Not every spooky season journey needs to scare you. Starting with iconic favorites such as animated detectives to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season titles offer entertainment without needing raising your heart rate. Additionally, a increasing selection of spooky-cute releases featuring autumn atmosphere, yet without the keep-you-awake level of horror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and acts as an excellent relaxing choice to the truly terrifying games of 2025.
A Distinctive Collaborative Solo Adventure
Labeled as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes teams up a living-impaired child called Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they start an mission to bring the sun back to their dark, dark world. Their design resembles Funko Pops mixed with the figures from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and tired-looking appearance draws inspiration from the appearance of Gothic fantasy movies, and the plot is a archetypal suitable for everyone adventure. The pair forms an strong friendship over the span of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena attempts to prove to her religious guardian that, hey, possibly the undead aren’t half bad.
Creative Problem-Solving Features
The innovative description stems from the game’s world-based challenges. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, you’ll swap among the budding companions to complete challenges and advance through the areas. Being a zombie, Gloomy cannot pass through the illumination of a light source, while Nena will get snatched up by loitering creatures except if a beam is focused on them.
They must cooperate closely — in practice, you’ll use them together — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lamps to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained character will employ his undead power to shift around obstacles in the environment, opening up paths for Nena.
Engaging World Building
These challenges bring to mind a touch of The Gardens Between, in the manner the levels are suspended, miniature structures that the perspective pans around in sync with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are highly entertaining, guiding the duo around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, amid other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that enables you to view from afar and rotate the stages, both to appreciate the designs and look for ways that may not have been clear.
Slight Issues and Overall Experience
This represents one of the few problems with Gloomy Eyes. Like other releases with a fixed perspective, sometimes it's unclear where the characters may or may not travel. Gamers could require to simply collide with a multiple different elements to figure out which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nevertheless, those minor obstacles don't hinder of a ghostly-charming good time. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with roughly a few sessions worth of brain-teasers. Later levels integrate minor stealth and dynamic sequences with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a rewarding — and moderately unforeseen — conclusion.
Release and Final Thoughts
Players shying away from the scares of fear-inducing titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, computer, and Microsoft console, and is currently on sale for a discount on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure has been released on several consoles and delivers a delightful choice for fans in search of autumn enjoyment minus the intense scares.
