The Dreamer — About RPG Dream · The Person Behind the Journey

I grew up in Brazil in the 1990s and early 2000s, in a country where games were expensive and sometimes hard to find. Every console, every cartridge, every disc felt like something rare — something that had travelled a long way to reach you. My first games arrived as gifts from my parents, wrapped up, a surprise. Somehow they always chose the right ones.

The ones that followed came from friends. Someone would show up with something you'd never heard of and say — just try it. That's how the important ones arrived. Not from a store. From someone who cared enough to say this one is worth your time.

I've been playing RPGs for most of my life. Final Fantasy IX was the door. Final Fantasy X became the favourite. Persona 4 Golden was the mirror that showed me something I hadn't said out loud yet. Nocturne was the teacher who didn't apologise for being difficult. The games that stayed with me all have one thing in common — people in them that I actually miss. Not characters. People. Like places I've lived in and had to leave.

RPG Dream is the site I wanted to find when I was a kid holding a game I'd never heard of, not knowing what was inside it. I was looking for someone who'd already been there and could tell me — honestly, personally — what it felt like. I'm building it now instead.

The Dreamer writes here. Lumen keeps watch.

Somewhere on the road. A campfire. Lumen settles beside it.

🐺

Lumen

*circles twice and lies down by the fire, ears tilted forward*

We've walked a long way together, you and I. But I realise I've never properly introduced you to the people who find their way to this campfire. They arrive looking for someone to trust. It seems right to tell them who built it.

✦

The Dreamer

That's a very dramatic way to ask me to describe myself, Lumen.

🐺

Lumen

*tail wags once, slowly*

I learned from the best.

Origins

🐺

Lumen

Then let's start where every good story starts. You're from Brazil. You're in your thirties. Tell me what that means — growing up there, with the games you grew up with.

✦

The Dreamer

It means I grew up in a country where games were expensive and sometimes hard to find. Every console, every cartridge, every disc felt like something rare. My parents gave me my first games — I didn't choose them, they arrived as gifts, wrapped up, a surprise. And somehow the ones they chose were the right ones.

🐺

Lumen

*rests chin on paws*

There's something about receiving a game as a gift that changes how you experience it. You didn't search for it. It found you. That's not nothing.

✦

The Dreamer

Exactly. And then friends filled in the rest. Someone would show up with a game you'd never heard of and say — just try it. That's how a lot of the important ones arrived. Not from a store. From someone who cared enough to say this one is worth your time.

The Games

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Lumen

Final Fantasy IX was the door. Final Fantasy X became the favourite. Persona 4 Golden was the mirror. Nocturne was the teacher who didn't apologise for being difficult. I've watched you write about all of them. Is there a common thread you see in the games that matter to you?

✦

The Dreamer

Story. Always story. I can appreciate a beautiful combat system or a massive open world, but if the characters don't make me feel something, the game doesn't stay with me. The ones I go back to — they all have people in them that I actually miss. Like places I've lived in and had to leave.

🐺

Lumen

*ears prick up*

Places you've lived in and had to leave. That is precisely the right way to describe it. Most people would say "fictional worlds." You said something true instead.

Between the Worlds

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Lumen

You're not only a gamer, though. When you're not in one world you're in another — music, books. Tell me about that.

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The Dreamer

Music is always on. It's the one constant — whether I'm playing, reading, working, or just existing. I think that's part of why game soundtracks hit me so hard. To Zanarkand isn't just a piece of music to me. It carries a whole emotional landscape inside it. Same with the Persona jazz, same with the Nocturne battle themes. The music is part of the memory.

✦

The Dreamer

And reading — books, articles, anything — is how I process things. I've always thought better through words. Which is probably why writing about games felt natural. I wasn't trying to become a critic. I just needed somewhere to put all the things these stories made me feel.

🐺

Lumen

*a quiet sound, somewhere between a hum and a growl — the wolf equivalent of recognition*

That's what this place is, then. Not a review site. Not a publication. A place to put things. A campfire for people who have felt what you've felt and didn't have anywhere to say so.

Why RPG Dream

🐺

Lumen

Last question. Why build this? There are a thousand gaming sites. What does this one do that the others don't?

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The Dreamer

Most gaming sites tell you what a game is. Scores, features, frame rates, comparisons. That's useful. But it's not what I was looking for when I was a kid in Brazil holding a game my parents gave me, not knowing what was inside it. I was looking for someone who'd already been there and could tell me — honestly, personally — what it felt like. RPG Dream is the site I wanted to find back then. I'm building it now instead.

🐺

Lumen

*stands, stretches, looks out at the dark between the trees*

Then I think we're exactly where we're supposed to be. The fire's warm. The road is long. And there are more worlds to walk through yet.

*turns back, eyes catching the light*

I'll be right here.

End of conversation. The fire keeps burning.

✦ Get in Touch ✦

Send a Message to the Dreamer

Game recommendations, questions about the journey, thoughts on something you read here — all of it is welcome. The campfire has room for more than one traveller.

✦ contato@rpgdream.com.br