Yet another "interactive experience" where there's little to no actual gameplay. All you do in Neverending Nightmares is run for 5 seconds, then catch your breath, run for another 5 seconds, then catch your breath again. There are almost no interactions with the environment, aside from looking at paintings, dolls and dead animals. In the very first nightmare you can pick up an axe to open a door... that's pretty much it. There are enemies to run or hide from but these encounters get tedious real fast. Since there is absolutely nothing to do in this game but wander around until you find the next event that gets you to the next nightmare, to get caught and being forced to replay just a few seconds (you always wake up again near the room where you were killed) becomes a chore. There isn't any real story either. There are a few branching paths that lead to several endings but they require you to replay some of the levels. So maybe, when you've seen all the endings, you get a better sense of what happened, I don't know. I'm still giving it a 2nd star because of the fantastic art style. It felt like exploring a european 1800's comic book.
Which wouldn't be so bad if the game was a parody, but no it's dead serious and as predictable as it is boring. If you're familiar with JRPGs then you'll see everything coming from a mile away. The combats could have been the saving grace thanks to the pretty good skills system but unfortunately they are just way too easy. Difficulty only ramps up in the very last dungeon. To add insult to injury this is a chapter-based game in which you cannot go back to previous towns and dungeons. It's truely a shame because the world is very nice, highly detailed and full of things to discover (LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of text). If you're new to the genre or if you don't mind the clichés japanese developers have been overusing for decades now, you very well might enjoy this.
