Decarnation offers up the story of Gloria, a cabaret dancer living in Paris, who finds herself down on her luck and looking for a fresh start of sorts. Before long she finds herself in the midst of a living nightmare where reality and dream blend together. The presentation is stellar and gruesome in equal measure, featuring highly detailed pixel art with impressive animations. The soundtrack, too, is really great. It accentuates the tone of every scene and I'd gladly listen to many of the more melodic pieces even outside of the context of the game.

This game pulls a lot of what makes up its psychological horror experience from the films Perfect Blue and Black Swan, to the point where it kind of just feels like a mashup of the two. The devs are very overt about their inspirations, having included references in the game and also mentioned some of them in the marketing material. I've enjoyed both of the aforementioned films in the past and think of them as very worthwhile experiences, but I struggled a bit to get into this game because much of the time it felt more content to regurgitate the best aspects of those films rather than push in a new direction.

As far as a plot goes, while I don't find it poorly written, I did find it rather cliche and predictable which filed off some of its edge, so to speak. I don't feel that it offered much (beyond more fantastically detailed environments) past the early parts of Act II. A bit too much of the game is comprised of these nightmare sequences that frequently seem to lack any real meaning or impact beyond "Huh. That's weird."

I felt as though the writers thought Gloria was searching within herself and learning a much needed lesson while doing so, but I don't think they justified any need for her to do such searching in the first place. The catalyst for the main plot doesn't really happen because of anything she does wrong and prior to that I never felt like she was lacking the things she "learned" later on. These things (keeping it kind of vague to avoid spoilers, sorry) also didn't really seem all that important to how she ended up resolving the conflict, which made her supposed personal growth feel ultimately irrelevant to the rest of the story.

At the end of the day, it's a horror game. I suppose nightmares don't need a reason to exist. They feature uncomfortable imagery and that probably should be enough, right? But then again, the game really wants the nightmares to mean something, I think. It makes a whole show of how she's been on a personal journey when it doesn't really feel like it was necessary or ultimately effective in helping her, really. I'm kind of rambling at this point, I suppose. Maybe I'm too desensitized to get the raw spooks the nightmares were meant to provide.

Decarnation is largely focused on delivering its linear narrative, and would be what people call a "walking sim," were it not for the various odd minigame sequences sprinkled throughout. These are typically rhythm style minigames (she is a dancer, after all), but a few of them break that mold. Unfortunately, none of them are enjoyable in the least. I think they are telling of insecurities the devs had about being labeled a walking sim, and ultimately they only serve to mess with the tone and focus of the story.

This game feels worth experiencing for its excellent pixel art and tonally perfect soundtrack. The plot felt derivative to me, but perhaps someone less familiar with its inspirations would find it more exciting. The gameplay is a major drag though. The minigames are irritating and Gloria moves frustratingly slowly considering how far she often has to walk. I'd love to see what the devs do next, but for me this was just fine at best.