Every so often a developer decides to combine some of my favorite things into one delightful stylish package, and I’m thrilled to report that Shape of Dreams is the latest in the line of “games that feel like they were specifically crafted for me.” Does this mean you should pick it up? Find out in our Shape of Dreams review!
Shape of Dreams
Developer: Lizard Smoothie
Publisher: Neowiz
Platforms: Windows PC (Reviewed)
Release Date: September 10, 2025
Price: $24.99
Shape of Dreams is an amalgamation of dungeon crawling, roguelike, and moving from room to room akin to Slay the Spire or Cult of the Lamb. There isn’t much of a story to talk about, aside from the travelers in this game are trying to stop an evil bad guy named Primus, and so my mind has nicknamed all of the player characters different names from notable Primus songs. Lacerta the shotgun wielding lizard is Jerry, while Aurena is Winona, and Vesper simply gets to be Mud. I know, I’m a goofy old nerd.
There are eight playable travelers and they all have their own identifiable gameplay style. From the start there are four characters available for players to take control of: Lacerta prefers range with a shotgun that stacks fire ammo, Mist is a close range duelist who builds up shield to survive the front line onslaught, Yubar is a mage who favors AOE attacks, Vesper is a Paladin who tanks well and does high single target damage with his hammer smash.
Eventually you’ll unlock Aurena who’s a potent healer who uses her own health to do increased damage and heal her team, while Bismuth is a mage who has a book that consistently throws attacks and flurries of sparks at single targets.
Lastly, you’ll unlock Nachia who’s a healer that can summons pets to provide dedicated support for the team, while Shell is a ninja who dashes around the field favoriting critical attacks that are triggered after a dash. This character plays in a style that’s reminiscent of Yasuo from League of Legends, and he should only be considered once you’ve really learned your way around the mechanics of the game.
Shape of Dreams is a game that’s super easy to pick up, as you’ll dive in and clear rooms, ultimately running from hunters and trying to clear worlds before you’re caught by the hunters and forced into a difficult boss fight. If you manage to win, your journey continues, but having to fight the hunters when returning to previously visited nodes can get obnoxious. Moving through each node gives you access to upgrades, wells, curses, and other goodies to find and explore.
Each world has a boss fight, and after four maps, you’ll have a choice to enter the final area where you’ll face off against Primus himself. If you want to keep going, you can choose to start a new loop to continue leveling up your characters and building up your skills/gems.
This can set you up for maximum game breaking builds ultimately farming until you get tired of going and killing Primus to end the loop or die. Clearing a run allows you to unlock the Deja Vu system which will allow you to purchase the ability to take either an ability or a gem with you that spawns at the beginning of a run so you have a little more chance to lead to the build you want.
After about 40 hours of gameplay, I’ve unlocked all eight characters and seen most of the content the game has to offer while only unlocking around half of the Deja Vu items, yet I still haven’t gotten any of them to their maximum level as you can strengthen them by clearing them game with them equipped up to five times. The achievements are a lot of fun to go after, and there’s modifiers to increase the difficulty even once you reach the highest difficulty level.
Shape of Dreams is pretty fun solo, but where it really gets wild is playing three player co-op online. This allows you to have more options to buy/get skills and gems and trade with other players in real time.
One night early on I ran for about three hours with some guys from Korea, looping about six times before we finally ended the run, and gained a whole bunch of character levels for Vesper.
If you enjoy games with a surprising amount of depth that are easy to pick up and play, you’ll feel right at home picking up Shape of Dreams.
Shape of Dreams was reviewed on Steam using a code provided by Neowiz. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Shape of Dreams is now available for Windows PC (via STEAM).
