For this week’s critical play, I’ve chosen to play Yume Nikki by Kadokawa Games. I played this game on PC through Steam, but it is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. From the aesthetic and title of the game, it seems as though the intended audience are fans of JRPGs and other story-focused games in general, as well as those who might be more interested in a trippier and potentially darker story, so likely adolescents and older. As a walking simulator, Yume Nikki leverages the Narrative type of fun the most, with Fantasy as a close second, given its premise of exploring dream worlds. In a way, the narrative of walking simulators also leverages the Discovery type of fun, with how the player uncovers parts of the story over the course of the game. Yume Nikki tells a simple narrative with no dialogue and text. It is the story of a girl and the dreams she has while she sleeps. When starting a new game, the few “rules” are shown in the tutorial. By writing in the diary, the player can save the game. By sleeping, the player enters the dream world. To leave the dream world, the player makes the girl pinch their cheek and wake themself up.
You can walk and interact with some select objects. You don’t interact with other people and there are very few things in the environment to interact with, with the exception of doors and “elements.” Doors are very important in Yume Nikki: upon entering the bed and going to the “dream world”, the player becomes able to open the door to their room, which is unavailable while the player is awake. The other side of this door is a room with different doors of strange colors and patterns. Each transports the player to a different disconcerting dream world. While in these dream worlds, new doors that are discovered will allow the player to explore further into the dreams. One which I traveled through had many lamps, some lit and others unlit. In it, I found a tiny lamp with legs, and when I interacted with it I gained an “element.” This element lets me change my head into a lamp. Other than the visual distinction, I could not discern in my limited playtime if this had any other effect.
In general, while playing Yume Nikki, I felt no particular sense of triumph or sense of failure. The atmosphere the game creates is uneasy but low-stakes: I never felt like I wasn’t making progress, because the game does not indicate to you what you should be doing. If you like, there is nothing stopping the player from sitting at the TV and playing the minigame on the player character’s console instead of doing any of the walking. I did feel like I was set back slightly when my character collided with some dream world creature than transported me to a forest I couldn’t leave, but I have no idea if that was a good or bad thing overall. On the other hand, I got a small feeling of accomplishment when I unlocked the lamp “element,” but as I couldn’t find a use for it, I had no great feeling of triumph. Progression or setbacks feel mostly neutral in Yume Nikki. Instead, the feelings the game uses to encourage player exploration is curiosity. It shows the player strange images and dream worlds, never stops to explain them, and plays disconcerting and discordant music and sound effects during them.
With these particular analogies in mind, I do feel confident stating that Yume Nikki achieves its goals. However, perhaps there could be a bit more guidance when it comes to encountering certain creatures or unlocking these “elements,” to give the player more motivation to continue along certain paths and give more of a sense of triumph and progress. As a game with a loose narrative that develops through player exploration of the depressing and disconcerting fantasy “dream world,” Yume Nikki succeeds in making a fun game on its own terms. It is not for everyone, but it is an intriguing and atmospheric adventure through the strange, otherworldly dream of the player character.
