Bendy and the Dark Revival / YMMV

For the YMMV page of Bendy and the Ink Machine, go here.

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Joey Drew's relationship with Allison Pendle. Although there's no doubt that she was one of the healthiest relationships he had, was he romantically interested in her or did he just see her as a good friend? Given that outside source material strongly implies Joey to be gay, it's likely the latter. However, since Memory Joey mentions her influence managed to inspire Joey to perform a Heel–Face Turn prior to the events of the game as she was able to "see something inside of him that no one else could", it's possible the former has some credence to it.
- The Ink Demon's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Audrey is clearly an attempt to manipulate her into joining him, but at the end of his speech he mentions that she's basically a mistake...just like him. Is it possible that he feels a slight bit of empathy for her on account of his Freudian Excuse of being locked up just for being a "mistake", or is it just more cruel manipulation? It should be noted that even if the latter interpretation is correct, it's still likely he didn't just pull those feelings of abandonment from out of nowhere.
- Wilson. Is he a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to kill the Ink Demon by any means necessary to save the ink world? Or is he a power-hungry Narcissist who wants to get rid of the Ink Demon just so he can reign supreme? Him betraying Audrey and trying to turn her into his ultimate weapon to defeat the Ink Demon just furthers this. The Archives confirm it to be the latter.
And You Thought It Would Fail: Considering that the game was stuck in Development Hell for quite a while and its predecessor, Bendy and the Ink Machine, was plagued by an infamously Troubled Production despite otherwise being considered decent, it's understandable that some fans figured the game wouldn't turn out very well, if it would be released at all. However, when the game was suddenly and abruptly released, many found it to be surprisingly good, with some considering it to be an Even Better Sequel due to the improved mechanics, storyline, and being released as a full game rather than being released by chapter. While the game has unfortunately gotten nowhere near as much attention as the first one (although some think that's a good thing), it shows that the Bendy series may not have reached the end just yet.
Anti-Climax Boss: Lord Amok, who is built up throughout Chapter 3 to be the ruthless and powerful ruler of the sewers, turns out to be a normal Lost One that goes down in seconds. Although this was more likely than not an invoked example.
Awesome Art: The already impressive art style of the Bendy franchise is heavily refined and improved upon. The Cycle looks both more detailed and real while capturing the feel of a hand drawn cartoon much more effectively. The line art looks much more polished and professional while retaining its sketchy scratchiness that makes it so appealing, the lighting is even more exaggerated and cartoony, the character designs are much more diverse and every returning character is revamped with more detailed textures, the characters have much more shading that makes them look more convincingly hand-drawn(which now includes thin white outlines), the sets are larger and more impressive with the city being a particular standout, and the occasional Splash of Color adds an effective sense that the setting is being invaded by something alien to it. The brief real world scenes also look much better than they did in Ink Machine, while not close to photorealistic in any aspect other than the lighting, they're fairly detailed and look decently semi-realistic, especially for an indie game.
Best Boss Ever: Shipahoy Wilson. While Dark Revival is pretty conservative with its bosses, technically only having 3^note, Shipahoy Wilson is an awesomely designed, surprisingly-for-the-series hard fight that is everything a survival horror game boss fight should be, evoking some of the better bosses of the early Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. His first phase is just him getting started; the real fight begins when he attacks you one-on-one and requires dextrous use of the Flow ability to avoid his attacks. Plus, the music for the fight is a nightmarish remix of a Standard Snippet (The Sailor's Hornpipe) that somehow still manages to be frightening!
Crosses the Line Twice:
- The final exhibit in Animation Alley showing a mannequin hanging themselves? Creepy. The recording of Joey Drew telling the mannequin (who's supposed to represent one of the editors) to hang in there? Darkly hilarious.
- The insanity ending. The fact that our player character has been deposited in an insane asylum with absolutely no explanation of what this means for the series? Horrifying. The fact that you can control Audrey in a straitjacket that flops around her cell with Ragdoll Physics? Hilarious.
Draco in Leather Pants: Surprisingly, there's some people who actually side with Wilson in his crusade to overthrow The Ink Demon, stating that he would do better as the ruler of The Cycle, despite there being no actual evidence that he would make The Cycle better for anyone but himself. There's also the fact that he betrays Audrey and attempts to kill her so she could be his ultimate weapon.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The (presumed) ink clone/living memory of Joey Drew, despite being a major character in the story, only appears in about three scenes. However, he's surprisingly beloved by fans for being the exact opposite of the real Joey Drew by virtue of being an incredibly Nice Guy whose You Are Better Than You Think You Are speeches to his daughter Audrey are surprisingly impactful and heartwarming. As a result, fans were devastated when he was Killed Off for Real by the Ink Demon when he managed to get through to Audrey.
Even Better Sequel: Dark Revival is substantially less bug-filled and janky than the last game while retaining the amazing atmosphere that made the first beloved, has some genuinely good scares, tells a more cohesive and understandable story that isn't released incrementally in chapters due to the game being a full release, adds in a little more action to the mix and just generally feels like a more professional and polished project from Kindly Beast. It shows in the game's steam reviews, which are Overwhelmingly Positive to Ink Machine's "Very Positive".
Evil Is Cool: The Ink Demon already received this in the previous game, but he takes it up to eleven here due to having an even cooler redesign, being much more intelligent this time around, and actually being able to SPEAK.
Fanfic Fuel: How did Wilson imprison Henry, Sammy, and Twisted Alice, and what happened to them between the ending of the previous game and now?
Goddamned Bats: Once Slicer has been awoken in Chapter 2, she will occasionally pop in front of you with no warning and a scream. While her one attack is fairly easily dodged and doesn't do much damage even if she does hit you, it's likely to simply startle you and will alert nearby enemies to your presence. There's not really much you can do about it.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Between 2018 and 2019, Tumblr user Trashboat Prince made the Ink Spots AU which contained several similarities to Dark Revival's story. To list:
- The protagonist having supernatural powers denoted by a symbol on their hand granted to them by the ink.
- The Ink Demon having both cloven feet and the ability to talk to the protagonist via mental link.
- A good and evil incarnation of Bendy that are one and the same.
Memetic Molester: Wilson. Seriously, the dude may be "stranger danger" incarnate with how creepy his voice, mannerisms, and appearance are. The fact that he almost seems to be hitting on Audrey, who's decades younger than him, doesn't help at all.
Memetic Mutation:
- "Oh…I-I thought you were dead." "My death was…greatly exaggerated."^Explanation
- Siblings ^Explanation
- "YOUR JORDANS ARE FAKE, AUDREY."^Explanation
Moe: Baby Bendy is so adorable! Many YouTubers couldn't help but Squee upon first seeing him, as you can see for yourself.
Moral Event Horizon: Remember how we said that Ink Bendy is an Eldritch Abomination with Blue-and-Orange Morality? Yeah, it turns out he is an egotistical sadist. Not only that, but we learn that he actually wants the Cycle to last forever just so he can maintain his tyrannical rule. And when he sees his creator favoring Audrey over him, he then crushes him to death just to spite the man.
More Popular Replacement: While Henry wasn't really outright disliked and certainly had his fans, some accused him of being a Vanilla Protagonist who wasn't as interesting as the situation he was in and criticized him for hardly ever speaking or emoting (although the fact that he's stuck in a time loop might have something to do with that). Audrey, on the other hand, is given a much more fleshed out backstory, reacts to the situation she's in much more realistically, and even undergoes Character Development throughout the course of the game, making her more well-received. It also helps that she's more closely connected to the game's story and themes on account of being an ink person, as well as the "daughter" of Joey Drew.
Most Wonderful Sound: For some rather "enthusiastic" fans, hearing the Ink Demon's new voice certainly is this, courtesy of Sean Crisden.
Moment of Awesome: Ink Demon Bendy taking down Shipahoy Wilson, who is approximately twice his size.
Narm: Wilson is so Obviously Evil with his scarred face, slouched posture, odd speech pattern, and creepy voice that it would be more of an actual surprise if he was revealed to be Good All Along. Honestly, it feels like he's just trying to act as over-the-top creepy as possible.
- When Wilson explains his plan of taking control of the cycle by creating his own monster he can control, he shows a drawing of the monster in question, Shipahoy Dudley, all while talking as if he created the Ultimate Life Form.
  Bumbles McFumbles: And you're not supposed laugh at this.
Narm Charm: There is something really endearing and funny about seeing characters like the giant Boris plushie, Harold the fish, and all of the dogs playing poker in Wilson's painting sporting hats in the optional update.
Obvious Judas: Given that he's pretty much the living embodiment of Obviously Evil, absolutely no one was surprised when Wilson is revealed to be Evil All Along. Justified as the archives confirm that this wasn't really meant to be a twist and the actual reveal comes from his backstory and how he plans to execute his plans.
Special Effect Failure: The model sheets on Audrey's desk at the beginning look off, with factors like Bendy being drawn in an unusually 3D way that ignores the usual Cheated Angle of his horns and both Bendy and Alice being very obviously 3D models next to the 2D Boris making them seem more like model sheets for toys than for animation.
Spiritual Adaptation: The premise involving a realistic human woman entering a cartoon world could be seen as a much darker take on Walt Disney's Alice Comedies. The parallels are even more obvious if you believe the theory that Audrey is younger than she looks.
Squick: Wilson's continued advances on Audrey are more than a bit creepy, seeing as they're obviously unwanted and there's a very large age gap between them.
Tear Jerker:
- The game hits you with one pretty much from the start: the death of Joey Drew. Despite being a Bad Boss and his unscrupulous practices, he ultimately was left a regretful old man who realized his mistakes too late and is now unable to make peace with any of his old coworkers.
- The joy of seeing Henry Stein in the flesh is immediately cut with the realization of where he is and his fate.
- The Keepers' logs revealing how they conducted painful experiments on Bendy AFTER he got turned into his smaller form in an attempt to learn how to kill him for good, even describing how fun it was making him cry and scream in a completely clinical tone. Regardless of how you feel about the Ink Demon, just the thought of poor little Bendy being tortured to the point of crying and screaming is heartbreaking.
  - This reveal alone was enough to illicit a very Papa Wolf-like response from Pastra in his playthrough of the game.
    Pastra: I'M KILLING THESE MOTHERFUCKERS! THEY TORTURED HIM AND MADE HIM CRY! […] I'M KILLING EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! THEY HURT MY BABY!!!
- Memory Joey's death. Unlike the real Joey Drew, who was a near-sociopathic, selfish, greedy tyrant (even if he did start to mellow out near the end of his life), Memory Joey was a straight-up Nice Guy who sincerely tried to help his daughter come to terms with herself and save the residents of the Ink World. And while he saves Audrey from completely losing hope, the Ink Demon kills him and disposes of his corpse in a fountain of ink.
That One Achievement: The "Ink Master" achievement, which requires you to complete the entire game without dying, which can be a pretty tedious task even on easy mode. Especially in areas such as artist's rest in which you get cascaded by 8 lost ones at once unexpectedly and the King Widow boss fight, where the mini widows are pretty goddamn hard to hit without taking damage. Also, you better pray the ink demon doesn't come out when there isn't any hiding spots around, or you're gonna be saying goodbye to your chances of getting this achievement without loading a previous save, which in itself can get tedious if you saved before a puzzle that was particularly challenging.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While the overall game is pretty solid, players of the previous game were disappointed to see the Butcher Gang being relegated to cameos instead of the Elite Mooks they previously were.
Unexpected Character: While this is a sequel to Bendy and the Ink Machine, few people were prepared to see Henry Stein and Joey Drew himself in the workplace.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Joey Drew and by extension Memory Joey ended up being this for some fans. While the game seems to go in the direction that Joey's become The Atoner since the first game, pointing to his adding Allison Angel to the Cycle and his genuine love for Audrey as proof, there's still the fact that the Cycle is still going and still just as miserable as it ever was in spite of Allison's presence. Some fans pointed out that if Joey was truly sorry for all the hurt he caused, both the toons and the real people in his life, he would've found a way to either end the Cycle for good or make it better for its inhabitants. There's also his attitude toward Audrey and the Ink Demon and what it says about him as a person. The Ink Demon isn't even acknowledged by Memory Joey during the climax, despite arguably being one of Joey's biggest victims, while Audrey, who unlike the Ink Demon came out perfect, gets a whole You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech and empathy. Some fans took this to mean that Joey hadn't truly changed at all and was still The Perfectionist with a callous disregard for anything and anyone not living up to his ideal vision, which makes the change of heart the game seems to insist he's had fall a bit flat.

YMMV / Bendy and the Dark Revival

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