Why People Loved MAD FATHER 

Snowball canonically eats a monster that tried to harm him and this is a great fact

It was always implied that Aya is exactly the same as her father from the very beginning. If you check the drawers in her room, it will say that there's a dead bird inside. In the flashbacks Alfred also kept killing birds and hiding them in his drawers so his mother won't find them. And Alfred knows Aya was the same as him, he has notes saying she ahd started doing that, just like him. That's why he wanted to turn her into a doll, he wants her to stay innocent forever. He doesn't want he to be corrupted, but I think she's already corrupted. Also, the apologizing after she commits some heinous acts, it's a masking thing, I think. When you're different from others, you tend to mimic stuff they do so you fit in. In her mind, she's aware that what she's doing is wrong, so she's apologizing because that's what you do when you're doing something wrong.

Actually, father didn't just replace Snowball with another rabbit, but cloned Snowball over and over after the original rabbit died from its infected leg, most likely warping the rabbit through expirenments while keeping it a cute little rabbit, which really makes it worse.

Father’s “Ayaaaaaaa” literally has lived rent free in my mind for YEARS

No, I think there was a purpose to the chainsaw cutscene. In the context of later cutsenes, it becomes clear that Aya's father was trying to keep weapons out of her hands, in an attempt to prevent her from taking on his interests.

You know you're in for a wild one when it starts with his theme and the first words are "the year is"

Dio (who’s name is actually Robin, at least, according to an achievement) is not really special, he is just a living victim of Aya’s dad According to a flashback, he was near death after Alfred took his eye and tried to kill him, and Monika brought him back to health He is just hiding the fact he is alive

BROOOO....Mad Father, Witch House, Ib, Ao Oni...it was a wonderful time to be around when these horror JRPG's dropped

Although I agree, I don’t like the fact we’re painting Aya as “a heartless monster as her father”. Since the day she was alive, she was constantly being influenced by her father’s work. Children lack the understanding and sympathy of these kinds of actions. Due to her lack in sympathy, it’s understandable why she’s cares less of the people than her father. Her father has shown her more love and been in her life than the random souls -Not saying she doesn’t care for them either. She shows how she wants to help them and cares. The game contradicts itself a lot, as she will destroy things that get in her way, yet will help people just because she can. She’s a confusing child, and just like any, is being influenced. The dead animals were probably influenced by the fact she knew about her father even at young age, and was curious. In blood mode, this shows how these traits when she was younger had changed her future, her not knowing any better. These killings were a norm for her, a comfort, and a lasting memory of her father.

Possibly disappointing alternate proposal: the reason a religious group was mentioned in the letters is because the creator thought of setting a scene in a chapel because it’d be cool, then went ‘wait, why would this mansion have a chapel in it.’ The fact it doesn’t come up elsewhere makes me wonder, since that’s the kind of thing I’d pull running a D&D game that accidentally sends the party off on a wild goose chase.

There's also the fact that Ogre appears in another Game... _"Misao"_ along with Ms Library being a clone of Aya, and a zombie Alfred also being in that game, so Mad Father and Misao are set in the same Universe at different time periods 10:58 Awwwwww... But that body horror was perfect for Mad Father

26:27 he didn’t buy the mansion. It was Aya's mother who owned it after her grandfather passed

I think the chainsaw memory has a purpose, and its simmilar to the burning of the bodies - it shows aya might not be all that innocent, since we get a flashback to her playing with a chainsaw like a toy. thats slasher energy :P

Mad Father and games made in the same style of it such as Corpse Party, Ao Oni, Misao, The Witches House and IB are probably my favourite horror games, I wish games in this style were still being made The last game in this style to be released that isn't a Port or remaster is Mario: The Music Box, an actual really good Mario horror game that isn't a .EXE game with some really heart wrenching endings, there was a sequel coming out called Mario: The Clocktower or something along those lines but I haven't heard anything about it in years

if Aya became just like her dad i would assume just like her dad she would get too close to the sun and burn and that she when creating a perfect doll would be killed by her victims or she would be saved by her child who would repeat the cycle. to be honest just the ending where she became the perfect doll for her father and stood there is so terrifying i am gonna have nightmares about that.

I mean, I would consider it repercussions that Alfred (Aya’s dad) became a zombie himself after being revived by Ogre He is the same monstrous researcher you can meet in a spin-off game, Misao

1:05:28 an important thing that you pretty much completely ignored is that the part where he says "there's no other way than this, i'm sure she won't accept it but i've already decided, so she won't make the same mistakes as i..." implies that alfred didnt actually mean to turn aya into a doll at the beggining, he probably wanted her to live a normal life which is why he even tried to teach aya that what she was doing is wrong, however with monika actively encouraging aya to hurt animals and play with her saw, he thought of turning her into a doll as the only way that he could stop her from going down the same path as him

The censoring in the steam versions of both misao and mad father sadly make a lot of the story beats duller... i really like the sprite updates and some of the updated illustrations, but something about the grotesqueness and the character's disregard for cruelty made them more unnerving. Like looking for Misao's clothes isn't as impacting as... the original things we were looking for. Because it felt more important as we pieced the story of Misao's life, we were also piecing her body together once again.

mad father has been a HUGE part of me since i was at least 8 years old back in 2013. im 19 now and its insane how huge the game has suddenly gotten, or rather how old doll is becoming more popular with people who never laid eyes on the game. till this day both mad father and misao hold such a dear place in my heart, i just wished sen made more games that connect with eachother. but overall jrpg horror games are such a huge reason why i like the things now, it might be nostalgia talking but i wish i could go back and experience these for the first time again

As others have said, Ogre, of which earns his name from "Oni" in Onigawara (his name in his appearance in Misao roughly translating to Protecting Demon) is an inhuman(?) entity, almost like a puppet master, alongside a girl named Ms. Library that looks strangely like Aya's more grown-up form. He appears in books in Aya and her dad's room as the Red-Eyed Stranger, and, while the wiki has people literally editing it to say "he's not a demon, trust me i know", I don't trust them as we LITERALLY WATCH HIM TELEPORT in Mad Father. He's a massive anomaly, and he *MISAO SPOILERS* Disappears from the Student Council room he occupies at the end of Misao where, when asking about him, there's "nobody of that name in the student council". Overall, cool character, until you touch IF mode of Mad Father and watch him Jojo's all over the place.

I remember writing a fanfiction about this game where the true ending where she becomes like her dad. I never finished it but it was supposed to be about her confronting her horrible actions. I was a teenager so it was probably horrible but i always wanted a kind of redemption for Aya or an clean ending where the crimes stopped

I'm surprised no one brought up the fact that the House was Monika's so canonly a Sugar Mama for Aya's Dad. Dude tried to take her out and she was like "I can make him worse" 😘

Reading the words 'Mad Father' immediately brought me back to my childhood watching Pewdiepie in the dead of night in a sleepover, especially with other titles such as IB and Amnesia.

20:06 i’m pretty sure it’s supposed to imply that the mother was giving ayane dangerous weapons to be like her father 1:04:57 i’m pretty sure the implication is she’s getting worse as the years go by so tho Jean may not have suffered that doesn’t mean that the patients after her did. It is a Curse after all

not me having a crush on ogre and the boy with the missing eye when i was younger and played this for the first time

One, I never knew that there was a Remake for the original game, so let's get that out of the way first. 2nd, even without the remake's backstory of Mother (no idea what her name is, so just going with that) there were a couple of things that hinted that she wasn't as innocent as we thought. She always knew about Father's experiments since he's not exactly quiet about what he does with the only reason she's even disturbed being when Maria and Father were with each other. Like when she found out about the cheating, she looked inside that room and instead of being horrified about what was inside, she was just mad about the cheating. And since Aya seems used to it, it means that this has gone on..... most likely since Aya was born. And especially since with the amount of people that were in the mansion, there is no way in hell that she didn't know about those people. They came in and just never came back out? Yeah, no way she didn't know about anything going on with Father's experiments. Even at the end when Mother was talking about the horrible things that Father did, even back in the day, it didn't make much sense to me. Why would she say those things like "do you know how much harm Father has done?" and "do you really want him to continue his work?" (obviously paraphrasing here). First thought was "wait, didn't you already know about these things? Why would you be saying these things as if you were horrified on what he did since you didn't even blink about the experiments on the, admittedly, only scene we got of her 'finding out'"? Those questions kind of burned into my mind for a few months before I forgot them. And seeing this video and that scene again, the reason, I think, is because both Mother and Father think that Aya is an innocent little girl that wasn't corrupted by their own sick desires. Father wanted to transform her into a doll to keep that innocence, and Mother thought that by manipulating her into remembering the innocent people that Father harmed, Aya would let her take Father for herself. With neither of them realizing that the innocence they both see in Aya hasn't been there for some time if you read between the lines of what's going on in game with her interactions. Sorry for this loooong typin' but just my view on Mother's own desires just taking into account the original game, not the remake. Edit: Ah, paused the video at the perfect time of writing this. Lol. Basically pointed out the same things I did, as well as others.......... and better............ rip.

i'm so glad you covered a rpg classic! i remember watching lets plays when i was younger on titles such as ib, the witch's house (remains top tier), and many others! it feels nostalgic and i do wish the rpg scene makes a comeback (i've seen some games being marketed on tiktok which is super cool but often are underrated/not as hyped

I love how you went on the little details between the original and remake and going over the story (with non-canon and canon endings) as well as some of the backstory about each of the characters that are vaguely important. I really hope you plan on doing a video for Misao for the story and the hidden connection between the two. I know there's a certain dialogue that happens when you pick a certain name for a certain librarian in Misao

Im really glad to see you making non-fnaf content. Not that your fnaf stuff is bad or anything, i just wanna see you talk about other stuff too.

The "Thanks... Missus..." lives rent free in my head (ha) ever since I played the original game

You should go over the “Welcome to the Game” series

Perhaps this is Aya's way of remembering what happened. As was asked of her, to not forget them.

Ahem, *nerd voice* actually- As far as I remember, there were kind of three versions of the game? I played all three, even before the second and the third, a remake, came out Or you may consider the second one an update to the first one There were some major changes to some of the graphics in between the first and the second version that make them kind of stand out from one another, like changes to Aya’s portraits and changing an aggressive one-eyed corpse that you need to imprison to a doll, which then followed into the third version

I never thought that a Japanese style rpg game be terrifying BTW Insomnic your are the best youtuber

Amazing deep dive video. Did not expect this old masterpiece to show up in my feed again. The multilayers storytelling in this was insane for an rpgmaker game. I didn’t play the remake but I definitely agree that while the design toned down the horror, changing them to dolls is a much better choice narratively.

Will you cover Misao as well? There's a lot lore implication in it as (I think) it plays after the game. We not only the Father and the bald guy again but also a replica of Aya!

39:43 "Kono Dio Da!"

I remembered being introduced to RPG Maker Horror during PewDiePie's hayday hehehe

I actually love horror RPGs so to see a video essay on mad father HYPES ME UP. IB NEXT??? WITCHES HOUSE???

i had the biggest crush on dio

Bro you just unlocked the door of nostalgia Your voice reminds me of Aventurine

Thank you for making video about this game, I've played both original versions of Mad Father and Misao many years ago and they stuck in my head forever. Few years ago I bought remakes of both games and really enjoy it too, especially new Misao. I really hope that in the near future you gonna make video about Misao definitive edition. People need more content about these games, so again thank you !!!

Watching Aya Drevis realize that she had become a monster reminded me of EndRoll, except with a bittersweet motion that she'll continue living with Maria until her number's up. The bloodline of her family definitely ends with her unfortunately in order to truly break the family curse.

This was so good!! I'm currently doing research on a lot of beloved rpg maker horror, and this was a huge help. I can't believe how many differences there are in the remake!! Also did not expect how much nostalgia that chainsaw sound would hit me with LMAO

This has always been my favorite rpg maker horror, i love that ur covering it, my favorite rpg maker horror mixed with one of my favorite commentary channels is great

I know I am late, but it seems like the rumors back then of playing as Dio(robin) was true. Only as a lore implication however, but what's interesting was you'd play as him trying to stop Aya? I guess this was scrapped

That was an AMAZING video, thank you for reviving so many memories!

This, Misao, and Ib were the first RPG horror games I managed to get working on my pc (I was a kid/tween) and I remember being so happy (my old pc wasnt exactly the best thing, it could barely run VRchat without crashing). I remember adoring all 3 games stories so much, hell when I came back for the remake I almost completely remembered a few of the puzzles even after I think 6 or 7 years

I loved this. I hope that if your channel ever stops focusing mostly on FNAF videos (this is not "Do not make this thing that I do not care about" - please continue to do what brings you joy. While it does not bring *me* joy, things do not need to be for *me* and I can guarantee many people find joy in your FNAF work) and branches out into the wider range of horror games, that it shows back up in my feed some day. This deep dive was an absolute delight.

i just wanna say before even getting 5 minutes in how much i appreciate the amount of effort you put into this, mad father was not only the first horror game i had ever gotten into, but the first game i had ever seen a lets play of as a kid. it led to me finding other rpg horror games like ib, misao, witchs house, yume nikki, etc and it sparked my love of the genre in general, im so happy to see content still being made about it :)

Mad Father was one of the first Indie Horror games besides FNAF that I ever saw! It led to a trend of indie horror game protagonists (Goldia, Passion Fruit Sissi, Viola, Esther, etc.)

I luv ur voice... Ican feel so much joy in it when you get genuinelly exited... and I love mad father so this video was a huge treat, wish there was more about the creator, but alas, leangauge barriers

I've heard of this game but never played it. Still really loved the analysis! You're obviously very passionate about this game, and your voice is so soothing to listen to.

Great video! This has brought me so much nostalgia... I didnt know abt the other rutes! so it was a nice surprise

Man, that scalpel attack is just not deadly at all

mad father has always been one of my childhood games since i was a child, but i only remembered the main parts of the lore so thank you for making this vid where i can actually understand how beautiful this game truly is (i didn't even know the mother was also psycho)

What you forgive in others you will become, Aya was never gonna be normal seeing all that suffering and going "Oh shit! Well anyway..." lmfao

Kinda sounds like the mysterious guy had a *whole lot* in common with the mother, right down to her decision to hide in plain sight as the perfect mom, trying to quietly influence Aya so her dad wouldn't catch on and try to take her away. It's *her* family's mansion and forbidden research, so I would not be even a little bit surprised if he *was* a demon summoned (or attracted) by the people who worshiped him in the basement, and her male ancestor. Just kind of hanging around, observing and/or fucking with the weird people she and his other descendants bring home. The mother may have a good bit of him in her, and watching him her whole life may have shaped her.

Thank you for taking the time to create this! I enjoyed learning more about this game and your speculations and commentary were very thought provoking. Good job!

I want to forget what I've just watched so I could rewatch this video again. This game is so gooood, your naration is so so goood. thank you so much for covering this game. it was very interesting. have a nice day anyone who reads this and Insomniac Loser XO

An RPG MAKER video? My obligatory comment to say IB WAS THE BEST!

thank you sm for making this video abt such a niche love and memory from my childhood :)

My favorite ending was the turned into a doll ending, but that's mostly couse I was into hunted mansion and I had a head cannon where Ida and Dean can be together if they're both dead.

16:48 Personally, I think that the large pile of cursed flesh is a bit over the top and silly for a game like this one.

i would love you to talk about ib it was my absolute favorite. i think you would like it since you like mad father.

Absolutely love how you explain everything and your story telling! You can really tell in your voice how much you like this game!

Great blast to the past. Please cover Misao and Ib too! Great parts of my childhood.

This game and Ib live rent free in my head as core parts of my childhood. Would love to see you talk about Ib too!

I loved Mad Father as a kid!! I still randomly sing the fanmade song from time to time actually lol. It's cool to see this pop up in my May 19th 2024 bingo card too! I need to play the updated version of this game, it looks so good and I'm glad the creator gave the age an updated version for us to play years later.

i love that u used songs from undertale in the bg. undertale is my all time favorite game and mad father is in my top 10

Hey snowball loving peers, happy to report I now have a sweet bunny that looks just like snowball. white rabbits are the sweetest.

mad father has been engraved in my mind since the first time I discovered it, it still greatly inspires my art, there's this quality about it I hold very dear to my heart

IB was my childhood game I never got to play until the switch release of the remake mad father and one shot are on my list of games to get hope misao gets added as well

Mad Father, Misao, Ib (if that is considered horror?), The witch house, Yume Nikki, Ao Oni....these JRPG horror era was GOLDEN for me

Had a terrible day, this video cheered me up. Your way of storytelling is really captivating :))

I didn't even know there was a remake, I'm loving this video so far ❤

I remember watching a play though of this when I was a kid, it was one of those “I know you exist, but I cannot recall your name” it wonderful to actually see it again. It scared me so much when I was young. But I now love horror! And I’m gonna sit down and play it myself.

Actually secretly replacing pets is fairly common. A friend of mine as a kid had an oddly long lived Guinea Pig. It was brown and apparently her parents ensured the replacement had the same fur colour and size so as a kid she never noticed. Her pet just went on a trip sometimes until her parents found one that was similar enough.

thanks for making this video it was fun

Excellent vid, loved this game especially among many good RPG Maker horrors of the era. Never realized Misao was made by the same developer!

Dio caught me off guard ngl

i love your videos !! your voice is entertaining and relaxing to listen to :)

I had a presentation the previous semester and decided to pick Mad Father as the topic. No joke I played EVERY SINGLE ONE of the versions this game ever had, just to see the difference. I played them more than 30+ times to the point I was speedrunning the game because I was running out of time to write my presentation🤣still love the game tho!, my favorites alongside the witch's house.

If you want more answers to the mysteries that take place in Mad Father, it might be worth checking out Misao. Mild spoiler warning, but Ogre appears in that game too, though going by the name “Onigawara” this time. Alongside him, a character named “Library” accompanies him, who is _very_ strongly implied to be one of the Doctor’s Aya clones. Library even lets you pick a different name for her, and if you pick the name “Aya”, she mentions that only her father calls her that. Despite Misao coming first, it seems to set up a shared universe ( or multiverse ) between itself and Mad Father. Even moreso when you consider the similarities between the events in both games; particularly that they’re based on stories centered around a vengeful spirit inflicting a curse on those who wronged them, which changes the surrounding area into a horrifying twisted nightmare world. There are even more glaring similarities and parallels, but I’ll leave that unspoiled. Point being, Misao and Mad Father parallel each other to the degree that you can make a lot of inferences of what happened in Mad Father based on the events of Misao, particularly where the mechanics of their respective curses are concerned

Are you gonna do a video on Misao one day? It was great listening to you talk here :))

I never ever forgot this game.

not me just finding out there ever was a remake... im sooooo nostalgic abt the original

I would love to see you do an in depth review like this one about Misao.

Horror is much more reliant on atmosphere than other genres. Atmosphere requires actual creative work that AAA studios usually don’t care about anymore. The graphics being too good can actually be a detriment because it leaves less for your mind to fill in and no matter what the devs create it’ll never be as terrifying as the horrors your mind comes up with to fill in the blanks

In the IF lore dump? That green doll that stops Dio outside? It looks exactly like the one that was talking to young Aya before at 30:46. Judging how it jumped from behind the tree for Dio it was likely behind one of those pillars and I wonder if Father had tasked it to watch her. Sad to see Monika is a hybristophiliac..

That's one of your best videos, i liked 24 videos in my life and that's the 25ft i'm liking. I want to have as little videos as possible in my liked videos playlist, to put only the deserving ones.

The horror game equivalent of a studio ghibli movie

The way you grabbed my attention with the undertale music

I absolutely love mad father, i used to watch my older sister play it when I was like 8... The zombies scared me but I still loved watching her play it.

After watching this recap i gotta say I absolutely love this horror game and i wish i would of plated it myself❤❤

Could you do mermaid swamp?

Lmaooo you trying to use the chainsaw on cryptic old bathtub man killed me

Haven't heard of this game since it was cool like 10 years ago, pretty interesting seeing everything summarized here.

I just found this and as far as bald demons existence in the game didnt the old man/ or diarys (i forgot already) state that monika summoned him?

I wish someone would do a deep dive on Sen. I went to a website he had that was in all Japanese but there wasn't any new information when i used a translation extension. I'm confused why instead of a third game of a final showdown between dio, Aya, Father, and Ogre he just remade his games and left.