Fast-paced action adventure game Koshmar: The Last Reverie announced for consoles, PC

Boti: Byteland Overclocked developer Purple Ray Studio has announced Koshmar: The Last Reverie, a fast-paced single-player action adventure game set in the realm of dreams and nightmares, against the backdrop of a fictional society inspired by central Europe and Victorian society. It will launch for unspecified consoles and PC via Steam in 2027.

Here is an overview of the game, via Purple Ray Studio:

About

Koshmar: The Last Reverie is a fast-paced, single-player action adventure set in the realm of dreams and nightmares. Through the eyes of Violet, a teenager growing up in a small town, who delves into lucid dreaming. When nightmares break into her dreams, she must venture into the depths of darkness and risk her sanity, leading her to explore twisted, treacherous real-world places and imagined ones.

The third-person tale with highly stylized dark imagery and roguelike / RPG elements brings a fast-paced, strategic combat experience combined with carefully made choices that ask players to balance their sanity, or risk sending them to the limits of Violet’s delusions or madness.

Story and Setting

Emotionally distant, sharp, and gloomy, Violet lives a mundane, colorless life. Once she falls asleep, she lives her best life—a true respite from her bleak reality. Torn between her waking coma and sleeping adventures, Violet bravely navigates the pressures of both until one day, they collide and begin to disintegrate.

Somehow, Violet is the only one with the ability to see the sickness for what it is: entry to the nightmares of others and the Nightmare Rifts. Her pursuit of the truth will lead her through the realities of nearby towns, winding her way to the city and the minds of others as she goes, meeting a variety of characters. The choices she encounters will have her confront monsters and her own mentality. Aside from discovering the whereabouts of her imagined companion and the source of the sickness, an important question remains: when she finally reaches the end of her journey, what state of mind will Violet be in?

Set in a fictional society inspired by central Europe and Victorian society, the world of Koshmar: The Last Reverie blends fantasy with elements of history, psychology, and mythos from our current reality, including a tragically real sleeping epidemic that plagued Europe in the 1700s, aesthetics and culture from the 1920s, as well as fables, phobias, and folklore from around the world.

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Gameplay

The core gameplay revolves around Violet’s exploration of the city, entering nightmares and Nightmare Rifts, solving puzzles, and unlocking abilities and weapons she could scarcely have dreamed of herself having.

• Combat – Consisting of a dynamic, adrenaline-fueled system with emphasis on:
  • Equippable items to change Violet’s stats and refine players’ builds that support different playstyles (aggressive/defensive)
  • Precise timing, strategic positioning, and use of environmental objects/environment to the player’s advantage
  • Diverse enemies with varied attack patterns and vulnerabilities
  • Fluid, dreamy, dance-like motions by the protagonist
• Exploration – In the city, players explore story-driven districts, interact with NPCs, take on side quests, solve more complex puzzles, investigate the mystery behind the Nightmares, and work toward opening Core Rifts by closing smaller Nightmare Rifts. Exploration is also shaped by Violet’s sanity state, which players can manage carefully or deliberately push toward one extreme.
• Meaningful Choices – Players have agency over Violet’s sanity in the physical world, and that state affects both gameplay and narrative progression. Sanity is influenced by dialogue choices, quest decisions, combat behavior, and world interactions such as stealing, donating, keeping items, or giving items. Violet’s appearance can be altered by the player and influenced by her current state of sanity, which is visible to those around her, with varying consequences.

Background

Inspired by a variety of action adventure, roguelite, platform, and puzzle games, Koshmar: The Last Reverie combines the best of brutal combat, elegant engagement, storytelling, and discovery. Gothic and steampunk aesthetics, painted with lush, hand-held brushstrokes, allude to notable entries in gaming and television/movie media. Players should anticipate deep world-building, novel mechanics aligned with the universe, and agency as they navigate the nightmares and dreams created by the developers. Some titles that inspired these elements include Alice: Madness Returns, Arcane: League of Legends, Control, Hades, Hogwarts Legacy, Lies of P, The Medium, and Remnant: From the Ashes.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer