[NOTE: Review as of Public Build 0.761.7]
A rough around the edges and unpolished Early Access game, but for the low low price of free it's difficult not to recommend it.
Breeders of the Nephelym is best described as porn Pokémon. You, a human, wake up in this world and it's your job to catch and breed the titular Nephelym. This is a one-man project funded entirely through Patreon. That usually is a major red flag, but a surprising amount of work has gone into it. It's fully functional as it is, with no major game breaking bugs, and there's even enough content and objectives to be able to “finish” it. That's more that can be said about most EA, so if the tag is what’s keeping you away, rest assured that in its current state it can be considered a complete experience.
If you are here for the porn, I would describe it as ok. The world is interesting enough, and the dev clearly has put some thought into how it all comes together. There's plenty of wild Nephelym to have sex with, as well as some “ascended” Nephelym that possess intelligence (the NPCs you will interact with during the game). There is enough variety of bodies and scenarios to keep your interest for a couple hours at least. The sex animations are basic but get the job done, varying depending of the size, sex and species of the participants. The ascended Nephelym also provide unique positions, so there’s plenty to work with, although limited in scope.
If you are into furry stuff there’s a lot for you here, although the Nephelym of the more human variety are more numerous than those of the animal variety. If you are into males, you are out of luck. They are there but the game is clearly centered around females and futanari. On that note, I recommend you make a futanari character, you will get access to much more varied sex positions and ways to catch Nephelym that way.
If you are here for the breeding aspect, it can get pretty entertaining. You basically have your Nephelym farm that you can upgrade and fill with the creatures. How do you do that? Well, either you give them their body fluid of preference or you have sex them (although if you are a male you can only catch male Nephelym by giving them fluids). The fluids are way faster if you are simply here for the breeding mechanics. The sex basically compares your stats to those of the Nephelym, and if you draw or win you can catch them. The more sex you have the higher your level and stats, so it’s up to you how you want to approach the monster catching.
Once you have some Nephelym you can start your little eugenics projects. Nephelym are divided into species, with some of those being further divided into variants. Each Nephelym has its own stats and traits. The meat of the game is breeding Nephelym with particular traits so you can complete quests or ascend their Essence level (a way to get higher grade wild Nephelym to appear). And you’ll need to complete some main quests to open all the gates that divide the world to catch every species. If you want to get everything done there’s plenty of hours of playtime.
As for negative aspects, the system is pretty barebones. I miss more options to filter your Nephelym (particularly by variant, or by trait level). I also miss an option to milk all the Nephelym of a particular barn at once. As it is it gets tedious and time consuming. Overall I think the sorting and the mundane chores could be streamlined. Another major nitpick is that there's 0 reason to engage with any non-main quests. They are supposed to be the main way you make money, but catching and milking Nephelym and selling those fluids is way faster. Another problem with quests is that, since you are quite limited in the species you have access to at the beginning of the game, you will be unable to complete most of them until you are quite far along into the game. Baffling, taking into account this is supposed to be a game about breeding.
There are also noticeable typos in the text, and there are some annoying bugs like being unable to read the requirements to increase the Essence levels. Nothing game breaking, but these little things betray the game for what it is: an unfinished passion project.
In conclusion, Breeders of the Nephelym, despite some problems, is a fun little game. Whether you are here for the porn or for the catching and breeding, there’s something for you to enjoy here. Just keep in mind it's never going to be finished.
