Illbleed/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Critical Dissonance: Critics disliked this game, but it has a decently sized cult following.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Cult Classic
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Dummyman, a recurring enemy that appears in certain spots of the game. He appears to be one in universe as well, as movie posters advertising Dummyman movies are all over the place, and he even has a photo shop!
    • Killerman to a lesser extent. The manual states that he has a movie series as well.
    • Don't forget OHNOMAN, the most popular of the three final bosses. Mostly due to his name.
    • Zodick The Hellhog is one of the games most well-known characters, and gets a fair amount of fanart.
  • Good Bad Bugs: Opening your map causes the enemies to freeze for a few seconds when you close it. Vital for avoiding tougher battles (like when you're a Woodpuppet).
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In this game, one of the ways to die is shock death, where your heart pulse rises, and if it rises too high, you die. The creator of the game, Shinya Nishigaki, died of a heart attack years later.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Killerman is Killerman".
  • Narm:
    • JIMMAJIMMAJIMMAJIMMAJIMMA!
    • MEWWY CRISMUH
    • "Let's go back to hell :D!"
    • During the Woodpuppets opening narration:

Narrator: "Suddenly, a face appeared on the tree----and it swallowed good him. He was presumed ---lost in the wilderness or eaten by a bear. No one cared because he was a loner anyway."

Narrator: "In his warped mi...In his warped mind..."

    • Playing through the "Killerman" section as Randy without a brain. Whatever little bit of seriousness from that section is completely blown to bits.

Brainless Randy: "OOAGH CAHSUHSWAHHASUH HABUGLBLAHHH"
Cunningham: "You must be one of those part-timers."

  • Narm Charm: David's story in level 2 is goofy as heck, but it's also sweet in a weird way; from the way he talks about her, you're made to think Rachel was his honest-to-goodness daughter for much of the stage.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: Remember how strange and confusing Panic!! was? Well, Illbleed makes it look as clear and sensible as the "DO NOT EAT" directions on a silica packet. No kidding, this game technically qualifies as Dada art.
  • Non Sequitur Scene:
    • The "Toy Hunter: Cork Goes to Hell" level, which recasts you as an action figure named Cork who returns home just in time to watch his owner die. His Fan Service-y girlfriend, Sexy Doll, is placed in the coffin along with the boy and ends up in Toy Hell. Despondent, Cork becomes a milkoholic, shoots up a bar full of singing eggs, goes to prison, is sentenced to execution, escapes prison through the Absurdly Spacious Sewer, finds a new owner, kills him, is placed in the coffin, ends up in Toy Hell, fights a Satanic (and animatronic) Sonic the Hedgehog, is nearly forced to fight said evil hedgehog forever due to a programming glitch, and escapes on a rocket. It's an entire subplot made up of BLAMs, none of which have anything to do with Illbleed's story.
    • Lesser example: what the crap does the Cake From Hell have to do with anything?
      • Even in one of the videos made to hype up the game, it cuts to him saying his name for no discernable reason and moves on without any reference to it again.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • Playable characters other than Eriko will fall down and crawl away from enemies for a long moment, allowing them to get many hits on you. Picking up the Shock Brace item removes this limitation, however. This is actually a bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, as Eriko's backstory explains that, being put through shock tests since childhood, she's pretty much desensitized to being Jump Scared.
    • The analog controls for movement mean you that have to push up gently to walk and briskly to run, which would be fine if you didn't have to release the analog stick completely to switch between the two.
  • So Bad, It's Good: A large part of the game's cult appeal comes from how unapologetically bizarre it is.
  • That One Boss:
    • Trent The Tree in "Woodpuppets" is considered annoying by fans of the game, since you have to get through the aforementioned Woodpuppet section to fight him.
    • The three Killer Worms you have to fight outside the produce aisles in Stage 4. Presenting a moving target by darting around like a madman and landing single blows whenever you can is the only reliable way to beat them at all, and they can still very easily crowd around you even then.
    • Bullstinger, the hardest of the three final bosses.
  • That One Level:
    • The Cutey Mary section of "Killer Department Store", especially the jump-rope, are notoriously irritating among fans of the game.
    • The section in "Woodpuppets" where you become... a Woodpuppet.
  • Uncanny Valley: Henry, Cork's owner in "Toy Hunter". Doesn't help that he mostly appears as a massive closeup of his detailed, unmoving face. His poor voice acting doesn't help much. It's likely intentional, given he's an animatronic in a park designed to scare people. Worse yet, he appears as a rotting corpse later on...
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: "Toy Hunter".
    • Hell, the entire game.
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