Roguelites: Picayune Dreams
In the wide and growing world of garlic-likes, there have been endless contenders vying to capture the attention throne that Vampire Survivors popularized. Hall of Torment, Hell Maiden, Vital Shell. Picayune Dreams in comparison isn't particularly different. It doesn't push the gameplay envelope in ways others have but instead what it offers up is something a lot of games fail to grasp and that is simply A Vibe.
A Diary of Dreams
The gameplay is your average survivors affair: You kill an evergrowing horde of enemies, pick items/upgrades every level up and scale harder and harder. The main distinction here is that instead of the bullets purely coming from you, the game has boss fights interspersed between the horde shooting which is closer to a typical shmup with patterns to be dodged. Depending on your build these bosses may be more or less difficult since sometimes you may find yourself needing to graze right up against them to deal most of your damage.
(upgrades for your cyborg body. note you gotta decipher the code if you want to understand what it does and how it upgrades. neat!)
I would say these bosses are pretty fair: the patterns aren't too dangerous and there's not a large variety of them so for me going no-hit isn't too difficult. If they do prove to be a problem though it's not difficult to figure out a build that lets you cheese them, either by using the game's version of bombs from touhou or just scaling your hp so high that you can shrug off every hit.
There's also a talent tree system which lets you specialize further and amp up your power over time. It's a fancier version of the global unlocks these kind of games usually have, so being have to tune my playstyle is a nice thing.
(specialized in winning)
Nightmares prevail
Picayune Dream is not exactly trying to hide the things that inspire the game. The other half of the game (and where most of the story takes place) are all within the closest approximation they could create of RPG Maker games without being based in the actual engine. You'll see weird glitches, creepypasta-esque monsters and the backstory to who (or what) Picayune is and why everything is exploding.
(a perfectly average day on the job)
These side stories have a bit of that 'person's first indie game' jank to them, in that movement and interaction and collision all feel pretty weird. It's a noticeable downtick in quality from the other half of the game but given that it's effectively just spooky walking it's an easy thing to excuse. I'm the kind of guy that wishes they committed even more to the Yume Nikki bit and made it feel more accurate but I don't think most people will care.
I think the most important thing is just how much these parts contribute to the overall vibe of the game. Picayune Dreams is strongly carried by both the aesthetic and music, a rendercore graphical style and breakcore musical style that elevate the entire experience. The first thing I did upon beating the game was immediately buy the OST to throw into my rotation after all.
If there's anything I've learned over my long time playing games and talking with other people is that you need something to really hook a player's brain and that usually starts by throwing the things you love into the games you make, hoping to attract the same people who also have that shared passion. So even though Picayune Dreams is two disparate janky or basic halves, it ends up being greater than the sum of its parts and an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.
Picayune Dreams is similar to the rest of the genre incredibly cheap on Steam, making it a worthwhile pickup even at full price. It'll likely be cheaper than an order of Dicks with the upcoming Steam sale early next month, so wishlist it and throw it in your cart.