Not each spooky season adventure must scare players. Starting with well-known tales for example mystery-solving cartoons to endearing shows including Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season titles provide fun without needing causing fear. Additionally, a expanding collection of spooky-cute titles including spooky themes, though lacking the truly terrifying intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and stands as an excellent relaxing choice to the intensely frightening titles of 2025.
An Original Single-Player Cooperative Adventure
Known as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes teams up a undead youth named Gloomy and a mortal child known as Nena as they begin an quest to bring the sun back to their gloomy world. Their appearance evokes collectible figures blended with the figures from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and tired-looking aesthetic is influenced by the look of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a quintessential all-ages tale. These two develops an enduring connection over the duration of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to demonstrate to her clerical relative that, you know, possibly the undead can be friendly.
Creative Gameplay Systems
The innovative term stems from the game’s environmental puzzles. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch between the recent allies to solve puzzles and move forward through the areas. Being a zombie, Gloomy cannot pass through the illumination of a streetlight, while Nena can be captured by wandering undead except if a light is shone on them.
They have to work in tandem — well, players control them simultaneously — to complete stages. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained youth will employ his undead power to rearrange obstacles in the surroundings, opening up paths for Nena.
Immersive Environment Creation
The puzzles bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the way the stages are suspended, miniature structures that the camera rotates in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, taking the friends around a amusement park and through a haunted house, amid other locations. There’s a “diorama view” feature that permits you to view from afar and turn the levels, both to appreciate the designs and hunt for paths that may not have been obvious.
Small Hiccups and Overall Adventure
And that’s one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the heroes can and cannot go. You may need to randomly encounter a multiple different items to figure out which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those minor obstacles don’t get in the way of a ghostly-charming good time. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with roughly several hours worth of puzzles. Advanced areas combine light hidden movement and dynamic sequences with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a rewarding — and somewhat unexpected — conclusion.
Release and Summary
Gamers steering clear of the terror of terrifying titles won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is available at a reduced price for a quarter off on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on various systems and offers a delightful alternative for fans in search of Halloween fun minus the fear factor.
