DREAMWILD

Well, this sure is a weird one. Not in the way that may initially be interpreted from static images of it though, and not in a charmingly quirky way. This game is WEIRD weird. Like the kind of game you’d expect if your only exposure to the medium was a brief conversation with someone who learned everything they know about games from skimming wikipedia articles. Everything that this game knows about game design feels like it was whispered into the developer’s ear as they slept. So many taboos as old as the genre are broken in such roundabout ways. You don’t get any I-Frames- but enemies do. Just barely enough to trump your attack speed, in fact. The game frequently restricts you to melee- even though a majority of the enemies deal contact damage. You can only safely heal at high amounts of health. You gain useless “score” only through time, but you only gain progression through ending runs and taking risks. I could keep going.
Why, the game doesn’t even follow its own unconventional design principles. Everything about the game makes you want to and feel like you should be going fast, yet the game actively punishes you for doing so. The game always starts you in the same area and charges you its currency to leave, making it feel as though you should be going to other areas to progress, yet it is not only the easiest, but most optimal way to get to its ending. The framing of its atmosphere and top-down RPG style segments lead me to expect a focus on the story, though it ended up only being a small part of it; and it feels like even the developer thought that this would be the way the game would go, as it is written in a way that makes it feel like you really should care about the characters and the world, even though the game never gives itself the time to develop them (I only knew the name of a single character by the end… which I learned from the trading cards.)
Between my big blobs of relatively specific criticisms and the fact that this review is positive, you’d probably expect a big blob of unspecific positive feedback. And that may be accurate? I’m not sure what to consider this next part as.
This game sucks. The combat is tedious, as a roguelike it uses randomness in all the wrong ways, and the progression can only be described as nonsensical. It’s almost like it doesn’t even want to be a game. So maybe I shouldn’t be treating it as such. As a game, it is frequently unpleasant and dull, but as a b-hopping tour through early 3D renders, it’s quite something. When you look at it like that, the combat starts to feel more like a chase than a fight, the weird RNG feels more like exploring an open world game, it really makes trying to be optimal feel less necessary, and it really lets the incredible art and music make an impact. But I had to put in a lot of effort to be able to appreciate it in this way, and even then the gameplay was still quite dull and tedious. I would only recommend this game if you’re willing to approach it with an open mind. If you don’t think you can handle that, at least try to.
I greatly appreciate many aspects of this game, but I think the developer still has a massive chunk of their style that they are yet to figure out, and I look forward to seeing what they make next. And I hope that they stay away from action games, I don’t get the sense that they enjoy or care about developing games about winning and losing, about score and skill.
Anyways, this game isn’t a great FPS, or a great roguelike, or anything like that. But it is a real good frolicking through whimsical meadows simulator! And I had a pretty good time with it!

Had the developer of the game cheering me on like a football coach on my first attempt. 10/10 Would die near the end again.

I really enjoy this game. Its fairly short, and once you get the hang of it, it becomes super easy. The main selling points of this game is the amazing art direction and movement. The art direction is wild. I love the lofi, 90s vibe. The 2D over world took me for surprise, but it looks amazing. The characters, worlds, music. Its psychedelic. The actual gameplay is really fun. Its a mashup of tribes ascend, csgo surf, all that jazz. Sliding around, zipping in circles around the enemy. Once you get the hang of the movement, its easy to grind out the currency and buy all the upgrades, and at that point its cheese. The fact that its made by a solo developer is amazing. I hope they continue to explore this universe they've made. Its something special

Rly rly fun game, the the shift in style when you enter the castle is one of my favorite things to show ppl to get their reaction. Also the movement is soooo much fun once you figure out the tech for gaining speed quickly. Also also burning skull is the best item, fight me

It's pretty short and not a whole lot of replayability I guess, but the aesthetics are great and the soundtrack slaps so much I had to go and get it on bandcamp. Just a super chill game to mindlessly strafe jump around alien worlds and kill stuff to nice tunes.

Absolutely incredible, I adore the visuals on this, and having quick movement like this is a lot of fun, feels like im back to bunnyhopping in source engine games again.
I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for a unique experience in a game.

Eclectic mix of mechanics that manages to come together into something really unique. It needs to be played to be believed because trying to describe all the strange and evocative dream-like qualities it features would do a disservice to the experience. It's really not long but there's plenty of secrets and tricks to pick up on. At times it can be frustrating because of its random terrain generation and permadeath but it's so short and relatively easy that it won't take long to beat once the mechanics start to click. Just play it already!