Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams
When I looked at the page for this game I saw several people compare it to LSD (the PS1 game, not the drug) and while that initially caught my interest it seems rather unfair. Yes this is a game that deals with dreams, and yes it has a PS1 aesthetic, but this is much more of a 3d platformer with perhaps some walking sim inspirations sprinkled in than the sheer shortform undirected randomness of that particular game. Once one gets past that though, what it is is pretty alright.
People love describing things as being a “love letter” to something in particular… but it is very hard to not describe this as a love letter to early PS1 worlds. The game launches with an era appropriate faux Playstation logo, I can’t tell if it is just a filter but it fits in what feels very much like early polygonal FMV cutscenes, there is a different between someone referencing something and someone who understands and is committed to the bit, and this definitely feels much like that latter.
The framing story is that a dream crystal of some sort has been shattered and you have to go to various different dream locations to find the remnant that landed there. This allows for what appears to be a different variety of settings and even goals, although they mostly early on seem to be along the lines of basic 3d platforming challenges (fortunately the jumping is handled fairly well). There is also talking to various creatures that seems vaguely philosophical along with the notion that there is more going on under the surface than first seems.
This is apparently true both in terms of narrative and the game itself as I’ve already stumbled upon one fairly sizable hidden area with the game giving the distinct impression that there are numerous areas like these hidden all over the place. The one I found maintains the PS1 aesthetic but is much darker in terms of atmosphere and theme, perhaps the nightmare equivalent to the dreams.
I walked away from the first couple areas impressed with what I saw. There are a lot of random games that ape this era, yet many of them are only a step beyond asset flips in terms of the thought and effort put into them. Hypnagogia is different, there is clearly a ton of attention and care put into this, mechanically I think it intentionally is only ever so complicated but in terms of the world design, whatever various secrets are in play and the overall feel of the era it is in tribute to a lot is going on. I’m definitely going to be revisiting this game in full down the road and would not be surprised to see that it is in fact a very SB kinda game.