We all had to face our fears as kids, right? Whether you were scared of bugs, shy around new people, or just couldn't stand the dark, we all had to straighten up, learn something new about ourselves, and grow a little at some point. It's just that, for you and me, 'struggling with our fears' probably wasn't anywhere near this literal.
Welcome to Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow, the new action-adventure game from the tight-knit teams at Frozen Line and Ravenage. In Daydream, you play a young boy named Griffin, who wakes up one day to find himself in a strange, hostile place he doesn't recognise. He'll have to muster up every last ounce of courage he has to traverse a beautiful, deadly world fraught with danger and filled with mystery.
But don't worry: he's not alone.
Joining Griffin on his adventures is Birly, his trusty teddy bear. With Birly at his side, Griffin can take on whatever this bizarre new world throws at him, whether it's ferocious plant monsters, spiders that have gotten far too large, or any of Daydream's many mind-bending puzzles.
The bond between Griffin and Birly is tight, but it's not just emotional support that your raggedy sidekick provides. You'll need his tiny teddy form to get to places Griffin can't: giving him instructions or—if necessary—picking him up and hurling him over to buttons, levers, and puzzle solutions. Hey, he's filled with cotton and he's your best friend in the whole wide world, so he doesn't mind.
It might be a scary place for little Griffin, but Daydream's world is as beautiful as it is frightful. The game has won all sorts of awards for its art and design, and for good reason. The environments span light and dark, peaks and valleys, creepy beasts and beautiful vistas. You and Birly will find yourselves gliding over some sunswept meadow in one moment before fleeing monsters in a Tim Burton-esque crooked house in the next, and it's all painted in vivid hues that make Daydream's cute-'n'-creepy art style really pop, way-too-big spiders included.
But the real core of the game is the relationship between Griffin and Birly. This is a story about a frightened young boy, the trials he has to overcome to get home, and the friendship at the heart of that journey. Birly and Griffin are two best friends on a perilous journey; even when they're not helping each other solve puzzles, they're giving each other the confidence they need to find their way back to reality, no matter how scary it gets. Think Limbo meets Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons: yes, that means you'll almost definitely end up crying a bit.
If a heartwarming (and, just maybe, heart wrenching) story and a visual feast sounds good to you, then you're in luck. Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow has a free demo you can play on Steam right this second, giving you a taste of the game's richly-textured world ahead of its full release in spring of 2023. If that whets your whistle, you can always check out the full Ravenage catalogue on Steam.
And if you're hungry for more news about what Griffin and Birly are up to, you can follow the updates on Daydream's website, Facebook, Twitter, and Discord, as well as Ravenage's YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
