Description
Note: Set CC on for English text.
What are the odds that I can get the Unity developer version that this game is based on? Probably unlikely for this Japanese work since I'm a gaijin and most devs are, understandably, protective of their IPs... which is unfortunate.
"The Dream Labyrinth" (Yume no Meikyuu) is, at its core, a doujin Tower Defense game and Rogue-like with some interesting ideas, but it's also got visual novel portions that are beautifully written and the game touches on a lot of existential themes, faith and religion with a bit of humor and interesting characters. Developed with Unity by "GGGs" back in 2023 under Early Access, the game was eventually finished in 2024 and had been in my wishlist for some time. An English translation was being suggested early on, but as the project increased in scope and complexity, the game's U.I. was eventually translated but the actual plot was not in an unusual move that hurt its reputation a bit. Having become somewhat proficient at Japanese, I'd offer to translate it for free if it meant having a stab at the source code and being able to easily replace the text... but I digress.
TDL (not to be confused with TDL or "True Darkness Legend", a Doujin fighting game I did ages ago) is broken into five separate chapters that each deal with the major internal conflicts of a central character and the people associated with them. The main character is a gifted and good-natured (but slightly mischievous) succubus named Asteria who uses her high mana output and "atypical" powers to access the "back door" or "Astral Realm" to help the subconscious move along towards the direction of sweet dreams. In this world, basically everyone is influenced by Godly beings, with the main distinction and hierarchy being "Minor Gods" and the "Greater God" who surpasses them all. Among the living are rare individuals who, through trial or tragedy, have heard the voice of the Greater God and inadvertently signed a contract, turning into "Apostles", servants of the Greater God who pay a steep price for their faith. Asteria, while surfing the Astral Realm, is unwittingly drawn into the realm of the Apostles who have living nightmares and learns of their plight, aiming to break the contracts that bind them and set them free not out of faith and devotion (of which she is affiliated with the Dream God) but from the depths of her heart.
The chapters are not exclusively independent (there is some overlap with the characters) and with the game's Rogue-like elements, you can (and are strongly encouraged) to get stronger by running laps to gain "soul points" to unlock permanent upgrades such as unit inheritance (to save your favorite units from the labyrinth), weapon inheritance, leader skills and artifact re-rolls. As this game is a Tower Defense title, the game takes place in phases and turns with a Explore phase, Prep phase and Battle Phase. However, to get anything accomplished, you will have to "dig" through the dream world which has various nodes that host a wide variety of facilities as well as "psyche layers" which harbor more story and boss battles. Of note, examining the board not only gets you perks when you want / need them but also carves out paths that you can use to more strategically navigate the Astral Realm. Asteria can conjure up the souls of dead warriors to aid in her defense and they come in basic and advanced classes (they can class-up at level 20), and their placement is important as they can't be moved once battle begins.
Most enemies move in a linear path and around obstacles, so you generally want to keep squishy characters behind fighter types. The game's tutorial does a decent job of explaining the basics, but some things to watch out for are attack speed, element combos, rare artifacts, events and "corrosion". Different units, as well as leader skills (abilities you can use at will that aren't automated) have cooldowns, and class, skills, weapon traits and artifacts can all offset this. Artifacts are valuable accessories that work just by having them and have many uses from increasing how many units can sortie to boosting stats or influencing mana gain and such (mana is basically currency in the dreamworld) and rare ones pop up periodically. The game has three elements: Fire (which burns enemies for damage), Freeze (which slows movement) and Erosion (which reduces enemy stats), but you can combine them to get increased potency such as Fire+Fire, Fire+Freeze, etc. Events are listed in the top-left randomly and change the battlefield accordingly. Corrosion is literally the dream space being eaten by mana beasts each turn, increasing their influence and puts the player on the move.
The graphics, sound and gameplay are legit, but the best part, the story, is still not in English. It's a good game that I recommend otherwise:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2398660/The_Dream_Labyrinth/
I felt generous, so I added closed captions for the first chapter. Enjoy.