Review of Parry Nightmare

Good morning to you, Trauma-san! Goodbye!

Parry Nightmare
Platform: PC
Developer: KAKUKAKU GAMES
Publisher: Phoenixx Inc.
Release date: March 21st, 2024
Price: $6.99, $6.29 launch price until April 4th
Digital availability: Steam

Parry Nightmare’s action takes place in a world of surrealistic dreams, much as Phoenixx’s NeverAwake. The protagonist of the game, Honno, has a lot of trauma during the night before she goes to sleep. Anxieties over childhood, school, employment, and even family distress run wild here, along with unresolved difficulties.

Your soul and psyche work together over the course of four phases to attempt to overcome this onslaught of pressures and survive till dawn. However, in contrast to most Vampire Survivors-style games, you are unable to immediately vanquish the incessant swarm of monsters.

Honno-chan Comes to the Help!

Your soul has the ability to parry, as the title suggests, which can stop missiles and momentarily shock opponents. On the other hand, enemies can be destroyed by your devil-horned doppelgänger, Honno-chan, when they are stunned. And enemies leave behind globules of gatherable light when she does. Success, not unexpectedly, depends on gathering these.

If you gather enough to fill a meter on the left side of the screen, you won’t let your nightmares win throughout the night. And if it seems doable at first, there are soon plenty of obstacles in the way. Larger opponents that attempt to take down Honno-chan exist in addition to those who will deplete some of your health when they come into contact with you. You’ll need to hover close to her if they are successful in reviving her.

Precise Outbursts

However, you won’t be able to choose among new weaponry, statistical gains, or the standard drip feed. Rather, a series of well-timed parries gives your character benefits like an extended stun radius. Additionally, combos charge your tension meter. You can launch a Burst Attack that can eliminate all of the adversaries in an area and leave a plethora of light behind when this gauge full. Defeating strong opponents might occasionally drop power-ups that can boost Honno-chan’s offensive ability or seize all nearby light. Getting them is necessary for the boss battles in the game, which are timed. It’s hard to ignore the advice that sushi can help you overcome obstacles in life.

You can discover more about the main character by investigating her residence in between scenes. These sections are displayed through a point-and-click user interface, providing a sentence or two of explanation as you examine objects. However, the narrative is unclear and gives only general information about the lives of the main character.

Oddly, the spritework of the game does a far better job of illuminating her stressors—you’re constantly bombarded with things like stuck photocopiers and bullying peers. Every nightmare has ominous edges as well; each level is a suburban gladiatorial arena with stretched arms holding sharp pencils or bosses yelling. Parry Nightmare can’t be too depressing thanks to Osamu Kubota’s breezy soundtrack (beatmania CORE REMIX, pop’n music 5). As could be expected, it starts off with a nice groove before getting more intense as the number of enemies rises rapidly.

In summary

Parry Nightmare is unquestionably difficult; the final part demands exact timing as a whirlwind of enemies encircles your unfortunate soul. However, the final step of the game’s difficulty rise is disproportionately challenging, which could cause some irritation. This may be discouraging given the limited number of stages in the game. In an ideal world, Nightmare would have included a couple more levels of progressively more intense gameplay. However, in the big picture, this inconvenience isn’t worth getting too worked up about.

The review code for Parry Nightmare was obtained from the publisher and used on a PC.

Review Overview

Gameplay – 70%

Controls – 70%

Aesthetics – 80%

Content – 60%

Accessibility – 60%

Value – 80%

70%

GOOD!

Summary : On Steam, there is no scarcity of Vampire Survivors clones. However, Parry Nightmare sets itself apart by forbidding you from engaging in direct combat with foes. Rather, a skillful deflection stuns opponents, giving a supporting character the opportunity to vanquish them. It’s a marginal innovation, yes. However, if you’re not sick of the genre, the game’s short campaign might still be enjoyable because of its affordable price and excellent jazz soundtrack.