RPG Maker horror Psychological horror 2D horror Horror puzzle Horror

Blank Dream

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Break every mirror in a world between heaven and hell, one death at a time.

Platforms: PC
Price: Free
Rated: 4.5/5 from 50 votes on Jay is Games, whose review calls it dark but compelling
Players: 1
Controls: Arrow keys to move, hold Shift to run, Space to interact, Esc for the menu and items.
Made by: Kanawo (Teriyaki Tomato); English translation by vgperson
Released: 2015

Visit the game's site Kanawo's original Japanese release

What frightens After drowning herself, a girl wakes in a dark Mirror World and must break each mirror by killing herself again in front of it. Its surreal realms are full of traps, sudden deaths and chases by things like a stampeding pumpkin, with jump scares, blood and a constant feeling that you are never safe.
Content: suicide, self-harm, gore, jumpscares, death, bullying, mentions of incest and pedophilia.

Blank Dream is a free RPG Maker horror game by Kanawo, translated into English by vgperson. Mishiro Usui throws herself into a lake and wakes in the Mirror World, where her reflection tells her to find its mirrors and break them, by ending her life again in front of each one.

About Blank Dream

Blank Dream is a freeware horror exploration game by Kanawo of Teriyaki Tomato, made in RPG Maker VX Ace and first released in Japan in 2015. vgperson translated it into English and hosts the download on their site; it runs on Windows and needs the RPG Maker VX Ace runtime package.

Wishing she had never existed, Mishiro Usui throws herself into a lake. She comes to in the Mirror World, a place that is neither heaven nor hell, with no memory of who she is. Her reflection gives her one instruction: find the mirrors in this world and break them. Each mirror asks her to die again, by a new means, to see what it holds. Other lost souls wander the hub too, and two of them, Yuzu and Ryotaro, have mirrors of their own.

From the hub you unlock doors into themed realms: a dark forest, a gallery where an artist wants paint, a strange dinner club, a school built around seven urban legends. Each realm is a set of item puzzles, and each is full of ways to die. Chandeliers fall if you step in the wrong place, statues come alive when a fire goes out, and some rooms end in a chase. You can only save at blue flames, so a careless step can cost you progress.

Jay is Games found it at times deeply creepy, with well-made jump scares but more unease from its atmosphere and a sense of wrongness in every realm. It compared its gory deaths to The Witch's House. What you do for the others decides which of five endings you reach, and the translator's walkthrough explains how to find each.

The game deals directly with suicide, and vgperson's page advises strong discretion. It suits players of RPG Maker horror like The Witch's House and Ib who want a darker, more personal story and do not mind dying often.

How to play Blank Dream

Download Blank Dream from vgperson's page and install the RPG Maker VX Ace runtime package linked there.
Extract the game to its own folder before running it, so your saves are kept.
Move with the arrow keys, hold Shift to run and press Space to examine things and pick them up.
Use keys from the hub to open the realms, solve each realm's item puzzles and find its mirror.
Save at the blue flames whenever you pass one, and run when something gives chase.

Screenshots

Mishiro in a dark overgrown forest realm with an item menu open showing a knife, an axe and a lantern, and a large tree blocking the path

Mishiro at the end of a wooden pier over a lake, offered the choice to jump in

Blank Dream's original Japanese title art, Kohaku no Yume, in white over drifting lights on dark blue, marked 2015 Teriyaki Tomato

Tips

Look at the floor before you step: a patch of blood under a chandelier is a warning.
Some items must be used from the menu yourself; the game will not always prompt you.
Save at every blue flame you pass, since a death sends you back to the last save.
If a mirror does not show Mishiro's reflection, it may be meant for someone else.
Read vgperson's content warnings before you start; the game is about suicide.