Melatonin is a 2022 indie Rhythm Game by David Huynh, taking very strong inspiration from the Rhythm Heaven series.
As with its inspiration, Melatonin consists of multiple rhythm-based minigames across five chapters, followed by a stage that combines many of them and switches between them. Each level represents a different dream the main character has.
Melatonin released on Steam on December 15th 2022, with a Nintendo Switch release following a week later.
Dream About Tropes:
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: The final level combines elements from all of the dreams present throughout the game.
- Burn Baby Burn: The "Dream About the Past" takes place in a darkroom (used for old-school photograph development), and has your character taking a lighter to selected photos on a clothesline, presumably representing painful and unwanted memories.
- 100% Completion: There are set of achievements that you need to fulfill before reaching this.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Perfect hits are colored blue, Early hits are colored yellow, and Late hits are colored red.
- Dream Episode: Each chapter represents the dreams of the main character on a specific night, with the state of their living room giving a hint about what kind of dream they'll be having.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: The player character has very visible dark bags under his eyes from his poor sleeping patterns.
- Final-Exam Boss: "Morning" has you facing off against a remix of all the previous games you've played combined.
- Heroic Mime: The player character is never shown to speak; justified, as he's either in deep sleep or doing tasks that require utmost concentration.
- Interface Screw: Some levels obscure the screen to force the player to rely on audio cues:
- "Dream About Food" has a section where the main character is flying behind clouds.
- "Dream About Dating" occasionally has the phone tilt itself, making the pictures impossible to see.
- "Mind" has the player's eyes partially closing.
- "Dream About the Future" has the position of the aliens glitching out on the display.
- Level Ate: In "Dream About Food", the main character is sitting in a chair flying through a landscape of junk food while trying to catch food launched out of flying boxes.
- Level Editor: After clearing a level, an editor is unlocked, which can be used to create different sets of cues.
- No Name Given: We don't know who the player character is called, and his name is never revealed at any point in the game.
- Perpetual Frowner: The player character almost never smiles, real or dream world.
- Rise to the Challenge: "Dream About Stress" has the main character climbing wooden ladders inside a volcano with rising lava, although the climbing is done automatically, and the only input is jumping onto a different ladder when one appears, or jumping straight up when the lava prepares for a sudden quick rise.
- "Simon Says" Mini-Game:
- In "Dream About Exercise", the player has to replicate the instructor's movements of lifting the left, right, or both weights at the same time.
- In "Dream About the Future", beams appear in the distance, signaling aliens appearing on the left, right, middle, or left and right. Once they approach, the player has to blast them in the correct pattern.
- Sweat Drop: Occurs right by the player character's head or otherwise nearby when a missed hit occurs.
- Thanking the Viewer: There is a special thank-you message for playing the game at the end of the credits.
- Vague Age: The player character could be anywhere from his 20's to his 30's.
