lucid-dreamworld

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Yume 2kki and Memories part ii: The Ocean

Most of the planet is underwater, and much of that ocean remains unexplored. The ocean is a symbol for the unknown, the unexplained, what we can’t see below the surface. All of life originated here, yet very little is known about it. For these reasons, analytical psychology uses the symbol of the sea to represent the unconscious. The unconscious is the deepest part of the mind, where long-forgotten or repressed memories dwell. This ocean in the mind contains everything not accessible to our conscious self, and even if we aren’t able to examine these ideas while awake, our dreams definitely can.

There are many underwater or otherwise water themed areas in Yume 2kki, but I thought of two that I think explore this theme really well. I didn’t notice when I decided, but both maps are by the same author, 20, who is the director of the entire project, and responsible for a ton of different maps. 

Most underwater areas in the game follow a progression from a shallow or beach like map down to a darker ocean floor. This serves as an illustration of travelling deeper into the dreamworld (and thus, deeper into the unconscious), as the water gets deeper the further you are from the nexus. 

Atlantis is the closest water area to the nexus, and leads to a few other oceanic maps. Travelling through Atlantis leads to the Underwater Amusement Park, which, judging by the colors and lighting, is in the deep sea. This area is a combination of whimsical and childlike, with some very eerie elements. To me, this reads as a pocket of childhood memories (good and bad) buried in Urotsuki’s unconscious. In one game event, the fun carnival atmosphere is juxtaposed with scary clowns, trapped children, and dead bodies. This dream very clearly becomes a nightmare, and whatever traumatic memories this dream is referencing are locked up in this childlike area of the unconscious. 

The event I find more interesting in the Underwater Amusement Park is what you see only after you’ve seen everything else in the area. After doing all you can do here, a sign on the way out will read Sayonara. Interacting with it shows you the Lonely event, in which a child version of Urotsuki stands in the crowd while faceless strangers pass by. This is a sad childhood memory, very reminiscent of the feelings of loneliness reflected throughout the game. This entire map seems to be a repository of childhood memories, locked away in the unconscious due to the fear and sadness they may inspire. For this reason, they’re deep in the ocean in the dreamworld. 

Next, we have the Ocean Floor. Only reached via submarine, this area is empty and dark. Submarines are a classic tool and symbol for exploring the ocean, so needing one to reach this level of the unconscious makes sense. It’s a probe we can use to travel deeper and reach somewhere we may not have otherwise. 

The Ocean Floor is very different from the Amusement Park, because instead of resembling any one place, it’s an empty space void of buildings, only populated by hands reaching from the floor, rocks, and tentacle-like plants. There are no other people or creatures here. Scattered around the world are some symbolic objects, like a tentacle, a bed, and a broken bike. 

A bike is a classic symbol of childhood. One of the first tastes of freedom and control many children get is when they’re able to ride a bike around the neighborhood, and bike riding is commonly a part of idyllic childhood memories. That same bike broken and abandoned can then represent childhood’s end. Given how bent out of shape the one in Urotsuki’s dream is, it was probably an abrupt and unsettling end, so our metaphorical crushed bike sinks into the desolate ocean, and that memory is lost to the unconscious, only to be drawn up again in a dream. 

The most important object on the Ocean Floor is the puppet theater. It appears empty until the Child or Stretch effects are used. Using the Child effect causes Urotsuki to appear on the stage, surrounded by shadowy figures similar to those from the other event. Two figures face each other while Urotsuki stands in the middle. Whether this represents a specific occurrence like a divorce (another huge and abrupt end to childhood innocence) or the same lonely life that we saw in the previous event, we are now face to face with an inner, childlike version of ourselves. This is the most important thing to be found in the ocean in Yume 2kki. All of these memories of a broken or painful childhood, hidden out of the reach of the conscious mind.

The unconscious holds everything we can’t remember, whether it’s forgotten due to time or repressed due to trauma. Traveling deeper underwater leads us into these parts of the unconscious, showcasing memories not normally accessible. These examples of hidden memories underwater in Yume 2kki give us great insight into Urotsuki’s character and things that may have happened in her past. 

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What your favourite game says about you 

“Rpg-Maker (and similars!) version“

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Yume 2kki and Memories part i: Wataru, Nostalgia, Decay

Maybe it would be smarter to make the first post about Yume Nikki itself instead of a fan game, and while I absolutely adore the original, this one part of Yume 2kki is on my mind so frequently that while thinking of game topics to talk about, it had to be the first thing on the list. 

For anyone who doesn’t know, Yume Nikki is an rpgmaker game about exploring the dreams of a girl stuck in her room. You can’t do much in the waking world, but falling asleep allows you access to Madotsuki’s subconscious, and its a surreal and creepy character study of what dreams show you about the dreamer. 

This game spawned a ton of fan games, focusing on different protagonists with entirely new dreamworlds to explore. The most vast of these fan games is Yume 2kki, a multi-creator project by 2chan. Many different creators contribute their own dreamworlds, creating a massive dreamworld spanning so many different vibes and art styles. While lacking one concise direction or story, like most of the other fan games, most creators have a distinct feel to their areas. Instead of reading deep into one subconscious as in the original, 2kki feels more like dipping into some sort of collective subconscious and finding pockets that speak to you. 

Different parts of the game have entirely different feelings, and many creators seem to be telling their own stories. There are a few very different locations in the game that really resonate with me, however, and so it felt fitting to talk about different segments of this game in different posts. 

The first 2kki creator I want to talk about is my absolute favorite, Wataru. They’re credited with 32 maps on the Yume 2kki wiki, all of which have the same themes: abandonment, nostalgia, and decay. Their worlds are full of beautiful antique architecture, overgrown Victorian gardens, and a blend of mechanical and organic elements. 

I love liminal spaces. My relationship to the liminal is one of the most important overarching themes in my life. Exploring and illuminating the discomfort that comes with ambivalence, and transforming it into something positive, is part of what I would consider as my life’s work. And Wataru’s worlds are FULL of liminal spaces, so it seems natural I would gravitate so strongly to them. Really, all of these exploration type games are full of liminal spaces by nature, but the bridges, tunnels, boats, and train tracks in Wataru’s work stand out to me especially.

The biggest theme, however, in this area of the game is the passage of time, and looking back on the past. Most of the areas are familiar, everyday places, with an overlay of grime, decay, damage, and overgrowth. Returning to a beloved place and finding it unfamiliar now, and nothing like how you left it, is a right of passage on every journey, demonstrating how much you yourself have changed as well. 

Wataru’s worlds form a mostly complete chain, starting with full detailed towns and apartment complexes, and gradually decaying to more symbolic areas, such as the Cosmic World (a mishmash of Wataru’s other assets with a neon flashing color scheme), or the Square Ruins (made up of many different architectural elements combined nonsensically into one maze-like area). The end of this journey is the Depths, a serene area deep underwater. The sea commonly represents the subconscious, or what “lies below the surface”, but that’s a story for another day. 

Our dreams draw heavily on memories, and, in the mind’s sleepy attempt to make sense of complicated issues, draw on familiar things, people, and spaces to make sense of our cognitions. This code of symbols ends up a little different for everyone, based on our differences in experience, but a lot is based in common cultural experience as well (this is how the symbolism in a tarot deck works, by drawing on archetypes and themes common throughout culture, to create a universally understood representation of a concept!). While dreams are very customized to the dreamer, in a work of fiction, I think it’s reasonable to use the more general interpretations of symbols to try and figure out what is being communicated. 

In the waking world, one tends to look back on fondly remembered places of the past with rose-colored glasses. Going back to revisit memories from childhood and finding out how much they, and you, have diverged from that last collective memory is one of the most powerful indicators of the passage of time we can experience.  For me, the version of myself that I was at a certain point is very deeply entwined with my environment, and seeing that environment broken down, overgrown, shut down, or damaged is always shocking, because I know that much change is mirrored in myself as well, just not surface visible in the way it is on an old house. 

If different aspects of ourselves “live” in different memories of physical spaces, dreaming of those spaces in this decrepit state is symbolic of an abandonment of those states, those goals or aspects of our personality that were so significant during each point. As the maps themselves decay from clear and complete areas to messier, illogical worlds, it’s as if we travel deeper into memories, to places and events more forgotten. And then, the journey ends in the Depths of the subconscious.

This symbolism makes complete sense to me, as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about my place in time and space. This interpretation makes Wataru’s worlds feel so much like a real dream to me, with a linear progression and overarching theme. 

Or maybe I just like it because of the swan boats. I really love swan boats. 

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How long will I maintain this blog trying to sound smart (which is the goal!) before it devolves into just gushing about loving a bunch of rpgmaker games??? idk but posts coming soon