YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-

**YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-** (lit. Dream Diary -Dream Diary-) also called **YN:DD**, is a game supposedly endorsed by **KIKIYAMA**, developed by **Kadokawa Corporation** in association with **Active Gaming Media** and published by **Playism** in 2018.

## Origin

Pretty much like **Project Yume Nikki**, YN:DD started with a website in January 9th, (**http://yume-nikki.com/)** and a countdown, which ended in January 25th, during the countdown, artwork of various characters appeared, then the game was finally released on Steam costing 20 USD.

On May 10, 2018, **ANOTHER** countdown appeared, this time to finally anounce the release of the original Yume Nikki on Steam.

## **Reception**

The game got mixed opinions in the community, some liked the game for being able to revive the experience of Yume Nikki in a relatively modern engine and gameplay mechanics, others liked the execution and puzzle mechanics.

Other users disliked it for different reasons, some thought it was an opportunist cash grab, due to the ads exploiting the mystery of KIKIYAMA to sell a very rushed product instead of updating the original game as many thought, and the random addition of an "*Ao Oni*" easter egg, even though Yume Nikki is older, and with a legacy too big for such a thing, which made the easter egg look like vulgar product placement.

In the beginning, and having experienced 3 countdowns in total, some users made evident that the hype market tactic got boring.

The rushed release also left a lot of bugs in the first version of the game, a game which to them didn't respect the source material and looked more like a "***Horror game with Yume Nikki characters***" than a Yume Nikki remake.

The 2.0 update, however, fixed most of the bugs and was received better.

## **"Fraud" and KIKIYAMA impersonator**

> ***"Thank you Kikiyama for making such a uniquely surreal game. It's one of my favorite games of all time, and I can't wait for whatever the countdown brings next. Hope you have a great day/night :)"*** -Anonymous fan to KIKIYAMA impersonator
>
>

The similarities in advertisement methods with Project Yume Nikki made some Ubuu users revive the "Fraud"

debate questioning the ethics behind this new project, however, an update in KIKIYAMA's website caused the debate to lean towards the project being legit.

The anons who supported YN:DD pointed this out, then one of the users with some knowledge of japanese and Yume Nikki, posted in Uboachan impersonating KIKIYAMA, showing an adulterated image of the development as proof.

Many in the boards believed it was truly KIKIYAMA due the coherence of the situation executed by the anon, including the use of a japanese IP (Seisatsu later revealed it was a proxy), and although some were still skeptical, **social media outside exploded with discussions about how the one and only KIKIYAMA actually posted in Uboachan**.

The tactic became harder to debunk as the impersonator had **at least one accomplice**, pretending to receive an email from KIKIYAMA's email after requesting it to them in that thread.

**Some users were so convinced** it was actually KIKIYAMA they came to Uboachan for the first time just to talk with them, to show their gratitude and even one of them saw the oportunity to promote their YNFG to them.

Later enough, after laughs were had, and after one of the developers of YN:DD pointed out the user was a fake, the anon behind the trickery revealed that his point was to prove that anyone could impersonate KIKIYAMA and that everyone would believe it, giving a lot of weight to the "Fraud" debate, especially regarding **Project Yume Nikki**.

## **User migration**

Like **Project Yume Nikki**, both the Steam release and KIKIYAMA's impersonator attracted a lot of new

people to the Yume Nikki community and to Uboachan, but this time the waves of new users were bigger and less polite, users in the site noticed quickly that Uboachan had been spotted and curious people started to appear, which make users nervous for a while.

As expected a lot of outsiders started to spend time on Ubuu, the most notable sources of new people being **Steam** and **4chan's /v/**, the change was evident when users who obviously didn't lurk started to interact and the tone of discussion in the boards became somewhat sour.

One of the most notable reasons of the migration from 4chan, was that to some people there, the fact "Yume

Nikki went mainstream" made them hate on Yume Nikki related threads there, making discussion difficult.

The sour mood in the boards started to tone down a few months after the incidents, however, before that could happen the site suffered changes because of the hostility generated and attempts of moderation met with harsh criticism.

In May 2018, Seisatsu gave his role of Admin to Writer because of the widespread disorder as result of the hostility attracting the wrong type of users to the boards.

## External Links

* YN:DD on Steam **http://store.steampowered.com/app/774811/YUMENIKKI\_DREAM\_DIARY/**
* KIKIYAMA's impersonator thread **https://uboachan.net/yn/res/7499.html**
* Discussion in Reddit about KIKIYAMA posting in Uboachan **https://www.reddit.com/r/yumenikki/comments/7sphqg/anon\_on\_uboachan\_claims\_to\_be\_kikiyama/**
* Steam developer revealing the impersonator was fake **https://steamcommunity.com/app/650700/discussions/0/1693785669847876118/?ctp=2**
* Thread disussing the inevitable waves of new users **https://uboachan.net/sugg/res/3298.html**