Purple Ray Studios has been hard at work for the past two years, and today, they’ve introduced Koshmar: The Last Reverie, an ambitious title that embraces nightmares as adversaries.
Formerly codenamed Project: Nightmare, Purple Ray Studios hit the ground running today when they introduced their new project, Koshmar: The Last Reverie, and it’s absolutely a project of nightmares. In Koshmar: The Last Reverie, you embody Violet, a teenager growing up in a small town who prefers the company of their lucid dreaming more than the mundane life she leads while awake (basically, a teenager). In these dreams, Violet lives freely, and her escape from the real world is a respite from the mundane. This is where she lives her best life. Nightmares come knocking one day and invade her dreams, forcing Violet to stave them off or succumb to insanity.
After this first occurrence, Violet realizes her world and the dreaming world have begun to disintegrate after their collision, and she must correct it before they both fall apart, or she succumbs to madness. With an art style that screams American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns, in Koshmar: The Last Reverie, players will confront monsters born of nightmares and Violet’s own sanity as they make decisions that will shape the waking and dreaming worlds.
Violet will encounter Nightmare Rifts, which allow her passage through the nightmares of others, and closing these will require outside-the-box thinking, puzzle solving, combat, and is an integral part of her journey. Nightmare Rifts will also be randomly generated, which means each Nightmare will be different from the last.
Set in a fictional society inspired by Central Europe and Victorian society, Purple Ray Studios incorporated their inspirations from a real sleeping epidemic that plagued Europe in the 1700s (similar to the Skull of Corruption in Skyrim), aesthetics and culture from the 1920s, and an art style that bleeds through the atmosphere at every turn. Violet will deploy a myriad of weapons and abilities to combat sleep terrors with; weapons she wouldn’t dream of having.
One of the hallmarks of Koshmar: The Last Reverie is its focus on a morality system baked into the experience. Violet will make decisions that will align her towards Delusion or Madness, and each weapon Violet can bring to the party will fit into either category. Violet’s decisions will not only influence her outward appearance, it will also alter how characters interact with her. A Violet loaded with Madness will give off an Aura and be treated as such (and vice versa). Exploration will also be affected by Violet’s sanity state. Players can push her towards either extreme (towards Delusion or Madness) or straddle the fence; Violet’s fate will be in your hands.
Koshmar: The Last Reverie deploys a combat system reminiscent of Devil May Cry or the Greek God of War Trilogy, and has Violet use many techniques and combat tricks to shred nightmares where they stand. Violet can be outfitted with equippables that will make her a more defensive-stanced fighter against Nightmares, or you could go for broke and make her a glass cannon that deals (and takes) heavy damage.
Koshmar: The Last Reverie allows players to embrace their own Delusion or Madness in a playstyle they deem fit. Like Dante’s Inferno (another 3D action title that uses a morality system), Koshmar: The Last Reverie breaks up talents into these two trees, and Violet will be able to use execution techniques that embrace Delusion or Madness in coup de grâce finishing moves. Violet can also wield both sides evenly to use all combat tricks (and embrace Stability); the player will be the shaper of dreams and can mould Violet to their playstyle.
Although so much has been revealed by Purple Ray Studio, Koshmar: The Last Reverie is still in active development, and a release date has not been announced for the project. Fans looking for more information on The Last Reverie can visit the official Purple Ray Studios website.
