Not each Halloween horror adventure has to terrify you. Starting with beloved classics for example mystery-solving cartoons to endearing shows such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of Halloween-themed favorites are enjoyable without requiring causing fear. Additionally, a increasing selection of ghostly-adorable titles with spooky themes, but not the truly terrifying degree of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and acts as an excellent comfortable choice to the intensely frightening releases of 2025.
An Original Self-Coop Journey
Labeled as a solo collaboration problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a living-impaired child named Gloomy and a human girl known as Nena as they start an quest to restore sunlight to their gloomy realm. Their design is similar to collectible figures combined with the characters from a stop-motion animation. Their light-complected and heavy-lidded appearance is influenced by the appearance of Gothic fantasy movies, and the narrative is a quintessential all-ages tale. These two builds an enduring connection over the course of the game’s multiple stages as Nena strives to prove to her priest uncle that, look, possibly zombies can be friendly.
Original Gameplay Systems
The innovative description comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate between the budding companions to overcome obstacles and progress through the areas. As an undead, Gloomy cannot pass through the light of a streetlight, while Nena will get snatched up by wandering undead except if a light is focused on them.
They have to work in tandem — well, players control them together — to finish levels. Nena could adjust or briefly disable lights to open routes for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious youth will employ his undead power to shift around obstacles in the environment, revealing routes for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
The brain-teasers remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the areas are hovering, miniature structures that the view moves across in conjunction with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are quite fun, guiding the friends around a fair and through a haunted house, among other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” option that enables you to zoom out and turn the areas, both to appreciate the designs and search for paths that may not have been apparent.
Minor Hiccups and General Adventure
And that’s one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a locked camera, occasionally it's confusing where the protagonists may or may not travel. Gamers could require to simply collide with a few random objects to determine which ones are interactable, as the game doesn't always indicate.
Nevertheless, those slight challenges don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with roughly a few sessions worth of brain-teasers. Subsequent stages blend together minor hidden movement and action elements with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a rewarding — and somewhat surprising — finale.
Availability and Summary
Players avoiding the terror of intense horror games won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PC, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on online stores.
This charming title has been released on several consoles and provides a pleasurable alternative for players looking for spooky entertainment minus the fear factor.
