OYASUMII

HAVING A JAPANESE WORD AS YOUR TITLE DOESN'T MAKE YOU A HORROR GAME RESKINNING MARIO 64 LEVELS DOESN'T MAKE YOU A HORROR GAME QUOTING HALF LIFE DOESN'T MAKE YOU A HORROR GAME PIXEL FILTERS DON'T MAKE YOU UNIQUE AND QUIRKY SPOUTING RANDOM NONSENSE DOESN'T MAKE YOUR STORY INTERESTING love when indie games insist on themselves so much the gameplay devolves into random cryptic BS and "quirky" references. no horror. no intrigue, just cliched slop.

OYASUMII is a very artsy kind of game where you’re sometimes unsure what the intention or message behind certain things is, but it’s also a game that’s going to stick with me for a while. It’s absolutely oozing with passion. This game clearly means a lot to the developers, and it shows through the references, art direction, music, and interesting story moments that made me reflect on my own history. The horror elements are well done, and the fear factor is definitely there. However, I’m not sure those elements are where OYASUMII is at its best. Honestly, I preferred the moments when I was spending time with the characters, specifically Hal, trying to piece together who he might be and what he was trying to tell me. If the developers ever come back with a second game, I’d love to see them make it more character-driven, since the writing here shows a lot of potential. In the meantime, this game is only like, $6 when it's on sale and an hour long. Support this team!

I feel somewhat bad about giving this a negative rating, because it feels as though it meant a lot to someone. There seems to be a story behind it, you know? But as someone that isn't good at reading between the lines, there wasn't much here for me as the one in front of it. What is here (after getting the good end and not bothering with extra achievements / routes) is some interesting shader / graphical work and quality music over top of a walking sim and mediocre platformer. I may be missing something or reducing too far, but I could easily have skipped this one.

this game is sick has hell how isnt this more popular

For me, it feels too much like a great idea left incomplete. Great visuals and even better music/sound design, but it ends up being directionless, any direction at all being tantamount to scraps that only vaguely point you in certain directions of interpretation. But, I love the idea of it! What I get from Oyasumii is a world made up of memories and dreams, and deciding to draw upon familiar iconography such as Super Mario 64 and IMSCARED with the main antagonist in my opinion really helped out that sense of this being fragments of other known things but somehow wrong or off. In a similar vein, I loved the small bit that showed off IRL footage as this really strengthened the sense of being trapped here in this virtual world, showing a great yearning for the past and to be back within normal life. But, each "stage" feels far too short and, for me, there's not enough done with the concepts put on the table here. At first, I was excited by the idea of this being a platformer rather than a traditional walking simulator as I thought it to be, but the platforming is scant and fairly uninteresting. There's also hints of genre-swapping with a small FPS section and the whole game being so…

Short, Eerie, worth ever second. No need to spoil just play and thank me later!