Got this game in the Ukraine bundle a while back and it was just the kind of game I was looking for at the time.
Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams is a walking simulator with light platforming and Horror elements. It's a slow decent into the spook zone, but a well executed one.
The level design is solid and strikingly pretty without losing the PS1 asthetic, initially reminding me of the Classic Spyro games. The secret worlds also add a reward for the curious, which certainly describes me!
Sound design is also well polished, really shining in the scarier levels, as building tension is almost entirely the responsibility of the soundtrack and atmospheric noise.
The writing is witty, funny and introspective with a solid message of preseverance and uplifting others. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a scenic walk and not afraid of a little horror.
The references to Vinesauce and Silent Hill also made me happy :)
It's hard to believe that this game was mostly made by one person. There's an incredible amount of high quality content: 12 completely different, beautiful, immersive dream-like worlds.
The game uses a retro, PS1-style aesthetic, with low res pixelated textures and low poly models. Nevertheless, it's very beautiful, with excellent lighting and beautiful VFX. The sound design and music is excellent too, and helps to create a unique atmosphere for each world. The dialogs are well written and engaging: each NPC has its own character and "voice" (not literally - there's no voice acting), and interesting things to say.
The gameplay by itself isn't very deep: most challenges are key/door challenges, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative (help an NPC by fetching an item for them). You have some choices in dialog options, which mostly give different, interesting responses, but in the end it's still a mostly linear experience with no major choices. You always get further by being friendly and helpful, which is something I like.
Then there are jumping challenges, sometimes with moving platforms. Jumping challenges rarely create good gameplay: either they're relatively simple and boring, or they're tedious and frustrating. Fortunately, the former choice is made here, although there are still a few places where one missed jump requires some tedious backtracking. Tip: learn to use your sprint button, also in mid air.
This may sound negative, but I think the forgiving gameplay is actually fitting here: it rarely gets in the way of enjoying the sensory experience and exploration, which is what this game is all about, but it provides enough interaction to keep you engaged and interested. The level design is excellent and clear: despite needing to search for some items, you're never really lost, and there's very good, subtle guidance throughout, though also enough space to explore some side paths, and some hidden secrets.
I said "dream-like worlds" above, but be warned: towards the end it gets quite nightmarish instead, with some truly scary and haunting places to explore (especially if you play it as recommended: with headphones in a dark space!) The game doesn't rely on cheap jump scares, but instead, crafts an excellent, tense atmosphere, where some things are clearly not as they should be.
If this sounds like your type of game, then I strongly recommend checking it out - it's a masterpiece in its genre.
Fantastic game each World is different. The Music as well as the PS1 graphic works perfect. I made a little video if someone is interested to watch it.
I've played through the demo and it felt awesome. I've wanted to play full version someday so much... And here comes the Ukraine bundle. The game intro is so good!! I'm already fully into the game vibe.
Edit: played first dreams and I'm starting to recall the vibe from the prequel game. The hand-crafted enviroments are truly beautiful! I really wish you all the best in development, and I hope you will get rewarded for this masterpiece ;) btw are there any secret deeper worlds? I'm pretty sure there were some dreams that were optional in the previous game. How about the lava CEO for example? was it required for the story?
I've only gotten about 5-10 minutes in.... it's amazing! I love it. The thing I love most about the gamer is it feels very authentic to PS1. I thought the graphics were too good for PS1, but, 1, Looking at it, the textures are about on par, the number of polygons looks about right, and finally, the size is perfect, this could legitimately have passed for a PS1 game. It's amazing! Alright update: Haven't beaten but this is amazing, it's a trip, and I sing the praises wherever I go!
I downloaded the first one on accident but i played through it entirely and absouletly adored it but then i found that i also owned this, and gave it a try and it took everything about he first game and made it a thousand times better! This game truely made me feel many different emotions ranging from, sadness, happiness, fear, to anger and it was a wonderful ride. If you ever plan on making another game like this one i def will pick it up!
This game was incredible!! I adored the atmosphere and the bunny is so, so special.
One small bug I noticed, and my apologies if this is not the place to report it- in the haunted mansion, after the long room which twists, there's a jump puzzle with moving checkerboard platforms. after failing it a few times, jumping on it would just make me slide on the platform and i could no longer jump. The only way to fix it was to return to the nexus. I figured I should point it out, just in case it's yet to be reported!
Thank you for making such an incredible game though- It's an experience I won't forget in a while.
Hi Cherub- I was not aware of that bug in the mansion jumping puzzle. I'm wondering if it has to do with how you attach to the platforms. I'll give it a look for the next update, thank you
WOW, the PSX vibes this games gives is truly amazing, but what I love too is that it does feel unique in its own merit, and for that I gotta commend you!
It would mean lot if you could maybe consider porting this title or other works from you into ARM windows since I'd like to support your work and it would be accessible to other windows users with different platforms :)
god damn i love this game. love how it looks, love how it sounds, love the immersion and having seen pretty much nothing at all about this game before i downloaded it, what the game became in the later levels was really effective on me. everyone who worked on this game did a fantastic job!
Fell in love with this game before I'd even purchased it, got to say I'm a sucker for Late 90s styled games and stuff in general. Fantastic work Sodaraptor keep up it up!
Definitely playing the prequel to Hypnagogia Boulndless Dreams after this playthrough!
P.S Totally got that little hidden Tic-Tac-Toe Code message. Caught me off-guard seeing it!
Hi Sub- thanks for checking both games out, I'm glad you enjoyed. For the tic-tac-toe message, are you referring to the cipher on the ground in some spots?
Indeed, specifically in the beginning of the "underwater section", paraphrasing here as to not spoil the level too much. Thanks for the reply by the way, its greatly appreciated.
Fantastic game, visually aswell as gameplay-wise! Only thing I'd appreciate and would make it a 6/5 instead a 5/5 would be controler support for the Nintendo Switch Pro controller, but I'll figure a work around for that propably.
I came to say the same thing. exactly actually. i only have my pro controller where i am and gc controllers and it's not compatible with either. besides that the game is amazing.
A question for the dev - Is this version kept up to date with the Steam version? Or do I need to purchase the Steam version in order to have the most recent release of the game
sodaraptor really stepped it up between the original game and this one! The demo was really impressive, the different worlds seem even more immersive than the original and the character design/dialogue was full of life and spirit. Really glad I checked it out, I'm looking forward to eventually seeing the full game and getting the full experience!
Does the game automatically update when you buy and download it through the itch.io app or steam whenever there's an update coming to the game or no? This is probably a stupid question to ask
I haven't figured out how to set up automatic updates using the itch.io build tools yet, so I've just been replacing the files with the updated ones manually. You'd have to redownload the game on this page each time there is an update.
Okay, nice. Thank you for letting me know about this. Also, just wanted to let you know that you're one of my favorite indie game developers working right now. The Pathogen-X demo, the original Hypnagogia game, and this game are some of the best indie games that I've played so far :)
I managed to load demo on Linux, just have to use wine64, this is true Dream Simulator, kind of game that makes next night dream really wild, although demo is very short.
Hypnagogia : Boundless Dreams was a beautifully crafted experience using some of the best elements from LSD-like exploration games and melding them with a really creative narrative. I came in with some expectations, especially after having played through the original Hypnagogia but this soft-sequel is just amazing. The music complements each stage wonderfully and the NPCs dialogue felt thoughtful. The characters and level designs were probably some of my favourite elements, entering each level filled me with a feeling of "Okay, what could possibly be here ?" and I just loved it.
This video serves as a more in-depth review but I really recommend you to play it by yourself, it's just that good.
Wonderful game! A very good improvement from the first game that has more of that aesthetic feeling of the 90's especially when you are in the mall, heavily recommend that you play it because it's so memorable and I have gotten good memories from it. Keep up the good work!
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I was wondering about the ending is it a set up for some sort of collective unconsciousness story
fired satan's over prevailed son, destroyed hell, and robbed a buch goblins. 10/10
Got this game in the Ukraine bundle a while back and it was just the kind of game I was looking for at the time.
Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams is a walking simulator with light platforming and Horror elements. It's a slow decent into the spook zone, but a well executed one.
The level design is solid and strikingly pretty without losing the PS1 asthetic, initially reminding me of the Classic Spyro games. The secret worlds also add a reward for the curious, which certainly describes me!
Sound design is also well polished, really shining in the scarier levels, as building tension is almost entirely the responsibility of the soundtrack and atmospheric noise.
The writing is witty, funny and introspective with a solid message of preseverance and uplifting others. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a scenic walk and not afraid of a little horror.
The references to Vinesauce and Silent Hill also made me happy :)
Hi, sodaraptor! This game is incredible and very imaginative so far, but I have a question.
Where are the saved games stored on disk? I want to continue playing on a new device, so I want to copy my save there, but I can’t seem to find it.
I found what looks like a log file in %APPDATA%\LocalLow\Raptorsoft but seemingly no save data is present.
Hi Rooster- save data is stored in the Registry, so if you want to transfer a file you can follow these steps:
You can also wipe save data by simply deleting the Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams folder.
Ahh, that’s what I was missing. Thanks sodaraptor, that did the trick!
I got this game in the Ukraine bundle, and it has to be one of the best games I have played in the bundle.
awesome way to spend a night
REVIEW:
It's hard to believe that this game was mostly made by one person. There's an incredible amount of high quality content: 12 completely different, beautiful, immersive dream-like worlds.
The game uses a retro, PS1-style aesthetic, with low res pixelated textures and low poly models. Nevertheless, it's very beautiful, with excellent lighting and beautiful VFX. The sound design and music is excellent too, and helps to create a unique atmosphere for each world. The dialogs are well written and engaging: each NPC has its own character and "voice" (not literally - there's no voice acting), and interesting things to say.
The gameplay by itself isn't very deep: most challenges are key/door challenges, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative (help an NPC by fetching an item for them). You have some choices in dialog options, which mostly give different, interesting responses, but in the end it's still a mostly linear experience with no major choices. You always get further by being friendly and helpful, which is something I like.
Then there are jumping challenges, sometimes with moving platforms. Jumping challenges rarely create good gameplay: either they're relatively simple and boring, or they're tedious and frustrating. Fortunately, the former choice is made here, although there are still a few places where one missed jump requires some tedious backtracking. Tip: learn to use your sprint button, also in mid air.
This may sound negative, but I think the forgiving gameplay is actually fitting here: it rarely gets in the way of enjoying the sensory experience and exploration, which is what this game is all about, but it provides enough interaction to keep you engaged and interested. The level design is excellent and clear: despite needing to search for some items, you're never really lost, and there's very good, subtle guidance throughout, though also enough space to explore some side paths, and some hidden secrets.
I said "dream-like worlds" above, but be warned: towards the end it gets quite nightmarish instead, with some truly scary and haunting places to explore (especially if you play it as recommended: with headphones in a dark space!) The game doesn't rely on cheap jump scares, but instead, crafts an excellent, tense atmosphere, where some things are clearly not as they should be.
If this sounds like your type of game, then I strongly recommend checking it out - it's a masterpiece in its genre.
Hi Paul-
Thanks for the thoroughly thought out review. I appreciate you playing and enjoying the game so much! Cheers
Fantastic game each World is different. The Music as well as the PS1 graphic works perfect. I made a little video if someone is interested to watch it.
I've played through the demo and it felt awesome. I've wanted to play full version someday so much... And here comes the Ukraine bundle. The game intro is so good!! I'm already fully into the game vibe.
Edit: played first dreams and I'm starting to recall the vibe from the prequel game. The hand-crafted enviroments are truly beautiful! I really wish you all the best in development, and I hope you will get rewarded for this masterpiece ;) btw are there any secret deeper worlds? I'm pretty sure there were some dreams that were optional in the previous game. How about the lava CEO for example? was it required for the story?
I've only gotten about 5-10 minutes in.... it's amazing! I love it. The thing I love most about the gamer is it feels very authentic to PS1. I thought the graphics were too good for PS1, but, 1, Looking at it, the textures are about on par, the number of polygons looks about right, and finally, the size is perfect, this could legitimately have passed for a PS1 game. It's amazing!
Alright update: Haven't beaten but this is amazing, it's a trip, and I sing the praises wherever I go!
I downloaded the first one on accident but i played through it entirely and absouletly adored it but then i found that i also owned this, and gave it a try and it took everything about he first game and made it a thousand times better! This game truely made me feel many different emotions ranging from, sadness, happiness, fear, to anger and it was a wonderful ride. If you ever plan on making another game like this one i def will pick it up!
This game was incredible!! I adored the atmosphere and the bunny is so, so special.
One small bug I noticed, and my apologies if this is not the place to report it- in the haunted mansion, after the long room which twists, there's a jump puzzle with moving checkerboard platforms. after failing it a few times, jumping on it would just make me slide on the platform and i could no longer jump. The only way to fix it was to return to the nexus. I figured I should point it out, just in case it's yet to be reported!
Thank you for making such an incredible game though- It's an experience I won't forget in a while.
Hi Cherub- I was not aware of that bug in the mansion jumping puzzle. I'm wondering if it has to do with how you attach to the platforms. I'll give it a look for the next update, thank you
This game was awesome. Looking forward to the updates!
WOW, the PSX vibes this games gives is truly amazing, but what I love too is that it does feel unique in its own merit, and for that I gotta commend you!
It would mean lot if you could maybe consider porting this title or other works from you into ARM windows since I'd like to support your work and it would be accessible to other windows users with different platforms :)
Great works you've done <3
Hi scott- I will look into this in a future update. Thanks for checking out and enjoying the game
Already own it, but thanks for putting it in the Bundle for Ukraine. Such a great game. Be sure to check it out.
well the pictures sure look sick apart from the ps1/ff9/doom(or whatever it was)-style
definitely checking it out
god damn i love this game. love how it looks, love how it sounds, love the immersion and having seen pretty much nothing at all about this game before i downloaded it, what the game became in the later levels was really effective on me. everyone who worked on this game did a fantastic job!
Fell in love with this game before I'd even purchased it, got to say I'm a sucker for Late 90s styled games and stuff in general. Fantastic work Sodaraptor keep up it up!
Definitely playing the prequel to Hypnagogia Boulndless Dreams after this playthrough!
Hi Sub- thanks for checking both games out, I'm glad you enjoyed. For the tic-tac-toe message, are you referring to the cipher on the ground in some spots?
Indeed, specifically in the beginning of the "underwater section", paraphrasing here as to not spoil the level too much. Thanks for the reply by the way, its greatly appreciated.
I like the rabbit :)
The other ones are great too!
The ending was so unexpected omg
I love the soundtrack. Is it anywhere in the files? I'd love to just listen to it.
You can listen to it here:
X-X
Left me speechless.
Fantastic game, visually aswell as gameplay-wise!
Only thing I'd appreciate and would make it a 6/5 instead a 5/5 would be controler support for the Nintendo Switch Pro controller, but I'll figure a work around for that propably.
I agree. I'm really enjoying this one.
I came to say the same thing. exactly actually. i only have my pro controller where i am and gc controllers and it's not compatible with either. besides that the game is amazing.
A question for the dev - Is this version kept up to date with the Steam version? Or do I need to purchase the Steam version in order to have the most recent release of the game
This and the Steam version are kept updated simultaneously, so you're good if you want to get either one.
I'm just slapping my forehead.
release a linux version please.
Soon™
Backrooms hidden gem - kicks ass!)
Thanks for the awesome game though!
You should be rewarded more than money only)
Will there be "(ヒプナゴジア3：最終的な夢) Hypnagogia 3: Final Dreams"?!!!
Maybe!
Woah I really like this also I had no idea you can make the game profile have effects like this - you are very stylish and polished!
pretty impressive I went back in time to 1995 to play this lol
Does the game automatically update when you buy and download it through the itch.io app or steam whenever there's an update coming to the game or no? This is probably a stupid question to ask
I haven't figured out how to set up automatic updates using the itch.io build tools yet, so I've just been replacing the files with the updated ones manually. You'd have to redownload the game on this page each time there is an update.
On Steam it automatically updates.
Okay, nice. Thank you for letting me know about this. Also, just wanted to let you know that you're one of my favorite indie game developers working right now. The Pathogen-X demo, the original Hypnagogia game, and this game are some of the best indie games that I've played so far :)
Do you have some DEMO ?
Love the look of the game, the video trailer gave me very big Alice and .Hack vibes
I managed to load demo on Linux, just have to use wine64, this is true Dream Simulator, kind of game that makes next night dream really wild, although demo is very short.
How can i change the resolution of the game
You can change the resolution in the pause menu:
Hypnagogia : Boundless Dreams was a beautifully crafted experience using some of the best elements from LSD-like exploration games and melding them with a really creative narrative. I came in with some expectations, especially after having played through the original Hypnagogia but this soft-sequel is just amazing. The music complements each stage wonderfully and the NPCs dialogue felt thoughtful. The characters and level designs were probably some of my favourite elements, entering each level filled me with a feeling of "Okay, what could possibly be here ?" and I just loved it.
This video serves as a more in-depth review but I really recommend you to play it by yourself, it's just that good.
Demo bug, i cant play
Hi Henvak - what is the bug?
Wonderful game! A very good improvement from the first game that has more of that aesthetic feeling of the 90's especially when you are in the mall, heavily recommend that you play it because it's so memorable and I have gotten good memories from it. Keep up the good work!
sooo amazingdoople