She Dreams Elsewhere

She Dreams Elsewhere is a surreal RPG in which we control a female protagonist trying to wake up from a coma - this requires confronting her fears and inner demons. The game is the debut work of developers from Studio Zevere.

Plot

The protagonist of She Dreams Elsewhere is Thalia, an anxious woman in a coma. The action of the game takes place in her mind - we try to overcome problems that torment her and at the same time discover what really happened and how she found herself in the current situation.

Mechanics

In She Dreams Elsewhere the action is observed from a top-down perspective. The main task of the player is to discover the storyline prepared by the developers. To do this we have to explore locations, talk to characters and perform various quests.

It's worth noting that some of the people we meet join us - gradually we get to know them and build a relationship with them (a special mechanic called Connection is responsible for this).

In the game there is also a lot of fighting, and the enemies are mainly various kinds of nightmare monsters, which are the product of Thalia's fears. The combat system is turn-based and is similar to what we know from classic jRPGs - we give orders to each character in turns and try to harmonise their skills and special abilities.

Throughout the game, we gradually develop our characters and adjust their abilities thanks to a special Charm system. This allows us to adjust the characters to our own playing style.

Game modes

She Dreams Elsewhere can only be played alone. The core of the game is a feature campaign. The game also offers a New Game Plus mode (replaying the game after finishing it with unlocked abilities and developed characters) and Developer Commentary (gameplay is accompanied by commentary from the developers).

Technical aspects

She Dreams Elsewhere has a very characteristic 2D graphic design. The graphics resembles a bit what we know from classic jRPGs, although the artistic style used by the developers has nothing to do with Japanese comics. The unusual colour scheme is also noticeable - the levels are black and white and only some of their elements, characters and parts of the background, are coloured differently (usually they are quite pastel). The soundtrack by Mimi Page, among others, also draws attention.

Last updated on 25 September 2024