Dreams of Another. A review of a game that says everything and nothing

In recent years, we have seen many productions, especially indie ones, use the video game medium to share a series of messages and analyses with strong social and emotional impact with players.
Starting Dreams of Another for the first time, the impression is that you are exactly in front of one of these works.

When Dreams of Another first appeared during the State of Play last February, with Tomohisa Kuramitsu, artist name Baiyon, talking about the game's features, it attracted the attention of both critics and fans: interested in both the philosophy behind the title and its particular and refined design.

Speaking of Dreams Of Another, Baiyon stated that the idea — which we could almost call Lavoisierian — of “there is no creation without destruction” was born from a memory of his adolescence.
During a school festival, he and a friend created a cardboard sculpture that young Baiyon then, in an almost impulsive act, began to destroy. That gesture and the reactions that followed left an emotional imprint that has accompanied his creative process to this day.

Jumping from one dream to another. The story of Dreams Of Another

Dreams Of Another throws us into a war scenario as a soldier unable to pull the trigger, which, as one can imagine, does not help to survive in these types of contexts.
This incipit seems to lay the groundwork for themes such as pacifism, internal and external conflict, and the search for morality. All concepts that, however overused, are always welcome, especially in a historical moment like the present where war seems to have become part of our daily lives.

Dreams of Another, however, immediately proved me wrong, showing me its true face and leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

The game changes perspective and takes us into a dreamlike world, where, as the Man in Pajamas, we will jump between fragments of various dreams with the aim of reconstructing this fragmented dimension and, perhaps, finding ourselves again.

Accompanying us on this journey will be the Wandering Soldier, who, acting as a Virgil of sorts, helps us better understand our surroundings, but above all, will bestow upon us his weapons, which have lost their destructive function to become true instruments of creation.

Thanks to the wandering soldier's weapons, we will be able to reconstruct the various dreams and give them balance, which will allow us to discover more about the places we are in and the people who inhabit them, but above all, to listen to the unlistenable; that is, the objects around us.

Following Edward B. Tylor's concept of “conceptual animism”: every door, bench, or tree in the game world is part of human life, and is connected to experiences, memories, and emotions, consequently carrying these, and we will be happy to listen to what they have to say.

Every environment tells a story and every story tells an inner conflict.

A not-so-revolutionary revolution. The gameplay of Dreams Of Another

The philosophy behind the game, according to which there is no creation without destruction, translates into a decidedly unusual gameplay.

As mentioned, the weapons that the Wandering Soldier will give us are tools of creation. Through these, the Man in Pajamas will be able to bring balance and recreate the game world — which is totally fragmented — simply by shooting at anything that comes into his sight.

We will thus find ourselves shooting wildly at buildings, trees, people, animals, and anything that stands in front of us, and once balance is restored in something, we can listen to what this object or being has to say to us.

Unfortunately, it must be emphasized that after the initial effect of seeing the game world recompose before our eyes, Dreams Of Another essentially becomes boring.

The title is reduced to being a simple shooter, without any real challenge for the player, forcing us to hold down R2 for hours.

Trying to make the gameplay more dynamic — aka less boring — the Wandering Soldier tries, who will give us a series of weapons and power-ups that should help us speed up the construction process.

Too bad the power-ups are limited to the ability to run — oh yeah — and the weapons simply allow covering larger areas of the environment.

Excellent Point Clouds work. The technical aspect of Dreams Of Another

Counterbalancing a gameplay that succeeded in the difficult challenge of boring me after less than an hour, there is a sector that perhaps represents the best aspect of the game.

As mentioned, the various environments are fragmented, and this is perfectly represented through excellent point cloud work, which harmoniously recompose before our eyes.

Furthermore, a specific soundtrack is connected to each environment, which makes the game's soundtrack varied and enjoyable — although there are some successful pieces and others with a soporific effect.

I played Dreams Of Another on PlayStation 5 and the game runs stably at 60 FPS, thanks also to a graphics sector that is certainly not high-level.
Q-Games' title was also developed for PlayStation VR 2, however, I did not have the opportunity to try it on this platform; but based on what I saw on PS5, I can tell you that it is certainly not the title that will make you switch to virtual reality.

Not everything can be a video game. Final Thoughts

Defining Dreams of Another is complex.
Baiyon has said that the goal of Dreams of Another is not so much to offer a strong and linear narrative, but a reflective space for the player. He wants the player to ask “who am I?”, “where am I?”, and reflect on themselves rather than just the character on the screen.

Consequently, it is undeniable that there is a desire to leave a strong message, however, whether it's a fragmented narrative or a continuous attempt to moralize the player, this message quickly gets lost; so much so that at a certain point I found myself wondering what the hell I was doing.

The idea of overturning the concepts of creation and destruction is also interesting but quickly loses its bite, so much so that at a certain point one wonders if the Man in Pajamas couldn't use any other tool to bring balance to the dream world.

The game also fails in its attempt to narrate the inner conflicts of the various characters because it gets entangled in a series of adolescent philosophical questions that hardly captivate those over 20 and end up being trivial.

During BitSummit 2025 in Kyoto, Baiyon defined Dreams Of Another as his new “art installation” and perhaps this is where the key lies.
Art is not always understandable to everyone and each person sees something different in it, maybe Dreams of Another is simply a work of art that I failed to understand.

If you want to get lost in the dream world of Dreams Of Another and try to grasp its essence, you can find it on PlayStation 5, PS VR2, and PC for 35 euros.