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Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- Remake Game Launches on February 23

Kadokawa Games opened a full website for the Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- game on Thursday and revealed that the remake will launch for PC via Steam on February 23. The website includes full details of the release in both Japanese and English.

New characters that Kikiyama created 16 years ago will appear in the game. The official website describes the game:

In its original form, RPG Maker darling Yume Nikki was a divisively controversial work among fans. By contrast, Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- is a collaborative show of the utmost respect for auteur Kikiyama's seminal release.

The RPG Maker team at Kadokawa has paired up with Active Gaming Media's development team of ardent Yume Nikki fans to bring you this modern indie title in the form of Yume Nikki -Dream Diary-. This diverging follow-up combines influences from the original game and other recent indie juggernauts to create something wholly unique.

Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- was created under supervision and with the full cooperation from the original creator, Kikiyama themselves. We hope it will help to create a whole new wave of fans, as well as push the envelope in terms of what RPG Maker games can become.

The surrealistic adventure game will be available in Japanese, English, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Russian for US$19.99.

Kadokawa Games launched a teaser website for the game on January 10. AGM Playism also released Kikiyama's original Yume Nikki surreal horror PC game for free on Steam on the same day.

Kikiyama used RPG Maker 2003 to make the original dōjin game, and it launched for PC in 2004. In the game, players explore dream worlds freely, and there are no major story elements. The game also has no dialogue and no specific goals. Players can collect "effects" that have special actions or animations and change the main character's appearance.

The game inspired the 2013 Yume Nikki - I Am Not in Your Dream light novel by Akira (Kyōran Kazoku Nikki, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai). Ako Arisaka (KADO - The Right Answer) provided the illustrations for the one-volume novel. J-Novel Club licensed the novel, and it describes the story:

Based on the cult hit freeware game by Kikiyama, the dream-like novelization of Yume Nikki follows a lonely and mysterious girl from the confines of her tiny, sparse bedroom into the infinite world that awaits her when she falls asleep. She roams through shifting scenery and opens doors leading to bizarre, nonsensical dreamscapes, all places that may hold more than a metaphorical significance to her. But here, in the deepest reaches of her unconscious mind, is she truly alone?

The game also inspired a manga by Machigerita and Hitoshi Tomizawa in 2013.