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# A photographer designed the PS1 dungeon crawler Nemuru Mayu
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/a-photographer-designed-the-ps1-dungeon-crawler-nemuru-mayu/
- Published: 2026-09-15T19:00:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T19:00:03.000Z
- Description: Yukinori Tokoro's Japan-only labyrinths were called dreams, and a clips account just pulled them back into the feed.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: Nemuru Mayu, Yukinori Tokoro, PlayStation, Dungeon Crawler, King's Field, Photography, dreams, RPG

I get strange creations dropped in my feed from time to time, so this [clip of murky first-person dungeon footage](https://www.instagram.com/p/DcMz6YhNC%5FA/?ref=killscreen.com) in mid-August captioned with nothing but a title: *Nemuru Mayu*. No platform, no year, no maker. Given the number of games pulling from this style, I thought I'd take a look. They usually stay curiosities. This one unspools.

*Nemuru Mayu* (“Sleeping Cocoon”) is a 1999 Japan-only PlayStation release designed by Yukinori Tokoro, known primarily as a photographer with a sideline in surreal art. The premise: a demonic tome hidden in Tuscany (of course) has entombed the souls of four knights, and you—default name “The Accursed One”—are sucked into the book after them. The labyrinths you poke through aren't dungeons in a traditional sense. Tokoro calls them dreams.

[Hardcore Gaming 101’s writeup](https://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nemuru-mayu/?ref=killscreen.com), the fullest English account, marks 89 floors, several hundred items, and a battle system where casting a spell means tapping marks in rhythm as an invisible pen traces a rune onscreen—while your opponent does the same, and you try to reflect their magic back. No official strategy guide was ever published, so Japanese fan sites have kept the mapping project running for decades. The game still holds secrets.

The idiom it grew from is having a moment, too. Freshly Baked Games’ crunchy [*King’s Field* revival](https://www.killscreen.com/freshly-baked-games-serves-its-kings-field-revival-crunchy/) crossed the Radar two weeks ago, and *Nemuru Mayu* is what that lineage looks like when an artist from *outside* games gets the keys. There's an alternate history where this becomes the default look coming out of the 90s, but nostalgia will have to do. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/nemuru-mayu-2.png)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/nemuru-mayu-3.png)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/nemuru-mayu-4.png)

**Nemuru Mayu*. Screenshots via [Hardcore Gaming 101](https://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nemuru-mayu/?ref=killscreen.com)

Killscreen has been chasing games this strange since 2010, and the free Radar letter is where the next one surfaces. Put it in your inbox.

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