I played this game a while back but stopped when things got a bit too spooky. The game wields the unease of terror very well. Thankfully there were no jump-scares, or were there? :) Shout out to the goat of psx aesthetics sodaraptor.
After-credits scene got me bricked up, also it's incredibly enjoyable to 100% so I recommend doing it.
After-credits scene got me bricked up, also it's incredibly enjoyable to 100% so I recommend doing it.
An absolutely wonderful surreal adventure where you travel from dream to dream meeting wacky and lovable characters. It may be the most beautiful use of the PS1 aesthetic i have seen to date. Highly recommend this hidden gem.
i got married and divorced all in the same day.
Anyway, this game has been sitting in my library for two years untouched. I recently decided to finish it, and this is a product of a lot of thought and love.
I love PS1-style graphics, it may just be because I'm a sucker for games from that era, but it's not something that I am ashamed of. The character models and environments are all wonderfully made and full of charm. When the game does decide to be scary, it can do it very well through great use of lighting and sound design.
This game does not have the most unique story in the world, but I did not go into this playthrough with high expectations for the story anyway. I still really enjoyed the character dialogue, and they did bring a smile to my face.
The platforming is very quick and smooth. Replaying levels for secrets and/or achievements will not take up a large chunk of your time. There is also no punishment for falling to your demise, so the player is free to explore as much as they want, which you will want to do. There are lots of little (and big) secrets hidden in each dream world, plus it's just fun to explore the areas and learn more about them in general.
tl;dr
It's not too expensive or long of a game, so in my opinion it's worth trying out. If you're not a fan of platforming but are curious about the game, it is honestly not too difficult in that regard. You are heavily encouraged to explore and just take your time, you will not be punished harshly for any of it. I am very glad I got off my ass and played this game to the end.
Anyway, this game has been sitting in my library for two years untouched. I recently decided to finish it, and this is a product of a lot of thought and love.
I love PS1-style graphics, it may just be because I'm a sucker for games from that era, but it's not something that I am ashamed of. The character models and environments are all wonderfully made and full of charm. When the game does decide to be scary, it can do it very well through great use of lighting and sound design.
This game does not have the most unique story in the world, but I did not go into this playthrough with high expectations for the story anyway. I still really enjoyed the character dialogue, and they did bring a smile to my face.
The platforming is very quick and smooth. Replaying levels for secrets and/or achievements will not take up a large chunk of your time. There is also no punishment for falling to your demise, so the player is free to explore as much as they want, which you will want to do. There are lots of little (and big) secrets hidden in each dream world, plus it's just fun to explore the areas and learn more about them in general.
tl;dr
It's not too expensive or long of a game, so in my opinion it's worth trying out. If you're not a fan of platforming but are curious about the game, it is honestly not too difficult in that regard. You are heavily encouraged to explore and just take your time, you will not be punished harshly for any of it. I am very glad I got off my ass and played this game to the end.
This ate! Absolutely astounded by how immersive this experience was !
I have to say I definitely was not expecting this game to go in the direction that it did. However, I'm glad that it did, because wow, it really took me on an emotional journey. I had moments of joy, heartbreak and without going into detail a surprising amount of fear.
I played their more recent game, Interior Worlds, and I can definitely see where the inspiration came from, the developer is genuinely fantastic at making you feel on edge. By far the best part about the game was after beating it and thinking I had seen everything, I looked at the achievement list and saw I was missing half, including some with very high unlock rates, meaning I had only really gotten started.
Definitely has a slow start, but it gets great, highly recommend.
I played their more recent game, Interior Worlds, and I can definitely see where the inspiration came from, the developer is genuinely fantastic at making you feel on edge. By far the best part about the game was after beating it and thinking I had seen everything, I looked at the achievement list and saw I was missing half, including some with very high unlock rates, meaning I had only really gotten started.
Definitely has a slow start, but it gets great, highly recommend.
Esta bueno, no es un juego como para divertirse sino para estar chill mientras exploras sus distintos mundos. Estetica retro ps1.
I love indie first person adventures through vague-ly vaporwave worlds
welcom to my TWIZTED mind !!!!!
One of my absolute favorite things in art is when a piece tackles hopelessness from an extremely positive and loving standpoint, and this essentially does that in a variety of different gorgeous environments inspired by the developer's dreams. The tonal range here is extremely wide, going from carefree lands of joy to uneasy depressive ruts to the most hellish of nightmares. Yknow, the range of most people's dreams.
My favorite level is a world of ice where the last remaining people cling to trash fires while others who are disconnected and lonely sit freezing to death. As you move through it and spend time with people, treating them with kindness, additional fires magically light to keep them warm. This kind of sweet, simple beauty along with the always-gorgeous PSX (and sometimes N64) inspired visuals makes this a lovely time.
And as with everyone else, I miss my door wife.
My favorite level is a world of ice where the last remaining people cling to trash fires while others who are disconnected and lonely sit freezing to death. As you move through it and spend time with people, treating them with kindness, additional fires magically light to keep them warm. This kind of sweet, simple beauty along with the always-gorgeous PSX (and sometimes N64) inspired visuals makes this a lovely time.
And as with everyone else, I miss my door wife.
Dev seems active in the discussion forums so I'll refrain from completely dumping on it, but several things bug me about it, some small some not so.
After playing the demo, I decided to grab this when it went on sale and finally got around to playing it. Immediately I notice there's this weird, tacky sprint/run/jump indicator that I swear wasn't there in the demo... Which, to be fair, I thought there was 0 indicator for sprinting in the demo (no speed lines, no fov increase, no hastened sounds, etc; you just move a little faster) Also don't remember the chromatic aberration being THIS intense either, it's kind of dizzying and similarly distracting; forced CA is awful and a genuine accessibility issue, I generally side on "muh artistic intent" but I will pretty much never make that exception for CA. Also inexplicably can't use dpad to navigate in this, can't rebind anything and can't adjust music volume separately short of completely toggling it on or off.
On the more nitpicky side of things the mixed use of both proper spritework and generic materials weirds me out, the first level has its own drawn texture for water but the second level uses this weird, high res mesh for it that clashes with the rest of the artwork. It feels like the manifestation of those Tumblr blogs from 2012-2016 that would repost that one screenshot of a neon-adorned Windows 98 style desktop with custom icons for emulators (which also peeved me at the time because I've never been a fan of faux-nostalgia, like having two different icons for "GameCube" and "Wii" even though for as long as Wii emulation has been a thing, it's combined with GameCube via Dolphin.)
Oh, but you can pet the dog. This is so poggers wholesome 100, +1 star and my criticism is obviously invalid now as I'll be skinned alive by the sweet wholesome crowd for their candy gore mural.
After playing the demo, I decided to grab this when it went on sale and finally got around to playing it. Immediately I notice there's this weird, tacky sprint/run/jump indicator that I swear wasn't there in the demo... Which, to be fair, I thought there was 0 indicator for sprinting in the demo (no speed lines, no fov increase, no hastened sounds, etc; you just move a little faster) Also don't remember the chromatic aberration being THIS intense either, it's kind of dizzying and similarly distracting; forced CA is awful and a genuine accessibility issue, I generally side on "muh artistic intent" but I will pretty much never make that exception for CA. Also inexplicably can't use dpad to navigate in this, can't rebind anything and can't adjust music volume separately short of completely toggling it on or off.
On the more nitpicky side of things the mixed use of both proper spritework and generic materials weirds me out, the first level has its own drawn texture for water but the second level uses this weird, high res mesh for it that clashes with the rest of the artwork. It feels like the manifestation of those Tumblr blogs from 2012-2016 that would repost that one screenshot of a neon-adorned Windows 98 style desktop with custom icons for emulators (which also peeved me at the time because I've never been a fan of faux-nostalgia, like having two different icons for "GameCube" and "Wii" even though for as long as Wii emulation has been a thing, it's combined with GameCube via Dolphin.)
Oh, but you can pet the dog. This is so poggers wholesome 100, +1 star and my criticism is obviously invalid now as I'll be skinned alive by the sweet wholesome crowd for their candy gore mural.
This game comes in two l i m i n a l flavors: whimsical and threatening. Luckily I greatly enjoy exploring PS1-style dreamscapes in any flavor.
* Played flawlessly on Linux via Proton 6.3-8
* Played flawlessly on Linux via Proton 6.3-8
Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams is a special game to me. I haven't felt like this since I played a little game called Electric Highways, seven years ago, that has a similar nature of going from one dreamlike place to another. Every level in Hypnagogia is beautiful, and its filled with love. The scenery, the characters that roam these places, the soundtrack, the textures, just... everything. Every time I finished a dream world I felt like I was really leaving a world in a similar way I leave my dreams while I wake up. I've laughed, I've been scared, I've been moved, I've been brought to tears, even. I've been encouraged and forgiven. I may forget most of my dreams but Hypnagogia? It will stay with me, I'm sure of it.
While the gameplay and platforming is frankly lacking the unique visuals scenarios and storytelling kept me engrossed this game is like nothing I've ever played and id recommend giving it a shot just for that fact alone
What I appreciate about projects like these is how earnest and genuine they are. Just reading up on the Dev commentary about how either dream came to be was a blast.
I also wasn't prepared for how quickly the tone shifted from feel-good to heartfelt and brutal, all the way to opressive and terrifying. It's a spiral down into nightmares - but in a good way!
Thanks for making this Sodaraptor!
I also wasn't prepared for how quickly the tone shifted from feel-good to heartfelt and brutal, all the way to opressive and terrifying. It's a spiral down into nightmares - but in a good way!
Thanks for making this Sodaraptor!
Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams è molto molto carino. Fa chiaramente della presentazione estetica, grafica e musicale la sua forza ma nasconde alcune piccole storie (sogni?) non poco emozionanti e pregne di carattere.
Il sogno nella terra innevata dove si scaldano le anime degli abitanti facendo loro delle gentilezze, il sogno della porta-pietra-moglie (pieno di rimandi ad Ocarina Of Time) ma anche il sogno infernale del lavoro dalle 9 alle 17, che fa ridere perché è vero... Tutti i livelli sono praticamente dei quadri digitali di sogni tutti diversi... e di incubi. Anche l'horror low poly è fatto eccezionalmente bene, esplorando diversi generi, quello degli spazi liminali, l'horror classico nella casa stregata ecc.
Purtroppo Hypnagogia è quasi un non-gioco e sicuramente punta allo stile sopra la sostanza e i primi livelli possono far passare la voglia di completarlo. Tuttavia è consigliatissimo, perché lo stile è di altissimo livello.
Il sogno nella terra innevata dove si scaldano le anime degli abitanti facendo loro delle gentilezze, il sogno della porta-pietra-moglie (pieno di rimandi ad Ocarina Of Time) ma anche il sogno infernale del lavoro dalle 9 alle 17, che fa ridere perché è vero... Tutti i livelli sono praticamente dei quadri digitali di sogni tutti diversi... e di incubi. Anche l'horror low poly è fatto eccezionalmente bene, esplorando diversi generi, quello degli spazi liminali, l'horror classico nella casa stregata ecc.
Purtroppo Hypnagogia è quasi un non-gioco e sicuramente punta allo stile sopra la sostanza e i primi livelli possono far passare la voglia di completarlo. Tuttavia è consigliatissimo, perché lo stile è di altissimo livello.
Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams is a short but tight surrealist trip through a series of dreams in a hip PS1-ish aesthetic vaporwave worldscape that kept me interested from start to finish. While the platforming is light and puzzling extremely rudimentary, the gameplay and vague philosophy about the world at large was very well done when coupled with an elite visual and audio pallette. I don't think the narrative itself is meant to be a hallmark work of fiction, but I found the mystery of the worlds at hand and the doomed denizens within to be both humorous and captivating.
I'd recommend Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams to anyone who might think that a quick thought provoking platformer with a unique creative element attached could be up their alley.
I'd recommend Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams to anyone who might think that a quick thought provoking platformer with a unique creative element attached could be up their alley.
a pretty ok game with interesting worlds that suffers a bit from the gameplay just being wondering around. Probably won't pick up again but... maybe. A game i'd rather watch someone play than play myself.
4/10
4/10
Visually incredible, but narratively and mechanically lackluster. A future SodaRaptor title in collaboration with a more skilled writer and/or game designer could be incredible.
A nice blend of surreal exploration with elements of horror later on. The game can be completed in one sitting (around 4 hours), and there are secrets to find in many of the levels. I definitely recommend checking this game out if you're looking for something short and sweet.
It's getting updates sometimes too, adding new dreams to explore.
It's getting updates sometimes too, adding new dreams to explore.
The best "First Person Narrative Adventure" game or however you wanna define games like this that I've played so far. Really well written cute little characters and each level delivering something different kept me on my toes. The best moment in the game is definitely the Ocarina Of Time tribute with the big strong rock wife. I miss my wife.
i want a gogi in my dreams