Oneiro

From the moment you press E to dream in Oneiro, you can look straight down and you will already see the first boss waiting for you right below your feet. This unique level design creates an interesting and ever-present tension between opposites which is reflected in many areas of the gameplay. As one example: the more enemies you clear out of the labyrinth before jumping down to the boss, the more gear you will have, and the easier that fight will be. But it also leaves you less time left to progress into even deeper levels of the nightmare. But if, on the other hand, you rush the boss at the first possible moment as soon as you have a viable weapon, many of the enemies you skipped over will instead fall down into the boss arena and make your life difficult. Finding the right balance on this dynamic difficulty scale is the key to overcoming your fears, and it shapes how you approach each level, how you distribute items in your build, and the risks you choose to take or choose to avoid. It's like Doom meets Dark Souls meets Risk of Rain in some kind of haunted funhouse mirror. Tight controls, polished gameplay, stable (very few bugs) and runs fast (>200fps on my machine). It seems like the developer has a very good understanding of what makes this game fun to play, and leans into it. The story is minimalist but sets a great tone for the experience by casting everything in a metaphorical light. It creates a vibe while leaving plenty of room for interpretation for whatever manifestation of fears may be most meaningful to the player. It took me about 20 hours to finally overcome my fears -- the first step was learning the mechanics and training my brain to immediately recognize danger in the labyrinth (instinctively checking walls & floors become like a mantra), and the second step was experimenting and learning what builds worked the best. Make no mistake -- the game requires patience and perseverance, enough so that every small victory along the way feels meaningful and climactic. Recommended!

Very hard game but I had a lot of fun with the randomness. Easily worth the price.

While the art style and overall presentation might be offputting at first, Oneiro is a really fresh take on the Roguelike genre. The core gameplay loop is simple: explore procedurally generated stages, kill different types of monsters, get tons of loot, and kill a boss at the end of the stage. For those experienced in Roguelikes this might sound standard; what makes it very interesting, however, is having to make your environment help you. Every single part of the environment is breakable; walls and ceilings can be used to make new paths by simply smashing them, which leads to a great sense of freedom in a level. See a chest but there's a lot of enemies surrounding it? Break a few walls to make dodging easier. There's an annoying trap in your way? Break it, and the problem's gone. [h1] Exploration [/h1] The environment breaking mechanics can get a little wonky sometimes: for example, floors cant be broken even though you can break ceilings when standing on them. Some weapons (like the lance or the trident) have odd attack animations, which a lot of times has led me to break the roof accidentally while in combat, which has brought down even more enemies on me. The traps can also be a bit scuffed at times too. For example, I jumped into a pit to grab a weapon, and when climbing back up with a ladder, I was stabbed by wall spikes that are completely unavoidable in the middle of a climbing animation. On the positive side, exploration is very fun when you know what you're doing: loot gets better the further you are from spawn, and there are chests everywhere, giving the player a reason to look around, and think outside the box. Bringing down two walls to use the ceiling as a ramp is very fun, and getting a triple jump to skip large parts of the level is very rewarding. Two tips regarding exploration: the first thing you should look for is a weapon, and always keep a pair of dice in your inventory, because they can save you from falling to the void. [h1] Combat [/h1] While not mechanically dense, combat is very rewarding, since enemies have a chance to drop items, and every single kill rewards you with money. You can use traps to damage enemies, or can even bring down the roof to deal massive damage. Because every weapon is melee, learning to dodge enemy attacks is a must, and projectiles can be blocked with a well timed attack, giving you plenty of opportunities to ignore damage. It is incredibly rewarding to dodge every attack from an enemy and kill it using your bare hands. With that said, however, I must highlight that projectile damage can feel a little cheap sometimes. The game's "base" enemy, slimes, shoot projectiles, but there is no sound or visual cue to the attack, making damage a bit cheap sometimes (quite a few of my runs have ended because of offscreen projectiles). The bare handed special attacks are also a bit confusing. I really have no idea when I will simply push an enemy, karate chop it, or throw a barrage of punches (this might simply be because I'm dumb though). [h1] Should you buy this game? [/h1] To make a long story short: yeah, definitely! If you're looking for a new take on Roguelikes, then this is for you! The breakable environments make exploration a lot more fun than you would expect, and gives you an opportunity to think outside the box. Sometimes it even feels like a puzzle! While the presentation (art style, music and sfx) might seem very odd, it melds perfectly with the world of this game, as well as the gameplay. If you're still not convinced, keep in mind that the game is [i] very [/i] cheap, so give it a try!

One of the most interesting games I've ever played. May take a few hours to get into, but is genuinely amazing.

Review 2021: Sooo after a bit more than 8h of playtime I beat the game and I really enjoyed it. Yeah the graphics are not the most appealing and at first, it looks a bit trashy but on the gameplay side, it is really good. The game starts on a little island where you meet some people that tell you a bit about where you are and what’s going on. I really like this and it makes the atmosphere of the game so much better. Also sometimes (If you reached a specific score) something happens on the island and you have a reason to go out of the house and talk to them but sadly even though it makes the feel of the game a bit cooler they also feel kinda useless because you could skip all of that and would miss nothing besides some bonus story which is a bit sad. There is also a labyrinth on top of the island that is at first a bit weird to see but you notice really quickly that this is an example of how the labyrinths will look. I don't know if you can do something with it but if not I really don't see why this should be there. I mean isn't the labyrinth thing something you see in your dreams so why is this in the "real world"? Or is the island also a dream? ^^ If we look at the enemies there are enough of them and besides some are from the same type there is a lot of variation and that’s definitely a plus point. I haven't seen all enemies so far because I always run out of time but so far I can say the enemy I hate the most is this annoying plant in the 2nd layer which shoots 3 big spike balls at you. They aren't that difficult to dodge but they still hit me a lot xD. If we come to the bosses I really love how different they are but sadly after you fought them a few times they get kinda easy. As an example, the 2nd boss has multiple attacks but besides the geyser, I got never hit by any of the other attacks, and if you know when the geyser spawns this fight is kinda boring. For the 3rd and 4th boss I really don't know what they actually do because I beat them kinda fast and if you already stay on top of the bosses they hit you rarely. The game also has some minibosses and they aren't that hard but they are a cool addition to the game and are rewarding to kill. Now let's get into the labyrinths. They are kinda big and because of that, you have a lot to explore that takes a lot of time so you should really find a good point when you start the boss because 30 minutes sounds like a lot but isn't really that much. I always spent so much time in the 1st and 2nd layers that I have never seen the 3rd layer for more than 2 minutes and that’s a bit sad but I think I just need to find a good way to beat the first boss with fewer items than normally. Well because the floor and roofs are transparent it's easy to navigate and after you got one magical lamp they aren't really labyrinths anymore. Last but not least the game wouldn't work with items you can find on your journey and they all fit perfectly in the game and you can really feel the power boost they give you. You can also purchase them in the living wall shop but at the moment some really good items are really cheap so you can buy a lot of them and get a huge power spike and that’s not really that good. With a duplicator, you can find you can also well duplicate items and if you got a lot of them then beating the game isn't that difficult (especially if you got a lot of healing). In the end, I can only say it's not a masterpiece and I can see why people won't buy it but if some of you have a little bit of money over and are willing to give such a game a chance then you should definitely buy this game because it's more enjoyable than it looks and the price is more than fair if not a bit to low.

A one of a kind game with endless experimentation. No matter how much you think you know there's always something new to learn. Each item opens up possibilities to speed up your progression. Great game 10/10 watch out for torches

Best roguelike I've ever played. Seeing is a skill you develop. Learn more, be smarter, faster, safer. It took me so long to beat it but I finally did it. I can't recommend this enough and it is my go-to example, right alongside Pseudoregalia, of why $70+ games are a scam, and fancy graphics are always bad. The game looks just fine, the ost is awesome, and seriously, one of my favorite games of all time. In my top 10 for sure. People talk about how soulslikes feel good to beat, but really, beating this might be the best I've ever felt about beating a game.

Oneiro is a very good roguelike within the style of risk of rain, where the items you get provide a stacking buff. The game can also run on nearly anything, with no concern for specs. Lot to love here for anyone interested in giving it a go, and it wont set you back more than a happy meal.

jolly good game sir

this is a roguelite/like(?) that i have a lot of respect for, and its worth much more than its priced at. very high replay value, and its kept my attention for a good while. the combat system is simple yet diverse, it all depends on what weapon you choose, spears and fists are what i used the most. the items are fun and unique, like youll pick up an item thats like "smundos pigmentation capsules, every attack has a 5% chance to be colored blue and will make surrounding enemies jump on your next attack" and somehow it will save you in the run, and you can find duplicators to give yourself more of certain items. as a side note i like how odd and fun the achievements are.