It’s a moving and relatable narrative that allows you inside our protagonist’s life and personal experiences of her subconscious. It’s a damn good game.
Dreams are something that I have never really put a lot of thought into. I’ve never really remembered much of the dreams unless they ended up being wonderful like when I was in a relationship with a lovely British woman, or awful like when my mom and sister tried to attack me. Dreams do have a lot of emotional connection to us. What we experience and how we feel tends to get transferred into these events that we have pretty regularly. Traumatic dreams tend to linger, and that’s where Dreamscaper comes in. To tackle those hard moments.
Dreamscaper is a top-down, permadeath, puzzle game. You play as Cassidy, who has just made a massive leap personally and moved away to the city for the first time. From here you find yourself in two worlds, reality and your dreams. Throughout your dreams, you’re a fighter. Taking on demons creates, and at times a giant fish at first. You’ll move from room to room exploring, collecting, and defeating creatures in the subconscious. While awake, you’ll travel about the city all the while meeting others, developing friendships, building those relationships, and helping gain abilities and unlockables for combat. Cassidy herself is coming off an emotional time and is having to fight and figure out this new world and job all on her own. While in her dreams you’re able to visit important points in her past and learn more about who she was before she moves and became who she is today. It took me a while at first, but after completing the first ‘world’ I begin to understand this mood and feeling overall. You get this sense that she is dealing with depression and anxiety of a new world and job. To begin to emphasize with Cassidy and the struggles that she faces in both the real world with her conversations, gift-giving, and just general interactions with those but you also see this with the battles and world-building that you do while she sleeps.
The combat is a bit tricky at first. The game recommends that you play on a gamepad, but I personally chose to stay with keyboard and mouse. It takes a bit to get used to for sure. The base control layout threw me off as you don’t really have to scroll to change in-between ‘weapons’ or attacks. While I fumbled around at first, I was able to manage to get my feet under me and start picking up and getting better at a faster pace. Fighting enemies overall is a really great time. In previous permadeath’s, combat felt super scary to me as knowing that every move matters. Dreamscaper however made combat feel fun and enjoyable. When you ‘die’ in battle, you don’t necessarily die. You wake up. Depending on how far/well you did in Cassidy’s dreams correlates to her life while she’s awake. If you can go through the full world without dying that night, then you are fully rested and have plenty of time to move around and talk to others. If you die early in the night you’ll wake up unrested and have limited time to go around and talking to others in town is limited and needs to be kept short. Making friends in town is dependent on your time talking and gift-giving to them. While asleep and in battle, you’ll be able to find emotions like bliss and solace in little moments in remembering past events. Once you collect these, you’re able to craft items and give them to friends and people in the town. I loved these two polar worlds that you travel through. You really get to see the two sides of Cassidy and her struggles in both dreams and real-life as she moves through this new world and challenging time.
The visuals are breathtaking. That’s all you really need to know. Characters are faceless and that adds so much to the game. It allows you to put yourself in their shoes and imagine/create them in your mind. The world is also beautiful. The attention to detail as branches blow in the wind and the water splashing on the frozen pond is beautiful. I honestly couldn’t take my eyes away from the game and the world. The color scheme was awe-inspiring and worked wonderfully together. Another big positive for the experience is the score. I love a good score and just sound in games. The OST is superb. The balance between peaceful scenes of moving about the worlds and the intense and sharp sounds of combat and fighting blend perfectly to create a roller coaster of emotions just through sound.
Dreamscaper is a permadeath RPG that took my breath away. This is a game that carries weight behind it. The overall moves and story arcs are impeccable to take it and watch. The visuals are staggering and impeccable. It’s a wonderful game. It’s a moving and relatable narrative that allows you inside our protagonist’s life and personal experiences of her subconscious. It’s a damn good game.
