What Is Lucid?

Overview

A psychological horror game from Studio Investigrave, featuring their signature blend of RPG Maker aesthetics and narrative-driven horror. The game explores themes of identity, trauma, and the darker aspects of human nature.

Key Features

• Atmospheric Horror: Tension-building narrative without relying on jump scares
• Multiple Endings: Your choices determine the outcome
• Rich Storytelling: Deep character development and environmental storytelling
• RPG Maker Engine: Accessible yet polished visual style

Development

Created by Studio Investigrave (racheldrawsthis and Rix), known for their acclaimed horror titles including Dead Plate, Cold Front, and Elevator Hitch.

Story & Themes

The Dreamscape

The Setting

Lucid takes place in the realm of dreams, where reality is fluid and the rules of physics and logic don't apply. You navigate a world that shifts between beautiful and nightmarish, never quite stable.

The Premise

You find yourself trapped in a dream state, unable to wake. What initially seems like a pleasant lucid dream gradually reveals itself to be something darker—a prison of your own subconscious.

The Protagonist's Journey

Awareness and Control

The game explores the concept of lucid dreaming:

• Recognition - Realizing you're in a dream
• Control attempts - Trying to shape the dream world
• Loss of control - The dream fighting back
• The question of reality - Uncertainty about what's real

The Quest to Wake

Your goal is ostensibly to wake up, but:

• Waking may not be possible - The dream might be permanent
• Waking may not be desirable - Reality might be worse
• The dream might be real - Or reality might be the dream
• You might not want to wake - What are you returning to?

The Dream Logic

Shifting Environments

The dreamscape is unstable and reactive:

• Emotional resonance - Environments reflect your mental state
• Memory fragments - Places from your past appear and distort
• Symbolic spaces - Locations that represent concepts and feelings
• Impossible architecture - Dream physics that defy reality

Dream Characters

The people you encounter may be:

• Memory constructs - Based on real people from your life
• Archetypal figures - Representations of concepts and fears
• Dream guardians - Entities that maintain dream rules
• Yourself - Fragmented aspects of your own psyche

The Deeper Truth

Why You're Here

As the game progresses, you discover why you're trapped:

• Psychological trauma - Escaping painful reality
• Physical condition - Comatose or otherwise disconnected
• Death - The dream as liminal space between life and whatever comes next
• Choice - You might have chosen this on some level

The Nature of the Dream

The dream itself has agency:

• It wants to keep you - The dreamscape resists your leaving
• It reflects you - Your fears and desires shape it
• It's a process - Working through something psychologically
• It might be merciful - Protecting you from a worse reality

Themes and Meaning

Control and Acceptance

The game interrogates our relationship with control:

• The illusion of lucidity - Thinking you control what controls you
• Surrender - Learning to accept rather than fight
• Agency - What power you actually have
• Liberation - Freedom through understanding limits

Reality and Perception

Philosophical questions about the nature of reality:

• What is real - If the dream is experienced, is it false?
• Consciousness - The self that experiences vs. the self that is
• Memory - How recollection constructs reality
• Truth - Whether objective reality matters if subjective experience is all we have

Gameplay Mechanics

Core Mechanics

Exploration-Based Gameplay

The game is built around navigating the dreamscape:

• Movement - Walking through dream environments
• Interaction - Examining objects and characters
• Discovery - Finding fragments and clues
• Progression - Advancing through understanding

Dream Manipulation System

Lucid Control Attempts

You can try to manipulate the dream:

• Environmental changes - Altering surroundings
• Object creation - Willing items into existence
• Reality testing - Checking if you're dreaming
• Control limits - The dream resists extensive manipulation

Consequence of Control

Your attempts to control the dream have effects:

• Dream stability - Too much control destabilizes reality
• Resistance - The dream fights back against manipulation
• Revelation - Control attempts reveal information
• Narrative branching - How you use control affects the story

Navigation and Puzzle Elements

Environmental Puzzles

The dreamscape presents logic challenges:

• Dream logic - Puzzles that follow symbolic rather than literal rules
• Memory reconstruction - Piecing together fragmented recollections
• Symbolic association - Connecting ideas and images
• Perspective shifts - Seeing from different viewpoints

Progression Mechanics

Advancing requires:

• Observation - Noticing details in environments
• Pattern recognition - Identifying recurring elements
• Thematic understanding - Grasping what symbols represent
• Emotional insight - Understanding the feelings driving dream content

Character Interaction

Dream Figures

Conversations with dream entities:

• Questioning - Asking about their nature and purpose
• Following - Letting them guide you
• Resisting - Opposing their influence
• Understanding - Recognizing what they represent

Dialogue Impact

Your conversational choices affect:

• Information revealed - What you learn
• Character behavior - How dream figures respond
• Dream stability - Some conversations alter the dreamscape
• Ending outcomes - Where your journey leads

Endings Guide

Ending Structure

Multiple Interpretations

Lucid features endings that represent different philosophical positions on the dream state. None is definitively "correct"—each offers a valid interpretation of your experience.

Ending Determinants

Your ending depends on:

• Control attempts - How much you tried to manipulate the dream
• Acceptance level - Whether you fought or accepted the dream state
• Discoveries made - Secrets and truths you uncovered
• Emotional resolution - Whether you addressed underlying psychological issues

The Endings

Ending 1: The Awakening

How to achieve: Successfully navigate the dream and choose to wake.

What happens: You wake up in the real world.

Meaning: Escape and return—you've chosen reality over dream, with all that implies.

Ending 2: The Eternal Dream

How to achieve: Choose to remain in the dream state permanently.

What happens: You accept the dreamscape as your reality.

Meaning: Rejection of reality—whether from cowardice or transcendence is ambiguous.

Ending 3: The Merging

How to achieve: Blur the lines between dream and reality until they're indistinguishable.

What happens: You achieve a state where dream and reality coexist.

Meaning: Philosophical synthesis—perhaps all reality is dream, or all dreams real.

Ending 4: The Revelation

How to achieve: Discover the full truth about why you're in the dream state.

What happens: You understand the dream's purpose and your role in it.

Meaning: Knowledge as resolution—understanding transforms the experience.

Ending 5: The Loop

How to achieve: Fail to progress sufficiently or make specific choices.

What happens: You begin the dream again, trapped in repetition.

Meaning: Failure to transcend—caught in psychological or metaphysical cycle.

Achievement Strategy

Completionist Approach

To experience all endings:

1. Full control run: Maximize dream manipulation attempts
2. Acceptance run: Minimize resistance to dream state
3. Investigation run: Prioritize discovering all secrets
4. Emotional run: Focus on psychological resolution
5. Experimental run: Try unusual approaches

Tips & Strategy

Essential Strategy

Understanding Dream Logic

Success requires thinking symbolically:

• Literal won't work - Dream puzzles follow emotional/symbolic logic
• Associations matter - Connect ideas thematically rather than logically
• Emotions are clues - How environments make you feel is information
• Repetition signals importance - Recurring elements are key

Navigation Tips

Environmental Awareness

• Notice atmosphere changes - Shifts in mood or appearance
• Track impossible elements - Things that couldn't exist in reality
• Remember spaces - Environments may recur with variations
• Test boundaries - See where you can and can't go

Puzzle Solving Approach

• Think metaphorically - What do objects represent?
• Emotional logic - What would make sense emotionally if not rationally?
• Try associations - Connect ideas that feel related
• Accept ambiguity - Not everything has clear explanation

Character Interaction Tips

Dream Figure Analysis

Understanding dream characters:

• What they represent - Are they people, concepts, or parts of you?
• Their narrative function - Are they guides, obstacles, or mirrors?
• Their knowledge - What they know reveals the dream's nature
• Their stability - How consistent they are across encounters

Conversation Strategy

• Ask everything - Dream figures often have more to say than appears
• Notice contradictions - Inconsistencies reveal important truths
• Test them - See how they react to unusual questions or actions
• Listen for subtext - What they don't say matters as much as what they do

Control and Manipulation

When to Attempt Control

Dream manipulation is powerful but risky:

• Useful for progression - Some areas require manipulation to access
• Reveals information - Control attempts show dream boundaries
• Risks instability - Too much control can destabilize everything
• Narrative significance - Your relationship with control affects the ending

Balance Strategy

• Start subtle - Small changes before major ones
• Observe reactions - See how the dream responds
• Know when to stop - Recognize when control is counterproductive
• Strategic acceptance - Sometimes surrendering is more effective

Technical Tips

Save Management

• Save frequently - Before major choices or control attempts
• Multiple save slots - Track different approaches
• Pre-ending saves - Create saves before final sequences
• Experimentation saves - Protect main playthrough while testing

Optimization

• Thorough exploration - Every area may have secrets
• Repeated visits - Locations change over time
• Environmental reading - Visual details communicate information
• Note-taking - Track symbols, characters, and themes

Common Challenges

Dealing with Ambiguity

The game intentionally leaves much unexplained:

• Accept uncertainty - Not everything will be clear
• Build interpretations - Form your own understanding
• Multiple readings - The story supports different interpretations
• Symbolic literacy - Learn to read metaphorical communication

Avoiding Frustration

• Don't expect literal logic - Dream rules are different
• Patience with puzzles - Solutions may not be immediately obvious
• Embrace confusion - It's part of the dream experience
• Multiple attempts - Replaying reveals new layers