On a random cold and stormy night, I on a whim decided to play Yume Nikki.

What ensued was one of the most unique and engrossing experiences I've had with a videogame in a long, long time.

There's no real apparent goal or meaning of Yume Nikki. It just tells you the basic mechanics of the game and lets you roam free. All you can really do is just... explore. There's no clear story, and as mentioned before the game is utterly aimless. It sounds boring, and at times it really can be.

But in a way, that's really special. To be able to just explore this nebulous dreamscape and feel it is what well, makes it "really special".

Yume Nikki is a game not meant to be understood by conventional means. Rather, its one that needs to be felt and experienced.

I ended that play session at 4 AM, and I definitely didn't see everything this game had offer. I knew I'd come back to Yume Nikki the next day, but until then I'd be whisked off into a sweet reverie of my own.

Edit: It's been a few months, this is one of my favorite games ever I think. I'll probably think about it for a really long time.

I've lost count of how many times I've said this before, but I've known about the Persona franchise for a very long time and it always came off as that one franchise I just wouldn't enjoy so it's natural that I was skeptical going into it. But I think I can safely say that it did not disappoint. In fact, it's easily one of the best experiences I've ever had.

I wouldn't say it hooked me right from the get-go, hell I might just go and say that the first 4-5 hours were kinda boring. Traversing through Tartarus was a massive pain in the ass, wasn't enjoying the concept of social links, etc etc, but you what? I came to appreciate them. Did I have an epiphany out of nowhere? Yeah, but not really. The social links, that initially came off as "you just hanging around with the irrelevant characters, who didn't even get their voice actors, to somehow form bonds to get your Personas strong", gradually turned into some really nice short stories. I wouldn't say those characters were the best when it came to writing, but their conflicts just felt so grounded and real, something everyone can relate to, and were fun to follow, and despite not being able to finish all the social links, I managed to find a lot of great ones, notably The hanged Man arcana (Maiko), the Hermit arcana (Maya) and the infamous Sun arcana (Akinari). Tartarus just grew on me SO much over time as well. It straight up took me back to my Pokemon days, where you just had to learn a lot of things by yourself, instead of all the information about how every single thing works being spoonfed to you, and I can say gladly that this was the first time in my entire life, where I actually enjoyed farming and exploring all the areas.

Speaking of the narrative, while it wasn't as good as I expected it to be(It was kinda messy, to be honest), while the antagonist cast wasn't all that great, it did a great job of executing its themes. I still remember the odd pain I felt as January 31st got close. The dormmates' reaction to what was to come, and the music that played during that month, it was all just perfect. the finale was just as good as I expected it to be, everything from the final boss battle, which was one of the coolest(and hardest) I have ever seen and the epilogue was just beautiful. Finally getting to see the conclusions to all the side characters' stories was just heartwarming, and then you finally come to what I consider to be one of the best endings ever.

One of the best casts with even the side characters having intriguing character arcs, one of the best soundtracks, really fun gameplay(coming from someone who despises turn-based games), and a very heartfelt story, persona 3 is one of the best experiences I've ever had which will stay with me for a pretty long time. I could go on and on but that's all for this spoiler-free review.

I think I'm definitely hooked on the franchise with this. So the next game I'll be playing is.... persona 3 FES. Cuz I need to finish all the social links and I need those cutscenes. Or maybe Persona 4 first, we'll see. Also, I'll be watching the movies soon.