A Nightmare's Trip
(Steam page here) is a short, Ren'Py-based Visual Novel by Sky Hours Works written by Jeffrey Chiao and released on October 7th, 2019.
The story takes places on Natura, a planet situated on an alternate dimension from our own. In this world, nightmares that are vivid enough can come to life, turning into humanoid beings living independently from their original creators (Known as "Conductors".) Adrien, a shy, soft-spoken fox boy from Lunar's Lead, is one of those nightmares.
For a few days, Adrien decides to go on a holiday to the foreign town of Kumo City, hoping to refresh himself, find some new friends, and maybe even learn the origin of his recent, mysterious dreams of a person calling out to him...
A Nightmare's Trip straddles the line a bit between a Kinetic Novel and a choice-based, regular visual novel: While there are multiple choices over the course of the story, they only affect a few minor dialogue changes as well as some exclusive scenes; For example, choices made during the prologue will actually affect Adrien's personality throughout the entire story, making him more outspoken or shy for the rest of the game, but the main plot will always stay the same.
A Nightmare's Trip provides examples of:
- Art Shift: Yume and Lucié are drawn by a different artist and in a noticeably different artstyle from the rest of the characters, emphasizing their connections with Adrien.
- Bland-Name Product: Adrien and Riley are apparently big players of Dragon Pest XI. though considering how Riley talks about a "new expansion with an improved main story", it probably plays more akin to Final Fantasy XIV.
- Benevolent Monsters: Despite being born from their Conductors's anxieties, nightmares are not inherently evil, as proven by Adrien. By the end of the game, he even befriends Yume, his Conductor.
- Bartholomew has an extremely easy-going and nice personality and mean no harm to Adrien, even though he's, y'know, a demon from hell.
- Buzzsaw Jaw: Adrien doesn't eat: He goes feral on his food.
- Cast Full of Gay: Every character is part of the LGBTQ community, the only exceptions being Segwayne, Riley (And only because nowhere are their sexual orientation mentioned) and maybe Adrien. Even characters that aren't depicted as explicitely LGBTQ during the story have various pride flags projected behind them in the credits:
- Marcy and Jude are both lesbians (With Marcy outright saying she has a wife in chapter 5).
- Gangle is gay.
- K and Bartholomew are [[asexual.
- Orange is bisexual.
- Lucié in non-binary, and Yume is a trans man.
- Adrien himself might also be bisexual or gay, considering he immediately takes Bartholomew's compliments as flirting, but nothing is explicitely said ingame.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: K, big time. She can't stay one second without stealing something or spouting what immediately came to her head.
- Meaningful Name: Yume, considering Adrien is born from his dreams.
- Former Teen Rebel: Segwayne was apparently quite the delinquent in the past, which is why he lets K get away with her crimes.
- My Name Is ???: The person in Adrien's dreams is only known by "____" (Four underscores) at first, but every encounter with them unveils one letter. It's "Yume".
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Let's just say Bartholomew is really bad at hiding his demon identity.
- Plant Person: Marcy.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Orange is the Blue Oni to K's very, very Red Oni.
- Shout-Out:
- Gangle wears a baseball cap that spells "Binyot Co.".
- Bordering between this and outright cameos: Two of the games Adrien has on his handheld console are NOISZ and One Step From Eden, and are directly called by name in the narration.
- Sticky Fingers: K appears to be quite the compulsive stealer.K: You have it on display right there! THAT MAKES IT FREE.
- Sibling Rivalry: If they're together, Jude and Bartholomew will fight. No exceptions.
- Stylistic Suck: The game uses a lot of Tumblr styled typos, missspellings, lack of punctuation and / or keysmashing to emphasize extreme emotions such as panic, joy, or anger.
- Wutai: Kumo City is an amalgation of various Asian countries, but seems mostly based on modern-day Tokyo, with undergoung malls, lots of merchandise based on anime, and even a Sky Tower!
- Your Mind Makes It Real: On Natura, Conductors are able to turn their nightmares into real people. Adrien was born from Yume's fear and insecurities, but deeply regrets his actions by the end.
