Lucah: Born of a Dream

"at the heart of the world there is a trauma." truly one of the best games i've ever played. it's surrealist gold that can stand on equal grounds with the genre's greatest. the story had me sobbing more than once, and the delivery of the game's themes of despair, isolation, and the need for absolution hit me incredibly hard. you can tell how personal this story is to the creator, how much of it reflects their real life, pains, and traumas. i don't think you can depict these things so accurately if you haven't lived them yourself. the game's art style perfectly captures the feeling of desolation that oozes from this game, with horribly emotional moments depicted only as scribbles, and nightmarish scenes where you can't even tell what you are seeing. and the music is absolutely incredible, it's haunting and harsh and it accompanies the art style perfectly. this game is truly inspirational in so many ways as an artist. the gameplay is fast and punchy and fun but frankly it could have been a walking simulator and my opinion of the game wouldn't change a bit, it's the least of my priorities when it comes to gushing about how great this game is. i can see this game not being for everyone, it's incredibly intense that's for sure, both in it's overall vibe and it's themes, and surrealism isn't everyone's cup of tea. but if you are into either of those things and don't need your art to fully 'make sense' then absolutely 1000% buy this. i got through all of the story in about 12 hours, as i used cheats to get through NG+ which was too difficult for my tastes. buy this game. it's the type of art that's so incredible it feels wrong to not share it with someone

All I can say is, beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Please for the love of anyone support this developer and play this game.

This game just oozes style. And even when you just thought you did everything, I promise you, you didn't. A must play for any one who loves souls likes and stories that make you think for hours.

После прохождения и забега на НГ+ с коррупционной концовкой скорее не доволен и не рекомендую игру, но не все так плохо. [h1] Что понравилось [/h1] [h2] Музыка [/h2] Самая сильная сторона игры. Уровни / главы здесь называются Трэками. Сложно сказать, что это по жанру. Какой-то техно эмбиент нойз. Уютный и поглощающий. Мрачный. С некоторых треков ловил слуховые галлюцинации по итогу. Это жутковато, но прикольно. [h2] Визуальный стиль [/h2] Он узнаваемый и выглядит... провокационно. Хорошо гармонирует с музыкой историей. Отлично работает на атмосферу. [h2] Сеттинг [/h2] Эджи подростки сражаются с чем-то ради чего-то. Ноют и рефлексируют. Все это вокруг около оккультной, религиозной темы: пушки здесь зовутся "Парадигмами". В настройках сложности модификатор наносимого урона это "Грех", получаемый урон - "Наказание". Демоны, фамильяры, церковники, Мессия, шкала "порочности" - вокруг всего этого вертится повествование. [h1] Что не понравилось [/h1] [h2] Геймплей [/h2] В местном графоне часто не понятно куда идти. Ты постоянно на таймере при этом - медленно, но неумолимо накапливается шкала corruption. Значительно сильнее она копится когда умираешь или используешь местный devil trigger. Еще здесь как в солс лайках бегаешь от чекпоинтов, где сохраняешься и прокачиваешься. Менеджеришь "выносливость" и полоску "магии", пьешь бутылочку, паррируешь и "идеально уклоняешься". Это душно. [h2] Боевая система [/h2] Ни смотря на разнообразие пушек-парадигм, перемотку времени на начало боя, разные атаки прожектайлами от фамильяров, весь бой сводиться к тому, что лучше бы бить заряженной атакой зажатого Y и уклонениями. Чем ближе к атаке врага это делаешь, тем лучше. По настоящему урон наносишь только когда враг оглушен паррированиями, уклонениями или силой рандома. При этом нужно постоянно помнить за полоску маны и выносливости. Прямо в меню экипировки можно включить "Моды" отключающие расход стамины, маны, лимит расходников и ослабляющие врагов. Без стамины и маны играется бодрее и лучше, но это ощущается странно. [h2] Сюжет [/h2] Спроси меня, кто все эти люди и что на самом деле происходит в игре, за первое прохождение я так и не понял. Грустные детишки дерутся и рефлексируют. И все это аллюзия на подростковое взросление и всякие "вписочные" интриги или коррумпированость католической церкви? Я не знаю. [h2] Визуальный стиль [/h2] Да, он играет на атмосферу, но выглядит однообразно и не помогает в поисках пути выходов с локаций. [h1] TLDR [/h1] Не уверенный в себе солс лайк, нарисованный карандашом. Грустные эджи детишки ходят бродят, бьют каракули и друг друга заряженной атакой и парированиями. Музыка крутая и психоделичная. Со стороны выглядит интересно, но играется душно и однообразно. Если войти в состояние потока то какое-то удовольствие получить можно, но в целом не рекомендую.

The dialogue reads like it was written by a Bernie Sanders voter that didn't like their parents. Thematically it's really cool, and some of the combat/encounters are enjoyable, but everything in the game world looks identical and non-descript, and the camera's always too zoomed-in, so navigation and exploration is confusing and un-fun. Control's also constantly taken away whenever you beat most rooms, which gets old fast. May give it another try, but I'm probably gonna refund it. You may like this game if you're a Redditor that doesn't like their parents, and thinks Dark Souls is hard.

I'm kinda shocked it took me this long to play this all things considered. Lucah: Born of a Dream is a game about being queer in a world ruled by religious fundamentalism, of watching this earth be lit alight by powerful idiots whos only interest is in enriching and shielding themselves. The ways in which our own perceptions of evil can produce nightmares around us and how this tendency fuels everything in our lives to such an extent that even in the worlds we make for ourselves we can't escape these things. It's about the hopelessness such a world crushes us with, and our unwillingness to simply roll over and die despite such a place being so deeply against us. Of Surviving even as such a place buries your dearest friends and you just... need to continue. Of the loneliness it breeds... The ways this can drive you to push people away, the shame the... way things will turn out if you instead choose to bury these parts of yourself and snuff them out. But. I'll be honest, while I do think this game is a masterpiece and that if you're reading this you should play it (ALL of it. Not just the first playthrough but NG+ and the descent.) I actually didn't write this review for you. I'm also writing it for the developer. Hey. Melessthanthree. I hope you're doing okay. I'll be honest, when I transitioned I ultimately did wind up estranging a lot of people in my life. Family members, friends, loved ones. A whole lot. Even after that, I continued pushing people away. But... I did eventually find a few people who do love me for who I am. People who, because of that, were capable of making me feel love that is so deep and dear to me that it makes all of this worth existing through. I know I'm not at the end of this journey yet. Maybe I'm not really speaking to you anymore. Maybe I'm speaking to an older version of you. But hey, someone else might stumble across this who's in the same spot you were back when you made this. Despite *everything.* How hopeless it all feels right now. How much the powers that be want to wipe us out of existence. There's still joy, hope and love to be found. Never detransition. Never let them take you out of *you.* Never kill yourself. Life for anything, be it spite, love, passion, stupidity, or hope. Yeah. I'm the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ main character, I've got the main character syndrome, I sure hope the next game in this series isn't about to put me in my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ place, let's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gooooooo-

When I was a kid I remember playing the very first early version of this game and then completely forgot about it, all these years later and I randomly rediscovered it as the full release, because of that this game actually feels like a dream to me.