Instead of being controlled directly Sofi slowly walks through the dreamworld on her own as you manipulate her path using items. These items come to you at random, although you get a preview of what’s coming next so you can plan your route based on that info. You can put one item in reserve to swap back in whenever you like, but beyond that you’re stuck with whatever luck throws your way. While the basic goal is just to get to the end of the level, you’re also encouraged to collect fireflies along the way. Collecting them in large numbers unlocks bonus levels, and they also heal Sofi when she takes a hit from an enemy. It’s pretty much impossible to get all of a level’s fireflies in a single go, which gives you reason to revisit each stage a few times.
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The variety of items is small, which at first makes the gameplay pretty simplistic. The challenge of collecting fireflies negates this somewhat, but unfortunately the gameplay still has its flaws. The biggest problem is the random distribution of items, which at times can be very frustrating. While it’s not always an issue, it can sometimes force you to miss the path you wanted to take, or lead to your death, through no fault of your own. For example, you may wish to use a stairway to reach a higher path, but you receive nothing but a series of horizontal beams. Or you may be approaching a group of enemies without a bomb to kill them, forcing you to wildly place items in the hopes that a bomb will come up before Sofi meanders into her own demise. Most of the time you can improvise your way through the randomness, which is part of the game’s challenge. But when that same challenge results in cheap deaths, a problem compounded in the harder levels where pitfalls abound, it can become an incredibly infuriating experience.
