Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
KimagureMachibuse

Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by KimagureMachibuse »

Im looking for games that are in a dream setting akin to klonoa door to phantomile and Nights into dreams
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BrianC
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BrianC »

On the top of my head, the Kirby series, Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario USA/SMB2 US, Gimmick, and Link's Awakening come to mind.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by o.pwuaioc »

Little Nemo: Dream Master and Bart's Nightmare immediately come to mind. I think Land of Illusion on the Master System is supposed to take place within a dream, too.
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Rastan78
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Rastan78 »

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Edit: oops somebody mentioned that one. Some Darius endings have the game as a dream, but not for all routes.

Darius II Zone Y:
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Nugs
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Nugs »

Blue Revolver has a "it was all a dream" ending as well.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Stevens »

Psychonauts?
My lord, I have come for you.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BulletMagnet »

I have yet to play it, but I'm pretty sure Mario + Luigi: Dream Team on 3DS is centered around the concept, and so is Earthworm Jim 3D; if memory serves Alundra on PS1 is about entering people's dreams and fighting off nightmares or something along those lines. You can also pop into dreams in SoulBlazer on SNES, though usually only briefly; you also run around in people's psyches in Persona 5, if that counts.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Legend of the White Ghost Lion, an NES RPG, explicitly takes place in a dream.
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drauch
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by drauch »

There's surprisingly a wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... out_dreams

Been ages, but I believe Totally Rad was.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by o.pwuaioc »

drauch wrote:There's surprisingly a wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... out_dreams

Been ages, but I believe Totally Rad was.
Says it "features dreams." Honestly, that someone made a Wikipedia category about them is peak internet uselessness.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BrianC »

Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams takes place in a dream world. Also, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic actually takes place inside a book, but the first part of the title translates to "Dream Factory".
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in dreams I walk with you

Post by NYN »

Fatal Frame III/Project Zero 3: The Tormented/ Zer0 - Shisei no Koe.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Hey OP, why are you asking? Need to finish a paper and using the eager beaver brigade?
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Re: in dreams I walk with you

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Sanitarium on PC, more or less.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Bloodreign »

Psycho Dream, SFC, surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.
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XoPachi
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by XoPachi »

Psychosis for the TurboGraphx-16 isn't exactly a dream, but it takes place in someone's mind with very surreal set pieces. Alright but mediocre STG that's visually and thematically interesting.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

One of the levels of The Simpsons arcade game takes place on a dreamland.
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xxx1993

Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by xxx1993 »

Stage 4 of Sin and Punishment: Star Successor takes place in one of these. And it's actually my least favorite stage in the entire game.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BIL »

Come to think of it, Act II of the first S&P ends in a playable premonition of sorts, too. Bangin' traincar firefight that takes after the classic Contra base stages, or maybe their spiritual Konami sequels Devastators and GI Joe.

From that list, Bloodborne is kinda yes, kinda no. The narrative is deliberately suspended between notions of dream and waking reality, but it also borrows extensively from Lovecraftian "Dreamland" concepts. Real places, full of real things that can really kill you, accessible by normal humans only via dreams (or nightmares). The protagonist and other Hunters are very much superhuman, "able to maintain consciousness by sheer force of will." One ending suggests a permanent break with "the horrible dream," but it's shown to still be out there somewhere.

Christ, BB's seamless hybrid of surgical Shinobiesque slaying, NeoVictorian shabby chic and UN-SIGHTLEH Weird Fiction gives me a god damn BBoner. Image Image I must return soon!
Image Image
"Dear oh dear... what was it? The hunt? The blood? Or the horrible dream?"
"The Beasts cannot be stopped!"
"No matter."
*SHING*
"DEATH TO ALL HUNTERS!"
"It always comes down to The Hunter's Helper to clean up after these sorts of messes..."
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BrianC »

BIL wrote: From that list, Bloodborne is kinda yes, kinda no.
That is my impression of Doki Doki Panic. It takes place in a storybook world that is powered by dreams rather than a dream world like the Mario version.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BIL »

It's an interesting distinction, isn't it? A world symbiotically linked to the dreaming mind, but quite "real" in its own right.

In the same vein as BB and DDP (now there's a versatile acronym! wrasslin, shootin and platforming alike!), there's Metal Black's notoriously odd endgame. Some theorise the pilot has flat-out lost his mind, maybe as early as st3/"Dream Land," overdosing on Newalone/Neuron. Others read it as a more mundanely fantastical journey beyond the bounds. The game itself leaves the question open with its wonderfully Engrishy sign-off. Was this for real or was I just dreaming?

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Is deep yo! :shock:
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by dojo_b »

Apparently there was a '98 videogame about Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Doesn't seem to have been a success, but it's a kickass book.
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BIL
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BIL »

Was just thinking of Mr. Dick (as I often do!), having watched RLM's delightful Total Recall re:View. On the off-chance anyone's not seen the film (the OG Ahnuld one, ofc), I suggest watching that beforehand; another Robocop-calibre delight from Verhoeven. If you're familiar with the movie, the RLM ep should raise a smile or two. Such a wonderfully goofy yet thoughtfully proto-Matrix flick.

(on this tangent, I suggest whipping up a quick playlist and watching the Total Recall, In The Mouth Of Madness, Darkman, Exorcist III and Bram Stoker's Dracula re:Views, again on the proviso one has seen the films in question first. for a bunch of alcoholic hack frauds, these chaps' affection is unmistakable. real recognise real! :cool:)
Last edited by BIL on Fri May 27, 2022 7:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Sengoku Strider »

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SUPER MARIO BROS 2 ENDING DO NOT CLICK IF HAVE NOT PLAYED YET
Spoiler
IT WAS ALL A DREAM

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MARIO USED TO READ WORD UP! MAGAZINE
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BryanM
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BryanM »

LSD: Dream Emulator is the dreamiest game to ever dream. All nasty non-dream things have been extracted from it, and only the dreams remain.

The band Alt-J made an album featuring screenshots from the game as its art. That's the only reason I know that this band exists.

Which is parallel-ly similar to how I know the album Flying Beagle exists: because it has a beagle that what flys on the cover.

Yume Nikki is a similar kind of game. Karoshi Suicide Salaryman.... is not.

Also that whole subgenre of guro kusoge where you go to hell and get eaten by demons or whatever is subjectively a dream world on the whole, I think? Dreams and nightmares go hand in hand, imo. Drag-on Dragoon isn't technically a dreamworld, but on the scale of "crapsack fantasy world" and "fever dream nightmare world", it honestly breaks from reality far more than fantasy typically allows.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Sengoku Strider »

BryanM wrote:LSD: Dream Emulator is the dreamiest game to ever dream. All nasty non-dream things have been extracted from it, and only the dreams remain.
The designer specifically created it not to be a game though. It like, exists to be a purposeful refutation of the 'game' category.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BulletMagnet »

I don't think anyone's named Dual Hearts for the PS2 yet, another one about going into people's dreams and messing about.
BIL wrote:The game itself leaves the question open with its wonderfully Engrishy sign-off. Was this for real or was I just dreaming?
I wonder if Bangai-O's semi-infamous "I must be dreaming..." Game Over screen would kinda-sorta-maybe qualify.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by blazinglazers69 »

The original Max Payne had some very fun, well-recieved, not at all dated, and relaxing dream sequences.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem kind of fits. There's a very brief dream intro right at the start and throughout the game if your sanity meter drops your characters hallucinated walking on ceilings, hanging people, crying voices, and other lovely things. Often feels like a nightmare.

I personally couldn't stomach it for more than a few hours, but Omori fits this bill pretty well. Very much an edgy Zoomer game.
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by Jeneki »

PCE Drop Rock / Drop Off.
Typos caused by cat on keyboard.
xxx1993

Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by xxx1993 »

BIL wrote:Come to think of it, Act II of the first S&P ends in a playable premonition of sorts, too. Bangin' traincar firefight that takes after the classic Contra base stages, or maybe their spiritual Konami sequels Devastators and GI Joe.

From that list, Bloodborne is kinda yes, kinda no. The narrative is deliberately suspended between notions of dream and waking reality, but it also borrows extensively from Lovecraftian "Dreamland" concepts. Real places, full of real things that can really kill you, accessible by normal humans only via dreams (or nightmares). The protagonist and other Hunters are very much superhuman, "able to maintain consciousness by sheer force of will." One ending suggests a permanent break with "the horrible dream," but it's shown to still be out there somewhere.

Christ, BB's seamless hybrid of surgical Shinobiesque slaying, NeoVictorian shabby chic and UN-SIGHTLEH Weird Fiction gives me a god damn BBoner. Image Image I must return soon!
Image Image
"Dear oh dear... what was it? The hunt? The blood? Or the horrible dream?"
"The Beasts cannot be stopped!"
"No matter."
*SHING*
"DEATH TO ALL HUNTERS!"
"It always comes down to The Hunter's Helper to clean up after these sorts of messes..."
It’s where Airan finds herself in New York and meets her future son Isa, right?
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BIL
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Re: Games that take place in a Dream Settings

Post by BIL »

Yep! That's the one. So many killer setpieces and scenes in that game. In the best tradition of superhumanly hardcore JP action gaming, many approach a truly oneiric level of batshittery, despite being firmly mundane in-story. Soaring about on a telekinetically-improvised gunnery platform, singlehandedly annihilating what legitimately looks to be a small army. Unceremoniously drowning in a sea of blood, emerging as a howling kaiju for a duel with an even more monstrous foe. Chasing a stubbornly body-switching Brain That Wouldn't Die into the back of a cafe, cooking the poor bastard on the stove, then eating it for an HP restore. Image Even amongst all that, the Future Nightmare Helltrain is arrestingly odd, with its perfectly contrapuntal balance of apocalyptic visions and sprinting massacre to bittersweet BGM. (it's so cute how the kid totters along behind his mildly annoyed mom as she mows through the horde :3)

All delivered at arcade-tight pace. While its mechanics are undeniably Wild Guns x Panzer Dragoon, the fiery creativity and blistering pace is 110% Alien Soldier II. Like all the best console-original action games, it'd fit right into a cab with only the barest of tweaks. Image
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