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Overview
.flow is one of the most well-known fangames of the original Yume Nikki, made by lol (pixiv, DeviantArt, and Twitter accounts). It's one of the darker spin-offs infamous for its eerie atmosphere and copious amounts of body horror and hospital imagery, centering around a girl named Sabitsuki as she enters her PC dreamworld to explore her mind and collect effects.
The psychological term, combined with the element of technology, could have possibly been the origin of the title, though this suggests that what Sabitsuki and, indeed, the player experience is not a dreamlike state at all, but rather an immersive reality.
The main plot of the game is similar to the original Yume Nikki's, in that it's a sand-box game with very few exploration restrictions. You must collect the twenty-five effects to unlock two of the three endings and three boxes to achieve the third.
Gameplay
.Flow is one of the more traditional fangames that stays true to the gameplay elements of the original. Effects are collected in a gloomy, sublime dreamscape and the user is left to interpret the events and lack of explicit storyline. The only differences that seem to set this game apart from Yume Nikki is the more concrete subject matter -- the deeper aspects of the landscape seem to have a more pristine resemblance to human body parts, where as Nikki's environment requires more interpretive thinking to analyze -- and the inclusion of three endings instead of one.
Plot
You play as a girl named Sabitsuki who doesn't want to or is unable to leave her room. She has short white hair and a grayish blue top, a white skirt, and red shoes.
Sabitsuki's bedroom is painted gray, with a TV and game console (through which you can play the mini-game Shinsouku Neko), a bookshelf, a bright orange rug, and, most notably, her bed and computer. Unlike most Yume Nikki fangames, you get in bed to save and access most of the gameplay by interacting with the computer.
Rust
An interesting gameplay element is that there is a number of restricted areas that can only be accessed once all the effects have been collected and "dropped off" in Sabitsuki's PC. With effects stored there, the protagonist assumes her alter-ego, Rust, a seemingly more malevolent version of herself with a more pallid color scheme. If you choose to look closer, her eyes are, almost impossible to tell, a deep red. Rust cannot use any of the effects, but can surpass the barriers that blocked her original form and acquire three boxes in order to unlock a final and more substaintial ending to the game, viewed often as the "true ending."
In addition to these differences, Sabitsuki is pursued throughout the game by Kaibutsu, which, upon capture, transport her to an inescapable area in a manner similar to Torringen, but upon becoming Rust, the chasers are replaced by Red Demons, a weaker but faster and much more abundant enemy. Rust can take several hits from these demons, and with each one her body begins to decay until finally, on one strike too many, she falls apart and is transported back to the real world. It is highly likely that these Red Demons have a metaphorical meaning.
Effects
Arm
Black Hood
Broom
Cat
Corpse
Diving Helmet
Dress
Gas Mask
Ghost
Handgun
Headphones
Iron Pipe
Machine
Mono Eye
- Plant
- Psychedelic
- Slime
- Tattoo
- Television
- Tumbling Doll
- Uniform
- Viscera
- Watering Can
- Whistle
For more information on effects and effect locations, please see the effect list page on the.flow wiki.
Characters
The following is a list of significant NPCs in .flow.
- Smile
- Sister
- Oreko
- Gas Mask Maid
- Active Kaibutsu
- Gabe
- Black-Haired Girls and "Mother"
- Red Demons
The following is a list of characters with relatively minor importance:
- Doctor and Nurse
- Mechanical Girl
- Gardening Girl
- Hospital and Labyrinth Children
- Young Sabitsuki
- School Children
- Passive Kaibutsu
- Orange Blob
- Neon People and DJ
- Flower Ghosts
- Art Gallery Denizen
- Monitors
- Plant Boy