Koshmar: The Last Reverie is the next game from Purple Ray Studio, a dark and surreal third-person action-adventure set in a realm where dreams and nightmares collide.
I got a behind-closed-doors look at the game ahead of its reveal, where the developers walked through its eerie setting, creative inspirations, and some of its more unusual gameplay systems.
In Koshmar: The Last Reverie, you play as Violet, a gloomy young teenager stuck in a humdrum life who discovers a world of adventure when she dreams. Soon, nightmares begin to seep into her dreams, blurring the line between the dream world and reality. As the only one who can see the growing problem, Violet sets out to uncover the truth behind the sickness affecting the real world.
The only question remaining is: when she finally reaches the end of her journey, what state of mind will Violet be in?
The key feature that defines Koshmar: The Last Reverie is its Sanity System, a constantly shifting indicator of Violet’s mental state. Her sanity can change through a wide range of actions, including dialogue choices, quest outcomes, combat behaviour, or even smaller actions like stealing, donating, or giving items away. Changes in her sanity will alter Violet’s physical appearance, which is visible to others and could lead to some interesting interactions and consequences.
Violet’s sanity doesn’t just affect her appearance — it also influences how she fights. Weapons and abilities are divided between three mental states: Delusion, Stable, and Madness.
During the presentation, the developers emphasised that players aren’t restricted when combining abilities, allowing for more than 500 possible combinations of weapons, skills, and passives across the three states. However, reaching the most powerful abilities requires players to lean heavily into one of these states, raising the question of whether you’re willing to push Violet that far.
The main focus of Koshmar: The Last Reverie’s gameplay is having Violet explore the real world, enter procedurally generated nightmares and Nightmare Rifts, solve puzzles, and unlock abilities and weapons. Players will be able to switch out Violet’s equipment to change her stats and build different playstyles, giving players flexibility when dealing with Koshmar’s diverse enemies, each with their own attacks and weaknesses. Combat looks fast-paced, with precise timing and situational awareness being paramount, and flashy, neon-edged details giving Violet’s dreamy, dance-like motions some added zest.
When not fighting nightmares, Violet explores the real world, interacting with NPCs, taking on side quests, solving puzzles, and searching for answers to what is behind these nightmares. To progress through the game, Violet will have to enter and close smaller Nightmare Rifts to make the larger, crucial Core Rifts available.
The dev team were also very up front about their inspirations for Koshmar: The Last Reverie, though after watching the trailer, many of those influences are easy to spot. Given the young female protagonist and dream/nightmare/sanity themes, American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns is a clear tentpole for the game’s design, with strong hints of CONTROL coming through in both the flowing combat and in some of the enemy designs.
As for art direction and world design, the team have taken their cues from games like Lies of P, creating a twisted, gothic world for Violet to explore, with obvious nods to the League of Legends: Arcane series with its shocks of neon and in-game cutscenes. One particularly interesting detail is that the game’s premise draws from real-world events, most notably a mysterious sleeping epidemic that swept across Europe in the 1700s.
It’s exciting to see such a wide range of ideas being brought together for a new IP, and it will be interesting to see how Koshmar: The Last Reverie turns those influences into something uniquely its own.
Koshmar: The Last Reverie does not currently have a release date, with Purple Ray Studio aiming for a simultaneous release across PC and consoles.
What are your thoughts on Koshmar: The Last Reverie? Let us know in the comments below, and join the Gamer Social Club Discord to chat with others about your favourite games, play in community game nights, take part in giveaways, and more!
