Posted as part of the Review The Old Event #1: January 2025
Gameplay - 5/5: Great!
First off, the game has a good mix of gameplay elements that help make it fun. Most of it is walking around and clicking on things and seeing what they do, but there's also stealth and chase sections which are spaced out nicely and help to mix things up. I especially liked the idea of trying to interact with people's dreams and try to wake them up.
This game also has a very good sense of helping to guide the player. Not only does it give instructions on which controls to use early on, it also gently guides the player to go towards certain areas in certain times to avoid backtracking or interacting with places in ways that wouldn't progress the story.
The autosave was also really helpful, as there are many (very easy) opportunities to die in this game. This is kind of a risky move on the devs' part, but it works because the autosave (and the ability to save yourself) makes it so that you don't often lose a lot of progress. I also liked that even though it was pretty easy to die, the easy deaths were spaced out about once per area you entered.
Presentation - 4/5: Good!
Starting off, I really enjoy the music, particularly the menu music. I think though they fit better in some scenes than in others? One example is the upbeat music in the library and the general house feels like it could work just as well in a fight scene or a tense cutscene between characters. However, it felt a little too energetic while you're wandering around the house at night and hear something spooky. Most scenes the music either fit well or it fit just okay, but I noticed when it didn't fit well it was a little harder to get immersed.
The game mainly uses RTP or RTP style assets for it's visuals. Like a lot of RPGMaker games, it loses a bit of uniqueness because of this. However, many of the adapted sprites and tilesets work surprisingly well with the original RTP assets, and even the use of the sprites in textboxes to tell who was saying what helped to make the game feel unique even while still using those RTP assets. The custom art as well, when it was used, was lovely and helped give a better since of details on the characters that couldn't be made out in the pixel art alone.
If I had one complaint about the art, it would probably be the slight over reliance on RTP portraits and sprites. Many of the main characters had sprites design in the RTP style or possibly were made in an RPGMaker Character Creator, and are distinct from the sprites you're given by the program to make a game. However, many of the NPCs use more generic sprites. This isn't a major thing, but I did feel a little weird seeing the main characters represented by sprites in their textboxes whereas the NPCs were represented by the KADOKAWA made portraits. It gives a slight feeling of the major characters being NPCs and the NPCs being major characters. Personally, I feel it might have been better reversed, or if everyone used the sprites in their textbox, or even if the NPCs only had a namebox and lacked both a sprite or portrait in their textbox.
Creativity - 4/5: Good!
I'll admit that the idea of traveling through the dreams of others is an interesting, but not very original idea. I do enjoy the fairytale-like atmosphere and what this game does do, creatively speaking, is talk about some of it's magical elements in a way that almost parallels it with real world mental health issues, like the dream demon almost being comparable to depression and so on. It's an interesting idea and this game has the potential to really explore it in a way I haven't really seen done before, but as of yet it's hard to see where the project is going with it.
Horror - 3/5: Serviceable
This is a very interesting game and definitely has it's tense moments... but I wouldn't really call it scary, or as having a mysterious or tense atmosphere overall. I do think the game balances it's tense and light moments pretty well, but I think it needs to do a bit more work before it can be considered more of a horror game. Certain scenes, like the beginning section, could maybe have had Reyen wandering in the dark with a small flashlight? This paired with some calmer, or even more mysterious music could have helped to really sell the home invasion scene a lot more.
There's small moments like that where what's there isn't bad, but the horror elements could have been exaggerated a lot more to be more scary. This game also includes a certain about of mystery and buildup, so this might be a game where more horror elements or horror sections were planned later on, but for now they're more subtle.
Story - 4/5: Good!
I personally enjoyed the story, the writing was at times mysterious and at times funny or cute. Like I said before, there seemed to be a lot of potential with the fairytale-like atmosphere and combining that with more psychological themes. I think near the end the story starts to feel a bit rushed, or maybe confused, or at least it's missing the context to explain some things.
Overall:
An enjoyable game, it's a shame that the story isn't finished. It makes good use of RTP assets as well as having excellent music, though small changes could be made to help make the atmosphere more consistent as well as to add in more horror elements or stronger horror sections.