Yume Nikki / Yume 2kki / .Flow

Yume Nikki

Yume Nikki (2004, translated into English in 2007), a freeware RPG Maker title by an enigmatic and reclusive developer named KIKIYAMA, is often evoked in discussions of surreal games. Madotsuki cannot leave her apartment, she can only write in her diary (save the game), play Famicom, and sleep. The gameplay consists of exploring her strange and disturbing dreamscapes and collecting “effects” from the characters there. There is no dialogue or plot, the story is gleaned through inference, leading to a number of fan theories and speculation regarding the nature and meaning of Madotsuki’s dreams. The game is widely considered upsetting and disturbing, the pace is slow, the level design is awkward. In spite of this, it has influenced many developers. If one measures a game’s success by its emotional resonance and the inspiration it fuels, Yume Nikki has been very successful indeed.

One thing that particularly interested me about Yume Nikki was the wealth of fannish content. There is an entire wiki devoted to Yume Nikki fangames. Perhaps most notable to the English-speaker are Yume 2kki (2007) and .flow (2009), both of which I have seen on best-of lists. Yume Nikki birthed a new genre, one that is accessible to hobbyist and novice developers, and over 150 fangames have resulted. The fangames are technically comparable to the original, some perhaps even superior; in this sense, the fandom and the developer are on equal footing. 

I have read complaints that the fandom is dying or is already dead, I have no idea. I am repeatedly stumbling across references to it in current conversation and interviews. The game apparently went viral among Japanese players around 2010, English-language fandom may have peaked around 2013-14, it’s difficult for me to tell but that appears to be the point there was noticeable saturation, with prominent developers in the community making lists fangame tropes that new developers should avoid.

At this point, I’ve barley scratched the surface. The game and its fandom are fascinating.

Yume 2kki

Now that my country life sim experience has been irrevocably shaken by the Stardew Valley modding community, I decided to take a break and play a few Yume Nikki fangames. Getting RPG Maker 2000 games to run in Windows 8 takes a little extra effort, but not much. I only needed to change Windows system locale to Japanese and download the RPG Maker 2000 Runtime Environment (RTPe).

.flow / dotflow was a bit underwhelming. It felt muddy and bleak, more unpleasant than surreal. There’s a bit of gore. At one point, Sabitsuki was beheaded by a guillotine door-portal. For me, it’s a few steps down from Yume Nikki. Most of the scenery was either derivative or ugly. It dulled my enthusiasm a bit, so I wasn’t expecting much when I fired up Yume 2kki next.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Yume 2kki is a work-in-progress collaborative fan sequel. It is awesome. I would even venture to say it is bodacious. The game is huge. The current zip weighs in at 650MB, that’s without the runtime environment. It expands what worked in the original while smoothing down rough edges. The graphics are great, the dreamscapes are creative and varied, and the level design is tighter, giving Urotsuki’s journey more focus.

The newest English translation is for version 0.101, which is significantly smaller than the most current version of the game, 0.104. Most of the worlds have no text, but there is a library world with lots of books and the translation covers most of them. Otherwise, I’ve been playing 0.104.

KIKIYAMA LIVES

Yume Nikki just launched on Steam, and the news page links to a countdown site for the next Yume Nikki project. The counter has less than two weeks remaining.

The listing has been up one day and the community is already getting fired up.

If you’ve never played the cult classic that launched a thousand fangames, now’s a good time.

YUMENIKKI - DREAM DIARY -

The Yume Nikki countdown announced the release of a new game on 02/23/18 for $20.

In its original form, RPG Maker darling YUME NIKKI was a divisively controversial work among fans. By contrast, YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY- is a collaborative show of the utmost respect for auteur Kikiyama’s seminal release.

I’m comparatively new to Yume Nikki English fandom so I’m not sure what controversy the blurb refers to, but this appears to be an authorized fangame that, “combines influences from the original game and other recent indie juggernauts to create something wholly unique.” The devs worked with KIKIYAMA but it’s evidently not a sequel.

This might be a good time to catch up on fangames. I enjoyed Yume 2kki, which is the defacto fangame I think. It’s worth noting Fleshchild was recently cancelled. I was very enthusiastic about that one. It’s included on fangame lists but it was so different I would call it YN-inspired at best. I think the unfinished game is worth playing or watching a Let’s Play but it’s a PITA to run so my notes may be helpful if you have trouble.