Not all spooky season experience has to scare players. Starting with beloved classics like mystery-solving cartoons to charming series such as Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season titles are enjoyable without requiring causing fear. Additionally, a increasing selection of eerie-charming releases including autumn atmosphere, though lacking the keep-you-awake degree of fear. Gloomy Eyes was released in the fall, and acts as an outstanding relaxing alternative to the deeply scary releases of 2025.
An Original Self-Coop Journey
Labeled as a solo collaboration problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a zombie boy called Gloomy and a living girl named Nena as they start an adventure to bring the sun back to their gloomy environment. Their design evokes stylized dolls mixed with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. The fair-toned and tired-looking appearance borrows heavily from the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a archetypal all-ages adventure. The pair develops an unbreakable connection over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena tries to prove to her clerical relative that, you know, maybe the undead can be friendly.
Creative Gameplay Systems
This unique term originates from the game’s environmental puzzles. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, gamers switch between the recent allies to solve puzzles and advance through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy cannot pass through the light of a streetlight, while Nena can be captured by wandering undead except if a light is focused on them.
They must collaborate effectively — in practice, players control them in tandem — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or temporarily shut off lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will utilize his supernatural ability to move items in the surroundings, revealing routes for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
These challenges remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the stages are floating, diorama-like structures that the perspective pans around in coordination with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are very enjoyable, leading the friends around a fair and through a ghostly building, including other places. Players can use a “diorama view” option that permits you to pull back and rotate the levels, simultaneously to admire the visuals and hunt for routes that may not have been clear.
Small Hiccups and Complete Adventure
Here lies one of the sole difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the protagonists may or may not travel. You may need to randomly encounter a few random elements to determine which ones are interactive, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those small obstacles don't obstruct of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with approximately a few sessions worth of challenges. Subsequent stages integrate light stealth and dynamic sequences with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a satisfying — and somewhat unforeseen — finale.
Release and Conclusion
Those avoiding the frights of intense horror releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo platform, Sony system, computer, and Xbox Series X, and is available at a reduced price for 25% off on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on several consoles and offers a pleasurable alternative for players in search of Halloween fun minus the intense scares.
