She's not awake yet...
NeverAwake is a twin stick Shoot 'Em Up developed by Neotro. It was released for PC on September 28, 2022 and January 19, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
NeverAwake tells the story of Rem, a small young girl in a comatose state. Unable to wake up, Rem's inner self, represented by a horned black-hooded girl with her right arm shaped like a dragon's head, manifests in order to save her, all while uncovering her memories, her past and the cause of her condition. However, her mind has been plagued by nightmarish representations of her memories, and they want to stop her from waking up.
The game is divided into seven worlds. Unlike most shmups where the player must fight a boss to end the stage, the player must fill the Soul Gauge by killing enemies and collecting their Souls. Souls are also used as currency to buy secondary weapons and accessories that grant new abilities. The player must also unlock diary entries and photos to uncover Rem's past and memories.
On April 2024, Neotro announced NeverAwake Flashback, a roguelike-style DLC serving as a sequel to the main game. It is set to release during Summer 2024.
NeverAwake contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Some of the diary entries don't try to hide how Lisa is a horrible mother towards her own daughters. Her husband is only portrayed as slightly better by virtue of him not harshly reprimanding Rem constantly, but diary entries following the death of Rem's grandmother show that he was also inattentive to Rem's grief. In Route A's ending, they seem to get better, as the photos during the credits and diary entries that can be unlocked afterwards show that they've become more attentive to her feelings.
- Adventures in Comaland: If Comaland was a hellish world dominated by the nightmares of a little girl.
- Arc Symbol: The heart-shaped symbol, which represents the Soul Gauge and the levels of each world. It's a mental representation of Rem's hairpin.
- Afraid of Doctors: Manifested as a creepy hospital in World 3, culminating in a Depraved Dentist as the world boss.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: Route B involves outrunning Rem's consciousness throughout the 7 worlds. A few bosses even come back to take the place of the hearts after depleting the Soul Gauge.
- Angelic Beauty: Unlike everything else in her nightmares being hideous monsters, Rem's older sister, Theta, is always imagined as a beautiful humanoid in blue and white.
- Angry Guard Dog: What Watchdog is in World 2.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- If you die in a stage, the game will give you a hint telling the player how to proceed. Dying repeatedly on the same level also unlocks accessories in the shop for purchase, including Shield upgrades.
- During the Wormhole Omoide Challenge, you can turn on autoaim to easily locate a wormhole without trying to shoot aimlessly at the stage.
- Awful Wedded Life: Rem's mother and father don't seem to get along in any of the diary entries they're both mentioned in. That is, pre-Route A. After Rem wakes up from her coma, she notes that they're suddenly fighting a lot less.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Lots of them in World 2.
- Big Sister Worship: Rem alternates between this and expressing envy in her diary entries, represented in the dream world by Theta being a Recurring Boss yet also also an angelic being, unlike the other enemies that are hideous monsters.
- Broken Bird: Rem already was struggling with being a shy girl struggling to make friends and having a demanding mother who constantly got into fights fight her father. Then her beloved grandmother dies, and she finds herself completely alienated from everyone else, unable to understand how they could move on from her death seemingly so easily and being treated as a problem child in turn for grieving.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Route B. Much of the difficulty derives from instead of filling up the Soul Gauge, you're supposed to deplete it by shooting at Souls.
- Company Cross References: One of the stages in Route A features a poster for Vritra, another shmup made by Neotro.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Rem's inner self may look menacing, but her only purpose is to help her real self to wake up. Horribly subverted in Route B.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The boss fight against Jack and Lisa plays different than any other boss in the game. A couple, represented by a pathetic looking man and a horrifying skeletal woman fighting each other while their daughter is caught in the middle of it, unable to do anything but watch.
- Driven to Suicide: Route B has Rem's inner self kill the Rem, effectively ending herself as well.
- Drives Like Crazy: A diary entry and album photo indicate that Rem and Theta's father is a very reckless driver. Ironically, Rem is in a coma because she was hit by a completely different car.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: The Bad Ending is only achievable if you finish all Omoide Challenges and beat Route B.
- Five Stages of Grief: The diary entries show Rem going through them after the death of her grandmother. She got put into a coma while she was at the "depression" stage, with her reaching "acceptance" being what allows her to wake back up.
- Foreshadowing: Every time you finish a world or beat a boss, Rem usually tends to react negatively to her own memories, becoming very cynical as the game goes on. It's one big clue towards her inner self's true nature.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The final boss of World 2, Cute Little Mel, is a horrifying cyclops dog that shoots fireballs and circular projectiles at you.
- Guide Dang It!: A small example. The Omoide Challenge tied to boss fights requires the player to beat a boss without filling the Soul Gauge. However, because of a shoddy translation, the game tells the player to beat the boss without collecting a Soul. This can confuse a lot of first time players.
- Happy Flashback: One of the photos unlocked from the Omoide Challenge reveals that Rem's happiest memory was a trip to an observatory deck. The last few levels in Route A is reminiscent of an elevator going up to the top a tower, and Theta Divine's first phase is fought in a place that resembles an observatory deck.
- Heal the Cutie: The diary entries that can be unlocked post-Route A and album unlocked by completing the Himitsu Challenges detail Rem coming to terms with her grief over her grandmother's death, finding joy in making art, and making friends in school.
- Hereditary Hairstyle: Rem gets her unique curved bang from her mother.
- Kids Hate Vegetables: The premise of World 1, with monstrous wasabi mustard and eggplant alongside a living pile of vegetables as bosses.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Rem's grandmother was the only one who could push Rem to come out of her shell, and Rem was at her happiest around her generally. Then her grandmother died, and Rem immediately started spiraling into deep depression. Route A has her learning to overcome the loss of the person closest to her.
- Marathon Boss: All of them. Every boss has several phases, though you won't see them for the first time during your first run, as you only need to beat three phases in order to fill the Soul Gauge. You do need to beat them all if you're going for the Omoide Challenge.
- Monstrous Germs: A tardigrade fought in World 3 is meant to evoke this trope.
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Nintendo Hard: As usual for a shmup. Don't expect to rely on accessories without thinking what's the best strategy for the rest of the game, or the later worlds will punish you for it. And then there are the Omoide Challenges, which are required to unlock Route B. - The Noseless: None of the child characters, including Rem herself, are rendered in the illustrations with noses.
- Only Friend: Rem's diary entries point to a girl named Yuki being the only one she talks to regularly due to her shyness. The diary entries unlocked after finishing Route A point to her learning to make more friends.
- Recurring Boss: Theta is fought halfway in Worlds 3 and 6, and is the final boss for Route A as Theta Divine.
- Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: After Rem wakes up from her coma in Route A, diary entries detailing the aftermath have her noting that her parents are suddenly arguing much less compared to before she got into the accident.
- Running Over the Plot: The cause of Rem's coma. Said car crash is manifested as Mad Wheel as the final boss for World 5.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Rem's diary entries have her voicing her fears that her classmates secretly hate her and are talking badly about her behind her back. The Post-Route A entries reveal that they were also worried when she fell into a coma, and they have no problems being friends with her after she opens up to them a little more.
- Shrinking Violet: Diary entries highlight how much Rem struggles with making friends or otherwise standing out in class.
- Split Personality: The truth behind Rem and her inner self. At the end of Route B, Rem finds out that her inner self represents all of her fragility and negative emotions materialized as a split personality hellbent on ending it all rather than help her wake up.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Unlike every other boss in the game, Jack and Lisa can't be directly damaged. They instead fling attacks at each other, which you have to dodge.
- Took a Level in Kindness: There is no mention made of Rem's mother being overbearing to her after Rem wakes up from her coma, and she seems to get along better with Rem's father. It's implied that the month Rem spent comatose caused her mother to ruminate over how she had been treating her.
- True Blue Femininity: Theta both in real life and in the nightmare world wears blue clothing.
- Villains Want Mercy: If you try to defeat a boss the traditional way, they will do absolutely nothing but bleed and cower in fear during the last phase, giving you a chance to finish them off.
- You Bastard!: After killing Rem at the end of Route B, the game will start calling you out as you shoot the remaining Soul Gauge fragments floating around the screen.She can no longer be saved. You will enjoy the final carnage but would you have been happy with that?
