The Halloween season is upon us. And it's an appropriate time to talk about some of the video games where things become more unsettling, more spooky, and more things that make the skin crawl and the mind wander to the more foreboding recesses of the otherworldly. Now, because I've already talked about some of the notable franchises with horror themes like Silent Hill, Castlevania, and Resident Evil, I've decided to place a spotlight on some rather unique and twisted creep-tackular games that exist out there. And what better game to start with than the bizarre and enigmatic psychological trip, Yume Nikki.

 The history behind Yume Nikki (translated to Dream Diary) is a strange one. Developed by an essentially anonymous creator known simply as KIKIYAMA (everything about their age and gender are unknown, it's speculated that several people have taken up the mantle of the name), Yume Nikki is a Japanese exploration game created with the program RPG Maker 2003 and released in 2004. It's said to be one of the most intricate and detailed uses of the program. The game distribution site Playism hosted it, and it's seen updated patches throughout 2007, and officially getting an English localization in 2012. In 2018, Yume Nikki became available on Steam for free, courtesy of Kadokawa Games. Maybe not retro in the technical sense, but the base software it was developed on is relatively ancient, so I found a loophole.

In Yume Nikki, you play as a young girl named Madotsuki (estimated to be between the ages of 11 and 14), who one of the very few characters in the game with an actual name. The objective is to locate all 24 "effects" that are scattered about in her dream world. There's little else in the way of detail known about her life, it's been left up to speculation and how one decides to interpret her dreams, and the fan theories create a world in and of themselves. "Madotsuki" in Japanese translates to "windowed", or "in a box". As the word isn't technically a name in Japanese at all, it's believed that it's more a metaphor or a description of her, placing her in more an avatar and interpretation. 

Yume Nikki doesn't have a story or predetermined direction for the player to proceed through events, there's no dialogue to provide any context, giving Yume Nikki a sense of discomforting unease. The only thing you have to piece together is the twisted imagery, which is speculated to be Madotsuki's drawings or how she sees the world. Fans believe she's a hikikomori (one who severely withdrawls from society and isolates themselves) who has a history of physical and psychological abuse, leading to the imagery in her dreams looking very twisted and inhuman, serving as a representation of her inability to respond to external stimuli or to even see them as people. In the "real world", Madotsuki never leaves the apartment, which can also serve as an allegory for how trapped in her own psyche she may be. Nothing technically harms Madotsuki, but she is able to attack, leaving her as possibly the only creature with malice in her dreams. Interesting...

About the game itself. You start out in Madotsuki's apartment, the balcony and her room are the only locations in the real world you can go. You can sit at her desk (writing in the diary is how you save your progress), bounce her office chair around, and play her Famicom game, Nasu, a simple arcade game where you catch falling egg plants. Once you've exhausted all the options, you can go to bed and fall asleep. You awake in Dream World and can exit the room door into The Nexus, a location that links with Madotsuki's room with 12 doors. These serve as gateways to various dreamlands ranging in their own brand of obscure weirdness. There are at least two Effects that can found in each dreamscape. The Effects each change Madotsuki's physical appearance, like becoming simply a head, shrinking in size, a traffic light, and brandishing a knife. Some of these don't really have an effect during the gameplay (or do they...?), others like the bicycle can make travel much faster. I mentioned violence earlier, that's because Madotsuki can wield a knife and can attack and KILL many of the beings. Depending on how stabby you want to be, it can trigger some adverse effects, like warping you in Madotsuki's interpretation of Hell.

The gameplay is very simple. The directional keys control your movement and the space bar interacts with doors, creatures, and items. It functions well, but there isn't a lot to say. Yume Nikki is all about exploration, so because there's little in the way of a threat(?), I can't say that the game truly demands anything from you from a difficulty standpoint. That's where I feel the graphics carry the gameplay in some regards. With no dialogue or interactions that provide tangible information for the player, you're at your freedom to explore as many options as possible to see what gets a different reaction form whatever it is you're seeking. It's very artistic in that regard, and I give it major credit.

Yume Nikki might be a little tricky to recommend because it's such an unconventional game that it will throw off someone looking for a more linear venture. Providing you have some time and patience, and don't mind dabbling into the vast lore behind how other interpret the events (it's very deep, and I don't want to spoil too much of what Yume Nikki has to offer. It's absolutely free on Steam, so you lose nothing beyond some hard drive space. With some very offsetting music, primitive graphics that actually make the bizarre imagery even more poignant. Yume Nikki may not be full of jump scares or difficult boss battles, but it can be a surreal mind trip into the unknown.