When I saw Picayune Dreams I instantly fell in love with the artstyle and music. I love breakcore/drum&bass etc. so I bought the game immediately and went in with as little knowledge as possible.
When I booted up the game and found out this was a roguelike I was really bummed.

I've never enjoyed Roguelites. I feel so unsafe and weird with constantly restarting the game. It's never been for me. I've always quit after some progress. But I gave it a shot anyways and I'm really pleased with what it turned out to be.
It's a short game (took me 7H) and the experience is tight and fun. Theres something so satisfying about vampire survivor upgrades mixed with semi touhou bullethell gameplay. I am really happy that the game was designed to be a small experience with big potential for players who play hundreds of runs. For me I was able to experience the roguelike gameplay loop at a small playtime I would expect for an indie. But considering the upgrades and the different builds you can make I know there is enough here for deeper players to enjoy. Only issue is that I can see the content running dry fairly quickly. There aren't many bosses to push people to keep going once you're done.

The story is honestly my biggest issue with the game. It felt somewhat inventive by mixing the story along with the rogulike gameplay but I just could not get myself to enjoy it. It felt very flat and unnecessary. But at the same time I wouldn't change it. It's the creators vision and I mess with what their doing and thinking. Just wasn't for me in that part.
The presentation is where it really shines. The art is so good. I also love the touch of the various equipment showing visually on the MC. The enemies became repetitive after 3 tried but the bosses were really cool and had a lot of charm.

And the last note I have is that the music is incredible. It's so nice having my favorite music genre in a new indie game. If you like electronic music and breakcore you will love this game. It's worth it for that alone.
I suck at writing reviews sorry MWAH <3

I'm really fond of this game. It's got such a fresh & interesting take on the bullet hell genre that bundles body & existential horror into it. The game is easily accessible for people looking for a casual experience but carries depth past it's gameplay with it's thought-provoking narrative. The style and design choices were also really great to see because it's boring seeing the same passed around look or bloated UI. I've seen people complain about the item descriptions being in a console format but I honestly love it. Because of it's barely legible make, you're left to analyse the upgrade you're choosing without mindlessly choosing what looks the coolest. It also allows for you to unwind and not blast through the whole thing at peak effectiveness (which can become strenuous). That, combined with the game not stopping but slowing down into that position give you this feeling of relief & accomplishment. Overall, an experience created with love that has a space to stand on it's own as a great experience without being a clone.

Forse ho bisogno di riflettere per qualche giorno ancora ma per ora devo dire che leggere paragoni con vampire survivors che è entrato nel grande pubblico più per l'ignoranza del grande pubblico che altro mi fa cascare le palle. Tralasciamo però questo, picayune sicuramnte è un bullet hell riuscito che può essere giocato anche dai meno avvezzi al genere (grazie a dio non è un ikaruga) e con elementi narrativi che incuriosiscono. Si vede tanto l'influenza dagli ib, yume nikki, ecc ma ha comunque una sua identità

A never-ending unspeakable nightmare, fueled by endless bloodshed and breakcore.

Picayune Dreams is a Vampire Survivors clone with a narrative that places it's protagonist and player in the same thematic through line, and it's highly effective because of that feat. The story is simply told, albeit obfuscated by metaphor, but it works extremely well. Picayune Dream's simplicity is to it's benefit, stripping away many of the complexities within the genre it exists in and makes great use of it's mechanics, down to the bare essentials. This is the game that's really sold me on just how enjoyable the Vampire Survivors method can really be, presented in a package that highly appeals to me.

Visual eye candy, playful with it's characters, yet deeply unsettling and tragic, a constant dopamine injection has been hooked up to my brain. I've somehow managed to sink 12 hours into the game, and my body desires to expend even more time with it. I can't control it. It does what it wants, not what it needs.

A super solid bullet hell (heaven?) game.

Plays like vampire survivors, but focuses more on "stacking" weapons & items. Has a level based-trait system that makes it super replayable - also has bosses and a story!

Visuals are awesome, super charming and very unique - almost like a playable windows screen-saver but... well... a lot more substantial than that.

Music is awesome too, fits super well with the gameplay and visuals.

It doesn't have as many weapons, stages, characters, etc. as Vampire Survivors does, but what is there is more polished. It's like comparing a 5 lbs bag of lays to a gourmet bag of the finest chips, with potatoes sourced from the mountaintops of Colombia... And who knows? It might get updates with even more content after this review is posted!

If you like games like Vampire Survivors, bullet-hells & roguelikes then give this a shot! It's only 5 BUCKS!!!

This is the best survivors-like I've played.

I've mentioned in a few other reviews that every single "survivors-like" is better than the original for one primary reason: the art direction. The art direction of Vampire Survivors is dogwater. The music sucks, the spritework sucks, the visual effects are obnoxious. Then you've got games like 20 Minutes 'Til Dawn kicking its ass just by sticking with a simple color palette.

The overall presentation of this thing is outstanding. Not only does the art direction of Picayune Dreams actually fucking rule (thanks ANDY LAND and co.), but the game itself doesn't make me want to fall asleep, thanks to both the ability to play the game at double-speed by pressing a button to skip the brain-off-no-thoughts-to-be-found level grinding, and the bosses.

I love the bosses.

People flip-flop between calling games of this genre "survivors-like" and "bullet-heaven", and while I think both names blow tremendous amounts of ass, there's something to note about the latter. Avoiding large swaths of slow-moving pathetic, easily-dispensable hordes of enemies feels very close to a shmup game, albeit with way less required skill. Picayune Dreams goes ahead and says "here's an actual bullet-hell boss. Have fun!" And then I do.

Plus, by having an actual plot and story beatable in under 10 hours (it took me 11), there's a tangible feeling of "okay, the game is over so you can take a shower and go outside now" missing from every other survivors-like I've played up to this point.

Here's to hoping this game signals a sharp increase in quality of Vampire Survivors bullet-fart games of its ilk, because Picayune Dreams clears.

If you like these kinds of games, play this one. And then stop. This genre sucks. This one's good though.

The genre fusions that Picayune Dreams offers are interesting enough in and of themselves, switching back and forth between bullet heaven, bullet hell, and RPG Maker horror game, but the real feat is how sublimely these all mesh together without the seams really showing. Of course bullet heaven and hell are sister genres, the only meaningful difference being who has the upper hand, but to splash these intense boss fights in the middle of mindlessly shooting down waves of drones without introducing any major pain points is impressive. The push and pull put me even further into the meditative state typically associated with bullet heavens, storing up my resources both, in game and mentally, to prepare for the next boss encounter. The reward for beating a boss for the first time being another genre switch that allows you to slow down massively and just learn more about the setting makes taking them down all the more satisfying. The overall presentation is extraordinarily effective too, I especially adore the UI which is so player-hostile with the way it presents item information to you, that it works in perfect ludonarrative harmony with our character not having all the pieces either. Really just an insane game all around and the only breath of fresh air I’ve seen injected into bullet heavens which seem to have stagnated just as quickly as they arrived.