nnoul

[nnoul]

fnaf 1 still holds up as a horrifying horror experience

hi guys!!! school has been on me real bad lately, but i just had to leave this here. a couple of weeks ago, i sat down and played the original fnaf on stream. after not really interacting with the original games nor content on them for what feels like years at this point, i went in completely blind. no google, no wikis, just me and the game. twitch chat was letting me know when i was being foolish and making all the wrong decisions in the later nights, but other than that, i was left to figure things out on my own for the most part. and oh my god, for the first two nights when i was getting my bearings with how the game worked and figuring out just what the hell to do, the level of panic and stress i felt as i watched all of those animatronics slowly but surely creep up on me evoked a feeling that a lot of the horror games i've played of late hasn't given me. a lot of the horror i've seen gives us the ability to run, hide, or defend ourselves with a weapon to keep ourselves away from the threat. but something about sitting there, defenseless, and completely reliant in your management skills and finite power source to keep you from getting ripped apart truly stuck with me. it's just you, that cupcake, and two deep dark voids of corridors on your left and right. you're not only just vulnerable to the danger, the danger has EASY ACCESS TO YOU. like EXCUSE ME???? i hated every last bit of that.

on top of that, the sounds really, REALLY mess with you a lot. when i was adjusting to the game, i remember almost pissing my pants at such a wide variety of sounds. the laughs from freddy, the footsteps, the music, chica digging through the kitchen, foxy singing his sea shanty at pirate cove, the phone guy talking my ear off only adding to stress, etc. of course when i first started playing, i had no idea that a vast majority of sounds (not all of them, but a LOT of them) quite literally didn't mean anything. i would hear footsteps by the door just for nothing to be there, nearly jump and start losing my mind at freddy laughing thinking he was right by the door, slam all the doors shut at the sound of chica rummaging around thinking they were shuffling towards me, etc. if this game knows how to do anything, it knew how to keep me on high alert. knowing that you already have to use your senses to stay on guard and make sure you don't get ambushed, my anxious brain clung on to ANYTHING that could even be a hint of a threat. combine that with me flipping through the camera channels like a maniac, best believe i was sitting there stressed and horrified beyond belief.

but after panicking and getting myself killed so many times, the actual horror of the game faded away relatively fast for me. playing through fnaf in itself felt like "learning things the hard way" but in game form. in general, your understanding of the game and the animatronic's tendencies directly relate to how far you're gonna get. it was for me to realize that at first, especially when going in completely blind. but after dying to the same things and going through trial and error over and over again to learn what to prioritize and what not to prioritize, i started to feel much more confident. when i was seeing the game as just me being at the mercy of the animatronics and clinging on to safety behind the office's closed doors, i was panicking and making ALL the wrong choices. but after looking at it instead as me understanding how these animatronics worked and how to manage my power reliant on my power management, the game was NOWHERE near as scary. at best, the later nights were just fun because i was successfully learning how to keep them at bay no matter how hectic things got, and mildly annoying at worst as i kept dying over and over again to the same things that i didn't have a sound strategy for (like for example, freddy literally going by the door and draining all of my power before i learned i could just keep my camera on the stage and keep him frozen there.)

and while we're on the topic of strategy, the later nights give you a really good challenge when it comes to figuring out how to manage all of the cast being flung at you so fast. i like games that make me think about my next steps and reflect on what i did wrong. (which is why i can't stop playing competitive games...ugh...) and if you're not constantly reflecting on why you died and how to stop it next time, ESPECIALLY with fnaf, you are in for a miserable experience. it's all about trial and error. that's quite literally all it is at it's root. adjusting your strategy and finding what works so you can improve and handle the increasing difficulty night by night. but that element of reflection leading to improvement was something i really liked. with fnaf, you get better and better as you realize how much control you have over things happening. flailing clicks, spamming the camera and looking through all of the camera feeds in panic, and cowering with both of the doors closed turn into controlled, metered gameplay with meaningful decision-making as we find a cycle and flow that helps keeps us safe and maximizes our power.

but when all was said and done, i winded up feeling a sort of a confidence boost after i was able to push from night 1 through night 5 in about 3-4 hours of gameplay. looking back at the footage and seeing myself going from utterly horrified to completely locked in always makes me laugh. fnaf gives a lot of horror and allows you to remedy it with numerous trial and error experiments. it all culminates with a big feeling of satisfaction as you slowly but surely watch yourself get better and better handling freddy and his coworkers' nonsense as the playthrough goes on. i've yet to play through the other games in the series, and i definitely plan on going through them all. say what you want about not being scary with it being out for so long, but experiencing it almost completely blind for the first time recently was something else. great, great experience across the board and i'm more than ready to keep exploring through the franchise on my own.

p.s. whoever that one person backseating my gameplay on twitch was, ily <33 i would NOT have been able to beat night 5 without you and i hope you're doing great x3!!!!

note: i might turn this blog post into a youtube video. maybe. i dunno. stay tuned tho ;3 love u to whoever's reading this and i hope to post experiences like these more often <3

[nnoul]

returning to tumblr (as a tiktok refugee...)

hii yall x3!! i haven't avidly used tumblr since my quarantine ages and with tiktok being gone, now feels like a better time than ever to come back and making this and youtube my main social medias again. insta and twitter both have their own meta-infused issues. i'm really sad about the prospect of it going away. every now and then i keep hearing people say "oh it's just an app, please get over it." say that tone deaf statement to all of the small business owners unable to utilize the platform to promote their products and services, all of the creators who were finally able to make an extra buck with their content, with some even creating a full digital livelihood reliant on their success and brand deals, and all of the other american citizens who used it to connect with others, laugh, and learn something new. the app's wonderful algorithm presented all of these opportunities in a way that just isn't comparable to the other apps that are provided to us in america. i can only continue to hope for the best and stay optimistic for the future of the platform, but as of right now, finding new spaces to occupy doesn't seem like too bad of an idea.

my story:

as for my tiktok experience, i used to post reactionary horror content from 2022 to through to mid-2023 ish? (check out junesreprise on tiktok to see for yourself) and i had a blast carving out my own space in the horror community. however, i severely burnt out with school and slowly but surely grew unable to continue posting. however, i'd post something on my smaller, more personal account every now and then and get that same enjoyment of just connecting with people through the silly little videos i'd make. the algorithm made me feel like i was connecting with people so quickly, finding a small crowd of MY people in what felt like a matter of hours. i've tried platforms like yt shorts and insta reels, but never was able to reach the same levels of success. so of course when i heard about the ban, knowing that i wanted to delve back into making videos when my school life opened up, i was sad. disappointed. i felt like i missed the window, and in many ways, i did.

with it being 2025 now, i've started looking at media analysis in a much more new and introspective light since then, and i'd love to use this space on tumblr, and branch out on youtube to share my findings. i loved decoding horror games and other pieces of obscure media back then, but i really didn't know how to put it in a presentable form without it sounding like i was yapping and rambling on and on. fast forward a couple of years, i now know how to word things effectively :). now all i ever wanna do is sit down and make blogs and youtube documentaries so i can nerd out about all of the media i explore and the theories and connections i make. and i'm beyond excited to share that with everyone here, and on all of the new spaces we find to hopefully create something similar to the same joy and experience we found on tiktok. (like rednote for example, it's actually so funny how fast it blew up so quickly LMFAOOOO i love yall sm)

tldr: tiktok ban sucks on so many levels :(, reusing tumblr and youtube once more as my preferred spaces to talk about horror :3