As a bit of a roguelike action/shooter junkie I’m always fascinated to see new titles come into the fold that are determined to do things their own unique way. As you may have guessed, Dreamscaper does just that, and it does so on numerous levels which include its dreamy and ethereal look, and its surprising attempts to build more of a world than the norm with some rich character development. This all helps to set it apart, for sure, but unfortunately I’d say not always in positive ways. The visual style of the stages is really cool, no doubt, but too often I found that the sparkly nature of things was confusing. Is that something I’m supposed to pick up, a visual cue for something I should be concerned about, or just random sparkles? Far too often, and even after playing the game for a bit, I found myself wondering that and, wasting time on nothing, being sure to try to check anything sparkling out. While the character interactions provide flavor, and I’d think games like Hades would inspire this approach, getting around feels slower and more cumbersome, the conversations not as engaging, and the fruits for your time spent less rewarding. There are glimpses of greatness here, and if you’re a sucker for a cool visual style you’ll likely have fun with it, but it’s not as easy to recommend as some of its peers, though with some tightening up and patching it could get closer to the mark.