NU: carnival / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: Huey. Was he as wonderful as Aster and Morvay depict him? There are dialogues in the main story from clan members who knew him and from Aster's intimacy stories that hint at a dismissive or outright controlling attitude towards the clan members and the familiars. Blade in particular was basically abandoned by Huey after being told to wait for him to return in the Dead Zone. In that same vein, the reasons for his disappearance are very vague.
Awesome Music:
- Many have noted that the opening song for the game "Bright Purity" was an incredible piece for what's a mature BL game.
- Then there's the Idol Festival event song "Summer Dream" which many have enjoyed, performed by Blade, Olivine, and Yakumo.
- Christmas 2023's event Frozen Echoes released the beautiful "Ray of Melody", performed by Edmond, Garu, and Quincy.
- The 2nd Anniversary introduced "My Miracle" as its new title theme, a catchy pop tune that'll surely take you to cloud nine from its beat.
Die for Our Ship: Due to the gradual rise in the popularity of shipping the crystal bearers with each other, Eiden gets hit by this at times as he's the canon target of everyone's affection as the audience surrogate and thusly viewed as an obstacle for other potential pairings by fans. Some fans have been called for him to be removed from the game despite that defeating the purpose of it being a Boys Love Harem Genre game.
Difficulty Spike: Though easy to get into, Chapter 3 rips the training wheels off with a big jump in recommended battle power. Hope you have a good understanding of the battle system from there, or getting lucky at rolling a high leveled character!
Discredited Meme: Visual comparisons between the Genshin Impact and nu: Carnival characters became unpopular pretty quickly, at least among fan artists due to comments being left on their Tweets about the characters looking similarly. It has gotten to the point where artists have asked their followers to stop making comparisons on their Tweets.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: While the gameplay isn't horrible, the main draw of the game is its surprisingly well-done story and the H-scenes attached to it.
Ensemble Dark Horse: A few of the game's enemies have garnered a small following, such as the bear enemies that no one seems to want to kill.
Fan Nickname: Event allies are typically referred to by the acronym of the event they were released from for ease of remembering. Cocoa Liqueur Yakumo and White Lover Edmond are their "WD" (White Day, a.k.a. White Storm) versions, Aqua Bloom Olivine and Buckeye Miracle Quincy are "ZL" (Zest for Life), Kitsune Dream Kuya and Endless Banquet Garu are "MB" (Mystical Banquet), and so on and so forth. The SSRs that started from the game's launch or debut for later characters are their "OG" or "original generation" versions.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Mistaking Edmond and Yakumo fanart for Zhongli and Ayato from Genshin Impact is a guaranteed way to piss off nu: Carnival players.
Fandom Rivalry: With Genshin Impact due to the comparisons between the characters becoming a nuisance to nu: Carnival fan artists as explained under Discredited Meme.
Fanon: While not the case in the game proper, a number of fans have taken to depicting Eiden and the clansmen as being polyamorous.
Friendly Fandoms:
- Again, with Genshin Impact, at least among fans who play both and don't mind the characters being compared to each other.
- To a lesser extent, the fans of DRAMAtical Murder have instantly latched onto the game, with some even calling it a Spiritual Successor of DMMD.
Game-Breaker:
- Olivine is generally considered to be an amazing character to roll for.
  - His regular SR version is an exceptionally strong attack buffer, with his ultimate skill conferring a potent 2-turn attack buff for stronger damage and healing for faster stage clears. As an SR, he's also easier to obtain and ascend.
  - His Holy Confession SSR has incredibly potent healing that ensures your party stays healthy throughout difficult battles, and if you manage to get him to 3 stars, he heals the most injured ally for a hefty amount whenever he performs his basic heal.
  - His Aqua Bloom SSR from the Zest For Life event works like his SR version, offering a stronger attack buff with his ultimate skill, at the cost of it lasting only a single turn, and he also buffs the whole party's damage dealt with their ultimate skills. The only problem is that he's limited.
- Morvay's SR card primarily has one purpose, to tank damage. But he's by far the best tank in the game thanks to being a Starter Mon, so every player will always have him in their roster. His Lustful Eyes ultimate also has a very short cooldown, allowing him to tank attacks very frequently without putting your other members in danger. Being an SR favors him in the long run over all of the other Guardian class cards since they're all SSRs and thus is much easier to pull copies of to ascend. When fully ascended and having the potential perks unlocked, he obtains passive skills where he takes less damage by a flat percent, recovers more HP when healed, and having his max HP increase if Aster is in the party, making him pretty much unkillable in battles or at least hard to kill in the harder boss battles. His main drawback is his low damage output and his Taunt being useless against attacks that target all party members, but those kind of enemies come far in between.
- Apathetic Outsider Kuya from the Rusted Nation event is a worthy card to roll for by the mere fact that all of his passive skills boosts Ultimate damage of the whole party. Pair him up with cards with high attack stats or Ultimates that massively increase damage and battles would be over within seconds. His own Ultimate not only gives a massive Attack boost, but also shuts down enemy healing like his regular SR and SSR would. While he is a seasonal card, he's an SR, meaning he has an easier chance of being pulled compared to the featured SSRs of the banner.
Incest Yay Shipping: Upon the reveal that the mysterious masked man is Eiden's brother, fans immediately began to call for H-scenes between the two of them.
Just Here for Godzilla: Unsurprisingly, you'll find more than a few people who are solely interested in the game for being a rare Boys' Love Genre Gacha game with explicit sex scenes.
LGBT Fanbase: The game is enjoyed by members of the LGBT community due to having a likable, unabashedly gay protagonist and a cast full of pretty men. Word of God's open support of the community has further cemented this.
Memetic Mutation:
- Drawing the nu: Carnival characters with the Genshin Impact character they vaguely resemble has become one. For example, there have been quite a few fanarts featuring Zhongli and Yakumo switching outfits as well as roles.
- "Men love manly stuff... such as other men..." ^Explanation
Misaimed Fandom: Around the time of the game's release there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding who this game was intended for, as LGBT allies had claimed that since the game featured gay men it should not be played by women, inadvertently treating the game as a source of representation for LGBT people. This is despite the fact that Infinity Alpha has openly said that their primary goal in creating the game was to remedy the lack of adult games aimed at women on the market, while also hinting at future plans to create more Boys' Love Genre games with the female demographic in mind. This also has to do with Values Dissonance in regards to how media is marketed in Asia as well as the Yaoi Genre, as Western media tends to put more focus on representation in their marketing.
Moe: Yakumo is perpetually shy, but has a strong willingness to protect Eiden at all costs.
Narm:
- Players from the Philippines have a very hard time taking Kuya seriously, as his name means "big brother" in Tagalog. To them, it's kind of like calling him "Onii-chan" every time. His name is actually pronounced as "Kyu-ya", but the spelling makes it very difficult to see.
- As is the case with most H-games, some of the translated dialogue during the sex scenes can be hard to take seriously.
Nightmare Fuel: The Chimes of Darkness event proves to be one of the darkest stories in the game, with it having its own content warning to warn players that the story is more extreme than standard fare. What started as an innocent school storyline suddenly swerves into investigating a cult hiding underground, complete with blood sacrifices described in gory detail. The cult even partakes in ritualistic orgies, turning the game's selling point into something twisted and squicky. The cherry on top is that the first part leaves on the cliffhanger of cultists preparing to sacrifice Yakumo in the name of the True God.
Periphery Demographic: While the game's target audience is the female demographic that hasn't stopped LGBT people, particularly gay and bi men, from downloading and enjoying the game as well. Although, the devs have at various times name-dropped Fudanshi as well as Fujoshi when talking about their fans, so the demographic is not quite so periphery as one might think.
Scrappy Mechanic: The reruns of seasonal banners quickly came under fire due to the fact that they can only be pulled using Sorcery Gems, which are hard to obtain without resorting to paying with real money, as opposed to the usual Spirit Gems and Essence Contracts. What also doesn't help is how low the chances of obtaining the featured SSRs still are. Resulting in many players voicing their complaints on various social media and not bothering with pulling from the banners.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Fighting boss battles only using N or R cards is the most common one since they're generally weaker and don't have much skills to carry compared to the SR and especially SSR cards.
Shipping: Despite every character's interest primarily being in Eiden, fans have begun to ship the clansmen together based on their existing dynamics in the game. For example, as of the event White Storm, Yakumo/Edmond has gotten quite popular, due in part to Edmond's Pet the Dog moments with him. Olivine/Quincy has been received similarly. Quincy/Kuya became more popular during Quincy and Kuya's chapters, with the two having history with each other, refer to one another as "old friends" and their banter comes across like an old married couple. The introduction of Dante also caused a surge in Dante/Edmond shipping because of their Red Oni, Blue Oni motif, and both Chapter 10, when they meet, as well as their shared event in Chase the Rainbow, has only fuelled it further.
Signature Scene: Because of how it quickly establishes what kind of game Nu: Carnival is, the opening prologue of Eiden having a threesome with Aster and Morvay is perhaps the most remembered scene in the whole game.
Tear Jerker:
- The small amount of screen time Kuya has in the game's animated opening is just depressing, with him looking at his kaleidoscope with a somber look on his face. Kuya may be a troll, but he's a Stepford Snarker at his core.
- The story of Molly, the Rainbow Dream Fish from Chase the Rainbow. She was taken away from her family by a neglectful owner who let her die from keeping her in dirty water. Her spirit was sheltered by a ginkgo tree, who thought she was protecting her, but only trapped her. As a result, she grew lonely and made illusions to lure people in just to play with her. Thankfully, Eiden, Edmond and Dante are able to free her.
That One Boss:
- From Chapter 10 Part 2, Rin, the Mysterious Man, hits your party hard, and takes so much more hits than the Gemstone Altar in Part 1. His gimmicks are on par with the event bosses, from inflicting Silence, and healing himself when struck. Even with a sufficiently powered up team, you'd be hard-pressed to outlast him while beating out the turn limit for three stars.
- White Lover Edmond is notorious for bringing Sorcerer Trial win streaks to a screeching halt. He’s a powerful AoE Striker with a fast charging Ultimate, that will also stack shield health every time he uses it. Not only that, but he also can cast the powerful Flushed Fury and then follow up with his Ultimate right after. But worst of all is that at low health, he will unleash a Total Party Kill, meaning you have to output a huge amount of damage to take him out quickly near the end or it’s an instant defeat. Good luck breaking through the shields and surviving the hits to beat him in 13 turns for the three star condition!

YMMV / NU: carnival

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