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Games Like Yume Nikki: Dreams, Doors and Quiet Dread

Yume Nikki lets you wander the dreams of a girl who never leaves her room, door after door, with no words to explain what you find. These games share its dream worlds, its silence and its slow, uneasy wandering, from OMORI to free RPG Maker games and empty liminal places.

The games

1 of the 13 games in this guide are not on PC and are left out. Show them all.

  1. OMORI key art: a pencil sketch of the boy OMORI's expressionless face PsychologicalOMORIA bright dream world a quiet boy and his friends explore, cut by sudden horror, while in the waking world he has not left his house in years.
  2. Mishiro, a dark-haired girl, stands on a narrow stone pillar before an ornate mirror in a black void: The girl came to, again standing before the mirror PsychologicalBlank DreamFree and translated from Japanese: a girl wakes in a Mirror World of themed realms, each a set of item puzzles full of ways to die.
  3. Bevel, a girl in pink, stands on a green rug in a stone castle hall with red curtains and coloured paint bottles on pedestals PsychologicalBevel's PaintingFree and translated from Japanese: a young artist walks into her own glowing canvas, a world of paint where everyone speaks a made-up language.
  4. Hello Charlotte EP1 cover: Charlotte, a pale girl with long white hair, held by red puppet strings from yellow hands, under a one-eyed figure PsychologicalHello Charlotte EP1: Junk Food, Gods and Teddy BearsFree and made in RPG Maker: guide a puppet girl into a TV world of static, chases and many ways to die.
  5. Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum key art: a brown-haired girl in a blue dress lying among roses before a stained-glass window PsychologicalPocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraumA girl with no memory explores a gothic, dreamlike mansion of strange inhabitants, in the remake of a cult RPG Maker game.
  6. Neverending Nightmares key art: a man holding a red candle while a pale woman with bleeding red eyes reaches for him from behind PsychologicalNeverending NightmaresWake from one nightmare into the next in black-and-white crosshatching, hiding from apparitions you cannot fight.
  7. A snow-covered two-storey house seen from above at night, with one lit window, in pixel art PsychologicalMidnight Scenes: A Safe PlaceA young man hiding from his life in his bedroom, and the nightmares that come for what is left of his sanity, in about an hour.
  8. Decarnation key art: a woman with dark hair that flows into a mass of flesh, organs and strange creatures PsychologicalDecarnationA Paris cabaret dancer pulled into nightmares of riddles and monsters born of her own mind, in pixel art.
  9. Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk screenshot: the red-eyed girl in a black sweater looks worried in her dark apartment, with red windows behind her PsychologicalMilk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milkThe voice in a troubled girl's head as she tries to get to sleep, her world drawn as she sees it: red, warped and frightening.
  10. Paratopic: a dim diner in low-poly 3D with a Hot Food sign, checkered floor and a revolver with bullets on the counter PsychologicalParatopicShort, low-poly dream logic: three characters, contraband VHS tapes, a forest and a diner that make less sense the longer you look.
  11. Anemoiapolis key art: a lone green tree on a grassy field under a blue sky that looks like crumpled paper ShortAnemoiapolis: Chapter 1An empty underground neighbourhood of malls, corridors and indoor pools that quietly shifts around you, with no one to explain it.
  12. A still tiled pool hall with a white spiral staircase and a dark round opening in the wall Story-led horrorDreamcoreVast, empty dreamlike maps, from dream pools to an endless suburb, wandered with no directions and something just out of sight.

Yume Nikki, made by Kikiyama in 2004 and still free, has no dialogue, no fights and no story told to you: Madotsuki goes to sleep, and you walk through door after door of strange and sometimes frightening dream worlds, collecting Effects that change how she looks. Few games copy it exactly. The ones here share its dreams, its quiet or its sense of a mind you are wandering through.

OMORI is the best known of its descendants: a quiet boy and his friends explore a bright, pastel dream world in a turn-based RPG, while the sudden horror and the waking world, where he has not left his house in years, slowly reveal why. It is longer and talks far more than Yume Nikki, and it deals with grief, depression and suicide.

For something closer to Yume Nikki's free, wordless wandering, Soul Void plays in the browser in Game Boy-style pixel art: you drift through the strange landscapes of a void full of lost souls, helping the ones you meet on your way home. Two free Japanese RPG Maker games translated by vgperson carry the same spirit with more puzzles: in Bevel's Painting a young artist steps into her own glowing canvas, a world of paint where everyone speaks a made-up language, and in Blank Dream a girl wakes in a Mirror World of themed realms full of ways to die; it deals with suicide head on. Hello Charlotte EP1, also free, sends a puppet girl into a TV world of static and dead ends, and Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum, the remake of a cult RPG Maker game, has a girl with no memory wander a gothic, dreamlike mansion of strange inhabitants.

If what stayed with you was the nightmare rather than the dream, Neverending Nightmares wakes you from one nightmare into the next in black-and-white crosshatching, Midnight Scenes: A Safe Place spends an hour in the bedroom of a young man whose nightmares come for him, and Decarnation pulls a Paris cabaret dancer into riddles and monsters born of her own mind. Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk is a short visual novel in which you are the voice in a girl's head as she tries to sleep, her world drawn in red as she sees it.

For dream logic in three dimensions, Paratopic cuts between a smuggler, a birdwatcher and a killer in low-poly scenes that make less sense the longer you look, and Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1 and Dreamcore are wordless wanders through empty malls, dream pools and endless suburbs, the liminal places Yume Nikki's worlds often feel like.

If you only try one, play OMORI for the fullest dream world, or Soul Void for something free you can wander tonight.

Questions

What games are like Yume Nikki?

OMORI is the best known game in its line, and Soul Void, Bevel's Painting and Blank Dream are free games of wandering through strange worlds. Neverending Nightmares and Midnight Scenes keep the nightmare side.

Are there free games like Yume Nikki?

Yes: Soul Void plays free in the browser, and Bevel's Painting, Blank Dream and Hello Charlotte EP1 are free downloads. Yume Nikki itself is free on Steam.

Is Yume Nikki a horror game?

It is quiet rather than frightening for most of its length, with no fights and no chases, but some of its dream worlds and images are disturbing, and that unease is what these games share.

Are games like Yume Nikki on consoles?

OMORI is on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, Neverending Nightmares on PlayStation and Switch, and Paratopic, Decarnation and Milk outside a bag of milk on Switch.

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