Overview
NostAlgic is a Yume Nikki fangame created by Tom and known for both its very light color scheme and generally more optimistic take on a YN-based exploration game. Dubbed "the anti-.Flow," the relaxing music and relative lack of more frightening elements found in other fan games allow the user to focus on the lighter side of dreams. As of the latest version, the game's world is relatively small, but has an ending and nine collectable "accesories." The latest version is 0.06.
Effects
There are currently nine effects in the game, also known as accesories. Their actions can be accessed by pressing the SHIFT key.
- Comet- is the game's equivalent of the bike, and allows for greater movement. Pressing SHIFT makes A stand on the comet, and you can toggle him riding or standing on it.
- Camera- has the ability to toggle the music on/off when the SHIFT key is pressed, though this only lasts for as long as the camera is your current effect.
- Tree- replaces the character's head with the leaves of a tree. It appears to be purely cosmetic.
- Carnation- is the game's Medamaude. It turns the protagonist's head into a carnation. A jumps when SHIFT is pressed, teleporting the player back to the main dream world hub.
- Ribbon- gives A a ponytail with a green ribbon. It is a cosmetic effect.
- Fork- gives A a fork head. Pressing SHIFT causes him to fly and increases his speed, additionally it can be used to kill NPCS.
- Zero Gravity- allows the player to float at a very slow speed, granting the ability to go over walls that previously barred movement, particularly in the Shooting Star Area where it is found. Once the walls are passed, other effects can be used and the character can roam outside the original boundaries of the map.
- Fruit Knife- is the player's weapon, used to attack NPCs. The only significant event that comes as a consequence of killing these NPCS is one with three colored children in the area the knife is found, who turn into chasers when attacked. If they catch you, the game closes.
- Frying Pan- makes A hold a frying pan. Can be used to hit certain NPCS.
Worlds
From the dream world nexus, there are two accesible doors, the pink door with straws that is the Sugar Sea World and the blue door with trees that is the Forest World.
Sugar Sea World
A pink sea studded with what appear to be candy-canes in bent shapes (or straws) and lemon slices. If you sit at the bench in the small bus stop in this world, you will be transported to the Windmill Panorama and then the Bus Area. There is a paper airplane floating around that transports you to a world full of scraps of large paper airplanes and pillars with paper airplanes stuck all over them.
Interacting with the fat, bleeding candy cane transforms the world into a slightly creepier version where the sea is dry and there appears to be red and blue pills littered everywhere. Some are broken, leaking green liquid. There is a set of brightly coloured syringes, crossed like swords.
Direct & Indirect connections:
- Windmill panorama/Bus area
- Shooting Star World
- Bed World
- Paper Airplanes Area
- Distorted Sugar World
Forest World
An area with snowy white paths and pink and blue pine trees that ring when you run into them. The only NPC here is a yellow comet from which you receive the Comet effect. There are two doorways here to get to other worlds -- a blue sketch pad with a hole in it, and a large blue house.
Direct & Indirect connections:
- Triangle Path
- Underwater World
- Blue House
- Blue Chair Land
- Cat Panorama
- Nursery/Blocks Area
The Blue House
Waring: spoilers follow.
A small home where A finds his mother. It features some of the darkest imagery in the game, especially when the house becomes distorted when you control the mother.
- White area
- Bedroom
- Distorted house
- Distorted bedroom
Plot
A's dreams are rather light and child like, meaning he possibly wants to forget why he locked himself in/refuses to go out.
Warning:Spoilers for nostAlgic's ending: Highlight to view at your own risk
Once all nine effects have been found, the player is given access to the previously locked white door at the end of the hall. Opening it leads A to an empty white area. Heading north for a while reveals a blue house similar to the one in the area by the triangle.
Walking into the house you see a woman, who seems to be the same woman as the chasers in A's dreams, at a kitchen table either dead, wounded, or asleep next to a pile of what appear to be fruit shavings or pills with a paring knife (perhaps the same kind from the Fruit Knife effect). She is assumed to be A's mother. The kitchen she is in is barred off, so the player is left either to explore the limited TV room or enter the bedroom. Once entered, you cannot exit. The only interactable items in the room are a picture of a flower, a xlyophone that makes a small sound, and an empty notepad next to some markers. Interacting with the notepad leads to the next scene.
The mother wakes from the table, but the house is now unsettling colors and infested with white worm-like creatures everywhere. The menu cannot be accessed at this time. She carries the paring knife. The only option is to enter the bedroom, which has also become distorted. You are able to kill the large worms squirming around, a shrill scream, a slice and glass breaking being heard.
You'll find A where you left him off -- except he is now a large purple tentacle monster with many eyes that are seeping blood. the room is now very light with bright pastel colours and squares on the floor with the letters A, B and C. The mother still carries the paring knife from earlier, and interacting with the monster from the front will make her kill it. You hear the monster/A's scream and the screen fades.
After a short intermission of "E N D" written on the screen in bright lettering, there is a scene of A laying in the pink sugar sea under two of the straws, paring knife off to the side. Then the screen reverts back to the title screen.
Download/External Links
Version 0.06
Official Website