Yume Nikki

is a freeware video game, created by Kikiyama with RPG Maker 2003, and has become quite popular throughout several internet communities.

Plot/Synopsis
Yume Nikki is about a young girl named Madotsuki who lives in her room and has strange and typically unnerving dreams. Throughout the game, as the child, you must explore her dream world and collect different effects. The game is an exploration game, so it up to the player to decide where to go and what to do once they get there. Although the game does have a rather depressing ending, it is completable, but to do this one must find all twenty-four of the effects in the game. However, the ending is often considered 'hidden' to novices to the game, because there is no instructions (besides outside help and the in-game flowchart) on what to do, and there is little linearity in the game to begin with.

While in the format of an RPG, Yume Nikki's gameplay has more in common with adventure games. Some areas are not initially accessible until the character is able to use a particular effect, and using effects around NPCs may cause the NPC do something different or change into something else. However, beyond effects, Madotsuki typically can't interact with NPCs. Most NPCs can't talk and those that do yield nothing useful when talking to them.

At the same time, it is more like a traditional RPG as well. The character herself does not react to any of the events in the game, so the character's reactions are entirely up to the player, whether to flee immediately or stick around and see what happens next and so on. She can also level up when she finds effects and can increase her HP, but these don't actually do anything gameplay-wise.

There is no way to actually die in the game, though 'enemies' do exist in the form of NPCs that teleport the player to inescapable areas. Most NPCs mean no harm to the player, though all but the actual enemy NPCs can be killed with the knife effect. The game also lacks negative statuses that actually affect gameplay.

Yume Nikki showcases the power and artistic medium that a simple tool such as RPG Maker can possess in the right hands, making it a very noteworthy title of RPG Maker 2003. It is also considered to be one of the scarier 2D games to be out for play, more for its psychological suspense built by the unexpected, rather than for the actual pixilated blood found in Madotsuki's dreams (such as, in one area, a dead man in the middle of the road. Normally, one would not be shaken by this, but due to tension caused by the 'unknown', it is made more shocking).

It also shows how the engine can emulate other genres, such as adventure games and classic arcade games, as the main character is able to play an example of the latter outside of her dream.

Trivia
*Madotsuki shows signs of being a Hikikomori. Attempting to leave her apartment outside of the dream world causes her to shake her head. There's also a sequence in her dreams where going into the door to her room in another part of the dream world besides the 'door hub' will result in a frightening event that forces the player out of the dream. The documentation of the game also notes that she has a psychological disorder that prevents her from being able to leave her room.
*Madotsuki might also have an interest in video games. A few areas reference Famicom games, particularly and various Famicom RPGs, and the Menu in the Famicom Worlds resemble Mother's menu system. Another area may reference Mother 2/Earthbound as well, though that might be more of a coincidence than a reference to the game.
*The game shares similar themes to the 1998 Playstation game LSD, mainly moving a character through a dream world with no real goal or mission other than to explore the dream, though Madotsuki is decidedly less abstract than the player's avatar in LSD.
*The game's title and the way the player saves the game strongly implies that Madotsuki keeps a dream journal.
*The lone 'negative' status effect in the game is that Madotsuki can sometimes wake up with a kink her her neck, which forces her to face her head to the right.
*Due to the spread of Yume Nikki through the internet and word of mouth, a large amount of fanart has been made of the game; mostly involving Madotsuki and the in-game "boss" Uboa.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu