Yume Nikki

The game is so relaxing. The ambiguity of the atmosphere was so pretty. The ost is so beautiful honestly i listen to it over lofi. The game is more of an art than a game with gameplay. It’s one of those things you have to interpret yourself. Atleast play for a hour.

Yume Nikki is a free exploration game where we play as Madotsuki and explore strange dream worlds from the safety of her bedroom. There is basically no normal story, no dialogue and no combat, so the whole experience comes from walking around, discovering bizarre places and trying to understand what we are seeing. The biggest strength is the atmosphere. The dream worlds can be creepy, confusing, funny or just completely bizarre, and we never really know what we are going to find next. Some areas are strangely peaceful while others can feel genuinely uncomfortable, and that contrast gives the game a really memorable feeling. Exploration is basically the entire game, and that is where Yume Nikki can be both really interesting and really frustrating. We can enter different dream worlds through doors in the Nexus and wander around looking for Effects. Finding a strange location or discovering something hidden can feel great because the game never tells us exactly where to go. The Effects are another important part. We can find them throughout the dream worlds and use them to change Madotsuki's appearance, with some also giving us special actions or animations. Collecting them gives us something to work towards, even though the game does not use a normal progression system. The pixel art has also aged surprisingly well. It is obviously an old RPG Maker game, but that actually works in its favour because the strange colours, simple animations and unusual character designs make the dreams feel even more mysterious. The lack of detailed modern graphics leaves a lot of room for our imagination, which fits the whole idea of the game. The biggest problem is that there is very little actual gameplay. We mostly walk around and look for things, and there are no proper combat systems, quests or dialogue to give us clear objectives. That makes the game incredibly slow at times, especially when we have no idea where to go next. Getting lost is probably the other biggest issue. Some areas are huge and there is not much telling us whether we are actually going in the right direction. We can spend a long time wandering around without finding anything useful, and eventually that can become more tiring than mysterious. Overall, Yume Nikki is a very strange game that succeeds almost entirely because of its atmosphere and dream worlds. The lack of direction and traditional gameplay makes it a difficult experience at times, but the surreal locations, strange Effects and memorable imagery make it unlike almost anything else. It is definitely not for everyone, but when we get into the mood for slow exploration and mystery, there is something really special about it. Rating: 7/10