[Review] Dreamcutter – Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Ten Pennyfingers, Shady Corner
Published By: Eastasiasoft
Categories: Action, Platformer
Release Date: 02.02.24
Price: $14.99

Listen, yes this is a game that’s thinly disguised porn. No, I don’t care. It’s still good.

I’m going to be real. If I see an adult game that has even a modicum of effort slide into, I’m happy. Dreamcutter on first glance had good art and good spritework. Drawing me in to actually substantial gameplay. It’s an action platformer, a combo based one at that, with upgrades, and even some achievement like challenges. The music is even pretty damn good. The barely censored hentai is just a bonus.

In Dreamcutter, you play as Haley. She’s a dreamer (heh), a day dreamer at that, falling asleep in class, with good reason, but maybe she should have taken the day off. She soon drifts off into this creepy, haunting world. Cue, the Dreamcutter; a scythe and her way of protecting herself and others. It talks to her and wants her undying obedience, but Haley is a tad stubborn.

Go deeper into the mind, fighting creatures taking forms of Haley’s doubts, desires, fears. While, standard enemies are just combo fodder, bosses find you thinking a little harder. A dialog heavy boss speaking nonsense about a cubed world? Reflections? Yourself? They’re pretty stand out and I was even kind of stumped at times by a few. You can’t just rely on upgrading your health and damage output to get you through some of these bosses.

Seeing as this is a platformer, there’s plenty of bottomless pits. This can be an issue in certain points. If you’re by an enemy near one of these pits and it hits you or you fall, while moving? You’re probably just going to fall again. The game can be a bit too fast paced for it’s own good. Luckily, most stages have checkpoints ahoy.

That all said, the game offers challenges of which you can use coins you find on instead of upgrades. These unlock the previously mentioned barely censored hentai. Some need you to speedrun a stage, others require obtaining a high enough combo (easier done when your damage output is low FYI), and even finding hidden eyes to destroy. Much like other Shady Corner/EAS games, it’s from guest artists.

There’s plenty of dialog in the game, but I find that the titular Dreamcutter is awfully rude and it leads to an unsatisfying ending that left me feeling kind of empty. It’s unbelievably selfish and rude to Haley.

Final Thoughts

I liked Dreamcutter. More than I thought I would. I even did all of the challenges…totally not to to see porn. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it! Yeah! It might be better to play the game uncensored on PC, but you’re still getting a good game without seeing uncensored genitals.