REM-9: The Yume Nikki Randomizer ver. 1.04a

Created by vgperson

This program, in combination with the included base game, will generate a randomized version of Kikiyama's RPG Maker 2003 game Yume Nikki (version 0.10).

A number of options are provided for what to randomize and how, and various game tweaks can be made. It is generally recommended for those who have played the original Yume Nikki and have an idea of how to get around the dream world.

Disclaimer: This is a fan project, and is not affiliated with Kikiyama or any associated parties.

Table of Contents

Changes in REM-9

The REM-9 base game comes with a number of modifications to original Yume Nikki, many of which help to make randomized games more interesting and/or manageable.

Speed Increase

The default speeds of Madotsuki and the Bicycle effect have been increased by one step. In other words, Madotsuki now moves at Bicycle speed, and the Bicycle is even faster. The program lets you customize these speeds freely for randomized games.

Minor Translation Edits

I generally used the Uboachan fan translation, but went with a different translation for a few Effect names. (Eyeball-hand, Small, Oni, Squishy)

Locale Fixes

All filenames now use plain ASCII, so there should be no "must extract ZIP properly/run in correct locale" issues. EasyRPG should also detect the game as being in English. And I removed all the unused RTP files.

Alternate Ending

After achieving the victory condition (originally: placing all 24 Effects in the Nexus), you can either go to the real-world Veranda for the original ending, or go to the door in Madotsuki's real-world room for an alternate one.

Essences

REM-9 adds eight bonus items called Essences, obtained from notable events that were not normally required for getting all the Effects in the original game. These serve no practical purpose, but you can require some number of them as part of the victory condition in a randomized game.

Besides them being items in your inventory, you can see how many Essences you have by looking at Madotsuki's "current MP."

Note, though, that her max MP is set to be the number of Essences required for victory, which is 0 in the base game. So any progress past the Essence goal will not be visible in that way.

Essence of Uboa

Granted by flipping the lightswitch in Poniko's house in the Pink Sea, having Uboa randomly appear, and being warped by them.

Essence of Monoe

Granted by checking Monoe in the White Desert to see the picture of her.

Essence of Monoko

Granted by using the Stoplight effect in the White Desert and checking Monoko.

Essence of Masada

Granted by talking to Seccom Masada in the Spaceship at any point.

Essence of Face

Granted by seeing the flashing "face" that forces Madotsuki awake. (Normal location is at the end of a passage from the Number World that requires the Knife to open.)

Essence of Flight

Granted by using the Witch effect to fly off the roof of the Mall, and flying around for 30 seconds.

Essence of Party

Granted by approaching the Toriningen party in the Wilderness.

Essence of Nasu

Granted by beating a high score of 1000 in Nasu.

Using the Program

To begin, run the program "YumeNikkiRandomizer.exe" in this folder. Menus are generally navigated by entering a number or letter and pressing Enter.

1. Difficulty Settings - What to Randomize

Opens the Difficulty Settings menu, where you can set options related to how much of the game to randomize, and how difficult to make the seed.

2. Goal Settings - How to Win

Opens the Goal Settings menu, where you can set what goals must be achieved to reach the ending.

3. Game Settings - Stuff to Tweak

Opens the Game Settings menu, where you can set various options that alter things about the game.

A. Set Random Seed

Prompts you to enter a custom seed string.

The random seed used to generate a game determines the exact outcome of the randomization. As long as you're using the same version and settings, generated games based on the same seed will be identical.

Seeds are generated for you automatically using the system time, so for the most part, there's no need to enter your own. However, two people using the same seed (again, with the same version and options) will allow them to independently generate the exact same randomized game.

Z. Generate Randomized Game!

Uses the current seed and options to generate a randomized game.

First, it loads the base game. The process will fail if the base game is not found; it should be in a folder named BaseXXX (where XXX is the current version).

Next, it generates random layouts until it finds one that is "valid" for your settings (at minimum, you can reach the ending). If this takes a large number of attempts, it'll start showing how many it's taken, and allow you to abort with the X key.

Finally, it creates the randomized game in its own folder. You can then play it by running StartWindowed.exe, StartFullscreen.exe, or (inside the Data subfolder) RPG_RT.exe.

X. Exit

Exits the program.

Difficulty Settings

Note: Press Enter without any input to switch between settings pages. (You can also input a blank space, a ?, or a / to do the same thing.) Enter 0 to go back to the main menu.

1. Randomize Effects (On/Off)

Shuffles Effect locations amongst themselves.

For example, Frog may be located where Bicycle normally is, and Bicycle may be where Stoplight normally is.

2. Nexus Locks (0 to 11)

This will put blockades called Nexus Locks in front of the specified number of Nexus doors.

A Nexus Lock will disappear once you have obtained the Effect it depicts (either with its overworld sprite, or the NPC that normally gives it).

3. Entrance Randomization

What kind of entrance randomization to perform.

• None

All warps remain the same.

• Nexus Doors

Picks new destinations for all Nexus doors. These can be almost any entrance point in the game.

These will be one-way warps, so while you may emerge on one side of a connection between two maps, going back will take you where it normally does, not back to the Nexus.

• Nexus Doors w/ Return

The same as the above, except the selection is restricted to two-way connections, and the way you came in will lead back to the Nexus.

This will break up expected map connections, which can make things quite difficult. Also, the "other half" of the connection will no longer take you anywhere.

(Example: A Nexus door warps you into one of the Snow World igloos. Exiting that igloo returns you to the Nexus. However, attempting to enter the igloo from Snow World just spits you back out in the same location in Snow World.)

• Nightmare

Full randomization of all dream world warps.

Some warps are untouched, like warps within the same map, special cases like the Infinite Road... and the FC House Basement, so as not to be THAT cruel. (Click here for more info.)

Two-way warp "consistency" is maintained, so you can generally turn around and go back to where you were before, although this may require a certain Effect in some cases.

The one-way warps are shuffled amongst themselves. Toriningen warps that just get you stuck stay as they were.

• Complete Nightmare

Like Nightmare, but with no two-way link consistency. If you turn around after a warp, that's considered a separate warp. Good luck...?

4. Bicycle Placement (Normal/Early/Start With)

How to handle placement of the Bicycle effect, which (normally) increases Madotsuki's move speed.

5. Eyeball-Hand Placement (Normal/Early/Start With)

How to handle placement of the Eyeball-hand effect, which lets you warp directly back to the Nexus.

6. Nexus Lock Hints (On/Off)

Allows you to check Nexus Locks to be told the location of the Effect that unlocks them.

7. Generate Spoiler Log (On/Off)

Adds a file named SpoilerLog.txt to the randomized game folder.

It describes the locations of all Effects and Essences, a possible order they can be gotten in, a possible route to reach each one, and other notable factors such as Nexus door information.

Goal Settings

1. Effects Goal (1 to 24)

The number of Effects you must place in the Nexus to reach the ending (originally all 24).

Madotsuki's "level" (her "E" stat in the menu) displays how many she currently has plus 1.

2. Essences Goal (0 to 8)

The number of Essences you must possess to reach the ending.

Madotsuki's "MP" (her bottom-right stat in the menu) displays "how many she currently has / the Essence goal," up to whatever the goal is.

3. Minimum Reachable Effects (1 or more to 24)

The number of Effects required to be reachable by the randomizer logic. (Cannot be less than the goal.)

If set to be lower than 24, some Effects may be completely unreachable, preventing 100% completion. However, relaxing this requirement may allow for more diverse randomization, and help to find a valid layout quicker.

4. Minimum Reachable Essences (0 or more to 8)

The number of Essences required to be reachable by the randomizer logic. (Cannot be less than the goal.)

If set to be lower than 8, some Essences may be completely unreachable, preventing 100% completion. However, relaxing this requirement may allow for more diverse randomization, and help to find a valid layout quicker.

Game Settings

Note: Press Enter without any input to switch between settings pages. (You can also input a blank space, a ?, or a / to do the same thing.) Enter 0 to go back to the main menu.

1. Derandomize Events (On/Off)

Changes relevant random events to be "standardized" in some way. This is intended to make things more reliable, fun, and fair for a race setting.

I generally recommend enabling it, and even moreso when doing "Nightmare" entrance randomization, as it simplifies a number of randomized warp situations.

To summarize what it does:

For more detailed information, see Event Derandomization.

2. Fix Chair Glitch (On/Off)

The original game allows you to open the menu while sitting in the desk chair in Madotsuki's dream room. Combining this with strategic Bicycle usage, you can increase Madotsuki's speed up to the maximum.

Turning this option on will disable the menu there, which should prevent the player from going above intended speeds.

3. Walk Speed (1 to 6)

Madotsuki's basic move speed. It can be from 1 (very slow) to 6 (very fast).

Her speed in the original game was 3, but at least 4 is recommended for randomizer play.

4. Bike Speed (1 to 6)

Madotsuki's move speed when riding the Bicycle. It can be from 1 (very slow) to 6 (very fast).

The speed in the original game was 4, but at least 5 is recommended for randomizer play.

5. Walk Sound (Normal/Carpet/None)

Madotsuki's default walk sound on non-unique floors.

6. Heckification Type (Hell/Heck/And Goodbye)

Decides what to do with Hell (the big red maze).

7. Easy Teleporter Maze (On/Off)

Modifies the Teleporter Maze so that the warps at the entry point take you straight to the goal.

8. Darkness Level (Normal/Less Dark/Pitch Black)

Decides what to do with dark areas.

9. Givers Reflect Effect (On/Off)

Changes Effect-giver sprites to match the Effect they give.

For example, even if Severed Head has been shuffled somewhere other than Guillotine World, you will get Severed Head from a guillotine, rather than a different NPC giving you Severed Head. This may be preferable if you want to know what Effect you'll get as soon as you see the NPC.

The basic movement of the Effect-giver is "location-based." So the one in Puddle World (normally Umbrella) will remain stationary, the one in Candle World (normally Small) will move in a pattern, etc.

However, behavior when using Cat, Knife, and Stoplight is based on the NPC it's become. So you can use Knife on living creatures, but not on inanimate objects.

User Settings

UserSettings.txt contains program settings you can configure.

Most of these are "defaults" for the various settings you can change within the program - on launch, the program will start with whatever you specify here, so it's good to customize it with preferred settings.

The function of each setting and the options available for it are detailed within the file.

Mechanical Details

Event Derandomization

Below are descriptions of what exactly the Derandomize Events option affects, since it's fairly involved. It's also a good reference for some of the more obscure pathways in Yume Nikki.

• Dream World Beds

Each time Madotsuki sleeps, one of the five beds across the dream world is chosen as the one which warps her to the Staircase of Hands if slept in.

With Derandomize Events enabled, which bed does this is predetermined by the seed.

As an addendum: the bed in Candle World will always warp you as long as you haven't obtained Poop Hair. This applies even with Derandomize Events enabled. However, it is never required by the logic, as you could become stuck if you got Poop Hair but later needed to use that bed.

• Number World Zipper Door

Each time Madotsuki sleeps, there's a 1/4 chance the zipper door in Number World (which normally leads to the Face event) will be there.

With Derandomize Events enabled, it's always there.

• FC Dungeon Glitch Event

Each time Madotsuki sleeps, there's a 1/3 chance the glitch event in the FC Dungeon can be activated.

With Derandomize Events enabled, it's either always possible or never possible to activate it.

• Block World Mafurako

Mafurako in Block World randomly teleports you to 5 different upper locations, the only useful one of which being the gate leading to the White Desert.

With Derandomize Events enabled, she always takes you to the gate. (This also causes her down-warping and locations to be consistent.)

• Mini Hell

In the Number World's Bed Room, using the Knife on the Toriningen and then hiding in the third closet from the left warps you to one of four random closets in Mini Hell.

With Derandomize Events enabled, which closet you go to is predetermined by the seed.

• Guillotine World Variations

In the Number World's Bed Room, there's a 1/8 chance the bleeding wall will warp you to a larger version of Guillotine World (the purple area where Severed Head is normally located). Also, the closet that allows you to escape can be in one of four random positions.

With Derandomize Events enabled, it's predetermined which version you get, and where the closet is.

• Mall Rooftop Escalator

When taking the elevator in Graffiti World to the Mall, there's a 1/4 chance the cone blocking the up escalator will be gone, allowing access to the top floor and roof.

(Note that it's always gone when accessed from the elevator between the Staircase of Hands and Blazing Corridor.)

With Derandomize Events enabled, the cone is always gone.

• Henkei Shita Hell Warp

In Hell, using the Knife on the Henkei Shita (blobby creature) has a 1/256 chance to one-way warp you to the Footprint Path.

With Derandomize Events enabled, this will occur after anywhere from 1 to 30 tries.

• Barracks Settlement FC World Warp

Each time you enter the Barracks Settlement, one of the six inhabitants (Pirori) is chosen as the one which will warp you to their village in FC World B.

With Derandomize Events enabled, which inhabitant does this is predetermined by the seed.

• White Desert Eyeball Box

In the White Desert, using the Knife on the eyeball box has a 1/30 chance to warp you to the eye-people area, and vice versa.

With Derandomize Events enabled, this will occur after anywhere from 1 to 10 tries.

• Uboa

There's a 1/64 chance Uboa will appear when turning off the lights in Poniko's house. (Every 5 seconds, at least; see Essence of Uboa for info about the anti-rapid-fire timer.)

With Derandomize Events enabled, this will occur after anywhere from 1 to 15 tries.

• FC Pyramids Warping Oni

There's a 1/8 chance an oni will appear in the FC World B pyramids map when entering it from the overworld. (If you're using the Oni effect, they'll always be there.)

Talking to them will warp you down to the room in the FC House Basement where the Oni effect is normally located.

With Derandomize Events enabled, they will always be there.

• Spaceship Crash Event

There's a 1/6 chance sleeping in the bed on the Spaceship will allow you fully fall asleep and trigger the Mars crash-landing event.

With Derandomize Events enabled, this will occur after anywhere from 1 to 5 tries.

• Nasu

Eggplants in Nasu fall at random positions, and red eggplants have a 1/50 chance to appear after grabbing a normal eggplant.

Using the secret code makes red eggplants spawn every time (as long as there isn't one on screen currently), but disables high scores, so you cannot get Essence of Nasu with it.

With Derandomize Events enabled, the eggplants fall in a pseudo-random pattern determined by the seed, and red eggplants appear after every 5~15 regular ones (predetermined value).

Nightmare Mode Details

The following warps are left out of the shuffle, meaning they are kept intact and will not be randomly assigned to other warp locations.

• All real-world maps, and where you go when you wake up

Being able to go between dream and reality outside of the usual means would cause quite a few issues. It wouldn't be impossible to deal with, but I don't think it would be any fun or add very much.

• Connections between dream room, veranda, and Nexus

Again, just a case of accounting for what would be most fun. The two versions of the veranda would also cause some serious hassle, probably.

• Where Eyeball-hand warps you

Just felt that its usefulness should remain useful, and having it go to a different place (that is very likely to be less useful than the Nexus) wouldn't be worth it.

• Toriningen dead-end warps

Having to check where every Toriningen takes you and end up in a dead-end most of the time wouldn't be very fun. In addition, many of the other one-way warps would become dead ends if these were put into the same pool.

• The Infinite Road, and its connection to Dense Woods A/B

Breaking up the maps that make up the Infinite Road sequence would make little sense. Also, setting the flag for the manhole in Dense Woods B requires access to the Infinite Road, so I opted to always leave a way back there.

• Entering and exiting the Infinite Wilderness

A similar case to the Infinite Road, where most people wouldn't exactly think of them as separate maps.

• Crossover Garden

Another similar case of invisible warps that make it seem like a single map.

• Same-map warps (Teleporter Maze, Mafurako in Block World, Pink Sea)

Warps within the same map may not even be considered warps by most players, and some of these could pose problems if included.

• FC Dungeon

Warps within the main dungeon map are untouched. However, there are two exits to separate maps that are included: one to the empty room where the glitch event can occur, and one to the monochrome dungeon room that exits to White Desert B.

If Derandomize Events is off, the stairs to the empty glitch room can be one of two separate warps, which one it is being determined upon falling asleep.

• FC Basement

The entire game would revolve around it otherwise. The basement is left fully "connected," though the exits up into the house and to the walled-off area of the village are included in the shuffle.

• Spaceship

For a variety of reasons, mostly the crash-landing event, the ship maps are still connected in the usual way. Note that the "entrance" and "exit" maps are separate, and which one you enter from will set whether the ship is flying or landed.

• Uboa's Trap

Similar reasoning to the Toriningen warps, but also the weirdness of getting Essence of Uboa as you go somewhere entirely different.

• Witch's Flight

It would just be awkward to enter the Witch's Flight event from anywhere else, or fly off the mall roof and go somewhere random.

• FACE

The door to the FACE event is kept the same. Mostly for technical reasons, but also, who wants to run into that with zero warning?

One-Way Warps

A list of all one-way warps and their normal destinations.

• Random dream bed -> Staircase of Hands
• Going up Staircase of Hands -> Random dream bed

These are only considered one-way if Derandomize Events is off. Not only does that cause there to be multiple ways to get to one location, which bed does the warp is randomized again when you exit the Staircase of Hands.

With Derandomize Events on, however, the warp always works both ways using a specific bed, so it's treated as a consistent link.

• Walking into Big Red's mouth -> Windmill World

• Block hedge in Windmill World -> Block World

• Fisherman in Windmill World -> Lake Corridor (West Side)

• Elevator in room before Blazing Corridor -> Mall Elevator

The mall elevator and the Graffiti World elevator are a two-way link, but this "storage room elevator" is one-way.

• Bloody wall in Number World: Bed Room -> Guillotine World
• Closet in Guillotine World -> Number World: Bed Room

Though you go to and from the same map, I don't really think of this as a proper link like the others, so they're considered one-way.

If Derandomize Events is off, the bloody spot can randomly go to two separate maps, and there will be separate warps out of both versions of Guillotine World as well.

• Third closet in Number World: Bed Room (after enraging Toriningen) -> Mini Hell
• Closet in Mini Hell -> Number World: Bed Room

Though you go to and from the same map, I don't really think of this as a proper link like the others, so they're considered one-way.

• Stabbing Henkei Shita in Hell -> Footprints Path A

Note that Footprints Path A is included as a possible random destination regardless of Heckification Level.

• Random inhabitant in Barracks Settlement -> FC Pirori Village

• Left door in Barracks Settlement: Upper Shack -> Mural World

• Jellyfish in Deep Woods -> Teleporter Maze

• End of Teleporter Maze -> Wilderness: Fenced FC Portal (Behind Fence)

• Left side of Monoe's Tunnel -> White Desert A (right side of "loop" tunnel)

The left side of the White Desert's "loop" tunnel exits out the right side of Monoe's tunnel, and vice versa, so it's a proper link. However, the right side of the White Desert's "loop" tunnel leads to Long Tunnel instead, so in that direction, it can't be considered a proper link.

• Single-entrance tunnel in White Desert B -> White Desert A (another single-entrance tunnel with a hand-like path coming out of it)

• Pirori in Lake Corridor -> Wilderness: Outside Settlement

• Oni in FC World B: Oni Pyramids -> FC Basement 019 (Oni location)

Update Log

Version 1.04a

Added some headers to the spoiler log to clarify what each section is, particularly the "tiers" for item locations.

Added clarification to Readme about the "And Goodbye" setting still using a random assignment even when doing no other entrance randomization.

Version 1.04

Fixed a bug where the Face Carpet Plaza gate in Forest World checked your facing in such a way that the facing-down warp could never actually be accessed.

Fixed a mistake that caused the logic to not check Knife for the left loop tunnel warp in White Desert A.

Fixed broken Derandomize Events behavior for the Number World's Bed Room closet warp, so that it properly becomes a single random warp. (Before, the warp was improperly set, so you had a 3/4 chance of getting a Mini Hell warp from the base game, locking you out of the actual warp used by the logic.)

Version 1.03b

Reworked Pitch Black dark area setting so that you are physically blocked from navigating in the dark unless using the Lamp. This means the Lamp requirement is now strictly enforced, rather than being technically circumventable if you memorize the maps.

Because of this, the darkness effect for Pitch Black is now just "darker than usual" instead of totally black, making it possible to see what's going on and more easily go back the way you came.

Version 1.03a

Actually fixed the logic for the Wilderness: Fenced FC Portal map this time, to correctly treat the lower exits as inaccessible from each other.

Version 1.03

Added "Nightmare" and "Complete Nightmare" entrance randomization.

"And Goodbye" should now properly remove any Hell traversal for any type of entrance randomization.

Derandomize Events now makes it so the FC Dungeon glitch event is either always accessible or never accessible.

Fixed logic for Essence of Nasu. Before, the program neglected to search the real world and thus considered it unreachable, so requiring 8 Essences resulted in it never finding a valid layout.

Fixed the logic thinking that the bottom and left exits in the Wilderness: Fenced FC Portal map were accessible from each other.

Fixed an error in the logic where two of the warps between Number World and Lamp World got mixed up.

Various other logic fixes that probably didn't make any actual difference until the addition of Nightmare mode.

Version 1.02a

Switched "Chair Speed Glitch" to its opposite, "Fix Chair Glitch," for consistency's sake (in that a setting being "on" means it makes changes to the original game).

Version 1.02

Added Face Carpet Plaza, the gate in Forest World, and the Nexus itself (hey, why not) as possible random destinations. They were left out before due to special issues with warping to them.

Removed all FC House Basement maps as possible choices except for the Oni location, given the high odds of getting them relative to their usefulness.

Version 1.01c

New option in Game Settings: "Givers Reflect Effect" changes Effect-giving objects/NPCs to match the new Effect they give.

Version 1.01b

Fixed a big error with validity checking, which would often give false positives under restrictive settings with a low Essence requirement.

Gave Strober full height when appearing as a Nexus lock. Fixed animation speeds for Nexus locks.

Version 1.01a

Fixed a potential cause for impossible seeds with Derandomize Events off.

Previously, it was assumed that any of the dream beds could be reached from the Staircase of Hands. Technically this is true, if you're able to enter it from the lower side. But in practice, you can generally only return to the one you came in from. And it'd be a major hassle anyway. Thus, that way of reaching the locations of each bed is no longer considered.

Version 1.01

Fixed a bug with the large version of Guillotine World, where checking the guillotine with the Stoplight effect active would always give you Severed Head.

Version 1.00a

Added the "System2" folder and "system2a" file to the base game, fixing an error if you didn't have the RTP installed.

Version 1.00

Initial release.

Credits

Based on the original Yume Nikki by Kikiyama.
https://www3.nns.ne.jp/~tk-mto/kikiyamaHP.html

Base game modifications and all randomizer programming by vgperson.
https://vgperson.com/games/rem9.htm

Built off of the unofficial Uboachan Yume Nikki 0.10 English patch.
https://archive.uboachan.net/media/src/Yume_Nikki.rar

Special Thanks

The Yume Nikki Wiki, as a reference for the original game and established community names.
https://yume.wiki/yume/Yume_Nikki_Wiki

EasyRPG's liblcf and EasyRPG Player, as a reference for the RPG Maker 2000/2003 format.
https://github.com/EasyRPG/

ALttP Randomizer and other game randomizers for inspiration.
https://alttpr.com/en/randomizer

Maisie, helpful Yume Nikki neighbor and consultant.

Rose, for cursing me by tweeting "yumenikki randomizer" that one time.