Yume Nikki is a very important game.

Yume Nikki is the father of RPG Maker horror games. Without it, we wouldn’t have absolute classics such as Mad Father, The Witch’s House, and Ib.

It can even be considered a co parent of modern indie games as a whole, along with Cave Story.

You could describe Yume Nikki as a pixelated walking simulator, but it’s so much more than that.

Like ogres and onions, Yume Nikki has layers, and once you go a few layers down, you’ll be hooked.

Playing as a young shut-in named Madotsuki, you explore different worlds within your dreams looking for effects. Some of them are easy to find, such as walking around a world with weird patterns until you find a bicycle on the floor. Others are not, such as going through a hell maze to get to a secret part of the woods to get to the train to get to the island.

You’ll be occupied solving puzzles to find effects, but on the way you’ll find more. You’ll go through worlds upon worlds upon worlds until you can’t remember how you got there, and you’ll find events that do nothing to progress the story of the game and only serve to intrigue and amaze you. Whole sections of the game aren’t required to progress the game and only exist as a treat made specially for you, the player, to experience.

Once you’ve traversed through world upon world through your dreams, and you’ve finally collected all of the effects, you can wake up and experience the ending.

And I dare won’t spoil it.

You may have heard that this game is scary, but I wouldn’t say so. I would moreso describe it as haunting, and not just haunting, but hauntingly beautiful.

The environments, events, and NPCs in this game are like no other. They’re eerie, yet endearing. They fill you with a sense of wonder that no other game can. They’ll leave you longing for more and wanting to see everything despite getting no reward from it.

I can’t tell you what you’ll see in Yume Nikki, it’s too surreal to even put into words.

Yume Nikki is not a game, Yume Nikki is an experience, and all I can tell you is to experience it for yourself.