Listen I get it. Yume Nikki is a game that is completely open to interpretation, and so anyone can make of it what they will. But the fact that I have major issues with what this author made of it is the least of my problems with this book. This book essentially tricked me into 200 pages of Jungian analysis of dreams and the subconscious, while also giving a play-by-play of the game, almost like the world's most tedious walkthrough. Not to mention it also insisted on polemizing on what every single piece of symbolism could mean. Why let the reader interpret anything for themselves whenyou can clearly spell it out like they're 5 years old.

The game is a beautiful, whimsical, melancholic journey that does not hold your hand, at all. It lets you come to your own conclusions, and it only shows, never tells. The book is a complete opposite. The writing is clunky, the storyline ridiculous and the conclusion wholly unsatisfying. A fan of the game, who most likely loves it for being so subtle and open-ended, is better off just re-playing the game.

2/10