A jewel for fans of story and horror titles is Little Nightmares II. However, it only provides around 5 hours of playing, much as the prior entry. To give you more of the same terrifying and tragic experience, we’d have to look at additional games like Little Nightmares. The 2D series was created by Tarsier Studios and Supermassive, the studios behind House of Ashes. Both describe themselves as independent game developers with extensive backgrounds in experience-driven games.
The Little Nightmare series perfectly exemplifies it. The second entry, in particular, sold over 1 million copies and earned a cult following. The sequel’s graphics, music, setting, settings, gameplay, sound design, and storyline have received accolades from both fans and critics. So it takes work to look at the best games like Little Nightmares. The Supermassive story ended with the second installment; therefore, it’s an important responsibility.
Picking Games Like Little Nightmares
Knowing what the tale provides is important when choosing games like Little Nightmares or Little Nightmares II. Little Nightmares made its story in 2017, and the follow-up, which served as a prequel, did so in 2021. The prequel, according to the publisher Bandai Namco, marked the end of the story. From a gameplay perspective, is it possible to carry on with other titles? We’re trying to provide an answer to that. Therefore, the games we pick combine the following Little Nightmares elements:
Story – The game is a story-driven story series. It places a lot of focus on cinematic gameplay and situations.
Genre – You play as young children in these suspense/horror adventure games set in nightmare settings. Apart from what they may find, the characters only have a few resources to progress and survive.
Feeling – More significantly, the stories in Little Nightmares have a terrible, gloomy feeling about them. Even adults can weep to play these games. This is due to the games’ persistent themes of greed, consumerism, corruption, hunger, and escape.
Puzzles – Since characters lack special skills, the game depends on puzzles to progress the story. To proceed, you must find specified items and employ them precisely.
Enemies – There are brief action sequences in which bad enemies strive to find the characters. Characters frequently have no choice but to escape from their enemies because they are terrifying.
Platforming – Players find barriers resembling platforms as they explore the world. Little Nightmares is mostly a 2D side-scroller, despite this.
Combat – Players cannot move during combat. Instead, they defeat tiny and large enemies with items, traps, and tactics.
Art-style – Little Nightmares is a unique visual aesthetic that combines hand-drawn illustrations with cutting-edge computer simulations. As a result, the final product appears ominous, hyper-real, and hyper-surreal.
OST – These games also have eerie original music. Most of the music is gloomy and evokes a sense of fear and peril.
Characters – Players take control of Six in the first game. However, Mono is the main protagonist, and Six is her sidekick in the second game. Both characters are largely defenseless and depend on the gameplay of hiding and seeking survival.
Little Nightmares is an exhilarating independent game that blends horror, platforming adventure, cinematic moments, and a narrative-driven experience. There are few posts like this, though. Instead, unique independent story-driven experiences are the games Little Nightmares fans would want to play.
Great Games Like Little Nightmares
Below are the Games Like Little Nightmares.
1. Undertale
A single person created the independent game Undertale. Toby Fox, the game’s lone developer, created the story, characters, graphics, gameplay, and music. All of the codes and elements were created by him during a previous cult-following experience. It could be one of the most played games in recent memory. It has unique gameplay that modifies the standard RPG structure. You’ll see other methods to complete the story and the combat as you play the game. You don’t need to hurt any enemies to complete the game.
The story revolves around a youngster who accidentally enters a monster-filled underground world. He discovers the heartwarming, endearing, yet horrifying story of the creatures lying beneath as he returns. Players will learn about the interactions between humans and demons and the game story. Overall, Undertale is a unique, heartfelt game with little combat. It also features a unique graphical style with graphics reminiscent of vintage RPGs and lovely music. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
2. Outer Wilds
Nothing about Outer Wilds (Not Outer Worlds) resembles Little Nightmares. However, it’s one of the best narrative-focused independent titles of the last ten years. Additionally, it was the Best Game winner at the 2020 BAFTAs. The entry has received a lot of positive reviews from critics and fans. The setting is a free-roaming mystery without missions, map markings, or other clues. An unending time loop that resets an entire solar system daily must be stopped. You must travel into the world to gradually uncover what occurs until you find the solution to complete the quest. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
So, this is a sizable open-world platformer and adventure game. As an Outer Wilds Ventures recruit, you play. A space mission is now looking for solutions throughout the solar system. Despite this, the game has a never-ending nest of mysteries, dangers from the outside world, and natural disasters. Overall, Outer Wilds is a stunning, unique experience you won’t forget. Its flexible structure is what distinguishes it as unique. Players have unrestricted freedom to explore and complete the game. In addition, there is a tonne of activities available, such as reading alien writing and toasting marshmallows.
3. Detention
Through the eyes of the main protagonist, Wei Chung Ting, detention begins as a typical history lecture. After taking a nap, he wakes at a school stained with blood and with ominous writing on the walls. The blood-soaked passageway announces, “Typhoon Warning.” He finds Fang Ray Chin, another pupil, on the otherworld. They must work together to find a way out of the building since many ghostly beings are inside. To avoid the creatures, you must carefully plan your movements as Wei and Ray. You then hide, run, escape, and find clues to end the torment.
However, the animals can hear your breathing. Observing the clues to uncover what is in store for you is your best hope. The task is difficult, and the experience is terrifying, much like Little Nightmares. Last but not least, the setting combines 1960s Taiwanese and Chinese elements. It’s one of the terrifying video games available. The game’s artwork, setting, and music have a distinct aesthetic. Everything reads like a side-scrolling 2D horror adventure game. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
4. LISA: The Painful
Lisa is a strange, dark, and murky 2D side-scrolling role-playing game. The setting is a terrible post-apocalyptic wasteland with amusing exteriors. It’s a lifelong gaming experience, and like Little Nightmares, the result may crush your heart. To save her adopted daughter Buddy, you play in the quest of Brad Armstrong. Given that he comes from an abusive household, it is a story of redemption. Brad grew up with an abusive father and a suicidal sister. Buddy is all left, yet preserving Buddy will take great brutality.
The story introduces a story-driven role-playing game with decision-making tools, lasting effects, and several resolutions. The world will force players to make difficult decisions that impact dramatic scenes. The majority of these incidents center on dark moral themes. Finally, you can find over 30 party members across the camps and cities of the world. You then modify your group to battle enemies and explore the world. You must ultimately defeat the warlords who kidnapped Buddy to complete your mission.
5. Fran Bow
Not for the weak of heart, Fran Brow. Players are sent to a world filled with nightmares akin to Mono and Six’s but ten times crazier. Fran, the girl you play with, is looking for her parents. Unfortunately, her sole companion is a black cat named Mr. Midnight, who is not much used to her. Fran checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in the 1940s to deal with the pain of losing her parents, which will only worsen matters. She could end up undergoing lobotomy or electroshock therapy, prevalent therapies at the time.
Fran attempts to locate her parents to save her family and herself first. But, first, she must escape the asylum since reality alternates between being real, real, and both. Fran Bow is a point-and-click adventure game featuring psychological horror puzzle elements. It’s a spooky journey that examines injustice, mental illness, and grief. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
6. Hollow Knight
One of the best platformers this decade is Hollow Knight. It blends 2D platforming with Metroidvania for an excellent result, similar to previous titles in the genre. Like the other games on our list, Hollow Knight offers a beautiful 2D aesthetic. Each scene is individually animated and hand-drawn. Nevertheless, the setting is as dark, eerie, and unsettling as in Little Nightmares. The game’s unique OST also combines traditional horror and grandiose medieval adventure. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
You play the role of a knight going to Hallownest. Players must use combat and platforming skills to survive in an insect-filled world. In a wide, interconnected globe, players may access new places as the story progresses by unlocking new skills and items. Finally, as they explore Hollownest, the players will uncover more about the story. Cutscenes, action, speech, and environmental narrative contribute to the storyline. Overall, it offers a heartbreaking and compelling story, excellent adventure, and platforming gameplay.
7. Limbo
Since Limbo is Playdead’s debut game, it is similar to Inside and Little Nightmares. This 2D horror puzzle platformer has the same genre as their later offering. In the game, a boy searches for his sister in a dark environment. The main character wakes in woodland just before entering Hell. Around him are evil zombies and the fading shadow of a little girl. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
The game progresses via a series of settings and puzzles. The visual aesthetic is akin to silent and monochrome films. The graphics are, therefore, in black and white. The illumination methods, however, strongly emphasize contrasts and shadows. These elements combine to provide a unique look evocative of a Tim Burton film. Players will uncover the story through the game through action, analogies, and environmental storytelling. The game doesn’t have any cinematic cuts, but what occurs goes further into life, death, and evil themes.
8. Inside
Players enter an eerie world in the bizarre horror game Inside. The characters in Little Nightmares are largely powerless. Therefore, the main gameplay mechanics are finding items you can use as weapons, fleeing, or hiding. Players take control of a boy seeking to escape a terrible world in the video game Inside. The enemies are evil humans, not otherworldly foes. From the perspective of a little boy, the game investigates the worst aspects of human nature.
Nevertheless, the focus of the gameplay is using your cunning to escape. You must escape being discovered, run out for hounds, find cover anywhere, and hide from your assailants. This is all presented as a 2.5D puzzle platformer. Then, the color is sparse, and the setting is dark, emphasizing key features of the maps. Finally, the game is otherwise silent despite the occasional musical cue, sound effect, and dog barking. Overall, the experience is disorienting and disturbing.
9. Bendy and the Ink Machine
An action-horror puzzle game played in the first person is called Bendy and the Ink Machine. Akin to Cuphead unexpectedly combines animation and graphics. It features cell-shaded graphics like a Borderlands game while being a 3D game. The character also has a voice that directs you on the quest. You play the role of Henry as he returns to an animator’s abandoned workshop. In a bizarre and exhilarating experience, he meets up with old demons. You explore the world, uncover useful items, solve puzzles, escape enemies, find the story, and proceed.
Henry is being pursued by both lovely and evil characters in the cartoon world. After several years of leaving them behind, Henry returns to them after working at the studio and creating them. Unfortunately, he finds that the main purpose of his artworks coming to life was to kill their creator. Its last feature is the game’s intimidating environment of suspense, tension, and dramatic narrative. It had a significant following upon release and continues to do so now.
10. Neverending Nightmares
This is a Little Nightmares-style 2D side-scrolling horror game. The game centers around Thomas, a young boy with night terrors who one day wakes in a nightmare with the freedom to do as he pleases. He wants to be killed, nevertheless, for some reason, in his thoughts. The visual language is akin to a sketchbook. Only a few hues of color emphasize the blood, evil, and ghoulish elements. It is primarily in black and white. The developer’s own experiences with OCD, sadness, and paranoia served as the direct experience for its design. The game examines a bizarre experience chock full of intriguing details.
Thomas plunges deeper into his infernal realm only to hide for cover from ghosts and inner demons. To ultimately awaken, he must discover the origin of these horrors. Overall, the psychological horror game Neverending Nightmares examines mental disease. The fact that you play as a boy in a primary hide-and-seek 2D adventure makes it a jewel for fans of horror titles similar to Little Nightmares. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
11. The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
A series of independent horror-themed interactive games is called The Dark Pictures Anthology. The most recent and well-known book in the series is House of Ashes. This is another interactive, movie-style horror game. You play the role of a group of troops stuck in Iraq due to a wrong mission. They scurry behind Sumerian ruins after a weird creature assaults them. They are trying desperately to survive while they investigate the situation and hunt them. But when the characters venture farther into the tunnels, there are still more secrets to uncover.
All you have to do, like other games in the series, is make decisions. On the screen, an animated film plays before asking you to make decisions and see brief event parts. Depending on your choice, the story takes various turns and has many outcomes. The horror-themed House of Ashes is a story of friendship, devotion, and survival. You must choose between sacrificing yourself or others for survival or finding less obvious solutions. It’s not an independent game, but it’s still a little one that offers a scary experience.
12. Among the Sleep
A terrible game called Among the Sleep warns against leaving a young child unattended. In a world far larger than them, the protagonist is a two-year-old boy and his teddy bear. The mother is no longer there, leaving the player to explore the terrifying-looking world independently. Unfortunately, you are unprepared without any preparation, skills, armor, or weapons. Instead, you have your imagination and a teddy bear.
A first-person horror experience begins as a result. The objective is to locate your mother in a terrifying setting with ambient horror music. You are constantly exposed, afraid, and attempting to make sense of what you see. Seeing Among the Sleep is an unpleasant experience that will make you feel depressed and guilty. However, it will be an even more amazing experience if you are a parent. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
13. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach
A series of interactive horror games aimed at families is called Five Nights at Freddy’s. Because you can play either game without understanding the story, we decided to go with the most recent installment in the series. You play in the place of Gregory, a little boy who is stranded at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex overnight. The place is full of animatronic hosts like it was in earlier games in the entry. The player must find a strategy to survive the horrifying hazards and the old and new Freddy characters.
Adapting, concealing, fleeing, and surviving are key aspects of the gameplay. To inspect your routes and go safely, you can access security systems. Additionally, you may trick enemies by crawling, hiding, crouching, tossing objects at them, or both. Overall, it’s a full game with plenty of spooky attractions, simple puzzles, and a little sense of humor. For younger players seeking their first exposure to horror, it’s the best choice. This is one of the best Games Like Little Nightmares.
The Bottom Line:
Our list of the best Games Like Little Nightmare, is now ended. I hope you enjoyed reading our post about Games Like Little Nightmare.