The origins of Horror Soft and what humble origins, indeed. This is the genesis of the developer's trademark brand of Horror Adventure (sans the RPG elements that would later be added to the formula) and "genesis" really is the correct word here, seeing as this thing looks and plays like The Old Testament. Zero music. Almost zero sounds at all, save for the few nails-on-a-chalkboard ones there are, which, unfortgunately, all accompany unexpected scares.

Perfect Nightmare's miracle is that even in its extremely primitive, often even painfully esoteric and sense-assaulting presentation didn't keep me from wanting to explore the little town surrounding the Dog and Duck pub, even if only to test the game' sadism and see every one of its ludicrously unfair instant deaths that, if you save often, are more fun than frustrating. What's frustrating is the majority of the puzzles. I figured out a large amount on my own, but this was HorrorSoft's first rodeo, so some poor puzzle design is to be expected as they perfected their craft.

I played this out of a desire to play all of Horror Soft's games in order and truly appreciate their evolution, possibly with the end goal of making a video about their history and games (which there is sadly little coverage of nowadays). If you're interested in horror computer games from a similarly historian-like and curious viewpoint, check it out. It's by no means a bad game, despite its crude and minimal elements. However, if you want a truly GOOD game, this isn't that either. It was a cool relic to explore as a fan of vintage horror games, but I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't the same.

Horror Soft's later games, however, might be a very different story. Guess I'll see.