Noxia Somnia

Noxia Somnia is a pixel-art horror game that tells an emotional story through a peculiar combination of several game mechanics. At its core, it’s a side-scrolling adventure in 2D, in which you sometimes fight enemies and bosses, other times you try your best to run away from invincible ones while being chased, and yet other times you solve puzzles or ponder about the deeper life aspects that the dialog cutscenes bring up.
It’s a game about facing your deepest fears and controlling your negativity and sorrow with hope and luminous thoughts of self-forgiveness. While it does touch on sensitive topics such as depression, bullying, and self-harm, the overall direction of the game is a light-hearted one, aimed at giving you constructive advice on how to overcome these emotional struggles.
Gameplay-wise, you will control Tristan and guide him through his nightmares to fight off “harvesters” - these are monsters who feed on people's fears, pain and despair, hunting them with the goal of harvesting their souls. A central hub where you can shop for consumables, items, or cosmetics and upgrade your talent tree with the currency you earn from defeating monsters can be visited between the three acts that the game consists of or when the level offers you a portal to the hub. The levels are fairly lengthy, having several doors that lead to other rooms, some of them exiting in the same screen, others leading you to a different segment with a new set of doors. Without a map available, the navigation was pretty difficult for me, especially since the enemies reset every time you come back to the same room. I got lost multiple times, and each time I had to defeat all the monsters again, which on the positive side gave me enough currency to fully upgrade my talent tree. Each level has one invincible enemy that starts chasing you when it detects you and one of the main gameplay mechanics is to manage your detection meter by hiding in other rooms to avoid getting caught.
The game can currently be played on two difficulties: a “story mode”, in which the enemies are more forgiving, and a “nightmare mode” of considerably increased difficulty and extra bosses. There’s no median option between “easy” and “hard”. Additionally, one extra difficulty mode (“Ultra nightmare”) is planned to be released soon. The game has Steam-integrated achievements, but to obtain 100% completion you will not only need to gather all collectible items, weapons and cosmetics and defeat all the bosses, but these have to be done in nightmare mode. Additionally, there’s a speedrun achievement and a no-death run that have to also be done in nightmare mode. Even if the game is rather short (the ending can be reached in ~5 hours), achievement hunters will have to spend a considerable amount of extra effort to obtain that sweet 100%.
For me, Noxia Somnia is a mixed bag. I really liked the story and how relatable Tristan (the protagonist) is. Among the many slice-of-life episodes that we get to see from his past, each of us can relate to at least one of them: being called a failure / nobody (or feeling as such), regrets for things that remain unsaid before a loved one passed away, finding out that your friends are not honest towards you, etc. We see Tristan rise above all these situations, finding strength in himself to accept his flaws and work towards bettering his negative thinking, or simply forgiving himself for his failures. The resolution of each of these scenes is uplifting and brings a most-wanted peace of mind.
On the other hand, I am not the biggest fan of the struggle that the game gives you. It’s likely symbolic for everyone’s lives, yet for me, the added frustration of the difficulty mode decreased my overall enjoyment, and not even the outstanding retro pixel art was able to make up for it. The enemies hit hard, the navigation is cumbersome (although it does leave space for a lot of exploration), and your consumables (like the medikit) are limited. However, one thing that I liked about the boss fights was that the cooldown of the next boss's ability is indicated on top of its health bar so that the player can plan ahead and prepare to dodge it. Despite that, the boss battles are rather long and difficult (on “nightmare” mode). There is also no manual save feature, and the checkpoints are rather scarce, which means that the built-in autosave often makes the player replay a lengthy segment.
A lot of love has been put into creating this little indie game and this is rather obvious while experiencing the game. However, Noxia Somnia is not a game that could easily satisfy a wide range of players. It’s meant more for those who like challenging story-rich / emotional games and don’t get easily frustrated by repeatedly dying.
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Noxia Somnia is a side-scroller action-horror game with neat pixel graphics.
At the center of the story is a young man named Tristian, who suffers from depression due to past and present life struggles. The game's story is compelling and addresses problems that many people can relate to. It consists of three acts, culminating in a final boss fight.
As you explore Tristian's corrupted memories, you'll encounter different monsters and must evade harvesters while collecting items and souls. These collectible souls can be equipped to grant various buffs. After defeating monsters and breaking boxes, you earn shards and coins. Each monster drops special materials that can be traded in shops for valuable items. Coins are used to purchase items, consumables, and cosmetics, while shards are invested in upgrading abilities within your skill tree. All of these features are located in the hub world—a peaceful forest from Tristian's dreams. Players can also discover or purchase an enchanted whistle capable of summoning different helpers. Additionally, you must monitor the "exposure meter" – if it exceeds 100, your HP starts to decrease. Each boss in the game represents Tristian's life failures and features unique OSTs during battle, enhancing the atmospheric experience. The game controls are simple and straightforward, making it easy to pick up and play.
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YOU CAN PET THE CAT!!! THIS GAME GETS A 10/10!
This is an absolute gem of an indie game!
The story is really well written and takes you on a VERY deep journey into the emotional struggles that most people often deal with. The amount of times this game tugged at my heart strings because I know exactly what the protagonist was going through! The developers did a phenomenal job with the sound track, the color pallets used were charming, and there is humor to boot!! The controls for me were a bit to be desired. It controls solely with the keyboard, which is common among indie games. It's just a little rough on my wrists to do that. I went into this, not knowing what to expect and left completely infatuated with Noxia Somnia! The pacing of the game is great, not too short and not too long! The collectibles are optional to what is going on in the story, but adds some back lore that gives you a deeper dive into the protagonists past. I'm excited to try out the Nightmare mode once it's released, as it changes up the bosses completely! The difficulties in the game don't add much to it other than a focus on story or combat.
Some pointers I have: Talk to everyone, RING THE BELL, and PET THE CAT FOR GODS SAKE!
I also must give a shout out the developers! They are all charming human beings and deserve all the support you can give to this game!

I had a really great time with this game and occupied my attention for the better part of my weekend, 7.5/10. Let me try and not spoil anything and forgive this review from being messy as I write this quickly.
in many ways the game reminded me of “The Count Lucanor” although a much different game I felt very much in the same head space. The game is themed as a horror and echos the sense of Lovecraftian type horror. The game message with one of the final collectables gives you insight on what the game is reflecting on as a whole how ever the game resonated with me on alot of levels both with the themes and with more settle nuances of the game and I think many will feel the same way.
I am going to list many of the pros and cons I faced over my 9.5 hours of game time. And then end it with some final thoughts
Pros-
Boss battles- I feel the boss battles were great and fun to sight
Leveling options- I enjoyed the fact there were some options to improve your self, the game very easily could of not put this in the game and still been an enjoyable experience but I felt it over all enhance the experience for me
jumping- not being able to jump surprisingly leaves you with a feeling of being limited on what you can do
Optional content- there is some optional content in the game that doesn't feel tacket on but instead part of the over all experience, I rightfully enjoyed collecting everything and exploring all optional content.
Third act- the third act to me was the best of them all, I found my self enjoying doing much of that from a difficulty and progression standpoint, I would of enjoyed 1 - 2 more lvls like that.
Home base- early on there is a home base you can use for safety, shop, upgrade and in some ways expand upon and this was something I loved.
Story- the story for me really picks up mid - late game where I feel invested in learning more about the characters , who they are and were, what they truly wanted and if everyone could find happiness.
Cons-
Difficulty - I died a total of 4 times in this game, once near the start because I was confused and then 3 more times on an optional boss, at the start of the game it had the right difficulty but quickly fell off and was way to easy, I only truly felt challenged on act 3 and beyond and.
Lvling and equipment- mid way through act two I had gotten all possible skills and acquired more then enough money to hold me through to the end of the game. I ended the game with over 2500 more xp and 500 coin to spend and this left me with a desire to want to buy more and lvl more and when I could not it made it feel like collecting this going further was useless so I mostly rolled passed enemies once I collected there max drops .
Consumables - until act 3 I never used any but after this point they became mandatory for me to pass, buying them was never a problem though as I had what felt like unlimited coin.
Jumping- although I think jumping added to the game in many ways for suspense I couldn't help but feeling restricted in many of the boss battles by not being able to jump, I ad kinda wished it was going to be a lvl up option,
Story- the start of the story kinda bored me and I wasn't super interested in engaging with the first part of the game, later on for story reasons and for my over all feel the first part of the game is more interesting on hindsight and I feel adds to the over all game, how ever there was a brief moment I had considered not continuing the game because of this. At the end I missed the special ending I guess, I went back in to explore options and could not find anything, I fear I would need to have another play through just to experience it again and honestly as much as I enjoyed the game not a game that I feel is suited for a replay.
Equipment again- although I thoroughly had fun collecting everything much of it felt useless or outclassed by other equipment, some of the partners dont feel balanced well, I ended up with one and stuck with it for the rest of the game because although there were other strong ones they never hit enemies as often. I often felt annoyed with switching from flashlight to melle weapon as before you have the taser you need the melee weapon out to fight and then after that the taser is the strongest and remains that way until act 3 and then you always want to be on your melee weapon, in act 2 there is even an enemy that can only be killed with the taser, this annoyed me as it takes 2 hits and the taser much recharge, it was simply just me hitting it and then waiting befor tasing it again.
Glitches- very few, I only noticed 2, 1 when you leave the game and return it takes away your taser from the flashlight until you go back into the menu and select the flashlight, it took me close to 30 minutes to figure this out. Second glitch is one of the consumables in a shop you can purchase has its text information outside of the text box.
Final thoughts:
Although it might seem I was more negative towards the game then positive its more that I am patinat about the fact I know I could have had even more fun if I could of passed these parts that annoyed me. The game was fun and I hope with updates or DLC it will continue to expand on the parts it liked, I wished there were more souls to save and bring back to the forrest and more ways to learn about the characters involved in the story. I feel like the game was designed to be enjoyed within 1 - 3 hours of play but I spent almost 10 and I think this shows It is a worth while game.
Thank you for a great game.

I've been having a lot of fun with this one. The art style, sound and music, and game play have been making for a very fun experience. While I'm not the biggest fan of some of the story content, the rest of the game more than makes up for it.
The pixel art combined with high quality lighting and effects is one of my favorite art styles. The sound design and music in the game are wonderful. The game features an immersive soundtrack that perfectly encapsulates the mood of each scene, adding depth to the experience so far, and I am working my way through the 2nd major area in the game.
Gameplay in "Noxia Somnia" is a blend of exploration and fast-paced combat. Players navigate through corrupted memories and confront nightmarish manifestations of fears. The combat is challenging yet satisfying, with a variety of weapons and abilities at the player's disposal, including the unique inclusion of a cat named Greg. The game cleverly uses these elements to balance exposure to monsters with managing stress.
One aspect I believe could enhance the game further is the introduction of an auditory cue for low health, which would be beneficial during the intense combat sequences. This could be an optional feature, catering to different player preferences, especially for those with visual impairments.

I have played tested Noxia Somnia in it infancy. The game has grown over the years and will be quite the treat to play. I can't wait to finally play the fully polished version and finished game. One thing to look forward to in a future, is the Ultimate Nightmare difficulty, it changes up all the boss fights from the base game, add new/different items to the shop and new content not seen in lower difficulties.
I would recommend giving this game a try.
I'll give another review once I finished the game : )

Really neat game to play! Has a lot of elements from survival horror games, and combines them with a 2D retro style game play and a great story about exploring the main character's psyche through their dreams. Check it out if you like classic survival horror games!