How Yume Nikki Changed Everything... | A Retrospective 

Fun fact: the triangle kerchief is used in Japanese culture to symbolize ghosts (wearing it around the head). So that's why you can find it in the ghost world and why it makes you invisible :)

Anyone else think it's weird Poniko is like the only NPC similarly-proportioned/styled to Madotsuki? It makes me think she's someone real in Madotsuki's life, and her transformation into Uboa is directly linked to trauma of some kind.

my thought is that, ignoring the symbolism within the dreams, Madotsuki jumps at the end because she still thinks she's in a dream and is trying to escape. she's explored all these dreams and it's warped her conscious into thinking "I'm still in the dream, I need to leave". I like this idea for a lot of reasons but also, it gives you room for interpretation on whether or not she escaped the dream. sure the blood splatter suggests she died, but to me, seeing the jellyfish dudes also offers the idea that she just left another layer of a dream. it's not a perfect theory, but what theory on this game is perfect? if you like it, great, if ya don't, that's okay too, just thought I'd share it.

54:36 actually jumpscared me lol, never gotten scared from a burp, i hope you feel accomplished sagan lmao

My interpretation is that Madotsuki has severe anxiety and incredibly low esteem, hence the creepy eye imagery and most encounters with other people either being hostile or forcing her to be ignored. It would also explain a lot of the gruesome imagery, maybe she wasn't a part of it but all those brutal events are things she's afraid are going to happen to her. The low self esteem comes into play as a lot of her effects are just costumes, either her trying to be traditionally pretty like with the Blondie effect, her low self image like with frog or severed head or her escaping from reality into fantasy with stuff like the ghost or oni.

Yume nikki 100% affected me as a kid. I found out about when i was around 12 i believe. Watching a letsplay ofc. The ending really punched me in the chest despite being so quiet and simple. I saw a lot of myself in madotsuki and having depression at the time watching the whole experience really opened my mind. It was the deepest shit to me as a kid, i thought it was the most psychologically influential experience in my childhood that wasnt trauma. It was more like. It showed me i cant talk about my trauma without talking about it yknow? It showed me i can use art to express my pains. This game is really really important to me. Its not even a game to me its an experience i will always hold dear in my heart.

As someone who theorizes about the various meanings of aspects of Yume Nikki, and who resonates strongly with certain aspects being referential to sexual trauma, I really appreciate you pointing out the oversaturation and "creepypasta-fication" in discussion about YN's sexual/traumatic themes. I feel like people do this with nearly everything; they identify a single obvious theme of a piece of media and then act like that *one* thing is the *only* important part, often at the expense of conversation we could have about the endless other stuff that also makes that media interesting.

58:23 Something important to note is that Yume 2kki is still being constantly updated even in the current year, with the last update being around 2 weeks ago. It has been active for ~17 years, having hundreds of maps to explore and a massive amount of collectables to obtain, events to check and many, many collectables to get.

There is a really famous video on the spanish yume nikki community, it has a theory about the meaning that I think is probably theartistic vision kikiyama had when they were creating this game. Yume nikki is not really about an exact trauma, it is about seeing the pov of a person with suicidal toughts, it is supported with the name of the protagonist, madotsuki, it means window in japanese. The game is really about exploring how a suicidal person feels, maybe it was beacuse they were assaulted, bullied, etc. The reason does not matter, because they all feel the same. It is a really good explanation that I have not seen on the english community. (Also, sorry for my bad english XD)

yoooo okay, so here's a bit of me being vulnerable to hopefully put the meaning of yume nikki in perspective: unchecked depression goes hand in hand with escapism. there are actual years of my life I can barely recall due to the mental fog from being so unwell. there were some mean spirited jokes made about how I might be "narcoleptic" due to just how much of those years I spent sleeping, mostly to escape the reality of living daily life, but also in a futile attempt to fix the major energy black hole that never seemed to lessen no matter how long I slept. no joke, it was a regular occurrence to sleep for 20+ hours, wake up to cry and then go back to sleep. it gets to a point where anyone is understandably fed up that nothing is helping the pain and lack of energy... no matter what you think, or experience, no matter what you might try or explore or encounter, there comes a point where... AHEM... the "ending" is something you consider. being alone is incredibly lonely at that time but it's honestly preferable in alot of cases since it's near impossible to explain what you are mentally going through and to also be taken seriously. people tend to dislike having you around as you're seen to be a "downer" so they avoid you or get fed up and hurt you out of frustration or selfishness, these interactions only further serve in isolating the individual who is suffering. things blend together, time feels like a loop and even good dreams can have major upset points or vice versa experiencing something nice in a typical nightmare... all while it's completely inexplicable mishmash your brain is throwing together just trying to figure out some ease of the burden you are facing. I felt like yume nikki was a really good representation of what it's like to be stuck in that depression, and ending with what many consider to be the FINAL ending we face as a human, it's the kind of twisted escape that someone who is very ill would seriously consider. the red "jellyfish" might represent some kind of supernatural maligned force coming to claim her since it is common thought in many religions that... sewer-slide is an absolute trip to hell... maybe also representative of madotsuki not even being able to escape the suffering even at the end. I know this was probably pretty brutal to read but if anyone does read this far, it's my responsibility to tell you that no matter how much you're suffering, each day is a chance for things to get better. I'm still here (funny enough) because I was a shut in procrastinator that put off even ending it all, but I'm so happy for that because I held on long enough to see the sun shine again. I may not know any of you personally, but I know it's an innate part of your humanity that you can get through the struggles and enjoy the good you've yet to see. to Sagan: thanks for another great video, and I'm super happy you shouted out Thaf... can't wait to see what my favorite FNAF type guy pulls out next! 😂💕

On the characters section: I think it's important to distinguish between offical names for characters and the fan-given nicknames. For example, Uboa and Poniko IIRC are the actual names given to the actual ingame character entities that can be found when loading up the game in the RPG Maker editor, wheras "Seccom Masada-sensei" is just a name given by fans that somehow stuck. EDIT: Turns out, even Uboa and Poniko are fan names as far as I can tell. This information really should be more visible on the wiki.

hyped for the LISA RPG video!

Yume nikki is the reason i love abstract media so much. Probably the most formative game of my childhood.

Dude, when you mentioned the Maussan I freaking laught out loud because here in Mexico, Jaime Maussan is taken as a joke celebrity because the guy is infamous for turning any conversation into an UFO centered one.

yume nikki is such a fundamental piece to the pixel horror scene we see today, i love your style of doing videos so to have you talk about this game brings me so much joy. great one man :]

i rarely see people talking about it but one of the games that has the most influence from yume nikki, at least to me, is Super Mario 64 B3313, basically a rom hack of sm64 meant to represent a beta build of the game. but honestly it really feels like it was intentionally meant to be a dream-like endless exploration game with a tense uncanny ambiance and many references to rumors from the game. it's something i recommend making a video on because this game is quite a rabbit hole inside of a rabbit hole! at least just play it, it's one weird as hell experience.

Yume Nikki accomplishes something that very few games can do. The entire time you play, you’re on edge. You’re afraid of what will show up next. It’s a feeling of dread that I’ve only experienced in A/S-tier horror games.

Man, that rundown of locations just hit me hard with how much Omori took inspiration from Yume Nikki. Never really thought about it that much.

I second that 44:55, as someone from Peru, the background characters look a lot like pre-Incan cultures imagery. Apparently the Nazca Lines (Nazca is a pre-Incan culture) has (or had) a surprising popularity in Japan (at least compared to Machu Picchu), so there is that. Hahaha still what a pleasant surprise to see in an old Japanese game that I was only vaguely aware of from the memes and art.

Witch's House! Witch's House! It's like sticking your hand into a hornet's nest, but with double the charm!

thank you for not spreading the whole "Gigyas is actually a r___ scene" story again. for those curious: that article Sagan flashed on screen reveals that the 'disturbing film' Itoi saw as a kid was actually a murder mystery film :) still a bit nasty but not as nasty as people thought for over a decade.

Whether or not Madotsuki's suicide happened in her head or in reality, we know she thinks about it a lot. Aside from the handful of effects that cause bodily harm to her or imply death (such as the beheaded effect), every single one of her dreams starts on her balcony, which is also where she ultimately commits the act. Regardless of anything else in the game, this (to me) proves that Madotsuki has a form of severe depression which cause her to wish to be dead. This isn't a very important thing, but i've never seen anyone ever mention it, and I feel it's a really important detail. Personally I don't think Madotsuki killed herself in real life, at least not at the point the game ends. Rather, I think it's symbolic of her becoming disillusioned with her own imagination after having collected all of the effects, just like when you beat a videogame. She ran out of other things to do in her head, and now has no choice but to deal with the thought that just kept coming up through the course of the dreams. The lotus creature things throughout the game represent Madotsuki's will to live. During the ending, when there is nothing left for her to imagine except whether she should end it, the creatures are first to arrive, showing that there is still a somewhat significant part of her who wants to keep living. I imagine if the ending went on, other creatures and people we meet in her mind would show up, drawing her towards one side or the other. I don't know if any of that makes sense, but that's what went through my head a long while ago, so my brain probably puts it all together different.

The alien imagery in Yume Nikki always reminded me of a scene from Serial Expensive Lain in which she sees herself as an alien, which given that both of these deal with (or can be interpreted as dealing with) elements of identity and isolation it may be part of where the inspiration for their use came from in Yume Nikki

I love Thaf so much, really sweet of you to shout out his vid on Corpse Party, it’s incredible. I love RPGMaker and the RPGMaker horror genre is one of my all time favorites. I’m very excited for this series!

33:44 The little Matt and Ryan joke was so out of pocket, loved that

The humanoid characters (and a few others) all have super descriptive names. For reference "ko" is a common ending for Japanese girls' names and is often used alongside a descriptor to indicate that this character is a girl who has x trait or role, eg A-ko and B-ko for generic classmates, or things like that. Like, Poniko is basically just "Ponytail girl," Mafurako is "Muffler girl" (muffler being pronounced as Mafuraa in Japanese), Monoe and Monoko are both "Monochrome girl" (-e also being a name suffix), etc. Some other names, like Kimajo and Shitai-san are just what they are, Witch tree and Mr. Corpse, respectively. So really, a lot of them don't have real names so much as just descriptors, which makes sense for characters in a dream, I guess!

azusa 999 is an early early example of an rpg maker without combat and the like. like corpse party, it was made using the dante 98 engine, but it looks really pretty despite being made in 97. fair warning, azusa 999 discusses heavy topics, but it comes highly reccomended!! it hasnt gotten a fraction of the recognition it deserves :(

35:12 If people think it looks like genitalia, I think it's pretty obvious they're referring to female genitals, not male genitalia.

It always feels like “sexual abuse” is the most used fan theory for anything that doesn’t have a clear story being told.

Man. I just played OFF for the first time like, a few years ago (relatively late to the game, really). Excited to see what you can add to it considering I didn't go diving into too much extra stuff about it outside of a few pretty surface-level videos. It's a trip thought; I enjoyed it.

I appreciate that you pronounced “Yume” the way it’s supposed to be pronounced. I’m part Japanese , and whenever I hear people pronounce “Yume” as “Yumi” it kinda drives me crazy. But when I hear someone pronounce it the way it’s supposed to be pronounced, then it’s a refreshing thing for me to hear, so thank you for that. And the video itself was great, I learned a lot about Yume Nikki from it and the humor was on point, so good job on that as well!

I played Yume Nikki in 2021, and it was a experience that I heavily enjoyed. Seeing the ending, the theories, the ideas that popped into my head as I traveled across Madotsuki's dreams, the music, the art style, etc, etc. It was a experience I heavily enjoyed. I always wanted to make a video covering Yume Nikki, because from what I had seen, not many people really made a full blown video really going into it in the way I wanted it to be shown. But I always had difficulties with structuring said video, the script, it ended up feeling like a mess halfway through, and I ended up never making it. I gave up on that project, and decided to move on with my little channel, and work on other videos that I had planned, and could get some experience with editing and script making, since I practically had none, especially if you bother to look at my horrendous videos. Its been months since I played Yume 2kki or Yume Nikki for that matter - I almost completely forgot about it right after I gave up on that project. Cue up this video, and once I was reminded of everything that happened in my experience with the game - I was extremely hyped. I watched start from finish, and it was a wonderful video. You perfected the exact feeling I wanted to share, what I wanted to say, and really try to explain. And you even went past that, and I found out about things from this video that I didn't know. I'm happy to see that the idea of a video I had but could never do, was done and done much better then I could do :P Granted, I know I'm a much smaller youtube creator, so it doesn't mean much, but - just felt like putting it out there. Thank you!

There was a fangame out there called dream vs dream, and it was your standard crossover fighting game but with yume nikki and yume nikki fangame characters, what was interesting about it though was the art I remember being super well done (though I think it was spritework?) I think the person who did oneshot had a hand in it, but I do know unfortunately it was never finished :(

The snow woman cosmetic is a reference to traditional Japanese yokai and one of them is a woman who summons snow and they look kind of like her when she changes

You know it’s a good day when Sagan uploads

I see her behavior w the knife and her reaction to the traffic light & victim as her paranoia of what might happen to her if she goes outside the apartment, (Being in a traffic accident or witnessing one, and potentially being pushed into perpetuating violence w a knife possibly out of fear/self defense). Also as far as the jump ending, it might be worth it to consider that in some contexts death is referred to as “the big sleep” the “final sleep” or even the phrase “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. Just thinking out loud.

55:02 man burped directly into my ear for 0 reason

Hey, Sagan! Kikiyama here! Came out of hiding to confirm that, YES, the skydiving theory is canon.

i got so into this game when i first discovered it I was able to guide my friend through it exclusively through voice chat back when i was ten. i had no computer back then so i lived vicariously through him. even funnier is we managed to do it through pokemon's voice chat system.

I tend to have incredibly strong, vivid dreams once in a while. They're so strong and wonderful that waking up feels 'wrong' like reality is the wrong place. There's times during the day when I'll catch a vague memory of the dream and I'll get this intense shot of dopamine. And I admit that sometimes I want to sleep 'forever' to keep dreaming. A common interpretation is that she's plagued by nightmares or reflections of reality, and that might be true, but she never looks scared. It's possible she loves her dreams, so much that they're kind of an addiction. Her committing suicide at the end might be some misguided way of making sure she doesn't have to wake up from them- the game can't end if she doesn't wake up. (Also possibly symbolically, she keeps her eyes closed at all times, in the dream and out, as if her 'natural' state is sleeping. Also what do the only enemies that seek to do you harm do? Wake you up.)

never been THIS early lol looking forward to the vid. Am I about to watch an hour long video about a series I know nothing about? absolutely.

i get mentioning corpse party in the opening to introduce the rpg maker engine since it's not obscure as hell to know abt but i think more appropriate examples would be 'Palette' and 'Azusa 999' also yeah rpg maker it's easy enough to start slapping stuff into but i think nowadays it's easy to take for granted what this game does, it still looks like computer wizardry to me what a neat game

“The face” reminds me of Louis Wain’s artwork where he would draw anthropomorphized cats.

This video was so good. Also im soo excited for your OFF video. I first was introduced to it in middle school and I come back to it every year or so.

The moment you said you were going to cover Omori, I audibly yelled “YES” much louder than intended. Oh man, am I excited to see that!!!

Ah… that opening reminds me of old jordan underneath. What a blast to the past!

rpg horror games were my favourite things to play when i was younger. yume nikki and ib will always hold a special place in my heart

crazy to see a video about yume nikki this year. the game will always hold such a special place in my heart

Okay, my theory is that Madotsuki is actually in some kind of purgatory, and the other humans (Monoe, Monoko, Mafurako, Poniko, and Igloo girl) are what happens to those who abandon getting out of the purgatory (closet Madotsuki being her if she abandones). Notice that in both world, there are shoes on the balcony, and in Japanese culture, you usually take off your shoes before jumping off a building to die. The abstract dream imagery is a mish-mash of everything in her life, and her final "challenge" is to see herself dying one last time

Hell _yes!_ Thank you for covering YN.

i absolutely love how you plug other creators and their content. it’s honestly one of the many reasons i really like you. thank you for this excellent upload, S tier as always.

What a great surprise! Your retrospective videos are always really well made, and didn’t expect to see you talk about another favorite game of mine on this channel. This game means a lot to me. It was one of the first video games that I’ve ever played as a kid, and I hold it dear to my heart. This game has a lot of symbolism, and it can be interpreted in different ways, or none at all - there are no wrong answers here, and that’s the beauty of this game as well. One person can make sense of it one way, and another person in another way, and they’d both be right. It’s interesting to see what people can come up with.

Man I dont know what it is about uboa and gaster that always make my hair stand on end at even the mere mention of them. Definitely some of my favorite things ever created.

Thank you so much for making a retrospective on the game that I hold so dear to my heart!!

Id hope to see Ib witches house and mad father in this series just because Ive always felt them plus YN to be the big four of the genre. All of which getting expanded apon in some way.

Yume Nikki was one of the first RPG horror games I experienced, and I was deep into the fandom and followed quite a lot of people that made fangames for it. It was an incredible experience at a time in my life where things weren't so nice. This community is incredible and I'm glad you talked about it in the video. I've always had my own theory that Madotsuki was autistic, or at least some form of Neuro-Divergent. The judging eyes, the chasing bird ladies possibly representing bullies, the depression and anxiety themes, the body parts that possibly represent the senses and even physical stims, that reminds me a lot of being ND. The excessive Meso-American inspired imagery could hint that she has a special interest in Meso-American mythology and art. As for the violent, themes, well... I can definitely relate to a lot of it. As someone who has Autism, there were/are times where I do feel incredibly violent, especially towards certain people. I have definitely had times where I wanted to stab my bullies with a knife and other violent fantasies, but of course I never did act on them. People don't really talk about the violence/anger issues a lot of people with Autism deal with, probably because it gives a bad look to Autism's already abysmal reputation, but I think it's important to point it out. But back to Yume Nikki, another theory I had was that KikiYama, the person that authorized the steam upload, manga, and remake, isn't them at all. The fact that the people who made the adaptations will not reveal how they know besides "we verified it" is incredibly suspicious to me. How do you verify that it is really KikiYama, when practically nothing about them is known? They were completely anonymous for years, nearly decades at this point, and one doesn't just come out of hiding after being gone like that. Especially if it's to release mediocre adaptations and merchandise. Someone is using KikiYama's name, making a killing off of it, and nobody seems to question the people supposedly "working" for them. If someone knows for sure that it is KikiYama, with proof, I'd love to see it. Otherwise, I just don't trust anything that comes out in the future relating to Yume Nikki, especially more adaptations or "official" sequels. Thanks for reading my incredibly long and rambling comment. This was an awesome video and definitely met my expectations! Been waiting for this for quite awhile.

This is amazing, I'm glad you started this series Can't wait to see LISA's retrospective (with hopefully some fangames mentions at the end)

I’m glad Yume Nikki is finally getting covered because it’s honestly a great game

I genuinely appreciate how you refer to videos from other creators, thank you for that

37:07 As someone who came here specifically to learn about Yume Nikki because I didn't know anything about it, I'd say you were successful in your goal. I feel much more informed now!

would LOVE to see you cover ib!! it seems so small compared to other indie horror rpg games but i love the story so much!

I love this series!!! I was so excited when I saw this, even though I've never even played Yume Nikki

Despite being late this is everything I could've asked for

always a delight to see a new Sagan vid

Really loved this video. the fucking top 10 hottest female sonic characters reference was killer (26:15)

The game that started my fascination with horror! Really says something, because I still struggle with it. However, it's always nice to go back and look at the surreal bleakness of Yume Nikki's world and how much it inspired me. Great video!

Yesss! I love this game so much. I’m happy to see you covering it!

dude i love tout deep dives so much. i am so excited for this series!!!!

found out an hour ago that i have covid and this video got me smiling even tho i feel horrible :)

Time Nikki retrospective was the last thing I expected to see on this channel but here it is let's go

Great video, I genuinely love how much depth you go into for your videos. You do the research and it shows! I'm super excited for your upcoming videos on the Lisa series, honestly favorite RPG games i've played to date. :)

The skydiver theory sounds like that one FnaF theory that said Foxy was good in the first game and only wanted to check on you, but you died of a heart attack at the sight of the jumpscare.

I would like to suggest anyone watching this a ahort album based on Yume Nikki, "Yume Nikki: Between the Lines". It's a really beautiful passion project that perfectly translates all the feelings the tracks give you on your first playthrough, I just really enjoyed it and believe it deserves more recognition, go give it a listen, it's here on RU-vid.

Niche little weird experience, I've been in love with it since long, long ago. Realizing that Madotsuki was having lucid dreams was my introduction to the concept at large, and ever since I've been able to understand my dreams better. Can't wait for the OFF retrospective, or even the Lisa franchise, Omori perhaps down the line but also excited for that one as well, one of my fave RPG maker-ish games.

Great vid!!! Can't wait for the OFF and Lisa vids, honestly my favorite games of all time

yiiiippeee !!! I love yume nikki, so stoked to see you cover it

My personal theory about the traffic stuff is that she was a passenger in a car that hit someone which is why she doesn’t have a car effect or some effect related to death when interacting with the body but a traffic light away from it all

on the topic of the mangas artist also being the same guy to draw alien nine, i do feel like the two of them have a significant number of similarities. alien nine also has its protagonist yuri go through a few disturbing/unnerving dream sequences that are very open to interpretation, and the series is known for examining the psychological aspects of its main characters. also the fact that they both have aliens/weird abnormal creatures. i am a big fan of both so i was very happy to find this out

I'm excited for this series! This was a great video!!!

Ok this is my first video and this series is so cool!! I love your narration. Long dissections of horror games are definitely my preferred way to experience the genre :)

I would totally watch a .flow video from you, my favorite Yume Nikki inspired game or clone with its own more destinct theme and vibe

Yume Nikki really bounced off me. I could never get into it. I like to hear people talking about it because I love to see through their eyes, and see what they got out of it that I didn't.

As you said in the Character section, I am someone who watches these videos to learn everything important there is to know about these games, so i'm extremely glad for what you do. Seriously thank you for being one of the few that actually puts in the work to make these videos

This video is awesome, very thorough as well. Nice job!

I love the existence of this game, but unfortunately I can't play it cuz it gets too boring for me real fast. The mysteries pile up in my brain and the lack of answers overload it and I just need to quit lol Also HELL YEAH OFF VIDEO WOOHOOOO That game lives in my head rent free ever since ManlyBadassHero played it waaaay back when. I miss the fan theories.

Please check out Cement Mixer Simulator 2003

How crazy that I was just looking up yume nikki videos on youtube but didnt find much last week, to stumble upon this video! Thank you! and please make more!:) I love your voice

This game influenced me not only in my work, but in the ways I think and see things. So many memories of summer nights on vacation with no internet just playing Yume Nikki and discovering what the game had to offer 🥲 great video, it's perfection (as expected from you)

After so many years I finally realised that the Toriningen literally means bird human. Idk why I took me so long to figure this out.

I’m not too far into the video but I would like to mention that there wasn’t much speculation about kikiyama being dead. Kikiyama has a website that’s still being maintained and has been up for a long time. So the community didn’t have much concern for the idea of kikiyama being dead.

Very cool series! Can't wait for you to cover Ib, that was my introduction to this genre!

commenting to support the vid and to say I'd love to see more RPGmaker horror games covered. Keep up the great work man, I love watching your stuff

I feel like a retrospective of Yume 2kki would also be super cool but considering it's still being added too, it might be a little hard. Or .flow. That being said, I would love a retrospective on OFF and/or Space Funeral.

God now I REALLY want an Omori Retrospective now... I'd love to see how you'd do it. Who else agrees?

I’ve been a fan of this game for years and I still learned so much from this video!

After watching this, I want to watch some of those fan videos of this game again. Those videos are so fun and watching after getting all this context is nice

I alway love seeing Yume Nikki videos

Twelve years ago, this game provided me the only comfort I could find after encountering a staggering life event which led me to live basically like Madotsuki. For almost a year, I was only able to dream, and maybe only stay awake for a few hours at a time. Like a coma, but more frustrating, because no one's ever identified exactly why any of it happened as it did. I have no idea how I found this game, but we didn't have guides and I didn't know about Uboachan yet. I played it mostly in Japanese, but I don't really know how or why, maybe it was some applocale problem? Finishing this game was a relief, it really left me feeling like I was free from this weird affliction too. One day I want to write the whole thing out that caused it, but it's not even that interesting for anyone. I like a lot of the fangames, like .flow and LCD Dem (amazing music in this one), but 2kki was never for me.

Great video as always. I also adore the videos that allow people to come in with no knowledge whatsoever and leave fully satisfied. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to fulfil that urge to learn. Yume Nikki was a game I couldn't appreciate when I first played it, but who knows. Maybe I'll give it a spin.