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self indulgent collective unconscious yapping

[CW FOR POTENTIAL CU SPOILERS!!!]

todays post will be a little different from what i usually post. there wont be a life/art update since.. well, its all still pretty much the same as before so i dont have much to say on that - still overwhelmed from the uni stuff and seasonal depression is squashing me alive. so i decided that this time, ill put all that doom and gloom aside for a bit and write about one of my interests that (somewhat) bring me joy in these trying times. and that would be collective unconscious, an online yume nikki fangame.

ever since i played yume nikki for the first time in like, what, 2020? 2021?? i was obsessed with that game. what especially got me hooked was the soundtrack. around this time, liminal spaces and the backrooms really started to take off, and on youtube, there was plenty of those 'liminal spaces with [blank] music' compilations. those usually either had ost from a specific game/multiple osts from different games or ambient music that just sounded 'off', like songs by aphex twin or boards of canada. a lot of the ones i watched would include yn ost most of the time, and thats how i learned about it in the first place, as well as other games that i now like, like silent hill (LOVE sh2 ost and akira yamaokas music to bits), resident evil, half life and many many more. and also yume 2kki, the first ever yn fangame ive heard of at the time.

after playing around with 2kki for a while (that game is fucking MASSIVE when it comes to the number of its worlds btw, and im sure i havent even scratched the surface of it yet) and loving its whacky soundtracks, i finally found collective unconscious. from what i know, cu is a part of the yno project that makes the original singleplayer yume nikki and some of its fangames into online multiplayer games. unlike 2kki, cu doesnt have its own singleplayer/offline game and is specifically tied to the yno project, made to be played with others (tho there is an option to hide the other players and the chat, but you still gotta be online to play it). honestly, as much as i love 2kki, i think cu takes the cake as my favorite yn fangame, both for the aesthetics/artistry of the worlds AND the ost. imo, 2kkis worlds can be too all over the place sometimes, understandably since the worlds are made by multiple different ppl with different art styles. and while cu can be like that too for the same reason as 2kki, i feel like its able to like,, idk, hold itself back and still feel 'unified'/like it all belongs into one game? if that makes sense? its difficult to describe..

anyways, now the fun part - showing off and talking abt my favorite collective unconscious worlds (in no particular order)! again, this post will be filled with spoilers, so if youre interested in the game, play it for yourself first.

SOAPY BATHS

a bright pinkish world filled with rainbow-y bubbly water,, and a bubbly slime girl!!! really wanna draw her someday

love the bgm here, very calm and soothing (the area as a whole is honestly), have had it playing in the background while falling asleep many MANY times

this was also one of the first worlds ive ever visited in this game, so it kinda holds a special place in my heart:]

BRIGHT CLOUD ZONE

im an absolute sucker for weirdcore/dreamcore and surrealism in general, so this world is literally right up my alley haha

being here really brings me back into 2020 when weirdcore started popping off, and, much like soapy baths, is also very comforting

TERRACITIES

considering its a world that looks like an old web browser from like the late 1990s/early 2000s, im assuming the name is supposed to be a reference to geocities?

kinda like it for the same reason i like bcz - while i wasnt around/am too young to remember this time of the internet, this type of imagery is also used in a lot of weirdcore images, so in a way, even if i didnt experience it myself, it still makes me feel oddly nostalgic/comfy

also just the overall design of this world is really cool, i love that you can explore each of the links on the homepage, its like you really are browsing the old web!

TRAGIC DIMENSION

moving on from the comfy worlds to a more depressing one

really like the melancholic vibes here and the doodles scattered around the world, reminds me a lot of what i would draw in like 6th/7th grade in my school notebooks while trying to pay attention in class haha

also honorable mention - the forget-me-not maze tied to this world and the 'girls heart' subarea - both have really lovely bgm

SIDESCROLLING WORLD

no way dude they turned you into a collective unconscious world??!?!?!

(jokes aside tho, i love the art style of this world, very og mario esque)

BALLOON FIELDS

another world filled with, not just one slime girl, but multiple slime girls!!!!!

this world in particular was made by ethosaur, a gmod/tf2 map maker ive been rlly looking up to lately. i found out about this by total coincidence btw, like i was just going around randomly and then i stumble upon this world and im like 'wait... this looks like something from ethosaur... did they make this??' and low and behold, they did haha

NEON STAR HALL

the color palette of this world is cute and id be lying if i said i dont have the urge to jam to this bgm everytime i hear it

also a small detail i really like are the small sparkles in the background - when you stand still, they sparkle to the beat of the music and when you walk, they glitter around, its just really satisfying to be there honestly

theres so, SO goddamn much more i could talk about, like all the different eidolas, badges and the notebook artworks you can collect throughout the worlds, this whole game honestly takes the whole collecting bit to another level and its also one of the things i really enjoy about it. but id be here for way too long if i went into that and this post has already gone for too long lol. maybe next time.

also, i made a playlist of my favorite cu osts if you wanna check it out!!

posted 28/12/25