Returning Nightmares

There are games that plagiarize an influence, and then there are those which transform it into a genre.

 

This game belongs in the latter category.

 

Extraordinary!!

 

I can say, with some certainty, that this is one of the most fun independent games that I have played to come off of itch. You recreate the world that Kikiyama created, but you use it to channel your own dreams in a totally unprecedented and iconic style. The narrative feels far more masculine in many ways; the characters communicate verbally, the objects carry explicit social meanings and present philosophical puzzles, and I died after stabbing a maniacal pixie dream girl who stabbed me back. The music and sound design made me nostalgic for Yume Nikki but also felt far more cinematic, almost like a David Lynch film. I only got fifteen minutes into it, and those alone flew by like a dream. (Literally.) I look forward not only to playing more but to seeing later versions of the game resubmitted to new competitions. My more constructive criticism regards two things: diction and restraint. The integration of words was a bold and conscious move; if you wish to do it justice, hire a proofreader. You are not alone in this industry in having an idiosyncratic take on grammar, spelling, and syntax. Regarding restraint: just make sure that things don’t pop out at us TOO much. The brilliance of Yume Nikki lies in what it conveys by mirroring the Imagination. This has always been something I have looked for in games, and Japanese Art especially excels in this virtue, even having developed terms such as Mono No Aware and Wabi-Sabi to describe them. It’s one of the reasons I regard Yume Nikki as my fifth favourite electronic game of all time, despite its being recent.

[({L.J.)}]