The Lovable Nightmare Game

Nightmares are something that everyone can relate too, especially when they are young. The impetus behind this game is to ease the mind of a young child who is having a nightmare and is told the story of a gallant adorable knight and his fight against evil.  Even as you being playing, you almost hear the fairy tale being told as you venture onward in a magical land.

Video games on a whole are one of the few artistic mediums that allow for a story not just to be told, but to be experienced on a personal level. Telling a story is the heart of any good game, and this is no exception. It’s like playing a story book with its chibi-like knight and fanciful backgrounds and adorable enemies. It’s cute play at its best, and great to just experience the world around you and watch the story unravel.  Detailed yet original character designs give a unique look to the whole story which seems to encompass a bit from every mythology, and then package it in a very kid-friendly way.

Watch me stream a portion of this game here:

While you need to enjoy the look of the game you will be playing for hopefully a long time, this title seems to forget that there needs to be a secondary part of actually playing the game. This is not an art piece, it’s a video game, and to classify as such you have to be able to interact with everything and accomplish some sort of goal. This is where it falls flat since they have the most basic of actions and controls made stiff and delayed, while the platforms are tiny compared to the enemies, and there’s nowhere to fall without taking damage. Every enemy is the exact same from level to level, and there’s a total of two basic attacks, so unless you get a new spell power, be prepared for some really boring combat. If there was some kind of downward attack, or any kind of combo, or even ANY kind of variation on the monsters after an hour of playing it would be something, but as that’s not the case, it just reeks of repetition.

Story book games are always having to straddle the line between building a beautiful landscape and story and the reality of tight gameplay mechanics and as such I think this comes off as more of a playable painting, than an actual video game. I honestly do enjoy the whimsy and wonder, and the gorgeous character design, and it’s clear that they put a lot of thought into the art design, I just wish there were more game design elements, but for a $5 game (episode 1), it’s really easy to just spend the money and enjoy the show.