Yume Nikki - Nitro Rad

Even 20 years later, Yume Nikki remains one of the most influential games ever made. Known for its minimal gameplay, haunting ambience and bubbly characters, Yume Nikki's combination of cuteness and genuine horror cemented it in the hearts of countless people.

Today, for its 20th anniversary, I'm gonna take you through the entire thing and talk all about it! All the obscure content, memories, the cultural aftermath, and a little bit on the themes. Let's talk about Yume Nikki!

GAME LINKS:

My stuff:

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - INTRO
3:36 - KIKIYAMA's Mysterious Freeware Game
6:48 - Title Screen
8:26 - Premise and Basic Gameplay
11:54 - The 12 Core Dreamworlds
16:56 - Effects and Progression
28:08 - Deeper Dream Locations
45:31 - Events (Uboa and more!)
1:09:00 - Ending and Themes
1:18:18 - Influence, Legacy, and Return
1:25:17 - Yume Nikki Fangames & Online Project
1:32:35 - Closing Thoughts
1:34:33 - End Slate

[PufferPatchesVODS]

Funny enough, the toby fox interview had ONE question that was not yes or no. The last question. Where toby asked “Up until now I've just asked yes or no questions but it may be hard to answer that way for this one so be ready for this. If we were to go to Denny's together, what would you order? I'll send you the menu so let me know” to which kikiyama answered “Rice Casserole with 3 types of cheese and shrimp”

[patapancakes]

Thanks for covering Yume Nikki Online Project, we had a ton of fun creating it over the years and love the huge positive impact its had on the community!

[AlwaysTuesday]

Those are the controls because this game was made with the number pad in mind! if you look at the number pad on your keyboard you'll probably see arrows on 4, 8, 6 and 2, they of course work as directional keys. 1, 3, 5 and 9 to control the effects makes WAY more sense if you use the number pad, it would be really convenient if you played the game that way.

[skyrunner]

This was an excellent, comprehensive video! Two minor things:

1) The crick in the neck can actually be undone without going back to sleep. You can just press the action button, and instead of sitting, Madotsuki will straighten out her neck.

2) One detail I wish you'd mentioned regarding the FACE event is how the door leading into the event proper is the exact same one as that of her bedroom, like FACE is something - or someone - waiting just outside her room which is why she doesn't want to leave.

[Pudding]

You can tell it wasn't made for anyone, Kikiyama is shrouded in mystery, and while the general story you can piece a bit together, it's a noncoherent dream, and it doesn't need to and doesn't explain itself. It's like it was made specifically for the creator.
And it became a classic rpgmaker game. That's the most early 2000's thing I can think of.

[TheDarkFuryKnight]

One thing about the ending, it ends with bloody puddle and jellyfish monsters from her dreams, meaning it is possible that it was never real to begin with, not to mention that the stairs didn't exist until the end. So the ending could be another dream.

[trumangraham]

Two things about Yume Nikki that's always stuck out to me is how time passes and how the ending is obtained.

If you go outside after you wake you can see time passing constantly, shifting between day, evening, and night. Madotsuki is spending every day and night doing nothing but dreaming refusing to do anything else. It's the only thing she's comfortable doing anymore.

Combine that with the ending of her committing suicide. Think about how you get the ending, you need to get every effect. Getting every effect requires you to thoroughly explore nearly the whole game, not all of it but most of it.

Madotsuki has finally reached the edge of her dreams, there's nothing left for her to explore. There was nothing for her outside, and now there's nothing for her inside. Maybe that's part of the reason why she committed suicide.

[Puffman]

35:00 That is Mafurako. You can actually guarantee that she teleports you to the doorway if you interact with her as a snowman. I did a presentation about this game and had to learn that to not ruin the flow because of RNG not helping

[outlawruby]

Defining psychological horror as the horror of why people are scared is such an effective way of putting it. I've never seen someone define it like that. I don't think I really had a definition for it, you just know it when you see it I guess.

[namedude_dev]

Hey! Yume 2kki developer here! (I believe my map was actually featured on 1:27:45)
I just want to thank you for creating that original Yume Nikki video back in 2014, it was what first exposed me to Yume Nikki and it's fangames, which were life-changing games for me. Here's to another 10 years!

[WretchedRedoran]

Crazy just how long it's been since Yume Nikki was first covered on this channel. This video is straight-up documentary length, so I'm gonna wait 'til it's all nice and cozy for this one.

[CaecusYT]

The "logo" for Yume Nikki is most definitely the hiragana version of the title ("ゆめにっき"). If you squint you can definitely see the resemblance, especially the "に" and keep in mind the "っ" symbol (small tsu) is pretty small since it's only there to create a small space in the pronunciation of Nikki (Nik-ki basically).

[Binarokaro]

If you're wondering, the Japanese character that covers the floor at 58:36 says "a", so when it covers the screen that's like a scream filling the area, like which makes that eerier to me tbh.

[rmsomnium]

As a dev and manager of Collective Unconscious, it's really neat to see it mentioned here. Thank you!

[muzzycosmos]

I always felt like Monoko was the result of Madotsuki watching a girl dying in a car incident.
Like, she sees the traffic lights, monoko doesn't and so she dies. Madotsuki sees her "brain popping out" as so for her eye and some of her bones from her arms and then when she dreams of it, she "contextualize" these changes of the human body with extra limbs.

Monoe gives me just vibes of one important friend who made her do bad things (since you have to kill her to reach her) and when Madotsuki needed her most, Monoe just left her behind.

For the creature from mars, it gives me the vibes of what you say to children when someon dies "they go to heaven" in the sky, and what else is in the sky? mars. She may have done this connection and dreamt about it.

[hyacinthawawawa]

amazing video, although a *teeny* nitpick
the "aztec" imagery in the game is actually mostly derived from the paracas culture in south america. the flying men in the nexus background are a very common motif in paracas textiles. some other spots take inspiration from the rapa nui people of easter island, mainly the famicom worlds. indigenous imagery at large is a pretty major theme in yume nikki and i'm glad you brought it up even if the etymology is off lol

[bingusdingus]

the face always reminded me of the nightmares id have as a kid. I believe it was something called "exploding head syndrome" and the nightmare would always start with something mundane like picking up a penny on the street, and afterwards a mess of colors and face like patterns with deafening, indescribable sound would envelop my senses until I would wake up in a cold sweat. it hasn't happened to me in years, but I remember it very vividly

[errantcondor]

1.5 hour redo on Yume Nikki? THANK YOU JAMES

[paulagodebrito]

I found your channel many years ago because of Yume Nikki. I was part of the 2012 gang who was obsessed with RPG Horror Games like Ib, Mad Father, Mogeko Castle, Yume Nikki and I barely saw any discussion about it outside of forums (and tumblr blogs) so I came to your channel for Yume Nikki and stayed for everything else. Seeing this video on my notifications gave me the biggest smile ever. Thank you for the years and years of videos!

[bigboopus]

Calling KyuuKyuu-kun adorable while myself and a couple other people I know find him incredibly offputting gave me some whiplash. There's a feeling of violation in his vascular, phallic form, very similar to Sticky from Lisa, that reeks of guiltlessness.