Lucy Dreaming | Switch Review

Most of my readers (and listeners) know that I’m not much of a PC gamer. I’ve always gravitated towards the console experience out of sheer convenience. The limited time I did play games on my computer as a kid revolved heavily around the point-and-click adventure genre. I spent countless hours on games like the Monkey Island series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus. Despite the genre still being very much alive, I’ve drifted a bit.

Lucy Dreaming from Tall Story Games released last year on multiple platforms, and I was intrigued by its classic aesthetic. Now that it’s getting a port to Nintendo Switch next month, I decided it was time for me to jump back in. The experience felt like I was once again sitting at my PC as a teenager. While I might not suggest this title as an entry point for those new to point-and-click adventures, it’s an easy recommend for those who grew up playing similar titles. It’s a love letter to the style of games that relied on brain power more than dexterity.

Girl with the Kaleidoscope Eyes

Lucy is a young child with nightmares. Her initial dream has her falling through the sky and eventually hitting the ground, causing her to wake up. She resolves to rid herself of her nightmares by any way possible. She follows the directions in her father’s psychology book, which tells her to create a “dream box” next to her bed before sleeping. Placing books inside transport her to different dreams, and she’s given various tasks to alter her dream state. She prevents her inevitable death from falling, but this leads to another nightmare. This is the loop that repeats throughout the game’s five chapters.

But there’s a lot more going on than just Lucy’s dreams. As she scours her home town for items that will help with her dreams, the story takes a darker turn. A murder took place years ago, and it may or may not be connected to Lucy’s nightmares. The mystery that unravels is superbly interesting and engaging.

Lucy Dreaming‘s charm comes with its very self-aware sense of humor. The game is littered with British puns and fun nods to the point-and-click genre that fans should appreciate. There’s even a cameo by a very familiar voice actor that I found to be an incredibly nice touch. It’s just one of the multitude of moments that made me smile during my play-through.

Climb in the Back With Your Head in the Clouds

I was admittedly apprehensive to play a point-and-click adventure game on Switch. After all, I played this type of game as a child with just a mouse. Unlike the recently-released Return to Monkey Island, Lucy Dreaming does not give you direct control of its main character. It rather sticks to its roots and relies on clicking on the screen for movement and interaction with objects. You control the classic crosshair mouse pointer (another nice touch) with the left joystick across the screen. Just like in the classic games, you’ll need to click on prompts such as “look at”, “pick up”, or “use” in order to interact with the environment.

If this style of gameplay sounds cumbersome, I totally understand. While playing, I found myself wishing I could toggle between the prompts with a button press. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the devs made that work exactly the way that felt comfortable to me. Instead of tracing back to each prompt, I could use the shoulder buttons to switch back and forth. This made things much easier. Kudos to Tall Story for including this feature that keeps the original feel of the genre with a touch of modern sensibilities.

With that said, I found an even better method of playing. Lucy Dreaming utilizes the Switch’s touch screen to perfection. I spent the majority of my time playing the game with the device in my left hand and interacting with my right hand. Sure, this makes it sound like the way you would play a game on a mobile phone, but I’ll take it. I’d much rather have the larger screen anyway. It felt like the proper way to play, and I was thankful for the option to do so.

Follow Her Down to a Bridge by a Fountain

Lucy Dreaming is one of the most challenging point-and-click adventure games I’ve ever played. Maybe I’m just out of practice or lacking in the patience I had when I was much younger. But I still found some of the solutions present here to be incredibly challenging. That’s not to say that they don’t make sense, because they do, but in a very outside the box way of thinking. The game provides hints when looking at objects, but unless you’re using a guide, there will be a lot of trial and error. You can also highlight points of interest on the screen by clicking on a question mark near your prompts. This avoids the “pixel hunt” issue of past games. But unless you’re sharing a brain pan with the developer, you’ll more than likely spend a lot of time combining random objects with each other just to see what works.

With that said, this is a game made for point-and-click aficionados, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is a title that was built with love for a specific genre and fans of that genre. It’s meant to challenge, and it does so in true fashion. I’m just leery to recommend this to first-timers, unless they’re planning to play through with a guide. But if they do that, they’ll miss out on so much of the humor peppered in throughout.

Also, the game is very British. That’s not a knock against it in any way. On the contrary, my dumb American brain had to get used to unfamiliar terminology. I literally had to do a Google search to learn exactly what a certain photographer’s hat was made out of. Because it means something entirely different to me the first time I heard it. If you know, you know.

Lucy Dreaming Final Verdict

Lucy Dreaming is an absolutely charming title that won’t be for everyone. Its difficulty and outside-the-box thought process will be a turn-off for people who require tons of action or lack patience. But it’s also the easiest recommendation for the fans in which it was intended. If you grew up playing this type of game like I did, but nowadays stick to consoles, don’t hesitate to pick up the Switch port when it releases on February 28th. Otherwise, you can play the game right now on your PC/Mac or even mobile device. It’s guaranteed to make you smile.

To hear me talk more about Lucy Dreaming, be sure to listen to our January 18th episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Lucy Dreaming provided by Tall Story Games for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam and GOG, Mac, iOS, and the Google Play Store.