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Some games linger in the hearts of players not for their difficulty or intense mechanics, but for the way they make you feel. Gloomy Eyes falls into this category, taking the approach of an interactive narrative experience. It’s a short and sweet adventure that tells a cozy story of light and darkness, tackling themes of loneliness and companionship through words that deliver nothing but heartfelt warmth.
Gloomy Eyes features spooky and somber, yet whimsical environments, creating a comfort in the dark seen in tales such as Coraline or Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. If these titles have ever felt like home to you, then Gloomy Eyes is the exact kind of game you’d want to curl up with on a cold, rainy day.
The overall aesthetic is quite dark and dismal, yet you will find yourself wandering into moments of light and wonder along the way. In a way, this makes the player find appreciation and beauty in both light and darkness, and truly brings a captivating appeal to the art direction and overall style of the game.
A Simple Story With a Much Deeper Impact
At first glance, Gloomy Eyes tells a simple yet touching story of a lonely, zombified boy and a human girl. While they are both trapped in a cruel world overrun with darkness, they find hope in one another and set out on a journey to find the Sun. However, beneath the surface, there are much darker themes at play.
Gloomy is a sad, lonely undead boy who is vulnerable to the light and desperately longs for friendship. Nena is a human girl kept under lock and key by her sinister uncle, who also happens to be the main antagonist of the story, by the way. When he’s not busy locking children away in cages, he can be found commanding eerie cultists clad in white sheets, torturing zombies for amusement, or capturing fireflies to withhold power from the sun. It’s a surprisingly heavy backdrop for such a cute-looking game, and this contrast only adds to the atmosphere.
Gloomy and Nena’s vulnerabilities serve as the basis of gameplay. Gloomy, as a zombie, can not touch bright light. Nena, on the other hand, is vulnerable to the undead and areas of extreme darkness where they dwell. However, this also creates quite an impact on the narrative, showcasing how Gloomy and Nena find a sense of harmony when together, essentially completing one another. Even against the grim undertones of the story, the silent but deeply expressive actions and moments shared between the two are nothing less than heartwarming.
The Narration is really what sells the story, though, with Colin Farrell bringing these words to life through the character of the Gravekeeper. His delivery of the dialogue is mysterious and engaging, though not without a hiccup or two along the way. My biggest issue with Gloomy Eyes boiled down to nothing more than a few simple auditory bugs. Sometimes, the lines of dialogue would get jammed and stutter, or not play at all, which pulled me out of immersion a little bit. However, I can’t really complain too much – the overall experience was wonderful, and this is nothing that can’t be ironed out with a quick fix/update patch in the near future.
The Atmosphere of a World Lost to Darkness
The story may be what gives Gloomy Eyes an emotional weight, but the stylistic presentation is the lovely little bow tying everything together. The art style has an eccentric, quirky charm, landing somewhere between chibi-fied 3D animation and the exaggerated body shapes, limbs, and sunken eyes of Tom Burton’s ghoulish yet charming illustrations.
Every chapter of Gloomy Eyes takes place across a diorama-like environment. Each one brings a new scene to life, from an abandoned school or calming beach shores, to a spooky carnival and haunted house.
The music and sound design remain strong throughout. The carnival theme in particular is still lodged in my head hours after completing the game – cheerful in tone, yet unsettling in context. Through this approach, every location you work your way through brings a balance of whimsy and dread. My only real gripe is with the sound effects of the main villain, aka Nena’s Uncle. His exact same evil laugh repeats so many times that it borders on parody, which personally dulls the impact an otherwise menacing character had on me.
Gameplay Length & Mechanics
Gloomy Eyes has players switch between Nena and Gloomy to solve various puzzles across every chapter. The puzzles themselves are pretty straightforward, meaning you should be able to breeze through them in a relaxing manner and enjoy the story for what it is. In the case that you do get a bit stumped, though, there will usually be friendly fireflies hanging around to guide you towards the next objective. This way, the narrative remains the star of the show, which is important because the game doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a captivating story told in interactive format.
To help support this approach, Gloomy Eyes is very forgiving in terms of gameplay. There are plenty of checkpoints that update after every step of a puzzle, which come in handy if you make a mistake. Furthermore, I occasionally accidentally trapped Nena or Gloomy in tight corners or behind movable obstacles. Luckily, a quick restart set me back only seconds, thanks to these frequent checkpoints.
Gloomy Eyes clocks in at around three to five hours of gameplay total, potentially even less if you consider yourself to be a puzzle pro. Whilst the game may be on the shorter end, it certainly never overstays its welcome. Due to the shorter length, I would recommend experiencing Gloomy Eyes all in one sitting, if possible. This way, you get the full storybook-like experience, and the narrative journey feels just that much more impactful when it flows without interruption.
However, in saying that, replayability is definitely limited. For the most part, Gloomy Eyes will be the type of title that you play once, as other than attempting to acquire any missed collectibles, there isn’t much for players to do on future runs. This is in no way a knock to the game though, as I can very much see myself revisiting it in a couple years once the details fade and the eerie tale of Gloomy and Nena draws me back in.
Final Thoughts
Gloomy Eyes is an absolute little gem of a game. It’s angsty, yet heartwarming, eerie, and unsettling, yet comforting. A true collision of light and darkness in every possible aspect, through and through. Gloomy Eyes may be a shorter experience with simplistic mechanics, but it never tries to be more than this, which is precisely why it works so wonderfully. Between the atmospheric soundtrack, dark-but-cute visual approach, and underlying themes, it’s the type of game to sneak up on you and inhabit your thoughts long after the credits have rolled.
Yes, there may be a few audio flaws, some repetitive sound design, and generally very straightforward (or sometimes repetitive) puzzles. None of these outweighs the experience, however. If anything, they feel like small blemishes on an otherwise beautiful adventure. To be quite frank, Gloomy Eyes may just be my overall favorite game of 2025 so far, or pretty darn close to it. The aesthetics were what grabbed my attention, but it was the charming, twisted storybook-like tale and the characters of Nena and Gloomy that truly fascinated me.
Gloomy Eyes is the perfect find for anyone who enjoys media that blends dark, gothic influences with child-like whimsy – as mentioned earlier, Coraline and Tim Burton are prime examples. Or, if you’re just a fan of spooky stories that lean on the cozier side, this is pretty much a must-play. Set aside a rainy evening, grab a blanket, and let Gloomy Eyes pull you into its cute, creepy, and unexpectedly touching world.
Gloomy Eyes
Bottom Line
Gloomy eyes is an absolute little gem of a game. It's angsty, yet heartwarming, eerie and unsetling, yet comforting. A true collision of light and darkness in every possible aspect, through and through. Gloomy Eyes may be a shorter experience with simplistic mechanics, but it never tries to be more than this - which is precicely why it works so wonderfully. Between the atmospheric soundtrack, dark-but-cute visual approach, and underlying themes, it's the type of game to sneak up on you and inhabit your throughts long after the credits have rolled.
