Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams

There is definitely been a surge of indie ps1 inspired games over the past couple of years or so. Wheter that is FPS or horror games i think a lot of people are in the market right now for Retro inspired video games. And this game is no exception released by sodaraptor, whom i had previously no knowledge of.

I think this was on my steam wishlist during the summer sale and thats around the time i played it. I took a break and finished it several months later today.

The good parts of the game are definitely the art and visuals. It makes you feel like youre playing a PS1 game with modern controls and im sure it took a lot of effort to make this entire as retro inspired as possible whilst still having modern gameplay aspects. The allusion in the game are also a strong pointer sharing many aestethic but also gameplay aspects of other games. Not to spoil too much but one level in the game introduces the targeting system of Ocarina of time as an example of an allusion. Some small detail allusions are also pretty cool to spot for instance the last achivement in the game that you get when completing the game is "what a long, strange trip its been" which is of course the very famous line in truckin' by the Grateful Dead.

The bad parts about the game I would say is the overall gameplay. Even tho the gameplay isnt bad its still pretty mid or just fairly uninteresting. Its a narrative driven platformer/puzzle game which isnt exactly a new concept. A perfect example would be the Portal franchise and i think what sets those 2 games apart is the puzzles in Portal feel more rewarding, usually giving you a part of the story building ontop of itself but here it doesnt really work out. Most of the game is just a giant walking sim and a lot of the platforming is just too basic to offer any challenge. Now i do realize this game isnt supposed to be Dark Souls nor was it programmed by Valve so of course im cutting it some slack

The narative shift about halfway is amazing and I definitely enjoyed this game a lot. It had a great story and it had amazing visuals. The added Developer commentary was also really neat and i liked the concept of making a game based on your dreams. Its a fun idea and I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the recent retro revival in gaming.

this game is trying way too hard and i understand that but I DONT CARE!!!!! I LOVE HYPNAGOGIA BOUNDLESS DREAMS!!!!! I LOVE THE ELEMENTS OF EXPLORATION AND BEING ABLE TO FIND SECRETS INSIDE OF ALREADY DYNAMICALLY BUILT WORLDS!!!! I LOVE THE GRAPHICS!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE CHARACTER INTERACTIONS AND THE NUANCES OF THE MORE FLESHED OUT SIDE CAST!!!!!!! I LOVE MY ROCK WIFE!!!!!! I LOVE THE STRANGE REFERENCES TO VINNY VINESAUCE!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE HAZY ATMOSPHERE EVEN IF I USUALLY DONT FIND VAPORWAVE AS AN AESTHETIC ALL THAT COOL!!!!!!! BUT I LOVE EARLY 90S RENDERS AND LOW QUALITY 3D GRAPHICS WHICH ARE STAPLES OF THE VAPORWAVE AESTHETIC ANYWAY SO I LOVE THE VIBE THE GAME IS GOING FOR!!!!! I!!!! LOVE!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAARGRGGHGHGHGGRGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

A big step up from the game jam Hypnagogia, Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams has a lot going for it in terms of atmosphere and grabbing what makes the early PS1 era of video games so endearing. It's finally come full circle that this look has come over the 8-bit retro look of games like Shovel Knight or the odd mix of Apple II and Earthbound of Undertale.

Hypnagogia wants mostly an adventure game with some mild 3D platforming. At times it really nails an atmosphere of horror (dig the secret world under the sea) and other times I think it slips up with some more clumsy cliches (chalk seemingly writing scary things on the wall, etc.))

The difficulty doesn't really rise up as the platforming throughout mostly remains consistent and there aren't really puzzles either as most of the game is just traversal through unique locations which are thankfully fun to explore. Sometimes it nails it being a strange mixture of a more Dreamlike 3D platformer (think of hazy memories of Spyro the Dragon, Ape Escape or Super Mario 64) with occasional jabs of Silent Hill or Metal Gear tossed in. If the last sentence sounds good, dig in. Others will move on to other tasks.

The game has a lot of really cool creatures and worlds and you can get a good one spin out of it. If the above sounds interesting, please play it, if not, just play Half Life again, I don't know, what do you want from me?