Yume Nikki is a vividly imaginative game whose delicate yet disturbing style still inspires games to this very day, especially those within the Indie scene.

It's hard to explain, but the game feels like so much more than "just" a game. The subtle method of environmental story telling, to the various areas that run the gamut between off-putting serenity to the straight up terrifying, and a OST that perfectly compliments the setting of navigating a land of dreams, the game gives reason after reason for why it's still so fondly remembered to this day, even after 20 years of it's original release.

Personally, I love this game IMMENSELY. I first played it back in the late 2000s, and was captivated near instantly after playing it for the first time. While it was initially kind of scary due to some of the environments (I'm kind of a wuss. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), I'm glad that I forced myself to continue through to see what the world had to offer. Upon doing so, I became a fan who continues to hold Yume Nikki very near and dear to my heart. (I'm even tearing up a bit while writing this. .·°՞(っ≧ᯅ≦ς)՞°·.)

While the gameplay might not be for everyone due to it's more exploratory nature (It's kind of like Animal Crossing but instead of decorating houses you get emotional trauma.), I still heavily recommend that everyone should experience Yume Nikki to see why it's so beloved. PLEASE play this game!

As an inspiration for countless JRPGs, this game is amazing. As its own experience, this game is beyond incredible.

If you don't like walking simulators, this will most likely not be your kind of game. You need a lot of patience to play, let alone 100% Yume Nikki. Your main goal is to collect all the "effects" scattered throughout your dream world, giving you different abilities which allow you to interact with all the characters you find along your way, in addition to quality-of-life abilities (e.g. faster movement speed). The benefit of having to find these abilities is that it makes you explore every single part of the Nexus (the hub which allows you to access other dream worlds), giving you a chance to see everything the game has to offer. Of course, there are some details which are off the beaten path, and those are interesting in and of themselves -- I personally recommend seeing it all. In terms of the story, the game is a bit vague, and there's no agreed-upon narrative. Most people will recycle the same "Madotsuki is a hikikomori" spiel (Madotsuki being the protagonist of the game which you play as), which does not fully explain the game. Going off of this "hikikomori" insinuation, you can infer that Madotsuki is either growing up in an abusive household of some sort (thus making her not want to leave her room, and making her view her dreams as an "escape") or something along those lines. For a lighter view on things, you can just assume Madotsuki really wants to go to sleep and doesn't want the player forcing them to go outside of their room. People get tired, y'know? Anyways, the content of Madotsuki's dreams and their surrealism also imply certain things, which are often negative, as viewed by the majority of the fandom. All these things can help people relate to Madotsuki in a certain way, sharing the same kinds of trauma. I think the desire to relate to those things sparked the agreement that Madotsuki has some sort of trauma, even if the underlying elements were there to begin with (I think they were). There is a sort of beauty in just imagining a girl who is just imaginative, exploring her dreams without a care. As mentioned, the surrealist nature of these dreams imply a troubled mind, which very well might be the case, but once again, there's no concrete explanation by the game's creator, Kikiyama.

It's very easy to apply parts of your own life to things you like, which include films, books, and in this case, video games. When things are left up to interpretation, often times people skew towards a negative theorization of whatever piece of media they're analyzing. Yume Nikki, in my mind, is a victim of this phenomenon. It's very easy to wrap yourself up in your own imagined narrative of something which has no such thing, even when all signs point to "why not?".

In conclusion, a positive outlook doesn't harm anyone. If you wish to relate to the characters you like, go ahead. As a coping mechanism, do whatever you want -- the deception in convincing everyone else it's true is where a problem may lie.

10/10 -- Would recommend, would pay for it if I had the option

Boring ass game