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I ended up playing a game called Melatonin last night and it moved me so much that I wanted to make a post about it. It is a rhythm-based game and hand drawn. It’s about the concept of exploring dreams and matching up button pressing with audio cues. One of the best parts is that it has a variety of accessibility settings that make it playable for anyone, even if you can't keep rhythm (myself included). Talking about the game doesn't convey how beautiful it is so I'll drop a link to its trailer here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pTks5ptQEX0
Each set of dreams you explore has a different set of songs and unique patterns that change with each night. The music is some of the best I’ve heard, and I hope to see it nominated for soundtrack of the year awards. What makes the game relatable is that it shows us the different attributes of the protagonist and of ourselves. Dreams about stress, money, desires, dating, loneliness and more are explored and are all tied together at the end for a final song. In the finale, when you play along it takes you through each dream, stitching them together showing the characters life in a moving way. We see work, shopping, sitting alone, working out, climbing away from lava as they escape their stress, and playing a simple crane game. It's embarrassing to admit but I cried as the credits rolled because the song moved me so much. It was a culmination of the 2-hour journey it took to complete, hearing every song, exploring every dream and starting to understand the character, who is a lonely person just chilling in their apartment.
I already have this as my game of the year and it's going to be hard to beat because it's an experience. I can't recommend it enough, grab some headphones, turn on some visual cues to help you find the groove, and you'll spend the next couple hours memorized.
You can pick it up on Steam or Switch
If you end up buying the game, please leave a positive review so the developer can grow as it's their first game.
