds but I haven’t found a way to do that yet. Maybe you need to actually pull more than five similar copies of the same Bond and fully ascend them (see emblem at top right corner), before you can recycle the spares. I managed to get a fully ascended 4-star Bond and he’s hitting harder than a 6-star with no ascensions. I suppose it is another way to build your team if you have no money or luck with the pulls.
- LEVEL – use Hearts and Aurora Coin to raise the levels which you can get as rewards or from grinding battles at Guangqi Westbund River. Take note that you can only grind a total of 10 battles for each item per day, unless you use Stars to reset the counter. It’s relatively painful to use that currency for this though. This is the first time I’ve played a gacha game and ran out of coins, a nod at how resource intensive it is to do that. You’ll also need Inspiration (i.e. stamina) to grind these battles. They auto generate over time or you can use Inspiration Fragments which look like apples to restore them immediately. These come quite easily as rewards, but again, watch your resource utilisation unless you want to play a waiting game. At each level 20 band, you’ll need a breakthrough by using various colour pigments you can collect from Grandma’s Little Shop. Complete the side stories to collect them. These are huge inspiration guzzler but the stories are pretty endearing.
- ENGRAVE/IMPRINT – 4-star Bonds and above have these special powers that will aid you in the battles ranging from AOE effects, critical attacks, attack over time effects etc. To activate these powers, you’ll need Rare Wish Treasure which you can obtain from Grandma’s Little Shop as well. To level up these powers, you’ll need Dazzling Sand available at battles in Guangqi Westbund River. Again all these require Inspiration to grind.
- REFLECTION – 5-star Bonds and above have alternate images which you can unlock for stats boost or just to swoon over the beautiful artwork. Unlocking this requires the specific character items which you can farm at Reflection Long River. Thankfully you don’t need Inspiration for these but attempts are capped at 10 per day so choose your items wisely!
You’d also notice that every Bond comes with its stats in various color-coded attributes – Joy, Courage, Sincerity, Focus, Resolution and Trust. Rather than brute-forcing the battles, you may also want to be strategic about matching the right attributes required for each battle. In that sense, the game forces you to have a balanced team.
Lastly as a fashion designer yourself, the protagonist also has her own growth plan across 6 aspects of design – Garment Cutting, Footwear Design, Leather Craftsmanship, Jewellery Setting, Cosmetic Formulation and Accessory Styling. By levelling up these skillsets, you’ll be able to personally raise the above attributes as well regardless of which Bond she owns. I guess it’s the game’s way of saying, ‘hey you can’t always depend only on the men’. Mats required for the growth can be found under Scholarly Sojourns where you complete quirky storylines about Ms Cathy your teacher and that annoying deskmate. This is the fastest way to level up and gain Wish coins to exchange for mats in the store. Thankfully this also requires no inspiration.
Love Interests & Dating
An otome game is only as good as the characters in the story – a realistic and likeable female protagonist coupled with lovable, funny, cute, complicated male love interests with depths to unravel over time. Light and Night has five love interests whom you can get to romance and date. While most of them fall into the usual romance tropes, I have to say that despite being an experienced otome gamer, the characters are still giving me a run for my money. Kudos to the character designs. Here’s a brief introduction to each of them without spoilers.
Osborn/ Xiao Yi
Sporting dark hair, blue eyes, a mole under his right eye, an intense demeanour, Osborn is the first love interest you’ll meet. He’s a renowned R1 racer, four times championship winner, fast and furious kind of guy. And the first time you interact with him, he’s already threatening you and pinning you against the wall. I would classify him as your typical hero/guardian/protector character who tries too hard to smooth talk and impress you.
Evan/ Lu Chen
Wavy brown hair, red eyes, gold-rimmed glasses and that dreamy British accent, Evan is your classic CEO trope who has a penchant for turning up whenever you are in danger. It is a little unrealistic how much Evan really dotes on you from the get-go until you discover his real intentions. Though my entire gut is screaming, stay away from this guy, I can’t help but be captivated by his plot and his almost obsessive affection for the MC.
Sariel/ Qi Sili
Even before I started playing the game, I already had my eyes on Sariel. There is something undeniably appealing about his design – white-haired, gold eyes, and that aloofness that can freeze water with one look. Sariel turns out to be your tsundere mentor with such a foul mouth. It’s almost as if he was born to be grumpy about everything that exist on earth until you learn about his past. It gets to me a little but that’s typical of a slow burn. And it’s actually a breath of fresh air to not have someone fall for you right off the bat.
Charlie/ Zha Lisu
Charlie’s design could be mixed up with Sariel but he sports grey hair instead of silver, and rather than cold and aloof, Charlie is more cool and flamboyant. Without giving away much, Charlie is invested in the protagonist from the start and has made cameo appearances, often with funny outcomes. It makes me think he’s probably the flirtatious character with a mature and somewhat clumsy side to him.
Jesse/ Xia Mingxing
Based on the visuals, it is immediately obvious that Jesse falls under the sunshine childhood friend trope. He is indeed the protagonist’s childhood friend whom she’s lost contact with for many years. I haven’t had the chance to interact with him yet, only knowing that he’s supposed to be some kind of superstar now. But as with all these kinds, there could be some secret shadowy persona behind that sunshine.
Other than reading about them through the main stories and making choices that affects the ending, you can get to know these guys better in other ways. It is important to develop these relationships as the affinity with them does affect battle outcomes too. From time to time, they may drop you messages, voice calls or posts on their socials which you can comment on. Under Fateful Encounter, you can go on dates with them to understand them better. Encounters are part of the side stories you’d naturally unlock, while Memory is dependent on the Bonds you draw. Only 5- and 6-star Bonds provide Memory dates. Regardless, these dates come with interactive components which makes them interesting.
Lastly, Light and Night also releases periodic events that might spotlight on different characters. These are not permanent so when you have the chance make sure to participate in them while they are available, or you might miss the stories until the next rerun, whenever that is.
So here’s my overall review of the game after playing for 7 days.
Storywise, I have only completed the first five chapters and I have to say, I’m fully invested in the worldbuilding and its lore (what’s there not to love about the supernatural?), and even if I were not romancing these characters, I would want to know them better. I also like it that in each chapter, you get to interact with all the love interests so it’s not a case where one of them would suddenly be missing from the story for a long period of time. This is actually a great narrative improvement from Mr Love and Love and Deepspace.
If there is anything I can find fault with, I feel that each story part is rather long and for someone like me who wants to savour the story, I need to be able to invest at least 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted time to read before the next check point. I appreciate that most of the lines are voiced though the voice acting could really be improved for some characters. E.g. I find Sariel’s voice a little too snarky for my liking, but when he’s not bitching, he actually sounds lovely.
Gameplay wise, thankfully it’s not very grindy because you can x3 speed as a paid member. While it may seem like a simple levelling system, I am beginning to appreciate the increasingly difficult battles which is forcing me to think twice about resource allocation as a free to play player (or at least one on tight budget). The Bonds levelling system is fairly straightforward with the right dose of complexity. It feels like there’s tons of things to do every morning when you log in, and you can clear it all within 15 minutes. But if you’re level gated… then there’s really nothing else to do until the next day, which can potentially put players off. I suppose it boils down to the events hopefully with differing game mechanics to break the monotony of waiting.
Character design wise, I am actually intrigued by all of them. While they do follow some of the usual tropes, because of their backstories, it provides a layer of depth that makes it fascinating to uncover. I like that the characters, even the NPCs, are complicated – divided by their affinity to the protagonist and their own motivations. I don’t think there’s a character you can truly dislike here. And the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. Yes there might be some awkward angling for some Bonds, but otherwise, really beautfully drawn.
So overall I would rate Light and Night an 8.5/10 as a mobile otome game based on my current experience. It has surpassed my expectations on what it can potentially deliver and I’m eagerly looking forward to discover the rest of the stories. And maybe I might be tempted to post an update on the narratives. Stay tuned!
