Tenebris Somnia

The store describes it plainly: a survival horror adventure game in the same vein as classics like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, but adapted to a retro 2D aesthetic from the 8 or 16-bit era, where the cinematics are made in live action with real actors and practical effects by a professional and award winning film crew from Argentina, and where the secrets of the game lie within those cinematics. The playable layer is pixel art; the cutscenes are film. The publisher's launch post puts the scale in writing: "After nearly 4 years of game development and live action filming...Tenebris Somnia is OUT NOW."

The credits are on the store and on the trailer. Andrés Borghi and Saibot Studios develop it, New Blood Interactive publishes it, and the launch post thanks "Andrés Borghi, the cast and crew, Saibot Studios, Airdorf, and us here at New Blood". The trailer carries the cards NEW BLOOD PRESENTS, ANDRÉS BORGHI PRESENTS, FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER airdorf GAMES, CREATOR OF FAITH THE UNHOLY TRINITY, AND DIRECTOR ANDRÉS BORGHI, CLARA KOVACIC STARS IN and A GAME BY SAIBOT STUDIOS. Airdorf Games is the studio behind FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, which the store lists under that name with New Blood Interactive as publisher.

The trailer states the pitch in its own words, on a card: AN UNHOLY MIXTURE OF RETRO SURVIVAL HORROR AND LIVE-ACTION CINEMAS, followed later by WHAT IF THEY AREN'T NIGHTMARES? The store classifies it as Adventure and Indie, single-player, with Steam achievements, full controller support, Steam Cloud, trading cards and family sharing, and the store API counts 24 achievements.

The playable side is 16-bit pixel art, and the official store screenshot is the clearest published look at it: a teal-tiled room seen from the side, with a pale figure in a red suit standing in a green bathtub with its mouth open, the player character in a white shirt and blue trousers crouched on the floor, a brown curtain, a green cage holding small blue shapes, a wicker basket of items in the corner, a purple door on the right, and a framed picture on the left wall. The official guide names the same kind of places in text: Ivan's apartment on the third floor, the film school, the projector room, the theatre room, the Desiderium.

The store screenshot is a promotional capture, so it proves the art style and the room layout and nothing about a specific puzzle solution. The guide, covered below, is the publisher's own published walkthrough of the rooms themselves.

The cinematics are shot on real sets with real actors and practical effects, and the publisher credits a professional and award winning film crew from Argentina. The trailer alternates between the two halves rather than staying in one: the first live-action passages are domestic scenes, then it cuts to pixel rooms, then back to red-lit corridors and close-ups of faces.

One name is on screen and worth carrying into a search: CLARA KOVACIC STARS IN, shown beside a close-up of a blonde woman in a knit cap. The official store screenshot of the live-action side is the same kind of frame: a blonde woman in a grey beanie and grey roll-neck sweater, wide-eyed, lit in cold blue, in a dark room.

The publisher says outright that the secrets of the game are in the cinematics, and that is also where the difficulty question below bites hardest: the second half of the story is gated behind the fight players argue about. This site has not watched the full film content and does not describe the story.

The US-facing Steam field reads Oct 16, 2026. The publisher's OUT NOW post is timestamped 16 Oct 2026 17:15:48 UTC, which is 17 October in Asia/Shanghai, so this site publishes 17 October 2026, as it does for every title here. The publisher's own earlier release-date post simply said "TENEBRIS SOMNIA / Retro horrors. / Real life nightmares. / October 16th".

The price is set out in the publisher's 24 September post: Tenebris Somnia will launch for $24.99 USD with a 20% discount making it $19.99 during the game's launch window, plus an additional discount for players who own FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, and aggressive regional pricing especially in LATAM. The store on 22 October 2026 still showed $19.99 against a $24.99 list with the same 20% discount applied, so $19.99 is the launch-window price and this site does not treat it as a permanent one. A player opened a thread asking why the FAITH bundle was cheaper than buying Tenebris Somnia alone while holding the 20% discount, and whether owning FAITH should give a second discount. Three players reply, all explaining how Steam applies the bundle discount when you already own one of the two games, and no developer answers; the publisher's September post is the only published answer this site has read.

The current version is 1.0.1. The developers pinned a patch notes thread on 17 October and posted the same changelog as an official hotfix announcement on 18 October. Six lines are in it: achievement unlocks will retry to prevent issues if two achievements are unlocked at once, bloody slimes during the finale encounter take longer to spawn and move about the arena, certain boss encounters will now dynamically drop resources based on player health and inventory, the Hourglass in the bottle liquid puzzle can no longer be moved by the player, the ability to get infinite cardboard pieces during the poster puzzle is fixed, and an inventory bug related to dying during the second phase of the finale is fixed. The launch post also says the demo was updated, and that the game is verified on Steam Deck.

This is the most useful thing on the game's own Steam page, and it is first-party. The developers pinned a thread on 16 October, ten minutes after the launch post, written by the developer account El Oshcuro, titled Official Puzzle & Boss Guide, which links a Steam Guide. The guide opens with "SPOILERS WITHIN!" and says: "If you're here, you probably need help. But don't worry! We've got us covered. Below is a guide covering the harder parts of the game. It's broken up between boss battles and puzzles with heavy spoilers throughout. If your questions aren't answered by the guide, please make a post on the Steam forums and we'll do everything we can to help."

The guide is written in that interface's own two verbs, and the official store screenshot of the inventory screen shows both of them printed next to the character portrait, with the OLD BOOK tab beside the INVENTORY tab, an EQUIPPED panel holding a wrench, and a row of item stacks with counts. The guide tells you to check that Old Book more than once.

The guide is long and it is specific. It has a Boss Fight Tips section, then five named boss sections: Obscuratus Candle Fight, Fumus and the Red Circles, Breaking Enemy Grapples, Sanguis Beast Form and Studio Lights in Sulfur Fight. Then a Puzzle Guide with 26 numbered sections, running from Door Puzzle in Ivan's Apartment, TV Remote Puzzle, Key Stuck in Door Puzzle, Poster Cutouts and Devora Picture Puzzle, Where to use the Mop Handle, Glass Liquid Sound Puzzle and Projector Room Puzzle through the Desiderium sequence to Desiderium - Finale Route. Nearly every section ends with a YouTube video guide link.

Three of those sections say the puzzle is randomised, which matters for anyone following them: the TV Remote Puzzle says the order of the symbols displayed in your game may differ from the video, the Glass Liquid Sound Puzzle says the Bottle order in your game may differ, and Desiderium - Fly Puzzle says the tile pattern in your game may differ. This site quotes the guide's own section names and the steps it publishes; it does not add a solution the guide does not give.

The boss fight that dominates the launch-day threads is Vitria, the mirror fight. A player describes the confrontation in the first thread as "that boss with long arms that looks like Dimitrescu from Village", and another player in the same thread identifies it plainly: "Nah they're talking about Vitria fight, the one that can tentacle grab you and have multiple phases outside and inside the mirror." The poster's complaint is specific: having to check the mirror in reverse to see where the tentacles are, while dodging attacks that can instantly kill you, on controls that do not reward precision.

The official guide answers the mechanical half of this. Its Breaking Enemy Grapples section says that certain enemies and bosses can grab the player and put them into a locked grapple state, that Vitria can shoot a tentacle out and grab Julia by the throat and slowly pull the player in until she can instantly kill them, that Relicta ghosts grab the player and drain their life while latched on, and that to break free from any of these grapples you must quickly mash the interact button to free yourself and continue moving around normally. The same guide's Sanguis Beast Form section says the giant knife near the end of the chase sequence can stab through Sanguis if you time his pounce or lure him to stand over it, and its Studio Lights in Sulfur Fight section says the glowing studio lights around each arena can be shot or hit to instantly kill every enemy on screen.

The achievement list adds two published weapon-only challenges on the same fights: Iron and wax, "Defeat Obscuratus using only the wrench", and Exhaust Pipe, "Defeat Fumus using only the pipe".

The developers answered the thread directly. In the boss-difficulty thread the developer account replied: "We'll have a look at that fight for you". A separate thread asks for the option itself, and states the problem plainly: "Some of these boss fights are exceedingly difficult, for a game that's strength is in it's narrative. I wonder is there a chance that you'll implement difficulty settings for people who want less of a challenge, but dig the vibes and the story?" and "A difficulty setting would really help with giving people of all ability levels the full experience of the game, without sacrificing the core of it." Players are split on the answer they want: several in the same threads say the fight was too easy for them, one says a pistol rather than a shotgun makes it manageable, another says baiting the side tentacle attack into a dodgeable move is the key.

The reviewed texts do not establish the availability or absence of a difficulty-setting menu. The developer reply only commits to looking at the fight, not a new mode. This site does not claim a difficulty setting exists, does not claim one is coming, and does not claim the fight is unbeatable or trivial.

This section is spoiler territory; the guide itself is marked "SPOILERS WITHIN!".

The number of endings is settled by the store's own achievement list, not by forum guessing. Of the 24 achievements on the game's Steam stats page, four are ending achievements: SOLVE ET COAGULA, "Get Ending #1"; MAGNUM OPUS, "Get Ending #2"; VIVUS EX MORTIBUS, "Get Ending #3"; and RENUNTIATIO, "Get Ending #4". The first two are listed openly, the third and the fourth are hidden achievements. The same list carries a visible achievement called Wrench Queen, "Complete the game using only the wrench", so the wrench route the players ask about is a real one and not a rumour.

The guide's Desiderium - Finale Route section documents one specific choice at the end: "You have two choices to make on the path to the end. You can kill any of the Relicta ghosts with the Aurifer knife to get the BAD ENDING (only requires killing one of them), or you can run to the very end without killing anyone to get the GOOD ENDING. If you've made a save here, you can reload at any time to get the other ending." The route then walks the run back through the Hotel doors, the Studio Lobby, the apartment building hallway and the staircase to the third floor, out to the street, and into the SEPTIMO ARTE building for the final area. The achievement list backs the same choice up from the other side: a hidden achievement called Heart of Lead reads "Kill all relicta ghosts", and a visible one called Have You Chosen... Wisely? reads "Fill the silver bottle by removing 3 save points".

The guide also publishes a cheat sheet for a randomised puzzle, under Desiderium - Poem Outcomes: the first poem decides which four photographs to place, and the guide lists them, for example "You're dead..." maps to CROSS NECKLACE, FEET, SUNGLASSES and BLACK VEIL, "He nestles in her hand..." to HAND WITH RING, EAR WITH EARRING, SHINY DRESS and PEARLS NECKLACE, and "I'm dreaming..." to MOUTH WITH LIPSTICK, SUNGLASSES, EAR WITH EARRING and BLACK DRESS.

Players ask about ending 3 and the wrench queen in it. The thread asks: "Without spoilers, is there anything in ending 3 that makes wrench queen significantly harder or not possible? Seems like ending 1 or 2 bosses would be really hard, but possible with the wrench." Two players answer that it is not possible, and the thread's author marked one of those answers as the accepted one. Those are player answers, and the store's achievement list is what fixes the count at four. This site does not say which of the four each achievement corresponds to beyond its number, and does not claim the route that reaches any of them.

A launch-day thread asks why the game is running at what looks like half speed: "this games is booting extremely slow even the logo screens and menu are running at like 10 frames a second and the game is even worse. It's like it's running at half speed." The developer account replied: "That's odd the game runs on even low end hardware - post specs?". A player who posted a 9070 XT, an Intel Core i5-12600kf and 16GB of RAM then reported the change that fixed it for them: "Turning off AMD Freesync and setting Vertical Refresh to always off on AMD Adrenaline fixed it!!!!", following an earlier reply that simply said "Try to disable vsync on nvidia control panel/amd adrenaline" and was confirmed with "THIS WORKED THANK YOU <3". That is a player report and a player fix; the developer did not publish it, so this site does not present it as the publisher's instruction.

Two further reports have no replies yet. One is titled Visual bug, the screen is filled with random pixels and says "Bug that wont come off, i restarted the game and everything, and I havent seen anyone with it". The other is titled Glitch tv puzzle, where the TV remote puzzle shows only four symbols with two of them repeated, which the poster says made it unsolvable because the possible orders number 720; the poster resolved it by starting a new game, and a second player reported the same thing while streaming. The guide's own TV Remote Puzzle section is the randomised-symbol puzzle these two threads are about.

The published configuration is modest, which is why the developer's answer is that it should run anywhere. The minimum is a 64-bit Windows 10 or later machine, a 2.4GHz dual core processor or higher, 8 GB of RAM, 4 GB of VRAM or greater, DirectX 11 and 13 GB of storage; the recommended tier is Windows 11 64-bit, a 3.6GHz quad core processor or higher, 16 GB of RAM, 8 GB of VRAM or greater, with the same DirectX 11 and 13 GB figures. There is no frame-rate promise in either tier, and none is claimed here.

The store's Launch Trailer, movie id 257463818, runs 69.35 seconds. This site read the whole cut frame by frame and publishes a 44-second excerpt of it, from 0:25 to 1:09, because the first twenty-five seconds are the studio credit cards. The audio was not reviewed.

What the excerpt carries, in order: the pixel art and the live-action alternating, the card CLARA KOVACIC STARS IN, the statement AN UNHOLY MIXTURE OF RETRO SURVIVAL HORROR AND LIVE-ACTION CINEMAS, the card A GAME BY SAIBOT STUDIOS over pixel rooms, the question WHAT IF THEY AREN'T NIGHTMARES?, pixel gameplay in dark rooms, a red-ringed doorway and a staircase, then a run of red-lit live-action corridors and close-ups, the TENEBRIS SOMNIA title card, and a closing card reading OUT NOW over LIVE THE NIGHTMARE and the game's own site, with the New Blood, airdorf, Andrés Borghi and Saibot Studios logos above it.

The trailer carries no build stamp, so none of it is tied to a specific version.

These are real questions players asked in the game's own Steam discussions in its first days, re-read against the threads on 22 October 2026. The thread link for each one is in this section's sources. Where the developer has answered, the answer is named; where they have not, the question is left open rather than guessed at.

• "Some of these boss fights are exceedingly difficult, for a game that's strength is in it's narrative. I wonder is there a chance that you'll implement difficulty settings for people who want less of a challenge, but dig the vibes and the story?" — asked in the Steam thread Difficulty Settings?; intent: difficulty options. Ten replies, no developer answer; the developer's reply in the parallel boss thread is "We'll have a look at that fight for you".
• "I am a hardcore player of Dark Souls-style games, and that boss drove me crazy. It took me a whole hour to beat it, dying over and over... you don't learn anything from each death—you just die randomly from some random tentacle hitting you because you weren't on the exact pixel." — asked in the Steam thread Seriously, you need to make the bosses easier.; intent: boss difficulty. Thirty-three replies; the developer replied in it.
• "this games is booting extremely slow even the logo screens and menu are running at like 10 frames a second and the game is even worse. It's like it's running at half speed." — asked in the Steam thread Game barely running for anyone else???; intent: PC performance. Twelve replies; the developer asked for specs in it.
• "Bug that wont come off, i restarted the game and everything, and I havent seen anyone with it" — asked in the Steam thread Visual bug, the screen is filled with random pixels; intent: PC troubleshooting. No replies yet.
• "The tv is supposed to show me all symbols in order but instead I'm shown only 4 and 2 of them are repeated which made it impossible for me to solve it... I've asked an AI for all the possible solutions but there are 720" — asked in the Steam thread Glitch tv puzzle; intent: puzzle blocker. Two replies; the poster solved it by starting a new game.
• "Without spoilers, is there anything in ending 3 that makes wrench queen significantly harder or not possible?" — asked in the Steam thread Is ending 3 + wrench queen possible/recommended?; intent: endings. Four replies; the author marked a player answer as the accepted one.
• "are not great..." — asked in the Steam thread hitboxes; intent: combat feel. A two-word post; the single reply says the enemies "can hit me with glancing blows but i have to be dead center to hit them, and sometimes the game prioritizes thiwr hits over mine".
• "on the store page, I'm offered a 20% discount but since I own FAITH, shouldn't I be illegible for another discount as mentionned in the forums?" — asked in the Steam thread About the price...; intent: pricing. Three replies, all players explaining the bundle discount, no developer answer.
• "how? where? everywhere on the internet it says she pour blood to the bowl with film after you make a puzzle with photographs or find it, but I couldn't" — asked in the Steam thread Bowl with film, without chemicals and blood; intent: puzzle blocker. Twelve replies, all players.
• "Does anyone know the movie references from the projection room? I know 4 of 5, but I'm struggling to find out which movie is the last one (top middle)." — asked in the Steam thread Movie references; intent: puzzle blocker. Four replies.
• "I had two references to Blippo+ during the final FMV sequences on my initial playthrough. First a pause screen, then an options menu." — asked in the Steam thread Easter egg question; intent: secrets. Two replies.
• "I love the art direction and what ive seen of the story so far but ive found the combat to be unenjoyable to the degree im walking away until a difficulty..." — asked in the Steam thread Love the game so far, but am walking away from it to play something else.; intent: difficulty options. One reply.

No search-volume source could be read for any of these, so this list shows that the questions were really asked, not how many people search them.