If Tim Burton ever traded his sketchbook for a dev kit, Gloomy Eyes would be the game he’d make.
If you follow my interviews here on NAG, you might remember the one I did earlier this year with Igal Kohen about bringing Gloomy Eyes to life, but if not, you can catch up through the link right here.
Now, as for the game itself? Gloomy Eyes is best described as moonlit melancholy stitched together with sweetness and dripping in enough gothic charm to make even Burton blush.
Where it really shines, though, is in how it wraps its dark whimsy around your hands.
And on the ROG Xbox Ally X, that connection feels almost… intimate.
Like playing a bedtime story by candlelight, except the candle is a 120Hz touchscreen, and the story’s about a lovestruck zombie.
At its core, Gloomy Eyes is a cosy, macabre puzzle adventure about two kids trying to bring back the daylight.
One’s dead, the other’s human, and somehow, they’re both absolutely adorable.
Gloomy, our little undead hero, and Nena, the mischievous human girl, are opposites in every sense: night and day, life and death, goth kid and girl who probably still believes in fairies.
Yet together, they make the world whole again.
You swap between Gloomy and Nena to solve light-and-shadow puzzles, each character bringing their strengths (and charming flaws) to the graveyard table.
Sometimes you’ll curse Nena for being too fragile, other times you’ll wish Gloomy had better cardio.
But when they sync up perfectly to open a gate or ignite a torch, it’s that sweet hit of co-op serotonin — minus the arguments over who forgot to press the button (because, mercifully, it’s single-player).
Each level unfolds like a handcrafted diorama begging you to pause and just… look.
Turn the camera, zoom in, and admire the tiny world like you’re peering into a haunted snow globe.
The visuals are stunning, with soft shadows, stop-motion charm, and a colour palette that looks like it came from a box of melancholy crayons.
It’s eerie but never scary. Moody, but never miserable. Like being sad in a pretty way, which, let’s face it, is the true goth dream.
The controls are tight and clever, though the camera occasionally loses the plot like your average escort-mission NPC.
It works 90% of the time, and when it doesn’t, checkpoints are generous enough to save you from rage-quitting.
Narration-wise, Gloomy Eyes nails that bedtime-story tone perfectly.
The voiceover, a lovely, husky whisper that sounds suspiciously like Colin Farrell doing his best fairy-tale dad impression, carries the whole experience.
You feel like you’re being told a dark, sad, hopeful secret by someone who’s seen it all.
The soundtrack completes the spell, a haunting lullaby of piano and sighs that drifts around the story like fog in a graveyard.
But let’s talk about why Gloomy Eyes works so perfectly on the ROG Xbox Ally X.
This isn’t a loud, twitchy shooter that needs lightning reflexes and a power brick the size of a loaf of bread.
Gloomy Eyes is small, personal, and strangely intimate, exactly the kind of game you want to curl up with on a handheld.
Its diorama-style levels look breathtaking on the Ally’s bright display, every gloomy hue and glowing eye popping off the screen.
The short, self-contained stages make it perfect for bite-sized play sessions on the couch, in bed, or wherever you’re “just checking emails.”
Performance-wise, it’s buttery smooth. There are no frame drops or lag, just pure, portable melancholy at 60 FPS.
It feels tailor-made for the device: gorgeous art, rich sound, and a pace that rewards reflection over reaction time.
And here’s the thing: Gloomy Eyes isn’t trying to be the next Inside or Limbo, even though it stands confidently in their shadow.
It’s gentler, sweeter, more human, even with one protagonist being decidedly not.
It’s a five-hour reminder that love and light (and a little undead weirdness) can still make for one hell of a story.
Sure, the camera could use a caffeine shot, and some puzzles flirt a little too closely with trial-and-error, but honestly? That’s part of the charm.
Like its zombie hero, Gloomy Eyes might trip over its own feet now and then, but it always gets back up, glowing eyes, broken heart, and all.
So grab your ROG Xbox Ally X, pull up the covers, and dive into this haunting little world.
Gloomy Eyes might not save the genre, but it’ll absolutely steal your heart, and probably gnaw on it a little, too.
