Not every spooky season adventure needs to terrify you. Starting with well-known tales such as mystery-solving cartoons to endearing shows including Over the Garden Wall, numerous autumn-inspired titles provide fun without increasing anxiety. There’s also, a expanding collection of spooky-cute games with spooky themes, though lacking the sleep-with-the-lights-on intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and serves as an superb cozy option to the intensely frightening releases of 2025.
A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Adventure
Known as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes unites a living-impaired child named Gloomy and a living girl named Nena as they embark on an quest to bring the sun back to their gloomy world. Their appearance evokes stylized dolls mixed with the figures from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and tired-looking appearance borrows heavily from the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a classic all-ages journey. The duo develops an strong connection over the course of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to prove to her priest uncle that, hey, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Original Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” description comes about from the game’s environmental puzzles. After Gloomy and Nena meet, you’ll swap among the recent allies to solve puzzles and move forward through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the illumination of a lamppost, while Nena may be grabbed by idle zombies without a lamp is directed on them.
They have to cooperate closely — actually, players control them together — to finish levels. Nena could adjust or momentarily deactivate lamps to open routes for Gloomy, while the open-brained character will utilize his supernatural ability to move objects in the world, creating ways for Nena.
Captivating Environment Creation
The brain-teasers bring to mind a touch of The Gardens Between, in the manner the areas are floating, model-like designs that the perspective moves across in conjunction with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, leading the companions around a amusement park and through a haunted house, among other places. Players can use a “diorama view” feature that allows you to pull back and spin the areas, simultaneously to admire the visuals and hunt for routes that may not have been clear.
Minor Hiccups and Complete Gameplay
And that’s one of the only hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Like other releases with a static view, it’s not always clear where the heroes are able to move. Gamers could require to just bump into a few random items to discover which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those small speedbumps don't obstruct of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with about a few sessions worth of puzzles. Later levels combine subtle hidden movement and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a fulfilling — and slightly unexpected — ending.
Availability and Final Thoughts
Players shying away from the terror of terrifying releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo platform, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure has been released on several consoles and offers a pleasurable option for players seeking spooky entertainment without the terrifying moments.
