10 Games Like Little Nightmares: Twisted Journeys in 2025
There’s something so unforgettable about Little Nightmares. Something about the way the eerie sounds and the unsettling environment trap you in this world that feels so magical, yet so disturbing. Little Nightmares has established a unique place in the gaming world with its haunting world, quiet tension, and lingering fear that has you constantly asking yourself if you dare to go further or if you should just quit while you still can.
Now that you’ve finished Little Nightmares, you’re probably wondering, “What’s next?” The eerie tension stays with you long after you’ve put the controller down. No worries. I’got you! I’ve carried out a thorough analysis and come up with a list of games like Little Nightmares to help you choose what to play next.
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Our Top Picks for Games Like Little Nightmares
If you’ve loved Little Nightmares, then these three games will for sure give you the same vibe and a similar gaming experience. Each title comes with its own unique take on haunting worlds, emotional tension, and minimalistic storytelling that make Little Nightmares so special.
- Bramle: The Mountain King (2023) – A folklore atmospheric horror game where you navigate a boy through a dark, Scandinavian mythical world. He is on a quest to rescue his kidnapped sister. This game brings a rich, atmospheric experience thanks to a perfect blend between unsettling imagery and deep storytelling.
- Limbo (2010) – A timeless classic that captures the same minimalist horror, following the story of an unnamed boy trapped in a grim forest, with only one goal in mind: to survive by solving puzzles and moving. Set in a monochrome, unsettling world, this game keeps you constantly wondering what’s coming ahead.
- Inside (2016) – A bone-chilling, puzzle-platformer where you guide a young boy through a dystopian world full of haunting silence and dangerous secrets. The game is known for its minimalist narrative, where you, as the player, need to interpret the game’s storyline through its eerie visual details and subtle cues.
These are our top 3 games like Little Nightmares. Keep reading to discover more titles that bring the same atmosphere.
10 Games Like Little Nightmares to Give You Chills
This section highlights all the standout games that best capture the emotional tension and the beautiful mix of surreal with horror in Little Nightmares. These alternatives offer unsettling environments, visual storytelling, and a feeling of vulnerability that Little Nightmare fans know a little too well.
From eerie landscapes to disturbing creatures, each of these games delivers a similar sense of dread and fascination, perfect for those who crave atmospheric horror with a deeply emotional undertone. As a bonus, if any of the tiles below are currently on sale, I’ve noted it next to their affiliate links to make it easier for you to get them.
1. Bramble: The Mountain King
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 |
| Year of Release | 2023 |
| Developer | Dimfrost Studio |
| Average Playtime | 5–6 hours |
| Best For | Folklore horror, dark storytelling |
| Unique Features | Nordic mythology, grotesque boss encounters, richly animated world, tragic tone |
In Brumble, you guide a young boy through a twisted Scandinavian mythical world in his quest to rescue his sister, who has been kidnapped by mythical creatures. You will get to move through dense forests, forsaken ruins, and twisted landscapes teeming with the type of monstrosities that one can only compare to the worst childhood nightmares.
Just like Little Nightmares, this game uses scale to make the character feel small and powerless in comparison to everything else. It makes you feel that the world around you has been built to crush you like a bug.
To add to the similarities, both games entail horror hiding in plain sight. The game fuses together innocence with fear and puts the spotlight on storytelling by using imagery and flow.
The game does not throw impossible puzzles at you, nor does it focus directly on combat. It gives you the chance to explore while keeping you on your toes, constantly fearing what horror awaits you in the next turn.
I have no doubt Little Nightmares fans will fall in love immediately with this game, as it draws from the same emotional foundation. Bramble will have you feel vulnerable and afraid, but also amazed by all that is happening and your surroundings.
2. Limbo
| Platforms | PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Mobile |
| Year of Release | 2010 |
| Developer | Playdead |
| Average Playtime | 3-5 hours |
| Best For | Minimalist horror, ambiguous storytelling |
| Unique Features | Monochrome visuals, silhouette animation, physics-based puzzles |
In Limbo, you find yourself thrown into a world without any context as to what happened and why you’re there. Your character is a young boy without a name, and he wakes up in a dark forest, not having a clue what to do.
All you see around you is this cold, colorless place where everything looks like it invokes danger. It seems that your only option is to get moving, try to solve any puzzles that come your way, and weave through any traps or dangers.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward and grounded in 2D puzzle-platforming mechanics. With simple functions like jump, push, and pull, you get the gist quickly, and you understand that all your focus needs to lie on your surroundings. There isn’t any dialogue, music, or a clear goal.
You’re expected to figure out what your goal is and how to achieve it. Once you figure out how to work everything, you’ll find yourself solving gravity-defying puzzles, dodging deadly obstacles, and pushing through intense moments that require timing skills and awareness of your surroundings.
Both games rely on minimalism as a means to achieve great things. They make you feel small and fragile. They both leave you with a sharp sense of uncertainty and lingering fear.
Limbo does not come with a lot of instructions and directions, and, just like Little Nightmares, it leaves it to you to figure everything out. If you enjoy this type of gameplay, be sure to check out our list of the best indie games, which features more titles that offer similarly immersive and puzzling experiences.
3. White Shadows
| Platforms | PC, PS4, PS5 Xbox Series X/S |
| Year of Release | 2021 |
| Developer | Monokel |
| Average Playtime | 3-4 hours |
| Best For | Dystopian narrative, visual metaphors |
| Unique Features | Noir aesthetic, political undertones, cinematic transitions |
White Shadows unfolds in a dystopian city that feels like it might collapse any minute. In this city where light is turned into a deadly force and where terrifying creatures are kept in confined spaces, your character, a Ravengirl, finds herself on a quest.
She is trying to break free from the ruthless hierarchy in a world where hope seems bleak at best. Ravengirl strives to escape this tyrannical rule that tries to hold you down by using scary guards, deadly machinery, and an oppressive environment.
The game brings you in with a gloomy and eerie vibe by blending monochrome imagery with dismal commentary. You find certain elements under strong lighting and then others in darkness, giving you a feeling of industrial horror. Just as with Limbo, there is no dialogue. Whatever the game wants to communicate to you, you get the message through its eerie visuals and sounds.
What Little Nightmare fans will appreciate the most about this game is its emphasis on a visual narrative. It’s like a visual novel. The horror is not straightforward but rather symbolic, even metaphorical at times. White Shadows combines dystopian narratives with platforming, and this makes it a standout among other platformers within this best platformer games guide.
The setting is another aspect that brings out similarities between these two games, with depressing architecture and contrasting shades. The last, and maybe the most obvious similarity, is the fact that both games follow the journey of characters trying to survive in cold, unwelcoming, and eerie worlds.
4. Inside
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch |
| Year of Release | 2016 |
| Developer | Playdead |
| Average Playtime | 3-4 hours |
| Best For | Dystopian horror, puzzle platforming |
| Unique Features | Muted color palette, fluid animation, shocking ending |
Inside is a game that consolidates and refines what Limbo introduced. You could even say that it’s an enhanced edition of it. You find yourself alone in a surreal dystopia, where the cold architecture, the soulless crowds, and the heartless machines give you one message only: “You are not welcome here!” With each step you take, you unearth hidden truths and encounter new dangers.
From the very beginning of the game, you get the feeling of being helpless and vulnerable. Inside does not hold your hand. It simply drops you into this grim, dark world, and it does not care at all if you survive or if you die on the spot. You realize right away that you need to start running, and run you do. But towards what or what you’re running from, you have no clue. That is the idea behind the game – to leave it up to you to figure everything out, just like with Little Nightmares.
You solve all kinds of puzzles, and they open the way for you to move forward. The puzzles are well-crafted and elegant, but the dangers are not spelled out. They lurk around you, growing with each step you take. The imagery plays with you, and the real horror lies in the haunting absence of context and explanation.
Just like in Little Nightmares, this game focuses on vulnerability, fear of the unknown, and growth through time. It involves quiet storytelling and a scary chaos that is somehow controlled. If you like solo haunting adventures, this collection of best single-player games for PC will give you some fantastic options in this category.
Little Nightmares fans would love how Inside creeps, rather than screaming at you, and how it tells you so much about this world by using imagery, as if it were a visual novel, and sounds. If Little Nightmares pulled you in, Inside will grip you and won’t let go.
5. Hollow Knight
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch |
| Year of Release | 2017 |
| Developer | Team Cherry |
| Average Playtime | 25–35 hours |
| Best For | Metroidvania exploration, dark fantasy |
| Unique Features | Hand-drawn art, nonlinear world design, deep lore |
Hollow Knight brings horror and melancholy together to form a beautiful world of decay and perseverance. This strange and mesmerizing game brings combat to the spotlight while keeping the chilling quiet as a strong presence in it. Being a game that blends action, platforming, and a strong exploration component, Hollow Knight is among the best Metroidvania games out there.
Hollow Knight launches you straight into the ruins of Hallownest, a boundless insect kingdom way past its glory days. The first things you hear are these eerie echoes, and all around you lie long-lost relics of the past.
You start walking, without a destination in mind, and while you’re exploring, you notice this beautiful hand-drawn world that is quiet and feels lonely. As you go deeper into this world, you reveal its secrets, and it’s not so pretty anymore.
New dangers that you encounter make you hold your breath, and you realize now that you cannot be distracted by the stunning scenery. You must pay attention.
Hollow Knight perfectly balances platforming, adventuring, and exciting combat, giving you a thrilling experience. For those of you lore enthusiasts out there, this game offers legendary bits and pieces intricately woven into each stage.
Like with Little Nightmares, in Hollow Knight, it’s not about explicit instructions or predefined maps that guide you in your journey. It’s all about what’s left unsaid, the feelings, and the atmosphere. It’s about the beautiful mix of sound and image that brings you to that state of mind that all mild-horror game enthusiasts know a little too well.
6. A Tale of Paper
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, |
| Year of Release | 2022 |
| Developer | Open House Games |
| Average Playtime | 2–3 hours |
| Best For | Puzzle-solving, emotional narrative |
| Unique Features | Origami transformations, environmental puzzles, no dialogue |
In A Tale of Paper, you step into the role of Line, a small origami figure who has been brought to life in this hushed and dark world. Your journey winds through mundane environments, like bedrooms, rooftops, underground tunnels, etc., each on a more abnormal scale and more unfamiliar to you.
Even though the world around you feels strange and intimidating, you know you have what it takes to make it. You have a secret power: you can transform into any origami shape. Changing your shape will become essential as you solve the different puzzles that lie ahead.
The heart of the game lies in transformation. The mechanic that defines it is metamorphosis through origami. As you progress, you take new forms. You become a frog when jumping is necessary, a glider when you need to drift through air, or a ball when you need to roll.
The way you transform is very elegant and seamless, and each transformation teaches you how to change your movement to match the new environment.
In A Tale of Paper, just like in Little Nightmares and some other games I have mentioned above, there isn’t any combat or dialogue. There is only motion, quiet transformations, and unstoppable threats that come your way. You are told everything you need to know through the details of the environment, the characters’ actions, and the music.
Fans of Little Nightmares will feel at home in this realm of quietness and vastness. Like Six in Little Nightmares, Line is also vulnerable, fragile, and quiet, traversing through a landscape that seems unconcerned with their hardships.
7. Detention
| Platforms | PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Mobile |
| Year of Release | 2017 |
| Developer | Red Candle Games |
| Average Playtime | 4–5 hours |
| Best For | Atmospheric horror, psychological storytelling |
| Unique Features | Taiwanese cultural themes, school setting, horror based on real-world history |
Detention draws you into the suffocating atmosphere of a high school during the period when Taiwan was under martial law. It’s an era where normal life and freedom are oppressed, and fear conquers.
This game would go under the psychological horror genre, as it is a fusion of a haunting reflection of historical trauma and anxiety with conventional horror.
In Detention, you play as two students who are trapped in a high school that has turned into their worst nightmare. The game boldly explores real-world horrors and dark themes that relate directly to the history of Taiwan. The reality of it all, the based-on-a-true-story vibe, makes the experience all the more unsettling.
The game visuals are grim and strangely captivating, with muted shades and gloomy landscapes. Its unique appeal lies in fusing Taiwanese folklore with traditional horror. What will bring Little Nightmares to your mind while playing Detention is the slow pacing, which slowly builds tension and has you dread every turn you make.
Little Nightmare fans will love the uneasiness in the atmosphere, the slow-building storyline, and the way your surroundings tell a haunting story.
8. Gris
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Mobile |
| Year of Release | 2018 |
| Developer | Nomada Studio |
| Average Playtime | 4–6 hours |
| Best For | Artistic exploration, emotional storytelling |
| Unique Features | Stunning hand-drawn visuals, color-based gameplay mechanics, narrative-driven journey |
Gris is the type of game that makes you feel like you have gone inside a painting. The visuals are a true masterpiece, and, to add to the legend, the colors function as a narrative layer, bringing emotion and symbolic elements to the surface.
The game starts by introducing you to Gris, a young girl with a fragile heart, on an emotional journey to regain all her abilities and conquer her fears. You will get to join her in her transformation as she goes. You’ll experience the changing of her colors and her healing.
The gameplay is simple but intense, as Gris strives to solve puzzles and explore the still and somber world around her. There is no combat, and the game’s core and beauty lie in the rich, immersive atmosphere. The challenges that Gris faces have a way of entangling you in her emotional journey.
For fans of Little Nightmares, Gris brings the feeling of vulnerability to the surface. The perfect blend of grief and beauty creates a haunting experience that resonates with Little Nightmare vibes, without relying solely on horror in the conventional sense. Both games offer quiet and evocative narratives while exploring inner emotional landscapes.
9. DARQ
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch |
| Year of Release | 2019 |
| Developer | Unfold Games |
| Average Playtime | 4–5 hours |
| Best For | Surreal horror, mind-bending puzzles |
| Unique Features | Dream-like environments, gravity-defying mechanics, psychological themes |
DARQ is the type of game that makes you feel like you just stepped into a terrifying dream. You play as Lloyd, a boy who finds himself stuck in a nightmare that he just cannot wake up from.
As the world around him shifts and transforms, you work on solving puzzles that challenge the rules of reality, whilst also trying to make sense of the strange and scary surroundings. The dark and unsettling visuals add to the eerie atmosphere.
In DARQ, everything that surrounds you feels off, as if you’re wading through a twisted reflection of your thoughts and feelings. It seems like every puzzle you solve takes you even further from the truth by disorienting you and keeping you unsettled.
Just like with Little Nightmares, DARQ gives you a feeling of isolation, fragility, and dread. It invokes a feeling of uncertainty, where each step can be your last one. The horror does not lie in what’s coming after you, but in the creepy world around you and the way it makes you feel so small and helpless.
10. Little Misfortune
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch |
| Year of Release | 2019 |
| Developer | Killmonday Games |
| Average Playtime | 4–5 hours |
| Best For | Dark humor, narrative-driven adventure |
| Unique Features | Child protagonist, unique art style, story with tragic undertones |
Little Misfortune follows the story of a curious young girl, called Misfortune, who has a wild imagination and sets off on a quest to find something beautiful. Along her journey, she’s accompanied by a little voice that seems to do her more harm than good. Her mission is filled with dark humor, otherworldly encounters, and a vast world of oddities.
In the game, you guide Misfortune through a landscape where everything around you poses an unclear threat, and every choice you make can change the trajectory of her journey. As you play, you will find yourself constantly wondering whether what is happening around you is real or if it’s all just part of her twisted mind. The visuals bring a whimsical scene with a hand-drawn look that pulls you in, but a subtle sense of fear lies under them.
The game gives Little Nightmares vibes with its unsettling and unpredictable scenes. Much like Little Nightmares, Little Misfortune brings childlike innocence to the spotlight and blends it beautifully with the scary, twisted world.
Just as with some of the other games listed here, Little Misfortune does not rely on raw horror but on the atmosphere that makes your imagination go crazy. For more adventure titles like Little Misfortune, this list of the best adventure games gives you some great options.
What makes Little Misfortune a must-play for the next game after Little Nightmare is the fact that it evokes the same sense of feeling small in contrast to your surroundings, and not being able to make out what the real dangers around you are.
FAQs
What is the best game like Little Nightmares?
Bramble: The Mountain King is without a doubt the most similar to Little Nightmares, as it provides the same unsettling atmosphere, the same slow-burn narrative, and the same tension.
How long is Little Nightmares?
To get the full Little Nightmares experience, you would typically need 4–5 hours. It’s a short journey, but very powerful, and it leaves you with a long-lasting love for mild horror.
What is Little Nightmares about?
Little Nightmares is about fear, survival, and escape. You see a twisted world from a child’s perspective, and you experience horror without a single word being spoken.
