The first time I played Yume Nikki, I explored every nook and cranny, just because I wanted to experience it all, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. When I finally finished everything, I stopped playing, and went through actual psychological withdrawal; for at least a week, I wanted nothing more than to go back to that beautiful world. I only played Broken Reality once a week, making progress as I went, and I still experienced this kind of withdrawal; this world is a masterpiece.
You start in a beachside pastel Hell that's absolutely wonderful; I tried the demo, and even though I never left this area, I spent 2 hours before realizing that I had. It all starts out just blasting the Internet, particularly social media, and how it's been a virtual approval collect-a-thon. You start out with just a liker, which you use to slap a thumbs-up on everything you can to collect those precious likes and earn badges. The whole time, I was laughing at how ridiculous it all was... but, I wasn't not doing it. From there on, you get other tools, such as a camera, a bookmarker, a credit card, and more. Each tool had some clever uses, and though there aren't many puzzles in the traditional sense, there are a lot of exploration puzzles (i.e. how do I reach this area). The neat thing about exploration is that it's pretty open; each different area requires a certain badge level to enter, but most of them can be reached relatively easily, and some even have back doors. Completionists need not worry, either, as I missed a decent amount of likes, and even botched a couple of things, and I was still able to reach the maximum rank without much trouble, not that you even need to.
This isn't for you if you want something straight-forward or action-packed, but if you enjoy exploring surreal worlds that occasionally throw some irreverent humor and well-written story bits at you, then I can't recommend this enough; it's an unforgettable adventure.
