Ten-year old Polaris finds herself trapped in a dream world created by a mysterious young man named Almond. Inside, things look magical and fantasical (despite their different perspectives), but things soon turn stranger as Polaris finds out why Almond doesn't want to wake up in the real world.
Dreamfarer is a freeware adventure exploration game by Harrymiao and Kagari·joshua made in RPG Maker XP. It has beautiful dreams (as well as nightmares), puzzles, a hint of si-fi and a teaspoon of horror elements.
An English version, translated by Rabbiton, can be obtained here
Dreamfarer contains examples of:
- Adorably Precocious Child: Polaris is very insightful and mature for her age.
- All Just a Dream: The setting of the story.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Almond believes he was seen this way in the real world, due to his chronic depression.
- Bittersweet Ending: Almost all of the endings that aren't a Downer Ending qualify as this.
- Body Horror: The Bonus Room reveals Nightmare originally had white hair and clothing and a more angelic appearance. She becomes more monstruous as Almond's depression gets worse over the years.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Some parts of Almond's dream world show what a terrible life he has had. Born with a chronic depression, he lived a dull life but still wanted to become a writer. Feeling that his stories were too gloomy, he gives up writing. And his girlfriend (the only one who understood him) died because of an illness. Eventually, Almond's depression was too much and his family locked him in a mental ward. All this caused him to have a mental breakdown and overdose himself with pills. He fell into a coma and has been in that state for over 2 years. It’s no wonder why he wants to continue living in the dream world.
- Death Seeker: Almond just wants to remain in the dream world forever, even if his body in the real world is in a coma. And in most endings he accomplishes it. Even in the Golden Ending.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: Polaris finds herself in a dream world created by the mind of an unstable young man and must find her way out.
- The Dreaded: Snake Pot is feared by the bees for some unknown reason. The Bonus Room reveals that she uses them for her pastries...and poor Bee is next...
- Dream Land: The whole story happens inside a dream world created by Almond’s mind.
- Easily Detachable Robot Parts: The Candle Siblings lose their parts very easily, perhaps because they're made of wax. Candle Girl loses her arm and it's up to Almond and Polaris to find it. And in the Bonus Room, Candle Boy loses his head after Candle Girl pats him too hard.
- The Eeyore: Due to his Dark and Troubled Past, Almond is not the most positive of people, but he tries to act cheerful in front of Polaris for her sake.
- Friendless Background: Almond, due to his ambiguous disorder and Polaris because of No Social Skills.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Eather the bird was this to Polaris until she grew up and forgot about him. Remembering him is a clue that you're near an objective you need to complete to get the True Ending.
- Hard Truth Aesop: One of the main Aesops of the game is that running away from or ignoring problems doesn't make them go away or hurt you any less. Case in point, Almond, is depressed, lonely, and abused, and seeks shelter from his life inside of his dream with the help of his imaginary friend Nightmare. However, all that leads to is further depression and suffering, as the friendly dream creatures in his world become more unstable and crazy, mirroring his own mental decay. Polaris is aware of this and acknowledges that people must learn to face the reailty of their lives.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Between Almond and Polaris.
- Kill It with Fire: Almond can threaten to burn Lady Rose’s garden if she refuses to allow Bee to play inside.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Almond is willingly trapped in a dream world created by Nightmare so he would be able to sleep forever and avoid reality. In the (Happy) Bad End 3, poor Polaris is trapped as well.
- Multiple Endings
- Bad End 1 – Keep Going Alone: If Polaris refuses to tag along with Almond, she gets lost in the dream world forever.
- Bad End 2 – Unwilling to Recollect: If Polaris gets out of the dream world without finding any clues, she wakes up at the real world without memories of what happened.
- (Happy) Bad End 3 – Abyss: Polaris finds Almond as he’s about to be taken away by Nightmare. She traps them both in a never-ending happy dream. Only Almond is aware of what happened and apologizes to Polaris for involving her, but at least he’s happy because he now can dream forever.
- Normal End – Polaris: Almond and Polaris decide to part ways and while he stays in the dream world, Polaris wakes up at the real world. She doesn’t have any memories of what happened, however she remembers Almond’s last words to her, encouraging her to chase after her dreams.
- True End – Dreamfarer: Despite all her efforts, Polaris can’t save Almond, who’s taken away by Nightmare so he would continue dreaming forever. She wakes up back in the real world, still maintaining her memories about what happened. Realizing that Almond is gone, Polaris vows that she will face the real world despite the hardships, so she won’t end up like Almond did.
- Off with His Head!: What happens to poor Candle Boy after his sister pats his head too hard in the Bonus Room.
- Shadow Archetype: Almond can be seen as this for Polaris, in a way. Both are gloomy loners with no friends but can be surprisingly insightful. Like Almond, whose girlfriend died; Polaris lost her Only Friend, her pet bird Eather. Both are helped by a mysterious entity during the story (Eather wants to help Polaris to wake up while Nightmare wants to trap Almond in a perpetual coma). And both prefer to dream of happier things rather than face reality. The difference is that Polaris eventually did grew out of her lonely shell while Almond was isolated in a mental ward. This is reflected in the True Ending, while Polaris wakes up and decides to face the hardships of the real world, Almond decides to sleep forever and is trapped in an eternal coma with no chance of waking up again.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: The changing perspective of the dream. Almond can see the people of the dream as anthropomorphic objects while Polaris can only see normal objects.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nightmare wants to lock up Almond in the dream world forever, since she wants to help him escape his horrible life at the real world.
- Yandere: Nightmare towards Almond.
