'Yume Nikki' returns after a decade with a sequel

Promotional photo from the "Yume Niki" Steam pageSteam

More than a decade has passed since surrealist roleplaying game "Yume Nikki" made its debut in June of 2004. However, on Jan. 10, Kikiyama – the game's developer – dropped a small surprise for fans of the classic RPG. On Jan 10 "Yume Nikki" made its Steam debut, and on Jan. 11, a teaser trailer for a second "Yume Nikki" game was released and uploaded to YouTube.

Titled "Dream Diary: We Cannot Wake Up," the video was a little over eight minutes long.

Despite being rather lengthy for an announcement trailer, the video did very little to shed light on the upcoming game. The entire video is composed of several colorful abstracts. This continued for the entirety of the trailer until the very end where the upcoming game's title is revealed.

Fans rallied around the video to comment on how unexpected a second game was. Despite most people being confused, many still went on to comment on their excitement for the next game.

"Yume Niki" has always been a game with many interpretations. When the first game was released in 2004, many people questioned what it was about. Plenty of theories sprung up around the game, mostly because the game did not contain any dialogue and because of the strange symbolism present throughout it. In "Yume Niki" players hop into the shoes of a young girl named Madosuki and guide her as she makes her way across strange sceneries in a dark dream world.

Even the game's official summary on Steam does little to shed light on what it is actually about: "This is a game in which you traverse the extremely dark world inside a dream."

The goal of the game itself is unclear and the story is kept abstract. However, players must collect a variety of effects as they pilot Madostuki deeper and deeper into the unknown.

Due to its vagueness and reliance on symbolism and puzzles "Yumi Nikki" is not a game for everyone. However it did gain popularity back in 2004 for its weirdness, and will be returning in sometime in the future with more strange puzzles to solve. No release date has been given as of yet.