Bygone Dreams is an action-adventure game where you must travel through different realms in search for the guardians who can help you thwart impending doom. It’s got challenging bosses, engaging combat, and a story that doesn’t seem to follow a strict structure. Let’s talk about it!
Full disclosure: I received a review copy from the developers, and they specifically asked to only showcase the first two hours prior to release, presumably to avoid story spoilers. (That’s why this is a first impression type review, with just minor spoilers)
Not Quite A “Souls” Game
The game features a fairly straightforward but deceptively challenging combat system. I’m hesitant to call it a “souls-like” because it really isn’t one, but its combat definitely shares a lot of elements with that genre.
You have your standard light and heavy attacks, the option to dodge or block, and a stamina system that’ll keep you from being too cheesy. There are also various melee and ranged weapons to collect, as well as elemental weaknesses to take into consideration.
It’s honestly not that complex unless you’re sweating it, which you will be if you picked the “Heroic” difficulty level… which I did for my very first playthrough.
If you’re looking for a challenge, you’ll definitely find it with the harder difficulty level. Contrary to what you might expect, it doesn’t just turn enemies into sponges that deal more damage. Nah, this game actually ramps up the difficulty by adding new attacks to bosses.
The prologue boss took me three attempts to beat as I took my time experimenting with certain mechanics and trying to dance around the arena, which progressively became filled with tornadoes as a part of the difficulty setting I’ve chosen.
Mind you, he moves around the arena a lot and summons projectiles that amplify your damage taken if you don’t stick close to him. It’s frantic, but engaging!
Barely Any Handholding
For better or for worse, Bygone Dreams doesn’t hold your hand when it comes to what you’re supposed to do next, at least after the intro. To be frank, I’m not a huge fan of how the early game areas are structured, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad.
Following the prologue, you’re introduced to a pretty sizeable hub area with a bunch of portals all around it. These lead you to different realms, each supposedly housing one of the guardians you’re looking for in the story.
This is where some players might get a bit confused, especially if you’re the type who tries to check literally every corner of the map.
A lot of the portals don’t restrict you regardless of your progress in the game, and you can easily stumble into chapter 3 as soon as you finish the intro sequence. In fact, you might even somehow find yourself in chapter 7… which I did, and I got killed in one hit.
Doing away with the “chapter” labels might, ironically, help prevent some of the possible confusion. Rather than players thinking “wait, did I skip something?”, they’d likely just eventually go “oh, I’m not supposed to be here yet” after running into a powerful enemy.
It’s just a minor issue with clarity, and maybe I’m a bit too bothered by it. You can’t really blame me though. Like, how would you react if “Chapter III” flashed on your screen just minutes after the prologue?
A Bit of Jank
The game’s not immune to jank, as I’ve encountered a few silly (likely) unintentional interactions here and there. Now, I haven’t had a boss fight get ruined by bugs, but there are definitely a few quirks elsewhere that can mess with (or somehow help) you in other ways.
You can sometimes use the environment to your advantage, though in a totally unintended manner. In the first “chapter”, for instance, I would try to have enemies chase me to a staircase.
Certain mobs can’t actually hit you in those spots because of how high up their swings are, so you can avoid most damage by simply standing a couple of steps below them. This doesn’t apply to bosses, and their arenas don’t allow for it anyway.
On the flip side, there’s this small puzzle you need to solve in the prologue, but for some reason, time doesn’t stop around you while you’re doing it, and you can’t cancel back out. Well, if there’s an enemy attacking you, such as a plant that attacks from afar, you’ll continue taking damage offscreen.
I actually had to watch my footage back to make sure I wasn’t tripping. Surely enough, I was taking damage, and I could have died doing a simple puzzle piece rotation thing!
Overall, It’s Still Good Fun
Quirks aside, Bygone Dreams is a wild and fun adventure that’s perfect for both story enjoyers and sweats who love playing challenge modes. I’m somewhere in between, and I definitely see myself enjoying this even several more hours down the line.
Take note, there are achievements for beating certain bosses on “Heroic” mode while taking zero damage. There’s a lot, and you’ll probably think it’s a boss rush game if you just take a peek at the Steam achievements list.
I do genuinely enjoy the combat and look forward to unlocking whatever else the main character can have. I’m far from finishing the story as I’m working on a lot of other stuff too, but you should be able to check it out yourself as it’ll be out (or extremely close to being released) by the time you’re reading this post.
If you do plan on getting it, my only advice is to use a controller. It’s going to make the overall experience much better!