What is Yume Nikki?!

Yume Nikki is a surreal exploration game that was released in a version of RPG Maker, back in 2004. It went on to be super influential and resonated with a ton of people, me included. You can probably tell as some art on my site looks like art from Kikiyama (the name of the dev). Their game has been a huge inspiration to me and has helped me express myself in ways I couldn't before. I'd like to share what my favorite parts of the game are, and the subsequent fanworks that followed which I also love. But those will probably have their own shrine, especially 2kki. That game is way too big to put on here.

This is the basic structure of the game: you are a girl named Madotsuki who refuses to leave her small room. With there only being a Famtendo with one bad game (sorry NASU ily I swear) and a journal to occupy herself with, Madotsuki retreats into her dreams. When she falls asleep, she appears in a dream version of her room. This one you can exit from, but only to a room of doors arranged in a circle called the Nexus. It is from here the rest of the game goes. You simply travel to deeper and deeper worlds, experiencing whatever you find in Madotsuki's dream world. Along the way, you can collect things known as Effects which once selected, do things. For example, the flute effect has Madotsuki play some notes on a flute. The fatten effect makes her fat. The cat effect turns her into a cat. Nearly all of these effects do a little animation when you press 1, and some perform specific actions. The afformentioned cat effect, when used, can make NPCs come towards you. The kitchen knife lets you kill NPCs to get money and access new areas. The Eye Palm effect makes you teleport back to the Nexus, so you don't have to wake up and fall back asleep. If you get all of the 24 effects and place them in the Nexus, you will get something like an ending.

If you've stopped by my links page, you might've seen the link to something called the Yume Nikki Online Project. It's a great way to experience the main game and especially the numberous fangames they host, as getting Japanese .exe files to run on a non-Japanese computer can be a bitch. There's a singleplayer mode which I would recommend for your first time through any game, and you don't have to make an account or download anything. Those are completely optional, but recommeded in the long run. If you just want to see if you like Yume Nikki and not commit to any downloads or accounts, this site is for you!

Ok cool but what does it mean to me?

I consider Yume Nikki to be a fudemental aspect of my creative journey. I adore the way it blends surrealism and horror, and I would like to emulate those feelings in my own work. I have always been fascinated by the dreamscape and mundane, normal things being put into an alien context. Yume Nikki brings so many banal objects and scenarios into its world and contorts them into things you can only see in the realm of imagination. Body parts are severed but still move, ancient ruins are placed in a wasteland with strange plants, scenes only possible to exist on a page drawn with black ink are easy to walk around in and interact with. I take a ton of artistic inspiration from the design of everything too, I love the simple curves and geometric style present in the creatures and evironments. If you go on my creatures or doodles art page you can probably see Yume Nikki's influence on me. Its hard to put into words so I hope you can see its influence. Speaking of having a hard time putting feelings into words that's another strength I think this game, and surrealism as a whole has. Surrealism allows images to speak of things that we have trouble putting into words. Hyper-specific feelings and experiences can be shared by learning to listen to your subconscious as best you can. As an autistic person I have trouble communicating normally, using surrealism (and art in general) to communicate is a good way for me to show other people how I think and feel. If they don't completely get me, that's fine. I don't think its possible for another person to completely and totally understand another, and that's ok.

My Favorite Worlds

The White Desert is pretty important to me. My favorite events take place in there, and the atmosphere is unmatched. I love how high-contrast the area is, and the simple wavy lines with the music sounding like a sweep of a broom with a bell chime. I've never seen anything like this area before. I really like Monochrome Fudal Japan in 2kki too, it took the energy of the White Desert and made something new with it. I feel like I'm being watched in White Desert, but in MFJ it feels more malicious with the strange music and dozens of buildings spreading in a maze-like structure.

Shield Folk World is an area accessible from the Nexus, it makes my favorite worlds list almost solely for the music. It might be my favorite track from this game?? Its so pretty. Actually I'm gonna add it to the music box for this page. I like the shield folk themselves too, they're really good creatures. And I love creatures.

The Wilderness is a massive area with strange, pale plants and stones scattered around. It's the background for this page. It feels like a wasteland, and the various cubes feel like the remains of a civilization. And there is a plant formation wehre if you go up through it, it will bring you to the Barracks Settlment. Are these people decendants of the fallen city? Why would this be in a girls dreams?

The Spaceship is so great. It's got a guy named Seccom Masada-sensei playing a ludicrously long keyboard, which controls his spaceship. It's a very calming place to be, I feel like I'm exploring the cosmos with them.

Ghost World is super underrated. The only reason to go to it is to get the Triangle Kerchief effect, but the atmosphere is so oppressive and dark. There are only 4 inhabitants of this rather large world, making it feel a bit more lively. Only a bit though.