Somber Pixel’s Night Reverie is an adventure game that disguises a much deeper and bigger story underneath. It will hook you with simplicity and nail your emotions to the wall without apology. Definitely, an indie to consider when looking for a fresh take on gaming.
The thing about indie games is that they are incredibly personal. When I reviewed Shindig, the wife/husband team at Imaginary Friends Games featured their own guidelines of what they wanted out of the experience, even including their two cats, which were delightful. When I reviewed Scarred Stars, the dev at Tuomo’s Games wanted to make a game that wouldn’t allow you to use weapons, which was a rarity for survival horror games. All these elements and decisions were not AAA-esque with budgets in mind. Rather, they were personal and driven by creativity and passion. This is what makes up an indie game and something that should be admired by reviewers, gamers, and everyone wanting to support an industry that is incredibly dry on creativity and taking chances.
I say all the above because I had the chance to go through yet another indie game that had a very important and personal foundation that was pointed in its intent and beautiful in its balance and execution.
Welcome to Night Reverie.
Let’s get right into it.
Eric Layman was right, indie games are where the industry should be looking
SPOILER ALERT: I enjoy talking about the story in this section, but if you want it to unfold yourself, skip this part. Just know that it’s a good story.
Somber Pixel put together Night Reverie and carefully crafted an amazing narrative that shifts from innocent fun to Grave of the Fireflies. Here are the many stages of the story as they unfolded for me:
Stage 1: This looks magical and adventurous.
Stage 2: Could this story be about divorce? It seems like there is a parent issue going on.
Stage 3: Oh, my goodness. I was way off. Holy (BLEEP).
Stage 4: (hugging everything near me)
SPOILER ALERT ENDS
The story is breathtaking and probably makes Night Reverie one of the better indie games I have played this year, and I have played some superb indie games. I don’t want to go further with this portion of the review other than to say it’s worth the $9.99 solely on the story alone. Big cats, magical characters, and a lovely backdrop is priceless. Keep an eye out for dialogue, though, because you don’t want to miss your cues. They’re there in front of you the entire time.
Anyway, superb story.
Magical assumptions about the demographic
My assumption with this story is that it was built for a younger audience, mainly because of the gameplay and how pointed it was when it came to figuring out solutions. When you play an adventure title like this, you generally run into a heavy number of challenges, especially if it’s built for an older audience. This game laid everything out there in droves at a time, which meant that once you explored the areas around you and found the collective clues, the puzzles would fall like dominos. For me, it spelled out ‘young gamers’, as nothing in the adventure genre is generally that obvious/easy without it being made for a younger crowd. As I was getting a good feel for being right about the audience, something seemed off.
Night Reverie’s story tugged at me here and there with small clues. Sure, all the puzzles that Somber put in front of me were easy. Sure, all the items I had to collect stood as total mysteries for about five minutes at a time, but after that five-minute period, they revealed themselves as solutions to the game’s problems. Everything came easy, but the price was the narrative building in the background. I had not watched the story as closely as I did the puzzles, a grave mistake on my part. Once I got back on track with the story, even going as far as restarting to get back into it, the narrative showed itself and erupted into a furious crescendo oh-my-Gods and what-the-bleeps.
And I was broken.
As I imagine all good games, the story was the foundation to Night Reverie. It drove it in the guise of an easy adventure game. Nothing on the adventure game design was short-changed at all, so you still get the by-the-book gameplay structure that you would expect from such a title, but secretly it took a backseat as the story drove it all. The journey was devastating, beautiful, and peaceful all at once.
Had I not finished this game, I would have assumed it was for a younger audience. It still could be, but quite frankly I think it’s for everyone. It’s a necessary journey for some and a ‘things yet to come’ for others.
It was good. So damn good.
Everything about its typical gameplay structure was secondary and just a pointed delivery system to complete the story Somber wanted to tell. It’s not a bad way to do things, especially in the indie scene, and especially when you want to get your story where it needs to go.
Other Odds and Ends
While the gameplay was enough and the story was epic, I must give props for visuals and music, especially the latter. The visuals were a proper pixelated pronunciation of a labor of love. The animation, environments, and character models were childlike in design, but sinister underneath, yet oddly reassuring like a joke in the middle of a tragedy. They did a great job of reeling me in and then spitting me out. They were gorgeous for this type of game.
The music, though, yeah it was perfect. It was the quintessential right amount of feel for every moment in the story. It playfully drew you in, danced with you a bit, then let you down hard. It made sense; every note made sense. In a way, it warned you about the shifts in narrative, which was hard to ignore. It was great. It worked with the visuals and narrative perfectly. It did what it needed to do to keep you in place for the story to follow through. All around just a great presentation.
Conclusion
Somber Pixel’s Night Reverie is an adventure game that disguises a much deeper and bigger story underneath. It will hook you with simplicity and nail your emotions to the wall without apology. Definitely, an indie to consider when looking for a fresh take on gaming.
