The WhatsNext verdict
Yume Nikki is a landmark dream-exploration game whose atmosphere and visual imagination remain unusually powerful. Play it if you want to wander through a lonely, surreal subconscious and make your own meaning from what you find.
What it does best
A dreamlike mood you can drown in
A look that is strange in every direction
The world tells the story through implication
Exploration uncovers unforgettable strange places
What might put you off
Aimless wandering with little conventional gameplay
Extreme ambiguity and opaque progression
The setup
What you are walking into
Yume Nikki is a 32-Bit freeware game created by Kikiyama, a Japanese solo game designer. The game was made using RPGMaker 2003. The game is regarded as one of the most original applications of RPGMaker 2003, and the start of a possible new genre of games. "Yume Nikki" means "Dream Diary" in Japanese, and the game follows a young girl named Madotsuki as she dreams. The goal is to seek out and acquire all 24 'Effects'. The game otherwise has no plot, and nearly the entire game is left up to speculation.
Where it lives
Genre
Vibe
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