NostAlgic

NostAlgic is a Yume Nikki fangame created by "Tom" and known for both its very light color scheme and generally more optimistic take on a YN-based exploration game. Dubbed "the anti-.Flow," the relaxing music and relative lack of more frightening elements found in other fan games allow the user to focus on the lighter side of dreams. As of the latest version, the game's world is relatively small, but has an ending and eight collectable "accesories."

Protagonist
You play as A, a presumed hikikomori who consequently refuses to leave his/her room. A's gender is debated, though there is an effect that gives him/her a feminine side-ponytail with a green ribbon.

A's bedroom is a small, cozy space with blue walls and a picture of a house on a hill. There is a blue bed towards the bottom of the room, which can be interacted with to access the dream world, and a single desk with a notebook on it, where the player can save. Next to the desk is a light switch that can be turned on and off. The door to the right, presumably leading to the rest of the house, cannot be accessed, but the door to the top leads out to a wide balcony looking out on a sunny day -- a contrast to the gloomier balconies in both Yume Nikki and some of its better-known sequels, such as .Flow.



Effects
There are currently eight effects in the game, also known as accesories. Their actions can be accessed by pressing the SHIFT key.

Comet is the game's equivalent of the bike, and allows for greater movement. When the action button is pressed, there is a flash of light as a star-like sound plays, though this appears to have no real effect.

Camera has the ability to toggle the music on/off when the action key is pressed, though this only lasts for as long as the camera is your current effect.

Tree replaces the character's head with the leaves of a tree. It appears to be purely cosmetic.

Rose is the game's Medamaude. It turns the protagonist's head into a rose, which falls apart when the action key is pressed, teleporting the player back to the main dream world hub.

Ribbon gives A a ponytail with a green ribbon. It is a cosmetic effect.

Fork is another effect that seems to have no use, though the existence of a food motif throughout the game suggests that it might have some symbolic value.

Zero Gravity allows the player to float at a very slow speed, granting the ability to go over walls that previously barred movement, particularly in the Shooting Star Area where it is found. Once the walls are passed, other effects can be used and the character can roam outside the original boundaries of the map.

Fruit Knife is the player's weapon, used to attack NPCs. The only significant event that comes as a consequence of killing these NPCS is one with three colored children in the area the knife is found, who turn into chasers when attacked. If they catch you, the game closes.

Worlds*
From the dream world nexus, there are three accesible doors, to Time World, Sugar World, and Forest World, and one you can enter at the end of the game, which leads to Allan's house.

Time World

A dark area with white numbers floating in the background. In older versions this area was a lot brighter and hard to see in. A few NPCs wander here, such as people with clock faces, though they don't have much significance and only make noise if you interact with them. Twisted colorful arrows are scattered about, perhaps broken clock hands. The most notable features of this map are the entrances to Monochrome Underwater World and the Dream Bedroom, both of which lead to a number of effects.

Direct & Indirect connections: Sugar World
 * Underwater Monochrome World
 * Glass Panel World
 * Cut Hand World
 * Rose Chaser Area
 * Mother
 * Nursery Area
 * Dream Bedroom
 * Letter Children World
 * Paper Plane World

A pink sea studded with what appear to be candy-canes in bent shapes and lemon slices. If you sit at the bench in the small bus stop in this world, you will be transported to the Bus Area. Interacting with the fat, bleeding candy cane transforms the world into a slightly creepier version where droplets of blood are everywhere and a yellow letter child can be found along with the sprite of a man who appears to be writhing in pain.

Direct & Indirect connections: Forest World
 * Bus Area
 * Shooting Star World
 * Restaurant Tower
 * Picnic World
 * Ant-Infested Picnic World

An area with snowy white paths and pink and blue pine trees. The only NPC here is a yellow comet from which you receive the Comet effect. There are two doorways here to get to other worlds -- a blue sketch pad with a hole in it, and a large blue house.

Direct & Indirect connections: Allan's House
 * Triangle Path
 * Spaceship Exterior
 * Spaceship Interior
 * Blue House
 * Chair Room
 * Blue Chair Land
 * Cat Panorama
 * Butterfly Box
 * Green Bed Land

Waring: spoilers follow.

A small home where Allan lives with his mother. It features some of the darkest imagery in the game, especially when the house becomes distorted when you control the mother.
 * White Forest Path
 * Allan's Room
 * Allan's Distorted House
 * Allan's Distorted Room

Ending
Waring: spoilers follow.

Once all eight effects have been found, the player is given access to the previously locked white door at the end of the hall. Opening it leads A to an empty white area studded with trees, flowers, and some of the scenery from the Sugar World. Heading north for a while causes the screen to fade to white and enter a new scene.

A boy with brown hair is sitting in a bed next to a TV. A woman, presumably the boy's mother, enters the room and looks at him. The scene changes again.

You are now playing the boy. If you access the menu, you will see that despite the fact your character image is the same (the letter A), your name is now Allan. The woman from before is at a kitchen table, either dead, wounded, or asleep next to a pile of what appear to be fruit shavings or pills with a paring knife (perhaps the same kind from the Fruit Knife effect). The kitchen she is in is barred off, so the player is left either to explore the limited TV room or enter Allan's bedroom. Once entered, you cannot exit. The only interactable items in the room are a picture of a flower and an empty notepad next to some markers. Interacting with the notepad leads to the next scene.

The mother wakes from the table, but the house is now unsettling colors and infested with white worm-like creatures everywhere. Contrary to when you played Allan, the menu cannot be accessed at this time. The only option is to enter Allan's room, which has also become distorted. You'll find the boy where you left him off -- except he is now a Medusa-like monster with a brown tangled head covered in red eyes. The mother carries the paring knife from earlier, and interacting with the monster from the front will make her kill it. You hear Allan-monster's scream and the screen fades.

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