Every night you fall asleep to enter another dimension where the only way to escape is to climb up and up and up.
This game is different to say the least. It's cutscenes are like just watching any japanese anime and the only gameplay you experience is in the local bar or in the nightmare dimension.
So what's the story behind this? Well our hero Vincent cheats on his girlfriend Katherine with a girl named Catherine. He must have a thing for girls with the same name! Because of this betrayal he becomes cursed and every night he falls asleep he ends up in a nightmare world in just his boxers and a pillow! But he's not alone there, nope, there are sheep with him. Talking sheep. In fact these sheep are actual people who can only see each other as sheep so at first they think they are all going crazy. Oh and guess what? They all cheated on their girlfriends!
After the confusion passes you step into a confession booth where an eerie voice asks you a life question. Your choice of answer depends on what ending you are gifted with at the end of the game. After confession is over the booth acts as a lift and carries you up to a tower of blocks and the sheep follow (ironic no?) Also this is why you should never try counting sheep to fall asleep because this might happen!
Now this is where the (gulp) fun begins! It seems simple enough at first, you just pull a block out to climb it to get to the next level. However there are instances where you need to push and pull a number of blocks in the correct sequence in order to advance. Sounds ok right? I forgot to mention the bottom of the tower falls away from you row by row so yeah you're on a time limit! If you make one wrong move you might also bring the tower down by pushing a supporting block out. Although sometimes this is necessary to reach the goal which is a rope you pull down on that opens the exit. You also earn points for how quickly you climb the tower.
It gets much worse than that too. Later booby trapped blocks are introduced that shoot spikes up at you that kill you instantly. Other types of blocks are ice, that can you cause to slide off the tower; heavy blocks that take longer to move; weak blocks that begin to crumble underneath you and monster blocks that will knock you down a level or randomly move because they're mean.
Still not tough enough? Well on the 3rd stage of a nightmare you have a deformed monster of some type chasing you that will try and kill you along the way. Oh and you only get so many retries. But don't worry you can collect some on your ascent. I actually never ran out of retries. No i'm not being big headed but if you collect a retry it gives you 2 instead of one. If you then die you still have that extra one. Keep repeating this and you soon build them back up. I finished the game with 50 or so retries left.
You want tougher? Other sheep climb the tower and will try to push you off but you can do the same to them. Enemies are also introduced, some that will push you off and others that can kill you instantly.
Also if any sheep fall from the tower they die in real life...as in the games real life, you don't die obviously. You can breathe now ;)
When you're not in the nightmare world you can control Vincent in the bar called the Stray Sheep. Bet you didn't see that one coming! Here you can drink, listen to music or chat to the regulars to hear their worries and encourage them. You might even recognise them from somewhere...
As the story develops there are a nice few twists towards the end.
Before I played this my friends told me to play it on easy and I have to say there was some merit behind that after I completed it on normal. The game is tough, frustrating but fun. Like in 'Heart of Darkness' you will die a lot.
Good luck!
Oh and never cheat on your girlfriend or wife gentlemen. You see what happens...the wrath of a woman...yikes!
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