Close Your Eyes [Old Version]

Probably one of my most favorite horror games of all time. While the gameplay mechanics can feel a bit clunky at times, the story and atmosphere MORE than make up for it! The twists and turns that the story takes keeps you on the edge of your seat, theorizing theory after theory as to what's going on, only to most likely crush them with a reveal just around the corner. I also absolutely ADORE the voice effects used for the Host, and it's amazing to hear with headphones! Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this game!

Spooky Spooks! Puzzles and scares as you discover your true self, what lies deep within you, something you'd never let people know. Plenty of endings to find for great eye-gouging replayability!
https://youtu.be/3GzMU38Ek40

If you like horror games that are more focused on the story and overall creepy vibe as apposed to jumpscares than I highly suggest close your eyes.
Soundtrack: 9/10 Beautiful and moody but can get a bit too loud for me at times.
Graphics: 7/10 It's an rpg maker game so it's not sophisticated, but it works well for the atmosphere.
Visuals: 10/10 The style of the cutscenes matches the graphics perfectly.
Difficulty: 5/10 Nothing overly difficult or poorly thought out some of the puzzles can take a while though. Nothing you can't do without a pad and paper.
Story: 10/10 Still a bit vague in some areas that leaves you wanting more for the future installments of the series and more is explored in the dlc but the main storyline and cutscenes you do experience are well done and fulfilling.
Overall : 8/10

Close Your Eyes is a exploration & puzzle Rpgmaker game where you are a Marshmallow Monk that just escaped being hanged, and now is fleeing through an old subway system. But things don't seen to be so simple...

With a cast of weird, confusing and handsome characters, CYE sets itself as a universe of wretched creatures and a murderer, and how they'll keep on going blindly to the gallow, even with their eyes open...

Maybe if they just closed them, just for a little while...

A great atmospheric terror game, with little to no jumpscares.
And it's free, can't be better than that.

So, I'm someone who played a LOT of RPG Maker horror games back in their peak. Close Your Eyes was recommended to me by a friend something like 6 months ago and I finally got around to playing it a few days ago, and I'm really glad I did. This is probably my personal favorite horror game out of all the ones I've played.
It's mostly atmospheric horror, aided by its sound design and dim lighting, with a few mild jumpscares loaded in the last third of the game. The game's best feature, however, is its story. It's intriguing enough to keep you thinking about it even after you've gotten every ending, and unlike many other RPG Maker horror games, it never fully explains itself. If you like your horror to be wrapped up neatly and explained, this will be frustrating, but a key element of horror is not knowing, and I think it works in the game's favor.
It isn't without its design flaws, which I would attribute primarily to it being originally made in a game jam. The first time through, the manor keys segment and the factory labyrinth can last upwards of 30 minutes, cut down to 10-15 or less in subsequent playthroughs once you've had their maps engraved into your skull. A few plot threads are more nebulous than others, but they're all pretty interesting nonetheless. One ending in particular, "The Machine," feels completely disconnected from the rest of the game, like you've suddenly been transported into an SCP entry or a Junji Ito manga. This ending is by far the most confusing of all of them, mostly due to its utter lack of connection to any other ending or prior part of the game.
Gripes aside, I can't understate my love for Close Your Eyes, and both being free and a little under 2 hours on your first playthrough, I definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Honestly, I loved this game. So much so I even went to get the goodie bag. What got me into this game was I saw a playthrough on youtube of Red Haze, and I heard this game was related to it, so I thought I'd check it out. I'm glad I did!

I'm someone whose been into the horror genre since I was twelve, despite being a pretty big weenie myself, haha. Close Your Eyes managed to scare me, but it was mostly due to the sounds and atmosphere, it kept making me feel like something was gonna happen, like some kind of freakish monster was going to pop out of nowhere and chase me. The soundtrack in my opinion was great, it had an uneasy air to it, where as the songs in the game were pretty catchy. I'm talking about the ending credits and the pancake scene here.
The artwork is also pretty good, and does well for the style of the game. Close Your Eyes has multiple endings as well, all of which are pretty easy to obtain. (Except for maybe like, one or two.) I managed to complete this game with all endings in around 4 hours, so it's pretty short. Probably would've been shorter if I wasn't lost in the teleporter maze, searching for the "Totally Canon Ending".
My last pro for this game would be the voiceacting. Gosh, the voiceacting. It was really good, especially for a freeware game. The Host in particular was amazing!

Now, as with every game that has pros, theres of course cons as well.

Although darkness can add to atmosphere, I felt the game was too dark. It was really dark almost throughout the whole game and it made it really hard to see where I was going most the time.
Theres a couple good puzzles in the game, but about two had me sitting there, scratching my head in confusion. I'm glad there were guides for those two segments because I felt I probably would of been stuck otherwise.
Now, theres also a segment where you're in a mansion and have to collect a bunch of keys. I personally didn't have trouble with it and found all the keys rather fast, but I can see how it could get a little irritating for some people. I feel it lasted a little too long and may of been made to artifically make the game longer.

My last con for this game would be the deaths. The default ending screen isn't bad, but my complaint here would be it doesn't make sense for every scenario. Like if you get shot by a gun and bleed to death, it doesn't exactly make sense that there would be a death screen of you being hung. I think a good way to counter this is to make different ending screens for different ways of dying. (An example of a game doing this is Kio's Adventure, though not the best example, it's one I can name off the top of my head.)

I felt this game was pretty dang good, and it's unfortunate it's not well known. I hope it'll increase in popularity over time, and I'll continue to support the developer!

I recommend this game to those who enjoy rpg horrors or would like a relatively quick game to play in their sparetime, and if you enjoy the game enough, I also recommend to get the goodie bag dlc to support the developer.


A side note: Marshmallow Monk is adorable and I love him.

This game is amazing. It brings my favourite form of horror into my favourite style of horror game. Anyone interested in a twisted tale that will both turn your stomach and leave you wanting to know more should really play this game. As soon as I finished the free game I paid for the dlcs. Honestly I believe I've found my new favourite indie developer.

I download a lot of free to play horror games and this is by far my favorite one!
Please give it a chance, it's such a charming yet creepy game and the soundtrack is lovely. I've even paid to buy the developer's other game 'Red Haze', that's how much much I rate their work.
It's an atmospheric game, pretty much no jumpscares but the surreal/scary feeling in the enviroments keeps up during the full playthrough and the story is confusing but in a way that makes you think.

If I had to encapsulate my initial reaction to "Close Your Eyes" in a single setence it would be: ...What the fuck did I just play?

If you really, really like surreal horror games and don't particularly care for coherence, you may enjoy Close Your Eyes. The game certainly has sufficiently creepy music and atmosphere, and the childish yet bleak simplicity of the artstyle can certainly put you on edge, but all too often, the game fails to cash in on the build-up it creates. Mystery is developed but never resolved in a meaningful way. The puzzles are often tedious, boring and nonsensical, so it's hard to enjoy the game from an intellectual perspective as well as from an emotional one.

Ultimately, this is a game with a lot of style that suffers from a lack of substance. That's the opposite of what an art-game is supposed to be.

Well, I just finished playing. I played it all in one go, blind. I had no idea what to expect, and I had chills practically the entire time.
It held me enough and kept me entralled the entire time. I absolutly loved it. Though, yes, it was confusing, it was still great. And the fact that is was made in 36 hours... Astounding.

Some parts really reminded me of Silent Hill 2 and 3, especially that final puzzle with choosing the noose. But I felt like the ideas were a wonderful blend.

The voice acting was perfect, especially for the announcer (who I totally think is Simon); the music was beautiful, and the atmosphere was just... Mmm, yes~

The only complaint was that the music did seem to change at awkward points, and there was really no lead in or out to it. Some of it felt out of place, but it wasn't a big deal.

Got the ending "It's a Suprise, Silly", and I will definitely play again to get the rest. I'm a big fan now, and I'm anticipating more of your work. I'm going to download and play Take the Dream IX very soon.

Keep up the good job! :D

Finally got all 8 endings! I had to re-play it once I discovered achievements were provided and it was still fun to go through.

It was fun to play and at some points a bit frustrating. Not a big fan of the voice acting, BUT that is because I prefer this kind of games to have none at all as I kind of enjoy it this way. Music was on point, though the song during the potencial ending 5 was a bit weird xD to the overall feeling of the game for me.

I like the graphic art as well.

Keep up the good work Dusk! Looking forward to play more of your games :)

I very much enjoy playing this game and look forward to playing it even more in the future. I'm in love with the audio and the characters. The in-game design is pleasant and enjoyable. In my first few hours playing I decided to pause and scour the internet for a fan-base and was surprised to see so little fans. I hope to spread this game with my friends and family as well as followers on social media in the hopes they'll love it as much as I do. Best game I've played in a while, 98/100. The minus 2 goes to character movement, which I find tends to lag a bit sometimes however I'm not sure if that is the game or just my damn laptop. Otherwise I'm rating this game a straight up 100/100.
(still playing it!)


Edit May 9th 2019: Still find myself coming back to this game and giving it some of my time. Whenever someone has asked me what my top 5 games are, this one is always, and will always, be in that list for me. I love the characters, the endings, the voicing, the art and the storyline as well. There isn't a thing in the game I dislike (well... other than that damn Valerie + Maze!). I've begged my friends to get into it too, but alas, they have no taste and won't even try! I'm making it my personal crusade to see to it that this game gets the recognition it deserves, even if it's just within my friend circle. I'm just so much in love with this game.

In terms of how much I love the characters and Storyline, this game for me ranks #1 best game. In the terms of Favorite Game Of All Time, it ranks at #3, barely beaten by WoW and 100% OJ. I find myself constantly thinking about the characters, and I always have the urge to draw them or even make a cosplay of them. I can imagine one day years in the future when I'm old and wrinkly, I'll be sitting in a rocking chair drawing weird inhuman p0rn, and my grandchild will ask me "What are you thinking about Gran? You're always so silent." and in my head will be the Hosts voice going "ExCItInG QuEsTiOnAiRrE! !" and I'll smile fondly and tell my grandchild "murderey stuff, the usual". They'll nod in understanding.

Oops I'm rambling about how much I love this game. I'd better stop haha.

I think Close your Eyes is a great and scary game. I loved that there are diffrent outcomes to this game and so many to choose from. I love the music picked for the game. I think it suits it very well. I also played to Dead girls graveyard mini game in the DLC. I thought it was very cute and funny I have not finished the mini game yet but I will be working on that very soon. I think if you love scary video games you should really play this. Use headphones it will sound a lot better!!! :)

Close Your Eyes is definitely an experimental game. Despite the fact it was made in RPG maker, there's no battling to speak of. Instead, you control a cute/ creepy character named Marshmallow Monk. Apparently, this character is a death row inmate, because in the beginning, they are sentenced to hang. However, the rope snaps and they go free. From there, the game becomes incredibly surreal. A game show host constantly throws questions about perception at you. A mysterious red haired girl keeps showing up in places you go. Reality is constantly shifting and nothing is certain.

Story elements are given out at a slow pace. It's an intriguing story, but one that isn't quite satisfying. It leaes a lot open to interpretation, which is fine, but I have yet to get all the endings, so I have a feeling after I get them, I will have a much better understanding of the bigger picture. As it is, I have an idea what a lot of it is about, but not all of it.

The game has an engrossing, terrific atmosphere that favors subtlety and sound design over jump scares (there are only a few in the game and when they appear, they're very effective). The puzzles are solid, too. They feel just challenging enough to stimulate the brain, but are never as obtuse as the infamous Shakespeare puzzle from Silent Hill 3.

Let me end it this way: I enjoyed the game's mysterious atmosphere and cryptic story enough that, once beating the main story, I immediately purchased the DLC to support the dev team. The main game is satisfying and clearly had a lot of thought put into it despite its fairly short development cycle. The best part is that the main game is 100% free to play, too. So there's no reason for fans of atmsopheric horror to not check out this hidden gem of a horror game.

Now, please, just please, close your eyes.

Tired of the horror games of today?
Feeling as though that they rely on jumpscares too much?
Do you want psychological aspects in a horror game?
Characters that don't really feel boring or forgetable?
Want mystery in a horror game?
Then get this game, and it's free! IMO, it's better than some of the horror games we have today.
But...
"Life is all about perception, you see."

I feel like this could be a horror game gem, just like other RPG Maker horror-themed games like Yume Nikki and Ib.
Close Your Eyes centers around a character who escapes from death row. As you play the game you will have to solve a few puzzles, and along the way, more and more of the story gets revealed as to who this character is and why they were to be executed. Accompanied by haunting visuals and a constant air of suspense, a pretty disturbing and creepy story unfolds

The game has a unique art style, which seems 100% original instead of using RPG Maker's preset tiles, etc. It might not be highly detailed or not even to everyone's taste, but I felt like the childlike style of drawings and the even cutesy appearance of the main character just added to the scariness of the game. There are also multiple endings so your experience doesn't necessarily end once you finish the game the first time.

People might underestimate the capabilites RPG Maker games have, but if done right, you can be as emersed in them as any triple A horror title. This game sets up the atmosphere excellently. The ambience and visual are done incredibly well - enough to give you the feeling of being on edge. And it does a great job of luring you into a sense of relaxation during parts that aren't so suspenseful. The sound is also great as well as the voice acting. The Host has some chilling dailogue that is only enhanced by his haunting voice.

This game has jump scares, but they hardly ever felt cheap. A lot of the time they are built up to - you know they'll happen and thats what makes it worse. And there were hardly any parts too difficult that might break the atmosphere of the game (sans a chase scene that might get a little frustrating until you figure it out).

Overall, I very highly recommend this game if you're looking for a unique horror experience. And best of all - it's free. If you are a fan, like me, of RPG Maker horror-themed games like Ib (which I feel this game is at least somewhat influenced by), Yume Nikki, .flow, Space Funeral, or even the Witch's House and Off, I urge you even more to give this game a try.

And make sure to play with dim lighting, headphones, and in full screen or at least large windowed mode for best effect!

If you like silent hills and any other creepy game I recommend this. Very little jump scares, but a very deep story and excellent atmosphere. Tons of puzzles and different endings. You would love this game if you looking for those things.

What an intense experience, it is clear that the designers clearly knew what they were doing. Already bought the DLC just so I could support these talented creators.

I loved it. It was good for both the horror and the story. The screenshots make it look like it couldn't be scary at all, but it does a lot with little. Also make no mistake, while much of the stuff in the screenshots looks like it could have been scribbled by an 8-year old the art is good and is a part of the atmosphere.

Totally worth playing it. Quite disturbing, but athmospheric.

Highly recommended for SH fans.

As for puzzles - some are unobvious, but the developer provided help in the Community Hub.

8 marshmallow monks /10