indie games: Yume Nikki – post 132

So I know I’m behind the times on this one.  Bonesaw took up all my time a little while back.

So this game, Yume Nikki (“Dream Diary”)is a game by Kikiyama where you’re a little girl going through your dreams and collecting items called “effects”.  Collect them all and the beat the game.  That’s it.  That’s it?  No no…  it’s so much more.  First the game is pixeled which wins HUGE points for me.  Second, I love dreams and the mystery that surrounds them.  Third, I love the design of the whole game.  The way the different dream areas look, the creatures you’ll meet and the whole surreal nature of the game.  The first room you enter in the game once you fall asleep made me smile so huge, I knew I would love this game.

The worlds in the game are HUGE.  Seriously, they are so big sometimes and wrap around on them selves you can get very lost as you play if you’re not watching your land marks.  Some might find this aggravating but I really loved it.  And the variety of dreams are just wonderful as well.  A black and white desert, a forest, 8-bit lands and a maze of docks are just some of the places you’ll wander around in.

I actually decided to use a FAQ on this one.  I played Bonesaw for far too long for it to be enjoyable, but I didn’t want to walk away from it.  I didn’t want to have the same thing happen to this one.  In the end I’m glad I did use a FAQ because there are some crazy things you have to do to discover some the of the effects and I don’t really have the time to put in to wandering and trying a million different things.  I’m not sorry I played the game like this ether as I got to really sit back and enjoy the design of things and not get frustrated.

I must admit that I don’t play a lot creepy, surreal games, but I really do enjoy the design that goes in to them.  Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Rule of Rose, I just love the look of these titles although I’ve never played any of them.  Yume Nikki totally makes me smile from all angles.  It’s a game that’s very nicely put together and probably is most like a game I would like to make.

If you’d like to try it you can find an English version of the game here via Rapid Share.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pmand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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