Dream of Gluttony (PC)

Dream of Gluttony is a colorful little adventure where a girl named Sissy stumbles across a delightful little place called Food Town. All the residents in Food Town have chosen to name themselves after food, and with how adorable and doe-eyed everyone is, Sissy can’t help but be delighted as she even gets in on the fun and calls herself Passion Fruit during her visit. Sometimes the citizens of Food Town act a little strange and some sights are a little uncanny, but everything feels so inviting… until it doesn’t. Dream of Gluttony is not a wholesome stroll through a friendly town but a horror game, and one that actually saves much of its true horror for a second playthrough, since after the credits roll the first time, you’ll be left with plenty of questions on why the story ended the way it did.

Dream of Gluttony doesn’t just toss you into the horror without warning though. Not only does the itch.io store page hint there’s a darker truth behind Food Town, but along the journey there are plenty of moments that don’t feel quite right. Even the set up leads you to question things, Sissy finding herself lost in the woods and coming across a few people camping in the woods whose true nature remains deliberately mysterious even as you learn more about what’s going on. During your first playthrough though, even as Food Town’s people are friendly and accommodating, you will notice strange expressions or incongruities that prime you further on wondering what might really be going on in this small society, and thankfully Dream of Gluttony avoids going in an obvious direction with its eventual twist.

The first playthrough is, for the most part, actually quite pleasant even with the occasional eeriness meant to foreshadow future revelations. The citizens of Food Town are eccentric, but often in endearing ways. Dumpling, your tour guide of sorts, speaks only through signs he raises and seems rather stoic, but when you meet the flirtatious Cinnamon, they manage to get under Dumpling’s skin with their playful teasing that breaks him out of his shell. A couple named Bread and Butter seem as sweet as can be and aren’t too different from people you would find in a normal town, but Strawberry and Grape are instead almost more like a comedy bit since Grape’s absent-mindedness means Strawberry’s effervescence often gets questioned. Food Town itself has an unusual dreamy construction with food based districts where you can see things like candy and ice cream cones towering over you, and one interesting thing about it all is this isn’t all just some facade ripped off when the game wants to delve deeper into its horror elements. There are parts that work even after the reveals while others were truly deceptions, but this first playthrough where you’re not yet aware of what’s going on isn’t without purpose. You get to know these characters at their best, the art style makes everyone look cute, and even the stranger characters are still quite kind and endearing.

When you begin your second playthrough and the story path branches from the first time through, Dream of Gluttony doesn’t just toss away everything it established during the more wholesome first run. I won’t go into specifics in order to preserve the twists, but this little town’s hidden side exists to do more than shock you. As you learn more about why the people live in Food Town and act the way they do, the game not only digs into questions about social acceptance and maturity, but it even begins presenting more about the leading lady’s life that helps inform how you understand her part in both versions of the story. The situations these characters are involved in are often uneasy, and while a few characters don’t have quite the same depth as the others when you learn the hidden truths behind how they live, their existence still feels important in contributing to the broader themes and questions. Food Town exists as it does for a reason that can’t be dismissed with some straightforward moral judgment, and that’s partly why the first playthrough feels so important as it encourages you to be more open to considering things later. Neither playthrough takes too long to finish either, meaning you don’t spend so long with the deceptively pleasant setup that you get impatient or end up wishing it never had to end.

A lot of Dream of Gluttony is going to be about walking forward to meet characters, their dialogue definitely making up the bulk of the game. However, this is not just a narrative adventure, because for most characters you meet, you’ll be asked to participate in some sort of minigame. The first playthrough actually does the minigames the best surprisingly, the ones that lean on horror not quite as tight in their design. When you’re having your chummy interactions with Food Town’s residents, the minigames that crop up can involve things like clearing worms out of a garden or needing to quickly identify a set of spinning candy you just saw, and while these sound pretty basic, they are structured in smart ways to make them pretty challenging. The candies often have lookalikes and you need to lock in your answers on what you saw quickly while the worms in the garden have to be tackled in the right order to avoid running out of time, but Dream of Gluttony isn’t going to automatically fail you for a mistake or two. You get three lives on a minigame attempt, and during the first playthrough, the story continues on even if you lose all three. There is a reward for beating the game, you get a lovely bit of art that shows Sissy and her new friends getting along, and since the game prompts you to save before the minigame starts, you can easily repeat it if you want to give it another shot. With some that are just enjoyably silly concepts like a “politeness battle”, it’s easy to find the game’s first set of minigames charming and engaging, and honestly, a wholesome game with Dream of Gluttony’s precious character design and good sense for minigame structure could potentially work without needing to dip into the horror.

That isn’t to say the horror side is lacking though, and the first walk through town is more compelling because you already know there is something beneath this society’s colorful surface level appearance. The minigames in the second playthrough can be failed though and will need to be retried until properly completed, although each one does offer an easy mode that can help make up for the games that are more difficult than they are compelling. However, their thematic purpose does feel more important here than their gameplay substance, and some of the longer ones do feel appropriately tense as you know that failure is actually punished. The thematic ones come out on top here though, ones that lean more into the action involved in completing them feeling a bit weak compared to the first playthrough’s set but the ones that can do some storytelling through what is happening do mean the second playthrough has value beyond pulling back the veil to show the true colors of Food Town’s people.

THE VERDICT: Dream of Gluttony’s two stories don’t exist just so the game can twist its adorable world into one of horror. The first playthrough properly sets up and endears you to its characters so you can better understand the underlying themes when darker truths come to light, the second playthrough’s story presenting some uneasy questions to ruminate on so that the reveals serve as more than just a chance to start whipping out more disturbing imagery. The art style works well both for setting up a seemingly wholesome place and subverting that look for uncanny moments, and the minigames help to make this more than an interesting story even if the first playthrough’s are more entertaining in their design. Still, the narrative purpose and theming of the second run’s minigames make them feel like a worthwhile component of this short and bittersweet tale.

And so, I give Dream of Gluttony for PC…

A GOOD rating. The second playthrough of Dream of Gluttony can get disturbing and there is some dark subject matter that could scare away the casually curious in quite a literal manner, but Dream of Gluttony doesn’t go grim without purpose. That pleasant first playthrough is well constructed to almost work as a delightful tour of a quirky town, the minigames either charming you with their concept or actually asking for you to perform quite well without being too difficult. The second playthrough is where the game can start putting forward concepts to ponder though and that initial sweet depiction of Food Town is important in establishing things that couldn’t otherwise be reasonably said during round two. There are some straightforward problems with the place sure, but other conundrums make ruminating on the plot more substantial, and although the second run does have the weaker minigames, they do lean into the new horror direction well with their increased stakes and the occasional focus on a game meant to depict something rather than just serving as an interactive challenge. The easy mode this second batch of minigames offers does feel like a bit of a compromise for their rougher designs though, the removal of lives meaning there are times where you really have to be on the ball to avoid immediate failure whereas the early minigames are instead made so much more entertaining because you have room to learn or make little slip-ups. Ultimately, Dream of Gluttony does leave some loose ends hanging that are intentional and others that maybe should have been wrapped up to keep focus on the more compelling questions to consider, but the story electing to have some deeper meaning beyond its horror twist makes the gradual shift towards it far more effective than if suddenly everything descended into pure shock horror.

A seemingly pleasant and sweet game having a dark underbelly isn’t necessary novel, but Dream of Gluttony really pulls it off well because of the way its presentation is handled. You’re not just here for a story thanks to some well designed minigames, but the look of the world and the characters are inviting enough that it is pleasant to get to know them. At the same time, waiting for the shoe to drop on what’s really going on is well managed, from the growing set of hints to the rollout of the reveal in the second playthrough, and the fact the grim things you’re uncovering have a greater meaning means the shift in tone doesn’t feel like it’s only there to surprise you. While it could be tidied up, Dream of Gluttony still feels like it has something to say and some artistic elements that support that well, making it quite effective for those who are able to stand having their heart broken as they learn the secrets of the seemingly pleasant people of Food Town.