Shape of Dreams came out on September 10th, 2025. It’s a hack-and-slash and roguelike indie game from developers Lizard Smoothie and it brings back the feeling of playing great roguelike games such as Risk of Rain. But this gives a different twist where it plays from the top-down perspective and like a MOBA. It’s a game that feels great once you get used to it and give you an endless variety of builds. It leaves me excited to hop back in and play more.
Shape of Dreams – What is it?
Shape of Dreams has a quote from its Steam page:
“Become the nightmare. Master the dream. Shatter reality.”
The story begins when the boundary between the dream world and reality collapses, creating a passage to the intermediate realm known as “The Rapids” through dimensional rifts. Heroes, known as Travelers, enter “The Rapids” to explore, facing challenges and monsters as they journey to the end of the dream world. While the story isn’t the focus of the game, it’s a nice concept that gives a mystical feeling to the world of dreams.
Shape of Dreams Gameplay
You can master abilities called Memories that can change the way you play. There are over 150 Memories and Essences to combine and make a unique run. The skill tree called Constellations can be changed by using stardust to unlock and upgrade the perks. With the game being made for Solo and Group play, you can find so much to synergize with each other. As you move throughout the map in a roguelike fashion, choosing where you will go, you run into ambushes of strong monsters, safe zones, or plain areas where you will fight regular monsters.
There are four difficulties in Shape of Dreams you can choose from Nap, Deep Sleep, Ominous, and Nightmare, obviously increasing in difficulty. The game throws you into Deep Sleep immediately, which I thought was alright, but it would be easier to start off on a easier difficulty until you get your bearings. With it being my first time, after a couple of runs I had to turn it down to try out the characters. There are also Lucid Dreams, which are modifiers to change the way the game is played.
You can choose from two characters from the start. Lacerta, a shooter for range and Mist, a close-quarter knight, with their difficulty of use being easy and hard respectively. With the release, there are eight characters to choose from, two unlocked from the start, but the other six to be unlocked through challenges in the game.
I have unlocked Yubar and she feels great to play. Although I have just scratched the surface of the game, there are eight worlds to be discovered. After seeing only a few of them, so far, they are beautiful. My favorite has been the Ink Japanese-inspired world.
Review
This game is easily one of the best roguelikes I have played in a while and is making its way into my top games, with its beautiful style and the designs of their worlds and their characters. Currently its Very Positive on Steam and in the Top Sellers. There is no road map at the moment but they plan to release one.
Shape of Dreams is on sale on Steam for $19.99 and will remain at that price until September 24th. They are having a limited challenge for a unique, in-game banner and a dog/cat animal addition to sit on your characters head.
