The combat system is where Dreamed Away really soars, as each encounter presents different mini-games baked into the turn-based battling. For example, an early fight with a ghost required me to dodge projectiles and complete skill checks to perform attacks. The same fight threw blocks with arrows on them that I had to hit at the right time and with the corresponding button on my keyboard, not dissimilar to Guitar Hero.
A later fight with a dead and bleeding little girl was much more intense, as she hurled fireballs at me with ferocious speed and put me through a similar sort of Guitar Hero-type mini-game as before, but the inputs moved through the screen much faster and more chaotically.
If I had to choose between turn-based and real-time battles in RPGs, I’d hesitantly pick turn-based as I slightly prefer the more tactical feel, but with Dreamed Away, you get the best of both worlds: the intensity of real-time with the strategy of turn-based. Although this is far, far from the first game to do something vaguely similar, I’ve never seen it implemented in this way.
If this sounds like exactly your jam, as it does mine, we’re not alone. Petton says the Steam demo has been downloaded 23,000 times and the Kickstarter campaign was fully funded in just two weeks. Dreamed Away is scheduled to launch in February 2025 on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox.
Here are some more upcoming indie games to put on your radar.
Source: gamesradar.com
