Melatonin Taught Me To Love And Appreciate Dreaming | Video Game Analysis & Retrospective
Channel: Armchair Brain
Date: 2023-10-13

Dreams are what you make of them, but how can you make anything of such dreams when the real world is more chaotic than dreams could ever be? 

The 2022 indie rhythm game Melatonin is a unique little game that plays well as a chillout experience for most gamers, and is deceptively more difficult to play at times than you think at first play through despite the game’s artwork and soundtrack giving the impression that this will be an easy game to play through once. However, meta-textually, Melatonin says a lot more about millennials, zoomers, basically, my generation’s place in this world and how we don’t have 100% control of our lives and our environment, dreaming or in waking life. 

Chapters/Time Stamps: 

1. Introduction – 00:00 
2. Half-Asleep, Or Half-Dreaming ? - 01:09 
3. Music Of My Dreams – 10:10 
4. Night 1 – Dreams To Consume – 14:34 
5. Night 2 – Learning How To Adult Without Waking Up – 20:41 
6. Night 3 – The Futility of Self-Help – 24:23 
7. Night 4 - The Past, Future, and Everything In Between – 35:06 
8. On The Other Hand – 44:45 
9. Conclusion – 46:09 

Make sure to subscribe to the Armchair Brain channel for future video essays: https://www.youtube.com/@armchairbrain?sub_confirmation=1 

Watch My Other Video Essays:  

Night In The Woods Taught Me To Love And Hate My Hometown - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDyh77ffaQ8  
Hyper Light Drifter | At The Heart Of Mortality -  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvI0WRVf8Mw  
Breath Of The Wild Taught Me To Love And Appreciate Nature | The Legend Of Zelda Retrospective -  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDPwLIEfyUM 
Why Gone Home Does Not Hold Up | A Gone Home Ten Year Anniversary Retrospective - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVG_W-LNTlE 

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Transcript for video: 

Sources and References: 
https://magazine.artland.com/the-art-of-depicting-dreams/ 
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191125100349.htm 
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.24843 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230828162332.htm#google_vignette 
https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/amj.2021.0377 
David Graber – Bulls--t Jobs (2018) 
Matthew Walker – Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (2017) 
Sigmund Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) 
Radiohead - “Fitter Happier” https://genius.com/Radiohead-fitter-happier-lyrics 
Waking Life (2001) - Directed By Richard Linklater 

All Melatonin Game Footage Captured By Myself Using Mac  
All other game footage captured by myself unless otherwise noted 

Games Captured by Me On Nintendo Switch and PC/Mac: 
Galaga 
Hollow Knight 
Nights Into Dreams 

Music: 

Goron City Night Themes from Breath Of The Wild by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Hajime Wakai 
Melatonin Original Game Soundtrack By Half Asleep Games - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikcbipOa8tY&list=PL_EMwMRFtlcdUdZLR79eMTfURgtJ-G0Pj 
Zote The Mighty Beats by Armchair Brain (Track Name: Overwhelming) - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wV1zXlO9gyA 

Tags: 

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