LifeisXbox’s Onirike review | Dreams are fed by our own desires. They dwell within us since we are born and this is what we call them until they become real. But have you ever wondered what happens to dreams that never come true?at happens to the dreams that don’t come true? Get ready for Devilish Games and Badland Publishing their newest adventure. Onirike is a 3D adventure puzzle platformer that has a very peculiar art style and engaging gameplay. In this original game, you take on the role of Prieto, a strange being unaware of his own nature, but who possesses a rare ability: he can become invisible!
ℹ️ | Maui played Onirike for 8 hours on Xbox Series X. This game is also available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One.
What we liked!
- Visuals | Let me start with what caught my attention about Onirike in the first place. I’m a big fan of Tim Burton’s work and you simply cannot deny the inspiration for this game came from this brilliant man’s work. Onirike really has this ‘depressed’ look and feel that we all know so fell from mister Burton. The art style resembles some of his popular stop-motion movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. I am absolutely in love with this style, and it works so great in Onirike as well. The whole world looks bizar and random, and it’s absolutely beautiful. If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s world, I’m sure you’ll feel right at home in the Orb (the world in which Onirike takes place).
- Sound | The most important aspect regarding the sound, is definitely the voice-acting. You see, all of it is done by just one person. The voice actress sounds like a young woman, probably a teenager, and she brings us the entire story. Besides this, she also does voice impressions of all the quirky characters Pietro meets along the way, which had a cute and funny effect. I wasn’t too convinced at first, because I’m usually a fan of hearing different voices for a cast, but her way of talking really grew on me, and I think she did a splendid job. There is also a soundtrack present, which contribute to the strange and bizarre atmosphere this entire game has. All in all, you can definitely say that the sound aspect was perfectly in tune with the graphics, gameplay, and overall experience Onirike offers.
- Open world | Prieto sets off on an adventure to open the Well of Truth. Of course, he can’t just get here. In order to open this Well of Truth, he must gather all seven parts of a key. These pieces are scattered across seven different areas on a map that might look small, but is actually very convenient and elaborate. Each area has one part of the key, which you have to unlock by overcoming challenges. For example, one area requires you to complete a pizza by pressing hard-to-reach tiles all over the place, while another area is a deadly sea filled with some sort of acid that kills you upon touching it. There’s also a land filled with floating bacon, a labyrinth with minotaurs, and more! You can travel through these areas as you please, since Onirike offers open world gameplay.
- Gypsophila flowers | These little flower spores are going to be very, very important in Onirike. To stop Prieto from falling asleep, rendering him invisible, you must plant gypsophila flower spores. Once you plant these, you can immediately absorb the flowers that rise from these spores and Prieto will stay awake, and more importantly: stay visible. You can plant your flowers where and when you want, so this was very easy. I really enjoyed this extra feature, and it made the gameplay feel original. Now, there are two ways to get these much-needed spores. The first one is accessing some sort of ‘mini game’. When dawn is approaching, Prieto must find a memory stone, or he will lose all memories of that day (meaning you lose your progress). Once you get to this memory stone at the end of the day, your progress is saved, and Prieto is transported to some sort of field. In this field, you get a limited amount of time to float around and collect flying spores. You better collect as many as possible so you can get through the next day. As I mentioned, there is a second way to get spores. This method is a bit less handy, and requires you to gather 100 gypsophila petals. Per 100 petals, you get one spore. This is obviously more time consuming, so I recommend getting as many as you can during your field trip!
- Abilities | Pietro is a cool little man with a few abilities. Just like in most platformers, our character can perform jumps, but he can also dash. This is a very useful ability when enemies are chasing you. I especially dashed a lot when I was in the deadly sea and those creepy ass spiders tried getting to me. Damn, those creatures were fast! However, Pietro’s most important ability is to become invisible. I mentioned this before, but Pietro has to grow gypsophila flowers and absorb their essence in order to remain visible. He can stay invisible for a little while, and this can come in quite handy. I often slipped past enemies (mostly Devourers of Souls, nasty bitches) while being invisible. It’s very important to find a good balance between being visible and invisible in Onirike.
- Simple puzzles but deadly enemies | To get a break from the platforming, puzzles were included as well. These puzzles are not mindblowing in any way and usually just require a bit of logical thinking. You’re basically solving little puzzles that are all familiar but never get repetitive, because they always get a twist ensuring you never really feel like you’re doing the same. So, it’s pretty clear that the difficulty won’t be coming from the puzzle aspect of the game. It’s the enemies you have to pass through that will ensure multiple deaths. No worries though, dying just means you’ll respawn and nothing will be lost. However, falling, failing, and not acting fast enough will be what gets to you in Onirike. The enemies, like spiders and Devourers of Souls, present the real difficulty.
Somewhere between
- Controls | My biggest issue with the controls was in the spores field. I didn’t feel in control of Pietro at all there, which was quite frustrating as gathering spores is rather important in Onirike. Somehow, the controls didn’t react as I wanted them to, and trying to fly forward lead to Pietro still leaning towards the left or right. It was really quite annoying and ruined the peaceful feeling the field was suppose to give players. The controls during the main part of the gameplay weren’t always too great either, by the way. Especially the controls combined with the camera, which sometime provided some very annoying moments.
What we disliked
- Bugs | Unfortunately, Onirike isn’t without bugs. At one point, I was being clumsy, and I fell somewhere. When I landed, I got stuck in-between a rock and a murderous plant. No matter what I tried, I could not get out and had to return to the main menu. I was SUPER annoyed since this meant I lost an important part of my progress, and I actually closed the game after because I was upset. There was no respawn button or anything present for when something like this occured, so quitting the game and losing progress was the only option. And the worst bug of all: I was near the end of the game, and SOMEONE wasn’t where they were supposed to be so I couldn’t finish the game?? I tried restarting the game, but this particular someone (don’t want to spoil anything) still wasn’t in the right place, even though the indicator said he was supposed to be there. So yeah, I nearly finished the game but COULD NOT BECAUSE OF THIS BUG AND I AM SO SAD AND UPSET AND ANNOYED. However, I reached out to the developers and they were already made aware of the problem so a patch will be available for Xbox in a few days. I was able to finish the game still thanks to some guidance from Devilish Games, so all was well in the end!
How long to beat the story | 6 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 7-8 hours
Similar with | Inside, Little Nightmares
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Head of PC team. PC, Switch, and Xbox game reviewer. Also a marketeer, concert and animal lover, and photographer in training 🙂
Steam: Mauitje
Xbox: Mauitjexo
