A very beautiful and atmospheric experience. Japanese media has often had this interest in why we dream, and not necessarily trying to solve the exact why but more so just discussing the oddity that dreaming is, and how much the real world can affect our dreams. We've seen this with Kon's Perfect Blue/Paprika, the whole "Dream-Festival" that took over the second Mario Bros, and even Japan's revival of the Little Nemo in Slumberland series 70 years after it's popularity in the United States. It seems fitting for a Japanese game that started the craze of RPG Maker indie games to focus so heavily on viewing dreams within this new and blossoming media art form.

とても美しくて雰囲気のある体験です。日本のメディアは、なぜ夢を見るのかということに興味があります。必ずしも正確な「なぜ」を解決しようとしているわけではありません。それはむしろ、夢の奇妙さや、現実の世界が夢にどれだけ影響を与えるかについて論じることです。例としては「パーフェクトブルー」「パプリカ」「夢工場'87」などが挙げられます。日本では、オリジナルの出版から 70 年後にリトル・ニモを復活させました。つまり、日本のゲームが RPGツクール インディー ゲームの人気は始まりました。この新しい形式が夢の観念を探求するのは当然のこと開花しました。

Pictures of my adventure | 写真 :
1 2 3 4 5 6

To me, this game is legendary.
Yume Nikki it's one of a kind. Sure, you can found a lot of games that get inspired from his dark and dreamlike atmosphere, yet none of them really gives you the same experience that Yume Nikki it's able to deliver. Walking in these disturbing dreams trying to figuring out what does every elements represent, as dreams are the fifth essence of symbolism, it's what make this game one of the most unique adventure you can get from this media.
One of my favorite elements of this game it's the fact that you don't really have an objective or goal while playing it. Sure there is an ending, that you get by collecting all of the effects, yet even when you achieve this you don't really feel like it's the ending of the game. This is because the real ending of the game it's when you just choose to stop playing it, just as a daydream you have just for the pleasure of having it.
Yume Nikki it's haunting yet cozy, and even in his unfinished form it's perfect the way it is.

This is the most bizarre thing I've ever played, but I loved it: impressive for a game with no story, dialogue, identifiable characters or even gameplay!

It's definitely DEFINITELY not for everyone. I found I had to stop myself bouncing out of the game early doors (the game is terrible at explaining its own premise, but I think that's by design), but it wasn't long before I had drunk in enough of the bizarre dream atmosphere that this game is seeping in, and was coming back just to find more of it. There is a strange mix of dread and joy to be gotten from exploring in this game; the way its structured makes it feel like you're going on a number of expeditions into this alien world, each one going deeper and deeper and uncovering more and more bizarre places. No media I have ever interacted with before have ever made me feel the way this does. As a piece of art, I cannot recommend this enough.

But as a video game? Well, it's a tough one, because there really isn't much gaming in here beyond exploring the world the game is set in. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is just an art exhibition; whatever Yume Nikki is, it needs the player interactivity to be there to work, but it transcends the very label of 'video game'. Gah goddammit, this game turned me into a pretentious arsehole...

But regardless, there are definitely a few things that could have been improved on the gameplay side; you walk /way/ too slowly at base speed, especially considering how massive some of the areas are. And while the music/ambience is honestly fantastic and a big part of what makes this game work, the audio tends to consist of very short loops, meaning they can get annoying after you've spent long enough in one area.

But yeah, in terms of imagery and atmosphere, I am struggling to think of anything as richly surreal as this. A bizarre and at-times harrowing experience but one I can definitely recommend, especially given its place in gaming history and the low low price of zero on Steam!

i love how this game keeps you thinking about it after you beat it, like the main game is a cool walking sim through this fucked up creature's dreams and then the ending puts everything into perspective and kinda turns your brain on and forces you to wanna connect dots using the whatever the hell is going on the dream worlds

please please please please play this if you havent already and try to do as much as you can blind but dont feel bad about popping open the wiki to find the last few effects if youve been stuck for like 2 hours not finding shit

The first hour or so of Yume Nikki was one of the most baffling experiences I have ever had starting a game, particularly because--contrary to my expectations going in--I barely even consider it a game. I wandered around each lurid landscape trying to figure out what the hell the structure of this world was meant to be, before realizing there simply wasn't really one.

Yume Nikki was a lot easier to digest once I realized what I was meant to do: pick away at its lurid world, finding equipment and transformations that change both myself and the world around me, and discovering new places. It's really impressive how, despite there not being a single line of dialogue, the world was still such a strong canvas for drawing meaning and emotion out of. The mall area, with its dreary melancholy pierced by an incredibly rare sense of hope provided by the flute player, which i spent a little while playing alongside with my own flute, was one of the standout areas personally.

The world of Yume Nikki feels so viscerally real in its unreality. The word I've come to best describe the entire experience is "ethereal". Most of the direct fingerprints from the author feel totally dusted off, with a few exceptions, instead left embedded deeper inside the world. It's not the translation of somebody's dreams into a playable experience so much as a direct window into those dreams. Many of my recent dreams, from just before and during my playthrough, have felt almost identical in their structure and presentation.

I don't feel good rating the game like the other games I typically play since, again, I don't see it as a game as much as an experience. I don't know how good it really is, but I don't feel like it matters. My five star rating is more a showing of my overwhelming appreciation for the experience. It'll definitely be on my mind for a while.

I am not finished with this game yet but I'm 18 effects into the game and man this is such a strange but amazing game. This game really has no real meaning all you do is traverse the dreamworld of the protagonist to try to get 25 effects to get the ending. There are 12 doors located in this little hub thingy in each door has a different world based on different things. In each of these doors there may be some sub worlds(imma call them tht) u can also explore to find some Easter eggs or some effects. This game is a unique,creepy,unnerving experience that takes u into the dreams of the protagonist. Hearing the music being looped for so long puts me on edge waiting for a jump scare just to not be meant by one. This will happen pretty much throughout the whole game. The meaning is up to theories and shit people may interpret this piece of art in a different way than others. This is just a experience tho such a interesting and this is such a surreal game and i love it for that. there are certain worlds that have certain items that could've mean something like the knife in the dark world which ill talk about on my update when i finish the game. The game tells so much without words. The soundtrack is fucking phenomenal im a music lover and this shit does not disappoint has potential to be a amazing game in a amazing medium.

Yume Nikki is an all time classic. I first played it in college, and frankly, I wasn't quite sure if I would enjoy it. I was intrigued by the premise, but I thought that perhaps I might get bored at just walking around. Instead, I found myself completely encapsulated, exploring the world for hours.

The game's premise is so elegant, but like everything in this game, leaves room for the player to consider and ponder. Madotsuki is alone in her room, and for whatever reason, refuses to go outside, instead choosing to dream. There's a tragic aspect of this setup that looms over the whole game. You aren't merely exploring the dreams of a random person. Rather, you are reading the dreams of someone specific, and probably not someone who is in the best state of mind. Perhaps that is me reading into things and projecting my own thoughts and feelings onto the game, but that is what Yume Nikki is all about. Its a world filled with visual detail, but the specifics of their meaning is hazy at best, and thus there are gaps to be filled by the observer in a Roland Barthian sense. Everyone fills those gaps in their own way, to the point that their own reading of the game to an extent becomes a reflection of their own self. While this is true of all art, it's especially true when so many of the details are left up to interpretation.

The game's dream worlds are fascinating. The vast majority make me feel lonely, even when they have inhabitants. There's always a certain distance felt between Madotsuki and the strange beings of her dreams, at least in most cases. The worlds themselves are ethereal and bizarre, their dreamlike quality aided by the short music loops that become memetically drilled into your head. Part of the joy of exploration is not knowing what else is out there. There's snow, buildings, abstract voids, and so much more, and I wanted to see it all.

While Yume Nikki could be said to be a game "just" about walking, that would imply that the act of walking is uninteresting. Rather, Yume Nikki is a game about observing, and thinking, acts which aren't mechanical in nature, but take place in the player's head. I loved thinking about the things I was seeing, marveling in their strangeness, vibing to the aura, and experiencing things. The gameplay of Yume Nikki truly lies in the thoughts constructed in your own head.

I have never been particularly fond of Yume Nikki's ending. In a sense, the foreboding atmosphere implied by the game's premise is heightened in a tragic and sad climax. Its an incredibly somber note to end on, and in a sense does ring true to the experience of stewing in negative and depressive thoughts. But, it has always felt sour to me. Its an aspect of this game that, while I'm not huge on it in its original context, has been commented upon by other games responding to Yume Nikki. This scene, for better or worse, became a lasting part of the game's legacy, and in a sense is recontextualized by the media around it. In particular, Yume 2kki and OMORI both have their own twists on this ending that I actually find fascinating, and worthy of their own exploration, that work in the context of those games.

All in all, Yume Nikki is a game that is worth as much time as you want to give to it. If you play it for 20 minutes, or get obsessed and play it for hours on end (like I did), you will find something to appreciate about it. For the time it released, it's incredibly unique. Not much else was like it at the time, and it helped forge a new possibility for what games could be. Its a game that is free and easy to access, that runs on almost any computer made in the past 20 years. There's no reason not to play Yume Nikki. Frankly, I could keep talking as this is only a snippet of my thoughts on the game, but this should suffice for now. Enjoy your dreams!