Noxia Somnia

Noxia Somnia is a side-scroller action-horror game with neat pixel graphics. At the center of the story is a young man named Tristian, who suffers from depression due to past and present life struggles. The game's story is compelling and addresses problems that many people can relate to. It consists of three acts, culminating in a final boss fight. As you explore Tristian's corrupted memories, you'll encounter different monsters and must evade harvesters while collecting items and souls. These collectible souls can be equipped to grant various buffs. After defeating monsters and breaking boxes, you earn shards and coins. Each monster drops special materials that can be traded in shops for valuable items. Coins are used to purchase items, consumables, and cosmetics, while shards are invested in upgrading abilities within your skill tree. All of these features are located in the hub world—a peaceful forest from Tristian's dreams. Players can also discover or purchase an enchanted whistle capable of summoning different helpers. Additionally, you must monitor the "exposure meter" – if it exceeds 100, your HP starts to decrease. Each boss in the game represents Tristian's life failures…

Interesting story, quite resonating with everyday life. Graphic is simple but well animated.

wow, what a ride! The game does an amazing job of exploring psychological horror in a meaningful way

Really neat game to play! Has a lot of elements from survival horror games, and combines them with a 2D retro style game play and a great story about exploring the main character's psyche through their dreams. Check it out if you like classic survival horror games!

It's decent. The mental health issues were extremely relatable to me, but won't be for everyone. The gameplay is surprisingly good, if simple and not extremely demanding. Highlights include: Corridors maintain consistent left and right orientation, making navigation easy. The chapter bosses patrol and are *problems* due to how light and stress work. Boss fights actually name various moves and have a bar showing how long they'll last... which is mostly just a nice touch, but really important for communicating when you need to be running. About the only glaring negative was grinding for currency and trophies from various monsters to trade for goodies back at the hub. Partly because I'd always forget the luck consumable, but... felt like it padded gameplay more than adding to gameplay. Also had me filling out the skill tree rather early. Felt like there should have been more nodes on the tree, or less grind overall. It's still a pretty minor annoyance, I just stopped to farm once a chapter, not for terribly long though. It just... didn't add to the experience. Glad I played it.

Great game, great message. Playing on higher difficulties is unfair since you take damage just by being seen...