Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming! A Review: The Fangame That Sees Through Her Performance
Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming! A Review: The Fangame That Sees Through Her Performance
A short, free Nico Yazawa Fangame that explores what lies beneath her idol persona and her dynamics with the other members. Here’s why it’s worth your time—even if it might make you cry!
If you’re a Nico fan who’s been mourning the wreckage of the last few years—with SIF 1 gone, SIFAS never really getting the chance to land and find its footing, and the utter butchering of SIF 2 with its EoS (end-of-service) date getting announced at the same time as its global version’s launch— then you’ve probably developed a specific kind of bitter relationship with the official media, especially Bushiroad.
Well, as someone thirsty for more Nico content with depth, one that will probably make me cry at 3 AM, I present to you—Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming!
“Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming” is a free fangame by 7 Coloured LED. It’s pretty short, and RPG-esque in the loosest possible sense. Think of it like a game with dungeon crawler mechanics stripped down to their most essential, dressed in hand-drawn UI and idol battle logic. You bring smiles to creatures instead of defeating them. Quite fitting for Nico, right? And the combat system runs on singing, dancing, and the occasional ‘Nico Nico Nii’. So freaking iconic.
It is, on the surface, a light and charming thing. But, don’t be fooled— it made me stare at the wall for hours, because underneath it all, it's not a ‘light’ thing at all.
What’s ‘Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming’ like, for real?
For those who have not played this or come across it yet, the premise is simple: Nico wakes up in a dream world and, joined by the rest of µ’s, works her way through the dreams of her fellow members—Kotori, Maki, Eli—bringing smiles to whatever she encounters.
Remember: each dream is a dungeon, and each dungeon is a conversation.
That’s where the game earns its weight (and also where I/we start tearing up). The between-dungeon dialogue is where Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming does what most official media don’t bother to: sit with Nico long enough to ask uncomfortable questions. Her performance of confidence, what it costs to be the loudest person in the room for years, and what happens when the dreams and people you’ve been chasing turn out to be the same thing. And sometimes, you only understand that when you’ve almost let go of both.
Interestingly enough, the game doesn’t diagnose her in any way, nor reduce her to a punchline or a redemption arc of sorts. It instead watches her, carefully, and lets what’s underneath the performance surface through the cracks in the dialogue, through what she doesn’t say as much as what she does.
Why This Fangame Matters for Nico Fans
Fans who connected with Nico’s character will always mention something along these lines—the frustration that comes with being a Nico fan in an era when the official show and games had either sidelined her or shut her down entirely is mind-numbing. To be fair, the rhythm game format wasn’t even the problem, nor its stories. If anything, they gave Nico’s story more justice than the anime can ever give. The problem was that high-score mechanics only leave so much room for a character like Nico.
You get Nico’s voice, her cards, her costume variations. But what you don’t get, or do get but with such limits, were the parts of her that the anime pretty much failed to show, or, okay, occasionally remembered to show. The depth of her character, why she thinks, acts, and speaks the way she does, her story, and everything in between that shaped Nico as a person, not just a character of the Love Live franchise.
‘Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming’ has a likely limited budget. What it does have is attention. Someone made this game because they likely thought, too, that Nico deserved a space where the attention was on her and not her status, her pull rate, her unit composition, or her comedic role. Just Nico, and the question of what it means to be someone who has been performing certainty for so long that even she has forgotten what the uncertainty underneath feels like.
Now, if that sounds like your thing, something you’re looking for (even if you didn't know you were looking for it before), well, the game is free and easy to download.
It’s short enough to finish in an afternoon, though if you suck like me at playing games, then it may take you a couple of afternoons (plus some tear-induced ones when you get to the good parts). But I do assure you this: the story, the conversations, and the subtle meanings in between will likely stay with you far longer than you’ve played the game.
A Bit of the Practical Side
“Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming” was made by 7 Coloured LED. RudyTudySubs did a translation for it. That means the game is available in both Japanese and English. And as I said, it’s totally free. Though the soundtracks used are available separately for a low price, it’s definitely worth it.
Do make sure to read up on RudyTudySubs’ notes and tips! It helps to make sure your game is properly saved and not lost on the next run. And that it works on your device without a hitch.
The game is short by design, even though the default difficulty of it is set to Hard (you can adjust it, no worries!), but everything it needs to say, it says.
You don’t need to be a Love Live expert to play it; just willing enough to pay attention (and have some patience).
Oh!—and the “monsters” designs are pretty funny. It’s so worth a few good laughs on every level. Look forward to it.
Is It Worth Playing?
Absolutely. I finished the game a few years back already, and wanted to play it again. But because life happened, and adult responsibilities came crashing down on me, I haven’t found the right time to play it again. There’s a finished playthrough of the game, though (you can find it on the link below), and what I can tell you is that as a devoted Nico fan for many reasons, the game touched my heart, and soothed a part of my bitterness against the OG representations for Nico (yes, I’m looking at you, anime series >: [ tsk).
The art is great, and the soundtracks even more so. The game is about Nico. That means its focus is on Nico, not necessarily the other members or any particular ship you may hope to get a crumb of, but Nico.
Just— enjoy it. Take your time. It may also be a way for you to get to know her better, not simply as Nico, the comedic relief character, or Nico, the gremlin and self-proclaimed No.1 Idol.
Simply… Nico.
𐙚 Writer’s Note: Yo! I’m doing some practice writing (SEO and copywriting to upskill). My first pick is, of course, something niche— a game about my beloved pink idol—Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming!
🔗Links:
𐙚 A short blog about the game by Meta_Mia
𐙚 The Full Playthrough made by Rudy Aiki for Nico Yazawa Is Dreaming