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This post will now haunt me forever in my nightmares. I’ve been having nightmares about Takofuusen for 3 nights straight. Well, at least it was worth it.

Hope you enjoy!

Yume Nikki and it's unique open-for-interpretation mechanic

Hello everybody! I am here again with a new post, and this time it’s to speak about the unique kind of storytelling of an indie RPG videogame characterized not for a clear story, but rather for having a gameplay and a hidden plot full of secrets and elements left for fan interpretation, with nothing being quite confirmed yet not being denied either, leaving it to be an intriguing game and a suitable space for passionate fans who like to theorize and make interpretations of it without never really getting any confirmations to the mysteries surrounding the game.

And it’s creator is just as mysterious as it’s creation, since we know nothing about them other than they made this game and their “name” (which it’s not even certain to be their actual name and it could be nothing but a simple nickname): Kikiyama. And said game, is Yume Nikki.

SPOILER WARNING.

For anyone who hasn’t played Yume Nikki yet, I highly recommend that you go play it first and then come back to read this essay. If you haven’t played but still wanna read, then that’s your problem bud. Without anything else to say, we may procceed.

CONTENT WARNING. In this essay there will be mentions of heavy topics such as s*xu4l assault, 4b*rti*n, depression, car accidents, death, and others. If you are quite sensitive to these kind of things, I’d suggest not reading this text. If you decide to continue anyways, then read under your own risk. You have already been warned.

Yume Nikki’s title screen. 

What is Yume Nikki?

Yume Nikki is an indie RPG videogame made made back then in 2004 by the Japanese developer Kikiyama, using the game engine RPG Maker 2003. The game contains llittle to no elements of a traditional RPG videogame, and it has been described by some as an example of an early “walking-simulator” since the game it’s mainly focused in the exploration of a dream world via the protagonist, Madotsuki (窓付き, lit. windowed).

Our protagonist is a young girl who is implied to be a hikikomori (someone who lives reclused, isolated from the outside world) given the fact that when you try to get her to walk out of her  room, she will shake her head, showing us she doesn’t want to go outside. Not much can be done while you’re inside in her room, other than go to the balcony and play the minigame NASU in the Famicom device Madotsuki has in her room.

Madotsuki in her room.

We can also get her to go to her bed, to sleep, and here is where the fun begins: we wake up in the dream world, and our objective here is to collect all of the 24 effects which we can find across the realm. As we walk looking for the effects, we will explore this strange, bizarre world inside of Madotsuki’s mind which will makes us ask ourselves more than once: What does all of this mean? We are in Madotsuki’s subconscious, but what is her subconscious trying to tell us? What do these NPCs, these weird scenarios, flashy images, the effects and events, what do all of these are trying to tell us?

We don’t really know what’s going on inside and that’s what has brought us to the point I’m about to cover:

Fan interpretation.

The story of the game isn’t quite clear if you are trying to follow a lineal order in the game: that simply doesn’t exist. As for a background story, while the game clearly doesn’t show a background story or origins, if you pay attention to the dream world and begin connecting the dots you can guess a lot about how Madotsuki’s past was and we can theorize on how she ended up being a hikikomori in the first place.

And here’s where fan interpretation comes and does its work: 

based on what the game gives us and the etymologies and references where every single thing comes from: the fans simply don’t forget about the details that easily.

I will use the case of these 4 images as an example:

Kyuukyuukun in the Stairway, a strange event which occurs when you stab the zippertile in the Number World.

Madotsuki and Masada-sensei, in the spaceship, a special event in-game.

Madotsuki and Mars-san, triggered by the spaceship crash event.

Takofuusen in the White Desert, an event that only happens in one of 3600 chances. If you see it, then consider yourself extremely lucky (or unlucky).

Kyuukyuu-Kun and Madotsuki’s abuse trauma.

The first image shows us an NPC known as Kyuukyuu-kun (キュッキュ君, キュッキュくん, Kyukkyu-kun, named after the Japanese onomatopoeia of the rubbing noise) which is characterized by its peculiar form and its creepy smile. Something characteristic from this figure is that when you enter the room where it is located, you will find him rubbing the railing of a stair. If you use the cat effect on Madotsuki, Kyuukyuu-kun will rub it slower, and if you use the knife effect, it will rub the railing faster.

The thing itself… if you take this to interpretation it turns out to be really disturbing.

These are what we can take as “canon facts” and honestly? There’s not much we can really get if we just pick these facts and don’t analyze it in depth.

Now, here is what we can get if we analyze these facts plus other implicit stuff in-game, via fan interpretation:

Kyuukyuu-kun possesses rather a phallic form, similar to the masculine genitalia, and to enter the Stairway zone you need to enter through an specific zippertile in the number world. This, added to the fact that he possesses a creepy smile and that he seems to rub the railing only when Madotsuki moves, is usually interpreted by fans as Madotsuki having some sort of trauma related to sexual abuse, with this figure being an oneiric representation of Madotsuki’s abuser.

Masada-sensei, Mars-san and the symbolism of a repressed memory of a train accident of someone Madotsuki knew

In the second image, we can appreciate a character standing along with our protagonist, in front of a grand piano, along with a table with two chairs that can be found in the room, and a big window that allows you to see into space. This character, known as Sentimental Komuro Michael Sakamoto Dada-sensei (センチメンタル小室マイケル坂本ダダ先生, or simply Masada, or Seccom Masada)is found when you go down the staircase of hands, walk past the elevator and extinguish the fire at the end of the room, gaining access to the underground world and entering the spaceship where this NPC is located. In game, all we can know is that he makes a robotic noise when you interact with him. If the cat effect is used, he will approach Madotsuki, and when the knife effect is used, he will move away (and when he moves we can play the piano key that he is standing in front of).

Going to the right side, there is a room with a bed in his spaceship where Madotsuki can sleep, and this can trigger an even which is possible in 1 of 6 possibilities: the Mars crash. This happens if Madotsuki sleeps in his bed and after a while when she awakes, the spaceship will have an alarm, as it falls rapidly. When we go back to check on Masada, he will be panicking and the sound he emits is higher-pitched than usual.

                         Poor Masada… 

The game plays a cutscene of the spaceship finally crashing in Mars and here when after exploring for a while, we get to interact with Mars-San: a blue figure with a crying eye.

Mars-san.

Aside from getting it to make a sound when interacted with him, Madotsuki can stab him, making him to change his eye color to green and blue. Stabbing him again will cause his eye color to go back to normal.

                          Mars-san when stabbed.

Again, basing ourselves on only what the canon gives us, there’s not really much to say about, other than the already explained. Now, using the interpretation, there’s a lot to talk about, and basing on what the canon gives us, the fans have come to theorize that Masada-sensei used to be Madotsuki’s piano teacher, who had with her something more than just a teacher-student relationship (which could be hinted by the fact that there’s a bed in Masada’s spaceship and Madotsuki sleeps on it), and while it is unsure what kind of relationship they had (either a platonic, romantic or a sexual relationship), it is assured that Madotsuki cared about him.

Now, the spaceship crash event, Mars-san’s form resembling to a leg and the fact that in order to reach him you have to fall asleep in three different beds (real life bed, one of the dream world’s beds and the spaceship’s bed)would mean Madotsuki would be dreaming inside of a dream which is also inside of another dream. This could mean that the character represents a repressed memory in Madotsuki’s subconscious.

The machinery surrounding Mars-san seems very train-resembling like, and putting all the pieces together, one of the most popular interpretations is that Masada-san had a train accident and Madotsuki was a part of it (directly involved or not, she definitely saw it), and since she cared about Masada, this incident caused her a trauma that went repressed in the depths of her mind (in here, Mars-san is one of Masada’s injured legs after the accident… this is a personal interpretation here lmao sorry), as it was an extremely painful experience for her.

Takofuusen, TRAP Syndrome, and abortion.

Finally for this post, we will go with the last image: Takofuusen  (たこ風船, タコ風船, 凧風船, Octopus Balloon or Kite Balloon), a random event in Yume Nikki named after the character with the same name, which as I stated earlier, it’s the event with the most rare probabilities of happening. If it happens, consider yourself extremely lucky (or unlucky, depends of your perception).

What do we canonically know about Takofuusen? 

Well. Basically nothing.

We know it has a very weird shape, we know it appears randomly in one of 3600 chances, we know it makes some weird sound when it flies across the white desert and that’s it.

                             Come on man… you can’t say to me this doesn’t look creepy. Or disturbing. Or at least weird.

And now, with the star of the show: interpretation.

Takofuusen has been called out for having a shape which has a disturbing resemblance to a case of Twin Reversed Arterial Perfusion syndrome, aka TRAP syndrome, a malformation of monochromic (identical) twins (and the white desert -including Takofuusen itself- is full of NPCs that are characterized for being all monochrome) which curiously only happens in 1 of every 36.000 pregnancies (and Takofuusen event happens in 1 of 3.600 chances, are you connecting the dots yet?) WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGE AHEAD.

Picture of monochromic twins with TRAP syndrome. The resemblance is… scarily insane in my opinion.

So what’s the theory here? The fans speculate that Madotsuki could have been pregnant (which is implied by other elements in the game too) and Takofuusen could either be the representation of her fear of a malformation, or the fact that she was pregnant AND unfortunately the malformation was there, which led her to have an abortion.

It’s also speculated that this could be Madotsuki’s unborn brother/siblings, who due to the (implied) car accident of her parents, the baby developed the malformation and eventually died.

Alright. We have seen the examples. Now, what’s my point here?

Look at how much we get only if we stay in canon. And now look how much lore and story we get if we begin doing interpretation of the game. I think it’s very interesiting how Kikiyama left us to be the ones to do the research without ever getting clear answers from them, because we are the ones who need to get the answers on our own.

I could speak for hours about this topic with more examples, but for now I’ll just leave it there, or it’s gonna be wayyy too long. Plus, I will invite you to make your own interpretations of the game, share them with me even.

With nothing else to say, I conclude this essay.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope you have enjoyed it, and if I get motivated (and don’t get disturbed while writing) I might even make a second part.

Hope you have a good day! See you next time.

- Beatriz Aqueveque Henríquez.