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First of all, this game contains:
Extreme body horror, high amounts of blood and gore, themes of suicide and mental illness.
With that out the way,
Hello, Charlotte!
Hello Charlotte is an RPGmaker game series consisting of 3 mainline games and 2 spinoffs, one being a visual novel initially released in 2015 avaliable on itch.io and steam. All titles minus the episode 3 are for free, with the exception only costing $3.00. The games follow the titular character Charlotte Wiltshire and her life in the surreal environment she lives in called "The House" in the "False Realm". Throughout the games we learn about Charlotte, the other house tenants and the mysterious nature of The House as we follow one of the most confusing yet emotional stories i've exprienced. And as a quick note before i get into it all, this game is best exprienced blind so keep that in mind!! Im going to keep the first few sections as short as i can as i want to avoid getting into heavy spoilers until the end.
Episode 1, Junk Food, Gods and Teddy Bears:
Our first glimpse into the world of hello charlotte is a weird yet endearing one. While it may be rough around the edges with its gameplay, the weird puzzles and the amount of ways you can randomly die and lose all your progress if you forgot to save frequently, the magnificent artwork and the story being told was intriguing enough to keep me pushing through, and im so glad i did as it led me to discover a series i would never forget. In this game we are "Seth", a "Puppeteer" controlling Charlotte, a "Puppet", and everyone is well aware of this. We follow charlotte as she tries to look after one of the house tenants, Dr. Huxley's, nephew Felix as he ends up wandering into an alternate TV dimention. Throughout the tv world, there are different channels charlotte switches through as she tries to find an escape and ends up finding the remnants of a dying oracle. The oracle offers it's help and lets the two get back to the house safely and thats about where the game leaves off. There isn't much i can say about it as its my least favourite among the entries and it being only about an hour and a half long.
Episode 2, Requiem Aeternam Deo:
This game. This is the game that got me hooked to this series. It's my favourite one out the bunch by a MILE and the one i've replayed the most. The artwork, while still being amazingi in the first game, has gotten a HUGE imrpovement. The story is incredibly captivating and made me feel things no other piece of media has came close to. And the characters this time around feel so much more fleshed out, it even introduces some of the most important characters in the entire series. And while the enviorments and story may be odd and surreal, the emotions this game contains are all too real. You can feel the feelings, the thoughts and the pain Charlotte is feeling as it were your own, it's beautiful in a way i havent seen much before. The one negative thing i can even come close to saying about it is the introduction of combat, which only exists in this title. The "battles" are shown as socilization and dont serve that much of an importance, they dont take any skill nor time to get past and can sometimes be annoying as they happen out of nowhere, id advise anyone playing to just flee them any time they show up. But other than that Hello Charlotte Episode 2 stands as one of my favourite pieces of media ever made.
For the actual content of the game, we continue a few years after the ending of episode 1 where charlotte is starting to get plauged by the oracle that saved her last time. It goes by the name Frei and exists as an exentension of Charlottes mind. Aside from that, we follow Charlotte as she goes by her daily routie: Wake up, go to school, go back to sleep. At the new school location we meet two of the arguably most important characters in this series: C, and Anri. Anri is Charlottes best friend at school. On the other hand, C is a boy who claims to be the god of this world that Charlotte saves from almost being murdered by bullies. Another big element in the game is "The Trial" an annual event at the school where students that have "corrupted minds" get fixed. Throughout the game we see Charlotte as she tries to get closer to C, learn more about her inner self with Frei and try to keep herself together with the things that keep on happening to her at school. There are 3 main endings and an extra one that can be gotten earlier in the story. I wont get into the context of the endings but they really are the highlights of this game for me and what keeps me coming back. They're all so beautifully tragic that you can't help but feel the things that are being felt by Charlotte and thats what makes this game so special for me.
Episode 3, Childhood's End:
This is the weird one, the really weird one. The first thing i actually want to mention about this is how just FUNNY it is, so much that ive actually laughed out loud at it more than most other things. Comedy, especially in the style this game presents it was one of the last things i was initially expecting from this series but it somehow fits in so well that i love it. Moving on, the game has gotten a considerable visual upgrade again, with the art being cleaner and the overworld being handdrawn instead of pixel art for a good chunk of the runtime. The story has also gotten a lot more complicated here whereas the last 2 games were straightforward enough for what it is.
The first half of this game is titled "Episode 0" where we, again, follow Charlotte Wiltshire as she goes through her life in The House and her school. However, from the getgo its clear that this is not the Charlotte we've known up until now. The Charlotte we all knew and loved was kind, maybe too much for her own good this Charlotte is violent, cynical and does everything in her power to cause as much havoc as she can. We see her be the leader of a cult called "White Society" where she performs public executions every day and causes members to catch the white flu, an incurable disease. And the only person who tries to stop her is "Scarlett Eyler". Through Scarlett we're able to learn more about the True Realm and what lead to the creation of the False Realm. I don't want to get too much into what happens since its heavy spoilers but please trust me its insane.
After a certain event, the second half of the game and the real episode 3 begins, where we're shown another alternate reality where we're now controlling Scarlett Eyeler instead as she tries to find Charlotte, making her way to floor 1 of the house where she meets the other tenants, namely Felix. This is the point where the game felt like it had taken a dip for me, as the next good chunk of the game is going through different floors with different tenants in search of Charlotte while solving puzzles. I wouldn't consider them bad by any means but i did seem to enjoy the game more when the story was constantly progressing instead of taking a 40 minute break for puzzle solving but dont make this deter you from considering the game as its still an amazing exprience alltogether. After this section is over, the story majorly picks up again with showing some of the biggest plot twists and emotional moments in the entire series. This time there are only 2 endings, one where you "save" charlotte and one where you "don't save" her. I obviously won't go over what happens in them but both of them are beautiful and gut wrenching in their own ways.
general thoughts:
This is a weird series, made by weird people, for weird people. It's a very personal story. not everyone is going to enjoy it, i actually do think most people wont enjoy it but again, if you aren't deeply disturbed by the content the game may offer, don't make this deter you from trying it out. Who knows, maybe you'll end up finding your new favourite indie game. For the spinoffs, Hello Charlotte: Delirium is a fun little game with no relevance to anything made mostly as a little test while the creator was working on Episode 3, you can play it if you just want to see more of this world but you aren't missing out on much. On the other hand, i heavily recommend anyone who finished the first 3 games to check out the Heavens Gate visual novel. Its an alternate universe showing the life of Charles, Vincent and Anri. You'll have to see who these characters are yourself first!! My goal with this shrine was to get at least one new person to discover these beautiful games and experience what they have to offer, and i hope i achieve that one day.
Extreme body horror, high amounts of blood and gore, themes of suicide and mental illness.
With that out the way,
Hello, Charlotte!
Hello Charlotte is an RPGmaker game series consisting of 3 mainline games and 2 spinoffs, one being a visual novel initially released in 2015 avaliable on itch.io and steam. All titles minus the episode 3 are for free, with the exception only costing $3.00. The games follow the titular character Charlotte Wiltshire and her life in the surreal environment she lives in called "The House" in the "False Realm". Throughout the games we learn about Charlotte, the other house tenants and the mysterious nature of The House as we follow one of the most confusing yet emotional stories i've exprienced. And as a quick note before i get into it all, this game is best exprienced blind so keep that in mind!! Im going to keep the first few sections as short as i can as i want to avoid getting into heavy spoilers until the end.
Episode 1, Junk Food, Gods and Teddy Bears:
Our first glimpse into the world of hello charlotte is a weird yet endearing one. While it may be rough around the edges with its gameplay, the weird puzzles and the amount of ways you can randomly die and lose all your progress if you forgot to save frequently, the magnificent artwork and the story being told was intriguing enough to keep me pushing through, and im so glad i did as it led me to discover a series i would never forget. In this game we are "Seth", a "Puppeteer" controlling Charlotte, a "Puppet", and everyone is well aware of this. We follow charlotte as she tries to look after one of the house tenants, Dr. Huxley's, nephew Felix as he ends up wandering into an alternate TV dimention. Throughout the tv world, there are different channels charlotte switches through as she tries to find an escape and ends up finding the remnants of a dying oracle. The oracle offers it's help and lets the two get back to the house safely and thats about where the game leaves off. There isn't much i can say about it as its my least favourite among the entries and it being only about an hour and a half long.
Episode 2, Requiem Aeternam Deo:
This game. This is the game that got me hooked to this series. It's my favourite one out the bunch by a MILE and the one i've replayed the most. The artwork, while still being amazingi in the first game, has gotten a HUGE imrpovement. The story is incredibly captivating and made me feel things no other piece of media has came close to. And the characters this time around feel so much more fleshed out, it even introduces some of the most important characters in the entire series. And while the enviorments and story may be odd and surreal, the emotions this game contains are all too real. You can feel the feelings, the thoughts and the pain Charlotte is feeling as it were your own, it's beautiful in a way i havent seen much before. The one negative thing i can even come close to saying about it is the introduction of combat, which only exists in this title. The "battles" are shown as socilization and dont serve that much of an importance, they dont take any skill nor time to get past and can sometimes be annoying as they happen out of nowhere, id advise anyone playing to just flee them any time they show up. But other than that Hello Charlotte Episode 2 stands as one of my favourite pieces of media ever made.
For the actual content of the game, we continue a few years after the ending of episode 1 where charlotte is starting to get plauged by the oracle that saved her last time. It goes by the name Frei and exists as an exentension of Charlottes mind. Aside from that, we follow Charlotte as she goes by her daily routie: Wake up, go to school, go back to sleep. At the new school location we meet two of the arguably most important characters in this series: C, and Anri. Anri is Charlottes best friend at school. On the other hand, C is a boy who claims to be the god of this world that Charlotte saves from almost being murdered by bullies. Another big element in the game is "The Trial" an annual event at the school where students that have "corrupted minds" get fixed. Throughout the game we see Charlotte as she tries to get closer to C, learn more about her inner self with Frei and try to keep herself together with the things that keep on happening to her at school. There are 3 main endings and an extra one that can be gotten earlier in the story. I wont get into the context of the endings but they really are the highlights of this game for me and what keeps me coming back. They're all so beautifully tragic that you can't help but feel the things that are being felt by Charlotte and thats what makes this game so special for me.
Episode 3, Childhood's End:
This is the weird one, the really weird one. The first thing i actually want to mention about this is how just FUNNY it is, so much that ive actually laughed out loud at it more than most other things. Comedy, especially in the style this game presents it was one of the last things i was initially expecting from this series but it somehow fits in so well that i love it. Moving on, the game has gotten a considerable visual upgrade again, with the art being cleaner and the overworld being handdrawn instead of pixel art for a good chunk of the runtime. The story has also gotten a lot more complicated here whereas the last 2 games were straightforward enough for what it is.
The first half of this game is titled "Episode 0" where we, again, follow Charlotte Wiltshire as she goes through her life in The House and her school. However, from the getgo its clear that this is not the Charlotte we've known up until now. The Charlotte we all knew and loved was kind, maybe too much for her own good this Charlotte is violent, cynical and does everything in her power to cause as much havoc as she can. We see her be the leader of a cult called "White Society" where she performs public executions every day and causes members to catch the white flu, an incurable disease. And the only person who tries to stop her is "Scarlett Eyler". Through Scarlett we're able to learn more about the True Realm and what lead to the creation of the False Realm. I don't want to get too much into what happens since its heavy spoilers but please trust me its insane.
After a certain event, the second half of the game and the real episode 3 begins, where we're shown another alternate reality where we're now controlling Scarlett Eyeler instead as she tries to find Charlotte, making her way to floor 1 of the house where she meets the other tenants, namely Felix. This is the point where the game felt like it had taken a dip for me, as the next good chunk of the game is going through different floors with different tenants in search of Charlotte while solving puzzles. I wouldn't consider them bad by any means but i did seem to enjoy the game more when the story was constantly progressing instead of taking a 40 minute break for puzzle solving but dont make this deter you from considering the game as its still an amazing exprience alltogether. After this section is over, the story majorly picks up again with showing some of the biggest plot twists and emotional moments in the entire series. This time there are only 2 endings, one where you "save" charlotte and one where you "don't save" her. I obviously won't go over what happens in them but both of them are beautiful and gut wrenching in their own ways.
general thoughts:
This is a weird series, made by weird people, for weird people. It's a very personal story. not everyone is going to enjoy it, i actually do think most people wont enjoy it but again, if you aren't deeply disturbed by the content the game may offer, don't make this deter you from trying it out. Who knows, maybe you'll end up finding your new favourite indie game. For the spinoffs, Hello Charlotte: Delirium is a fun little game with no relevance to anything made mostly as a little test while the creator was working on Episode 3, you can play it if you just want to see more of this world but you aren't missing out on much. On the other hand, i heavily recommend anyone who finished the first 3 games to check out the Heavens Gate visual novel. Its an alternate universe showing the life of Charles, Vincent and Anri. You'll have to see who these characters are yourself first!! My goal with this shrine was to get at least one new person to discover these beautiful games and experience what they have to offer, and i hope i achieve that one day.
First, some history out the way,
Yume nikki is a 2004 RPGmaker game made and published by an indie developer only known as Kikiyama. The game was initially released on Vector, a Japanese freeware games website, and quickly gained popularity on the then famous message board 2Chan. The game received 10 infrequent updates up until 2007 and didn't gain an audience outside of the message board. It was not until the following year that a user on 4chan's /v/ created a choppy English translation of the game, which spread quickly across the board. Years down the line, in 2012, the game received an official English translation, followed by an official Steam release in 2018. Not much is known about the developer kikiyama, aside from the fact that they had a small page on a now defunct music sharing site before releasing the game. an archive of some of these old songs can be found here. From my knowledge, the only other time they have had a presence online was in a 2023 interview with Toby Fox where they only responded with yes and no, which can be read here.
But wait, whats a yume nikki?
Yume Nikki is a walking simulator, simple as that. To be more precise, it's an exploration game without combat, dialouge or a plot. In it you control the character Madotsuki, a seemingly shut in girl who refuses to do anything but play on her famicom, go out to the balcony, or sleep. The famicom has a single playable game called NASU where you, as a little red critter, jump to catch eggplants falling down the sky. Ignoring that, the real gameplay loop starts once you make Madotsuki go to sleep where shes then transported to the dream world. At first, it's identical to the place you started at with the main room and balcony but once you go out the door you'll find yourself in the nexus, a large, mostly empty, room with 12 new doors all leading to other in beautifully surreal evnironments. Now, you can let yourself get lost in the world of madotsuki's mind, exploring every little nook of her dreams going from room to room, door to door with seemingly infinite different paths and collecting unique effects that change how she looks or let you interact with the worlds around you. The game features 45 different worlds, 24 unique effects and 20 events to varying degrees of quality. It also contains some of the most immersive atmospheres ive ever seen in any game before.
And what do i think about it?
Evidently i LOVE yume nikki, hell most of this site was inspired by it and pretty much every page has at least one asset from it. The feeling of exploration, the unmatched atmosphere and the masterfully created pixel art makes for an unforgettable exprience that keeps me coming back even after ive spent so much time with it. I even still find stuff i hadnt seen once before on my revisits like did you know A SINGLE spesific candle in candle world turns into a yellow orb if you stab it??? And this is what i really love about it, its a never ending ride that i dont think ill ever get over. I like there being no apparent story too, it leaves trying to piece everything to the player and even if there isnt a story being alluded to through the subconscious of madotsuki, its still a fun time thinking about it and trying to piece it together. Another thing i like about yume nikki isnt something in the game itself, but how many fan projects it inspired, speaking of
If Yume Nikki is so good, why is there no Yume 2kki
I LOVE YUME 2KKI. I HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME FOR OVER 80 HOURS AND IT FEELS LIKE IVE ONLY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE. The sheer amount of QUALITY content Yume 2kki offers in geniuenly mind boggling and i truly believe it to be the greatest fan project of any game ever made. But first, what the hell is 2kki??
Yume 2kki is one of the endless amounts of yume nikki fangames created, being made by 2chan users in 2007. It's a collaborative yume nikki fangame which is still regularly updated to this day where anyone with the knowhow is able to submit their worlds to be added to the game. This, ofcourse, has resulted with the game now having well over 1500 maps and a huge active community passionate about the game. There was a time last summer where i was so obsessed with 2kki that for about 2 weeks all i would do was play the game and make fanart of the worlds i found. I especially like the author qxy's worlds, theyre created so beautifully that you forget youre playing a collaborative fangame from 2007. Id heavily advise for the game to be played on YNOproject which is a site that hosts yume nikki, 2kki and a lot of other fangames where you can play online with others. For me, having played 2kki entirely on YNO made it so much more enjoyable with the people i met along the way.
Closing thoughts, for now
play the game its literally free
Yume nikki is a 2004 RPGmaker game made and published by an indie developer only known as Kikiyama. The game was initially released on Vector, a Japanese freeware games website, and quickly gained popularity on the then famous message board 2Chan. The game received 10 infrequent updates up until 2007 and didn't gain an audience outside of the message board. It was not until the following year that a user on 4chan's /v/ created a choppy English translation of the game, which spread quickly across the board. Years down the line, in 2012, the game received an official English translation, followed by an official Steam release in 2018. Not much is known about the developer kikiyama, aside from the fact that they had a small page on a now defunct music sharing site before releasing the game. an archive of some of these old songs can be found here. From my knowledge, the only other time they have had a presence online was in a 2023 interview with Toby Fox where they only responded with yes and no, which can be read here.
But wait, whats a yume nikki?
Yume Nikki is a walking simulator, simple as that. To be more precise, it's an exploration game without combat, dialouge or a plot. In it you control the character Madotsuki, a seemingly shut in girl who refuses to do anything but play on her famicom, go out to the balcony, or sleep. The famicom has a single playable game called NASU where you, as a little red critter, jump to catch eggplants falling down the sky. Ignoring that, the real gameplay loop starts once you make Madotsuki go to sleep where shes then transported to the dream world. At first, it's identical to the place you started at with the main room and balcony but once you go out the door you'll find yourself in the nexus, a large, mostly empty, room with 12 new doors all leading to other in beautifully surreal evnironments. Now, you can let yourself get lost in the world of madotsuki's mind, exploring every little nook of her dreams going from room to room, door to door with seemingly infinite different paths and collecting unique effects that change how she looks or let you interact with the worlds around you. The game features 45 different worlds, 24 unique effects and 20 events to varying degrees of quality. It also contains some of the most immersive atmospheres ive ever seen in any game before.
And what do i think about it?
Evidently i LOVE yume nikki, hell most of this site was inspired by it and pretty much every page has at least one asset from it. The feeling of exploration, the unmatched atmosphere and the masterfully created pixel art makes for an unforgettable exprience that keeps me coming back even after ive spent so much time with it. I even still find stuff i hadnt seen once before on my revisits like did you know A SINGLE spesific candle in candle world turns into a yellow orb if you stab it??? And this is what i really love about it, its a never ending ride that i dont think ill ever get over. I like there being no apparent story too, it leaves trying to piece everything to the player and even if there isnt a story being alluded to through the subconscious of madotsuki, its still a fun time thinking about it and trying to piece it together. Another thing i like about yume nikki isnt something in the game itself, but how many fan projects it inspired, speaking of
If Yume Nikki is so good, why is there no Yume 2kki
I LOVE YUME 2KKI. I HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME FOR OVER 80 HOURS AND IT FEELS LIKE IVE ONLY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE. The sheer amount of QUALITY content Yume 2kki offers in geniuenly mind boggling and i truly believe it to be the greatest fan project of any game ever made. But first, what the hell is 2kki??
Yume 2kki is one of the endless amounts of yume nikki fangames created, being made by 2chan users in 2007. It's a collaborative yume nikki fangame which is still regularly updated to this day where anyone with the knowhow is able to submit their worlds to be added to the game. This, ofcourse, has resulted with the game now having well over 1500 maps and a huge active community passionate about the game. There was a time last summer where i was so obsessed with 2kki that for about 2 weeks all i would do was play the game and make fanart of the worlds i found. I especially like the author qxy's worlds, theyre created so beautifully that you forget youre playing a collaborative fangame from 2007. Id heavily advise for the game to be played on YNOproject which is a site that hosts yume nikki, 2kki and a lot of other fangames where you can play online with others. For me, having played 2kki entirely on YNO made it so much more enjoyable with the people i met along the way.
Closing thoughts, for now
play the game its literally free
Before starting, this game contains heavy themes of organized religion, self-harm, child abuse and excess amounts of blood, guts, pee, poop, and a range of other bodily fluids. With that out the way,
Isaac and his mother lived alone in a small house on a hill,
The binding of Isaac is a 2011 roguelike (parallelling the biblical story by the same name) made by the famous indie creator Edmund McMillen, known for his previous works like Super Meat Boy, Time Fcuk, Gish and a good amount of flash games with varying levels of success. TBoI was originally a 3-month flash game project made by him that wasn’t meant to get any traction, even assuming everyone would hate it because of the religious themes being shown in a negative light. But even with it all, the game managed to be a success selling 450,000 copies by the time it was 2012. This prompted Ed to work on a new DLC for the game called the wrath of the lamb, and later partner up with the publishing company known as “Nicalis” to build the game from the ground up on a custom engine and port it to consoles. This version of the game went on to be called Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Between its 2014 release 2021, the game would receive 3 DLC’s that more than tripled the content of the game leading ME TO HAVE 1600 FUCKING HOURS IN IT. With all of this, TBoI has went on to become one of the most popular indie games of all time and inspire countless more games after it, even bringing the roguelike genre back into the spotlight.
Life was simple, and they were both happy,
The game itself is about Isaac, a kid who lives with his mother that is a religious fanatic. That’s until the day his mother thinks god is commanding her to sacrifice him to prove his devotion leading Isaac to escape trough a hidden trapdoor in his room leading to the basement. This is where the gameplay begins, Isaac, using nothing but his own tears, must make his way trough the basement and make it down escaping and eventually killing his mother.
The basement is a randomly generated dungeon, similar to the dungeon layouts in the original legend of Zelda games. Every floor there is a boss room, an item room, and a shop where Isaac can get upgrades and progress to the next floor after beating the boss. All the items have unique effects and different ways that change the appearance of Isaac, usually in a gruesome manner. With there being over 700 items, 188 trinkets, 34 total characters, 26 different floors, 102 bosses, 20 mini-bosses, 35 challenges and a bunch of more stuff I can’t even remember right now it packs a TON of content in it to keep you playing. With every run, you unlock new characters, new items, new floors, and new final bosses; even alternate paths to trough keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting throughout. While an average run takes about 40 minutes, getting a 100% completion will take about 600 hours for a new player. The sheer amount of content it has makes it the game I have spent the longest time with by far and continue to play to this day.
I haven’t even talked about the modding scene, this game has one of the richest modding communities I’ve seen online that constantly creates amazing mods that are on par with the quality of the base game such as revelations or fiend folio. Just these mods add hundreds of more hours of gameplay to this already insane game, it’s a never-ending ride that you only get off of after you get sick of it.
One last time, Isaac’s mom heard the voice of God calling to her,
One thing I would like to talk about is the mod “Antibirth.” It was a mod made by 4 developers “Kilburn”, “LeatherIceCream”, “NotYourSagittarius” and “Mudeth”. Being developed for Rebirth, being made before official mod support was added for the game. It added a ton of quality content to the game, featuring 2 new characters and an alternate path with its own final boss even having itself a completely new OST made by the ground up (which you should check out it goes hard asf). It ended up releasing really close to the time Afterbirth+, the second DLC for Rebirth released. It ended up causing a divide in the community where people were preferring playing the mod instead of the two official DLC’s because of how good this was and it ended up catching Edmund’s attention. After talking with the team, he started working on the final DLC for the game, Repentance, where they ported all the content in Antibirth over to the base game so the fans didn’t have to choose between the versions (which is honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a game developer do). Even though it was originally just meant to be a port of Antibirth, repentance ended up becoming the biggest DLC the series had ever gotten and more than doubled the content of the game when it released adding, on top of the already existing Antibirth content, 17 new characters, 10 new challenges and 2 more final bosses. It also rebalanced most of the game changing how a lot of items and characters used to work, overall turning the game into the best version of itself.
Up until the release of repentance, Edmund and other members of the team would release weekly blog posts about the development and progress on it and one thing I will never forget are the hidden messages there were in these blogposts. There used to be little dots or commas hotlinked to open images that all related to the number 34. Everyone at the time thought this was leading to an ARG but it just ended up teasing the fact that the DLC would have 34 characters in total which was a totally unexpected thing as it was promoted to only add 2, not 19.
Speaking of ARG’s, TBoI actually had one when the first Rebirth DLC, Afterbirth came out which led to the addition of the keeper character. The ARG was made because the last time Edmund tried to do a secret character in the game, it ended up getting datamined in just a few days after the release of the game. So, this time there was nothing to be datamined and people had to go out and solve the mystery themselves. You can find a video on the ARG here as I don’t think I can make it justice by just writing about it here
I would also like to talk about the game “The Legend of Bumbo” for a bit here. It’s the prequel to Isaac that went largely under the radars releasing in 2019 and only getting one update since with not many people even knowing it exists. It’s a roguelike tile matching game that doesn’t sound good in concept at all but its genuinely one of the most fun casual games I’ve played that I want everyone reading this to at least check it out, it needs more love!!
Something that’s personally close to me about this game is how it led me to my first bit of popularity on the internet back in 2021. It’s a little embarrassing to talk about it now but I used to have a Youtube channel where I made admittedly not stellar meme videos about the game and it got a good bit of traction, with a good few videos getting over 100k views and one even getting 600k. I ended up abandoning the channel after a few months of keeping the pace up. It was a stupid decision on my part but I don’t really care about it anyway, I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore so I dipped. I don’t know if ill do anything with it in the future but for now it stays with getting a random post about once a year.
Edmund McMillen has also been one of my personal idols ever since I’ve discovered Isaac and his other works. Him being so bold, crude, and limitless with his presentation and humor but still being able to make great games and pieces or art is something I adore to achieve as I go on.
Without hesitation, he flung open the hatch,
My closing thoughts here are that this game took up way too much of my life and I don’t think I would be the same person I am today if I hadn’t found out about it way back in 2019. I wholeheartedly believe it’s something I’ll never stop coming back to, even when I’m a jaded old adult. SO, GIVE IT A SHOT!! ITS AN AMAZING GAME WITH ENDLESS CONTENT, WHAT’RE YOU WAITING FOR??
Isaac and his mother lived alone in a small house on a hill,
The binding of Isaac is a 2011 roguelike (parallelling the biblical story by the same name) made by the famous indie creator Edmund McMillen, known for his previous works like Super Meat Boy, Time Fcuk, Gish and a good amount of flash games with varying levels of success. TBoI was originally a 3-month flash game project made by him that wasn’t meant to get any traction, even assuming everyone would hate it because of the religious themes being shown in a negative light. But even with it all, the game managed to be a success selling 450,000 copies by the time it was 2012. This prompted Ed to work on a new DLC for the game called the wrath of the lamb, and later partner up with the publishing company known as “Nicalis” to build the game from the ground up on a custom engine and port it to consoles. This version of the game went on to be called Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Between its 2014 release 2021, the game would receive 3 DLC’s that more than tripled the content of the game leading ME TO HAVE 1600 FUCKING HOURS IN IT. With all of this, TBoI has went on to become one of the most popular indie games of all time and inspire countless more games after it, even bringing the roguelike genre back into the spotlight.
Life was simple, and they were both happy,
The game itself is about Isaac, a kid who lives with his mother that is a religious fanatic. That’s until the day his mother thinks god is commanding her to sacrifice him to prove his devotion leading Isaac to escape trough a hidden trapdoor in his room leading to the basement. This is where the gameplay begins, Isaac, using nothing but his own tears, must make his way trough the basement and make it down escaping and eventually killing his mother.
The basement is a randomly generated dungeon, similar to the dungeon layouts in the original legend of Zelda games. Every floor there is a boss room, an item room, and a shop where Isaac can get upgrades and progress to the next floor after beating the boss. All the items have unique effects and different ways that change the appearance of Isaac, usually in a gruesome manner. With there being over 700 items, 188 trinkets, 34 total characters, 26 different floors, 102 bosses, 20 mini-bosses, 35 challenges and a bunch of more stuff I can’t even remember right now it packs a TON of content in it to keep you playing. With every run, you unlock new characters, new items, new floors, and new final bosses; even alternate paths to trough keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting throughout. While an average run takes about 40 minutes, getting a 100% completion will take about 600 hours for a new player. The sheer amount of content it has makes it the game I have spent the longest time with by far and continue to play to this day.
I haven’t even talked about the modding scene, this game has one of the richest modding communities I’ve seen online that constantly creates amazing mods that are on par with the quality of the base game such as revelations or fiend folio. Just these mods add hundreds of more hours of gameplay to this already insane game, it’s a never-ending ride that you only get off of after you get sick of it.
One last time, Isaac’s mom heard the voice of God calling to her,
One thing I would like to talk about is the mod “Antibirth.” It was a mod made by 4 developers “Kilburn”, “LeatherIceCream”, “NotYourSagittarius” and “Mudeth”. Being developed for Rebirth, being made before official mod support was added for the game. It added a ton of quality content to the game, featuring 2 new characters and an alternate path with its own final boss even having itself a completely new OST made by the ground up (which you should check out it goes hard asf). It ended up releasing really close to the time Afterbirth+, the second DLC for Rebirth released. It ended up causing a divide in the community where people were preferring playing the mod instead of the two official DLC’s because of how good this was and it ended up catching Edmund’s attention. After talking with the team, he started working on the final DLC for the game, Repentance, where they ported all the content in Antibirth over to the base game so the fans didn’t have to choose between the versions (which is honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a game developer do). Even though it was originally just meant to be a port of Antibirth, repentance ended up becoming the biggest DLC the series had ever gotten and more than doubled the content of the game when it released adding, on top of the already existing Antibirth content, 17 new characters, 10 new challenges and 2 more final bosses. It also rebalanced most of the game changing how a lot of items and characters used to work, overall turning the game into the best version of itself.
Up until the release of repentance, Edmund and other members of the team would release weekly blog posts about the development and progress on it and one thing I will never forget are the hidden messages there were in these blogposts. There used to be little dots or commas hotlinked to open images that all related to the number 34. Everyone at the time thought this was leading to an ARG but it just ended up teasing the fact that the DLC would have 34 characters in total which was a totally unexpected thing as it was promoted to only add 2, not 19.
Speaking of ARG’s, TBoI actually had one when the first Rebirth DLC, Afterbirth came out which led to the addition of the keeper character. The ARG was made because the last time Edmund tried to do a secret character in the game, it ended up getting datamined in just a few days after the release of the game. So, this time there was nothing to be datamined and people had to go out and solve the mystery themselves. You can find a video on the ARG here as I don’t think I can make it justice by just writing about it here
I would also like to talk about the game “The Legend of Bumbo” for a bit here. It’s the prequel to Isaac that went largely under the radars releasing in 2019 and only getting one update since with not many people even knowing it exists. It’s a roguelike tile matching game that doesn’t sound good in concept at all but its genuinely one of the most fun casual games I’ve played that I want everyone reading this to at least check it out, it needs more love!!
Something that’s personally close to me about this game is how it led me to my first bit of popularity on the internet back in 2021. It’s a little embarrassing to talk about it now but I used to have a Youtube channel where I made admittedly not stellar meme videos about the game and it got a good bit of traction, with a good few videos getting over 100k views and one even getting 600k. I ended up abandoning the channel after a few months of keeping the pace up. It was a stupid decision on my part but I don’t really care about it anyway, I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore so I dipped. I don’t know if ill do anything with it in the future but for now it stays with getting a random post about once a year.
Edmund McMillen has also been one of my personal idols ever since I’ve discovered Isaac and his other works. Him being so bold, crude, and limitless with his presentation and humor but still being able to make great games and pieces or art is something I adore to achieve as I go on.
Without hesitation, he flung open the hatch,
My closing thoughts here are that this game took up way too much of my life and I don’t think I would be the same person I am today if I hadn’t found out about it way back in 2019. I wholeheartedly believe it’s something I’ll never stop coming back to, even when I’m a jaded old adult. SO, GIVE IT A SHOT!! ITS AN AMAZING GAME WITH ENDLESS CONTENT, WHAT’RE YOU WAITING FOR??
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