[quote][i]This is a spoiler free review. It's accompanied by a (mostly, marked) spoiler-free video review that can be found [b][url=https://youtu.be/Ga5p-SrOfpk]here[/url][/b].[/i][/quote]
[b]In summary, I can recommend this game, and as a numerical score I’d give it an 8/10. The game successfully establishes a layered atmosphere of beauty and terror through its visual and audio elements. Additionally, it does execute on environmental storytelling without much sacrifice. Negatively affecting the game have at least one extremely punishing section and some confusing Points of Interest.[/b]
[h2]Introduction[/h2]
[b]♥♥♥♥♥ ni[/b] (lol it’s censored, “Sni” for short hereon) is the first release by developer and self-publisher LuN and takes some heavy inspiration from a cult-classic called [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/650700/Yume_Nikki/]Yume Nikki[/url]. The game operates on a heavy aura of mystery, so anything within “Quotes” is self-named.
In this game, you play as an unnamed female protagonist (”Dreamer”) who is unable to venture outside her bedroom and the balcony in her room. With the only meaningful interactive being your bed, you’re sent into a dream realm to confront some internalized thoughts.
The game is composed of five initial dreamscapes that I’ve also self-titled as “Hand Drawn”, “Red Eye”, “Forest”, “Swamp”, and “Trippy”. More often than not, you’ll venture around these dreamscapes without much more notion than the knowledge that you’re looking for [i]anything[/i]. These “first-layer” dreamscapes typically lead to other dreamscapes, typically becoming more unsettling, more volatile, and at times, more violent than its predecessors; which brings us to this game’s title. The game title comes from a Japanese word that means [i]under[/i] or [i]beneath[/i], which could mean that descending is the objective. In the instance you get stuck or just outright spooked at your environment, you do possess the ability to wake up right away to restart your journey.
That’s about enough of the foundation we need, so let’s look towards what I enjoyed.
[h2]The Good[/h2]
“Sni” captures its atmosphere masterfully through its art direction, both audibly and visually. I feel that the aspect that’s most captivating is the sound design. The game appropriately tracks songs that are fitting for the environment — it conveys a range of emotions including warmth, calm, discomfort, tension, and danger. The music is composed of loops, some that are more noticeable than others, but not disruptive to the overall experience. I’d even go as far to say that some of these songs could function as ambient working music. It’s all very intentional and masterfully implemented.
Not far behind the audio are the visuals; the “first-layer” dreamscapes are easy to spend time in, and more often than not you’re able to “anchor” something to your screen to help orient yourself to cover ground effectively to determine if you’ve been to a place before. This becomes less true for the “lower-layer” dreamscapes, which can be more sparse and spread out. Additionally, there are some genuinely unsettling art pieces — and I don’t just mean shock-horror where the developer tries to show you most disruptive images possible to bait a reaction. Sometimes it’s the indescribable shape or posture of something that’s hard to describe until you [b]stare[/b] at it and start to piece together what you’re really looking at.
Lastly, I was wary at the idea of environmental storytelling by a solo-developer’s first release, but I’m glad to say that the caution was wasted as I found the experience incredibly sufficient. There’s plenty of abstract encounters for people to interpret, speculate, and discuss all the while there are things that are extremely on-the-nose that give you some level of base to ground yourself with.
Those are the things I enjoyed the most, so let’s move into the things I liked a little less.
[h2]The Questionable[/h2]
One of the lesser evils that caused some confusion in some of the dreamscapes are when things don’t respond to being interacted with. This game is [b]full[/b] of points of interest that have no flavor text or anything to indicate that it serves a purpose beyond eye-candy. It’s understandable that the game is leaning into its minimal text aspect as part of the game, but from a gameplay perspective it can be a bit frustrating to think you’ve explored everything in a zone, only for something to become active later on because of ✨reasons ✨ unbeknownst to you. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for actionable points of interest to provide tool-tip clues, such as something that looks like it’s missing something could include a self-thought of“…lonely…”; I don’t think that’s too out of place, but maybe others would feel that this undermines a core belief of the game.
Lastly, at some point, there’s a puzzle, and it’s [b]really[/b] mean. Excruciatingly punishing in terms of time required to complete it. I won’t talk about it in great detail because it’s apart of the discovery, but in essence if you fail the puzzle, you get woken up, and you have to make a [i]decently[/i] lengthy trek to re-attempt it. It technically [i]does[/i] get easier with each failure, but all in all it took me a little over an hour and a half to complete this puzzle. I unfortunately encountered it really early on (around the 20 minute mark), got frustrated with it enough to decide that I was going to finish it so I [i]never[/i] had to come back, and that lead to piling frustrations. The rest of the game was much more enjoyable beyond that point, but there was a real walking-on-razerblades moment in that specific event.
Anywhoo, those things are mostly minor overall; both frustrating at points, but overcome due to resilience and the lure of a better experience on the other end of things.
[h2]The End[/h2]
That about wraps up my thoughts on the game - I don’t think I’ve found [i]everything[/i] this game had to offer in the 8.5 hours I’ve played it. I’m hopeful that more will catch onto this game so I can see other peoples’ interpretations, explanations, and crowdsourcing of solutions and encounters. I do worry that the price may steer some people away because $5 USD can be steep for people in a niche game type; here’s to hoping those worries are wasted.
[quote][i]If you’re into curator groups, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41665876/]we have one of those[/url]. Did you like this written review? Check out the video review for visual and audio compliments to the review:[/i][/quote] https://youtu.be/Ga5p-SrOfpk
