Like Dreamer

[-Fish-]

I searched the forum but haven't see any discussion on this one yet. Man, this is on hell of an STG! I wasn't necessarily crazy about the theme at first but after playing about 5 mins I was able to overlook it.

LD is an insane mix of Cave, Touhou and I don't know exactly what else but it just plays absolutely fantastic. The dev definitely did their homework. Anyone else here tried this one out on Steam yet? Online leaderboards are present as well once you unlock the main gameplay modes. .


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1867 ... e_Dreamer/

[Despatche]

Yes Outside's games are very cute. It's really just CAVE with some of the Touhou conceit. I keep meaning to make threads for the new games, but nobody's really played the older games yet, so...

[-Fish-]

Yes Outside's games are very cute. It's really just CAVE with some of the Touhou conceit. I keep meaning to make threads for the new games, but nobody's really played the older games yet, so...

I do still need to try this devs older titles. I get excited about online leaderboard integration though and I beleive this is the devs only title that utilizes it.

[Nahar]

I'm currently playing this game and man, it's a blast. The aesthetics are not really my thing, but the patterns and the rhythm of the game are awesome.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yep, Like Dreamer is already out on the Switch along it's earlier counterpart known as Cosmo Dreamer as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[hamfighterx]

In case people aren’t aware, this game just released on Switch last week. I saw it and knew very little about it, so I’m glad to see this discussion! Outside’s previous game, Cosmo Dream, is also on Switch.

[SPM]

^ And it comes with a new Chaos difficulty, unlocked by completing Trial mode in Nightmare
(it will be added to the Steam version as well! along with the new Extra stage)

The stages are a bit too long and repetitive but the game is solid. As stated before, the rhythm is fantastic and some patterns and level designs are really good.

It's also worth mentioning that the game has 2 different arcade modes (Trial and Trial All), the first one lets you choose a route 1 - 2/3 - 4/5 - 6/7 - 8 (-9) and the second includes all stages. A nice addition since the game is quite long ^^

[Nahar]

^ And it comes with a new Chaos difficulty, unlocked by completing Trial mode in Nightmare
(it will be added to the Steam version as well!)

The stages are a bit too long and repetitive but the game is solid. As stated before, the rhythm is fantastic and some patterns and level designs are really good.

It's also worth mentioning that the game has 2 different arcade modes (Trial and Trial All), the first one lets you choose a route 1 - 2/3 - 4/5 - 6/7 - 8 (-9) and the second includes all stages. A nice addition since the game is quite long ^^

Yeah. The Trial all look a bi intimidating because the 9 levels in a row are rounding an hour, and the levels aren't that dfferent. The game is fun and a blast to clear, but I don't think I'll be doing many Trial All runs.

[SPM]

I've played a bit more and turning on "Counter" helps, adding variety to the runs. (revenge bullets)

And you could always do the Speedrun mode (its 8 stages can be done in less than 30 min), which I thought was quite silly at first (like almost any speedrun in shmups), but it turns out that the autoscroll goes faster the quicker you destroy enemies, rewarding an aggressive playstyle. Pick one of the stronger weapons, get close to enemies to deal more damage and gather more resources to spam them, and go go go! It also goes well with the scoring system and can be a bridge for speedrunners to get into scoring (if they ever pick the game in the first place that is)

Here's a guide with every unlockable:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2839300666
The game is filled with content ^^

[Jonpachi]

I just can't with this theme. I'd be embarrassed to give these guys any money.

[hamfighterx]

I just can't with this theme. I'd be embarrassed to give these guys any money.

Good thing I have no shame!

(but yeah, that's why I initially passed over it before I saw the positive comments here)

[SPM]

I'm only against the lewd content (even if here it's kinda funny being so excessive). Thankfully the red and green characters are better in that regard, and even the blue one isn't too bad with the gadgets on the left turned on. The followers/likes theme and the cute presentation is just silly, inoffensive and cute. I don't see a problem. Plus, I love the color palette and the bullets, much better than in CosmoDreamer (which had some visibility issues for me).

I'd recommend giving it a try! Don't miss out just for that

[Nahar]

Yeah, I dislike the aesthetics too, but the game mechanics and the levels are enough fun to ignore the lewd parts of it. Still, I think that another kind of art would have helped the game a lot. It looks too much like a generic anime doujin game.

[cfx]

Yeah, I dislike the aesthetics too, but the game mechanics and the levels are enough fun to ignore the lewd parts of it. Still, I think that another kind of art would have helped the game a lot. It looks too much like a generic anime doujin game.

It looks like someone who tried to make a game with anime art, but has no actual talent or technique for it so it's not only generic, it's just bad on any level.

[Jonpachi]

^ Yes, this 100%. I'm not offended by the content, just the quality.

[NeoStrayCat]

Well, lets just say that "Outside" has a thing for booba/fanservice besides the games themselves, and yeah, its...something, lol.

Otherwise, the game this really good for all skill levels of play from casuals to experts. Even checking it out on both platforms with the Switch version currently having the latest content before the PC/Steam version gets theirs down the line.

Oh, and thanks for linking my steam guide for the game SPM, it'll help wonders for those that either do/don't have the game yet. (I'll probably do one for Cosmo Dreamer down the line.)

[Nahar]

This got updated. Anyone tried the Chaos Difficulty?

[Despatche]

Am I really looking at three people in a row all "agreeing" that one of the more unique artstyles out there is "generic anime"? I just cannot understand how people can look at pretty unique things and call them "generic", with no context or understanding. I hate it so much when game reviewers look at very unique games and say that. Why do people do this, over and over again?

Look, I don't like the guy's obsession with booba either, but every now and then he reminds the world that's not his entire shtick. He used to have this cool artwork of Suisei, a main character of the RedNeg series... took all his old art down though, no idea why. I'd love to see a new RedNeg done how he made the Dreamer games, but last I checked AllStars was supposed to be the end. Oh well.

[Jonpachi]

I think part of the "generic" feeling here is that it seems like a soulless pastiche of disparate styles, as though someone asked an AI to do, "Family Guy, plus retro anime, plus titties" and it shat this out.

[Despatche]

Man, this is just some dude screwing around with a tablet and some post-processing, like everyone else. If he wasn't so obsessed with booba, this guy probably would be known for some semi-popular manga that's famous partially for its unique artstyle, something like that. Kinda like how the Futari artist is lord of kings god emperor HACCAN who has done entirely too much shit, and Futari was one of his earlier things (by this point, anyway), or how ruler of the universe Joker Jun is probably more known for that silly Btooom manga than anything else at this point (he did that shit for like a decade, it's huge). Success and reputation, it's all relative bullshit.

The issue I talk about long predates, but is magnified to an incredible degree by, AI nonsense. So do you know why it "seems" that way? It's because the internet has completely poisoned your mind, like it's poisoned everyone else's. Everything seems "AI generated" in this hell age where we have actual AI generation and "deepfakes" that are joked about constantly. Every single bit of art throughout human history will now be suspect forever, as society desperately tries to figure out what's "pure" or not, only to eventually give up and damn the entire concept of art.

It's at the point where you can't even type a fucking forum post that pretends to have proper grammer and punctuation, without people making stupid "AI generated" jokes. I'm sure someone's trying to shove a lot of posts here in this very forum into one of those garbage "AI detectors", which are themselves about as good as if they were actually programmed by shitty AI in and of themselves. Worse, I'm sure at least one person in this forum actually does use an AI generator to write shit now! Fuck.

[Nahar]

Am I really looking at three people in a row all "agreeing" that one of the more unique artstyles out there is "generic anime"? I just cannot understand how people can look at pretty unique things and call them "generic", with no context or understanding. I hate it so much when game reviewers look at very unique games and say that. Why do people do this, over and over again?

Look, I don't like the guy's obsession with booba either, but every now and then he reminds the world that's not his entire shtick. He used to have this cool artwork of Suisei, a main character of the RedNeg series... took all his old art down though, no idea why. I'd love to see a new RedNeg done how he made the Dreamer games, but last I checked AllStars was supposed to be the end. Oh well.

For the sake of clarity: what's exactly original or unique on Like Dreamer's artstyle? I don't even dislike the game, but the art looks bland and unoriginal, and while I don't think that alone justifies bashing the game (nor we are doing it: at least me), it is a fair point to critique.

[DietSoap]

Look, I don't like the guy's obsession with booba either

[Despatche]

Hey, it's a small problem when your Twitter feed was getting blown up by funny anime booba man every other day, who you followed because you think his games are cool as fuck. Which they are, by the way, also most of them are free, please go play them, here's all his free stuff that he was willing to reupload.

For the sake of clarity: what's exactly original or unique on Like Dreamer's artstyle? I don't even dislike the game, but the art looks bland and unoriginal, and while I don't think that alone justifies bashing the game (nor we are doing it: at least me), it is a fair point to critique.

How the hell can anyone answer something like that? I spend way too much time on the internet myself, and I've seen an artstyle even remotely like this all of once (thankfully sans booba), buried in the depths of art Twitter. It's an intentionally weird, intentionally uncommon artstyle, more along the lines of something like the (now) famous Naruto vs Pain fight, or the "toon" Zelda games, or dark lord final boss of art internet styleos (who does stuff like Mushi 1, Ibara, a bunch of KOF characters) etc.

I'm pretty sure the only reason we've got people trying to say this is "generic" is the booba, despite someone swearing otherwise, because I've also seen people throw that awful "generic" word at poor old styleos for the same reason. It's like how some people hear the word "doujin" and start freaking out, immediately associating that word with booba, because they themselves spend entirely too much time on the internet hunting for booba doozins.

[Steven]

ruler of the universe Joker Jun is probably more known for that silly Btooom manga than anything else at this point (he did that shit for like a decade, it's huge)

The first things I did when I met Joker Jun were to tell him to play Dash Yarou and to ask him what manga of his I should read and he immediately said Btooom without any hesitation. He didn't even mention anything else, including his newest manga that he's working on now. I'm slightly under halfway through now and while it is kind of ridiculous (and quite... rapey), I do like it, but I've also heard the first half is better than the second half, so maybe it becomes a mess later.

I do remember that the first time I heard his name was because of the Btooom anime about a decade ago, so I was quite surprised to learn that he used to be a game developer, although I learned that he was at Toaplan before I learned he was at CAVE, so I guess you are probably right.

[Despatche]

Yeah, that seems about right. It's kinda sad, because before Btooom he did that cool-looking Otogi Matsuri series, which feels like it's explicitly based on plot and character threads from Esprade and Guwange, etc. The two main characters are very clearly based on Yusuke and Kosame, and there are various other near-references. I really need to read that series. I've always considered it to be an "unofficial Esprade/Guwange manga", and I hope it lives up to that title even a little.

[Technicolor]

Bumping this to second Despatche’s comments regarding the artstyle. It really does not look like much else out there— though, I would like to offer up that I think it has a lot of broad similarities to Zun’s art. It’s soft, gentle, and very much doing its own thing; both are also a lot closer to “retro” artstyles than anything you could call modernized. Even the amateurishness helps to contribute to a look that feels, and this is the important thing for me, deeply uncynical. Most recent j-cartoon media tends to lean towards enhancing the wish fulfillment that’s very much “in” with their female characters; Outside has an aesthetic that I could genuinely escape into.

I think that actually makes the huge boobs feel even more jarring when they do show up, though. Imagine if Zun occasionally put characters in nothing but their underwear and nobody ever acknowledged it in-game…^^;

[BulletMagnet]

Seems a physical "Double-D" Switch release including both "Dreamer" games is in the works, and there's an LE version too.

[NeoStrayCat]

Seems a physical "Double-D" Switch release including both "Dreamer" games is in the works, and there's an LE version too.

In the works, yeah, but its now up for pre-order at Play-Asia (as a "Play Exclusive"). No release date yet. Decent prices for either the standard and/or LE though.

[hamfighterx]

Play-Asia has updated the release date for the physical collection: December 2023.

[AGermanArtist]

New fan here. Bought this in the current sale and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.