As I Began to Dream Impressions
Shaping the journey of my dreams.
As someone who is enthusiastically exploring their puzzle platformer era, I quickly got my hands on As I Began To Dream during Steam Next Fest. It was one of those demos that I couldn’t put down. Recalling the feelings I had while playing games like Gris and Ibb & Obb, I forgot in the moment that I was playing just a small slice of the game and effortlessly sunk several hours into it. Come early November, I was more than thrilled to get my hands on the full release.
As I Began To Dream, developed by Strayflux and published by Soft Source, is about a young girl named Lily who is navigating a strange and magical world that exists somewhere between reality and fantasy. There’s definitely some somberness going on here, and the physical environment is thick with dream-like vibes (as the title suggests!). I got the sense from an early cut scene that Lily is searching for her parents, or at least grasping for some sort of memory regarding their whereabouts.
As I got further into the game, I started to wonder if this is actually about our playable character processing what has happened in her past, and what role these mysterious caretakers play in her unique story. Feeling quite eager to find out the truth, I found it easy to start rooting for this darling and heartbroken child. Let’s go find our parents, I will do anything for Lily!
As I Began to Dream in Action
Gameplay-wise, As I Began to Dream transitions seamlessly between hand-painted, Ghibli-esque animated cut scenes and 2D puzzle platforming. The cut scenes are extremely beautiful and cinematic, and offer very welcome breaks after spending a good chunk of time puzzle solving. The main puzzle-solving mechanic involves shifting, switching, and rotating square blocks of platforms to make a path through a variety of environments. Helping Lily progress will seemingly lead us to the answers of our big questions. Where are Lily’s parents and what happened to her?
As I Began To Dream shines the brightest in its visual design, with rich environments and vibes. It kept me invested in Lily’s story by revealing just enough through its intriguing and beautifully designed cut scenes (be warned, these are sometimes heart breaking).
Each chapter offered just enough novelty to keep me invested in the gameplay and story, such as introducing a different color palette, setting, and small additions to the puzzle mechanic. It’s clear that the game increases in difficulty through each chapter by adding a new element (enemies that can hurt you, shifting three blocks when you were previously shifting two, etc.) and rewarding players at the beginning and end of each chapter with a new cut scene that reveals more information.
Since I’ve recently been tackling some iconic and very challenging 2D precision and puzzle platformers, I’m discovering that they bring me a ton of satisfaction and excitement as a player! When approaching As I Began to Dream, another 2D side-scrolling platformer, I geared myself up for another big challenge, expecting that this game would also require the precision and speed of some of my recent favorites like Symphonia. When it comes to gameplay, though, As I Began to Dream is more generous and forgiving in what it asks of the player.
As I Began to Dream Trailer
Some fans of extremely challenging and fast-paced platformers with head scratching puzzles might struggle to get on board here, but I found it offered the perfect amount of challenge and intrigue for me. I genuinely had a few moments where I had to walk away from the game for a bit, feeling totally stuck on a puzzle, but then was able to immediately solve it during my next play session. The developers seem to have struck a really nice balance between story revealing cut scenes and puzzle platformer gameplay.
As I Began To Dream shines the brightest in its visual design, with rich environments and vibes. It kept me invested in Lily’s story by revealing just enough through its intriguing and beautifully designed cut scenes (be warned, these are sometimes heart breaking). Although gameplay is important to me, I’m definitely the type of player to be most motivated and interested in music, visual art, and story. As a player who prioritizes those elements but still really enjoys jumping on platforms with few barriers to progression, this game is a perfect fit for me!
No Small Games was provided with a review key of As I Began to Dream by Soft Source Publishing
About No Small Games
No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.
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