YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-

This is going to be the weirdest recommendation I have ever made. In order for Dream Diary to be a success, it would have had to be at least one of the following two things: a good remake of Yume Nikki, OR a good standalone game in its own right. It's not either. And yet here I am saying, “Yes, you should play this, especially if you liked the game it's supposed to be based on but is actually not very much like!” So I guess all I can do is explain myself.

First, addressing those two points I made earlier.

For those who've never played Yume Nikki, the premise was simple. A hikikomori falls asleep each night and has vivid dreams about the things she imagines, fears, or hopes might be outside the front door she steadfastly refuses to open. You explore these dreams looking for effects that will give her new abilities, some of which will open new areas, until you've collected everything, at which point the game... er, shall we say, reaches a rather concrete conclusion.

Dream Diary, this remake, sort of has the same plot. You're still a hikikomori who won't leave her house except in her dreams. Only now, instead of vivid worlds of neon and numbers, populated by spinning wheels with feet, she dreams of shopping malls and back alleys populated by shadow people and statues with killer gazes.

Yeah.

I can't be too hard on Dream Diary for not being a shot-for-shot remake of Yume Nikki. Yume Nikki was a massive open world game before that was trendy, sink-or-swim in its utter refusal to tell you what you were supposed to be doing, and visually so unusual all but a few assets would have to be made from scratch; a truly faithful remake would take a ridiculous budget and a very long time. In that aspect, it makes sense that Dream Diary is shorter, more linear, and more traditional in its settings (how traditional? One of the levels is an abandoned warehouse full of killer mannequins. To put that in perspective, the original once had you climb an umbilical cord through a dude's ear to get to the next area). Still, material from the original game comes so infrequently that, regardless of the reason for that, Dream Diary isn't a good remake of Yume Nikki.

But the more rigid structure and direction means it's at least a good game in its own right, right? Well... no. It's not the worst thing I've played. But it does have problems. You see, Dream Diary doesn't just want to be a survival horror game. It wants to be a platformer, too. And as someone who loves platformers, I am not going to sugar coat this: it's a bean burrito. Repetitive jumping sequences that write precision checks the iffy controls can't cash, pick-a-paths, a fixed camera that actively hides the platforms you are supposed to be aiming for, full do-overs for failure... this would be bad on its own, but then put it in a survival horror game that is ostensibly supposed to be scary. Nothing kills any fear or tension the game may have built like having to ride the slow elevator all the way back around Block World because you guessed wrong at the pick-a-path. So while I wouldn't say Dream Diary is a bad game in the same way something like Superman 64 is a bad game, it's not exactly a good game, either.

So then the question is... why do I still recommend it?

You can save Madotsuki in this one, that's why.

That's really it. As I watched the door open and the sunlight pour into the apartment, I thought of everything wrong with Dream Diary, and I said, “Worth it.”

That's not a great explanation, is it?

So, first things first, if you're here because of RPG Maker's Yume Nikki, take that thought, crumble it into a tiny ball and throw it to your neighbor's window. Eventually your neighbor will see what you think of it and throw this game back at you without playing the original game. The neighbor likes you, so they tried their best but they just don't know the original feeling! If you then retrieve your thoughts and compare to this game you may be disappointed, but if you haven't played the original or keep your YN thoughts only for the original version (which is free here on steam and surely other pages), then you'll have a fun time actually

This game is not as bad as people say. its a fun 3d version of the rpg maker original. it might not feel the same or have the same depth, but it isnt a bad experience neither. its fun, i enjoy it. I don't expect some exceptional perfection, and this game fits right in the niche of "acceptable, not annoying" fun experience. I still recommend to play the original though.

Although I enjoyed the game overall and achieved 100% completion, this is a significantly different take on the beloved RPGMaker classic.
I strongly recommend it if you're looking for more Yume Nikki content. Just don't expect a top-down remake of the original, and you'll have a great time!

To basically "remake" a game as beloved as Yume Nikki is understandably quite a controversial move and in doing so, this game is without a doubt a failure. That being said, I enjoy it as a curiosity. If you're familiar with the original game, seeing its surreal pixelated locales redone in a 3D environment with a tighter knit game structure is certainly interesting, even if it is quite flawed and lacking in many areas. I found completing this game to be a leisurely, relaxing experience. To anyone unfamiliar with Yume Nikki, I would advise steering clear of this and playing the original game instead.

Very different from the original Yume Nikki, but with some nice nods to the original that I enjoyed. I managed to play through *most* of the game unaided, but did need to refer to a guide at one particular point. It was a slight mix of being kind of obtuse and me just missing a thing I could interact with in a specific way.
Aside from the layout of the zones being different, a lot of the creatures are different in their behavior, as well. There are a lot of creatures that were once passive or just sat in the background that are now actively hostile. Not a bad change, honestly. Additionally, getting caught by a creature no longer teleports you to a different part of the dream, but instead just gives you a soft game-over where you respawn at the start of the segment. I wasn't so sure about this change at first, but I understand why they did it.
You see, instead of everything being an interconnected 'network' of dream zones (I mean, they do connect to each other in places, but not to the extent they do in the original game), each dream is sort of its own 'stage' with its own 'end point.' There's still a lot of exploration involved, just to a different extent to the original.
All in all, I do recommend it. It has some nice segments, some of which are very creepy, and lacks jump-scares. And some of the friendly creatures are quite charming.

игра нормальная, но есть очень много моментов где игра попросту не дает понять, что тебе надо делать и куда идти, а нормальной википедии у данной игры нету)
добавление платформинга тоже спорное, зачем оно в игре про чиловое исследование локаций? зато после зонтика все становится хорошо, это приятно!
перенос контента из орига прошел хорошо, за это игре огромный плюс, НО все это перекрывается багами и гличами, что преследуют тебя всю игру, к примеру у меня просто не работали 2 эффекта, из-за чего я не мог продвинуться дальше по сюжету, пришлось чинить через костыли
по итогу игра нормальная, но оригинальная ники куда лучше, а еще лучше фанатское продолжение юме туки