History Trivia / TheBindingOfIsaac

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Chris-chan of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' infamy was actually one of the ''Four Souls'' guest artists, but when news of her arrest on incest charges came out, Edmund [=McMillen=] made a call to have the card she designed replaced.

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games [[FromClonesToGenre imitating its basic gameplay style]].[[note]]The qualities of games following the ''Isaac'' formula tend to include the following points: top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay; multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a {{dungeon crawler}}-like format; require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress; allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip); tend to become BulletHell in their later stages if they don't qualify from the very start (especially during [[BossBattle boss fights]]); usually have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]] (with the player's health typically being defined more-or-less as "number of hits until death", while enemies have larger HP numbers that allow player attacks to deal wildly varying amounts of damage based on their build); feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style mid-run; have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items, characters, and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the [[TrueFinalBoss definitive]] FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough); often have some in-universe explanation for why [[DeathIsCheap death is not permanent]] and why death and success alike send the PlayerCharacter back to the start of the journey — sans most if not all of the items and upgrades they acquired during the run (such as [[TimeTravel some]] [[StableTimeLoop form]] of TrickedOutTime, [[WeHaveReserves a hilariously-large supply of interchangeable would-be heroes]], or [[spoiler:the events of the gameplay taking place in a MentalWorld and having [[AllJustADream a loose-at-best connection to in-universe reality]]]]); and often have some late-game twist that turns the initially-presented plot on its head (to varying degrees) which may or may not tie into the reason why death isn't permanent. Some of these points are flexible and can be bent or even disregarded, but others need to be followed nearly to the letter to qualify a game as an "Isaac-like".[[/note]] Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', and ''VideoGame/{{Undermine}}'', among others.[[note]]To go over some of the hand-waves for multiple playthroughs: ''Nuclear Throne'' and ''Enter the Gungeon'' use TrickedOutTime, ''Undermine'' uses WeHaveReserves, and ''Our Darker Purpose'' and ''The Binding of Isaac'' itself use [[spoiler:the "story is not connected to gameplay" MentalWorld approach]].[[/note]] It's gotten to the point where some people, most notably LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}}, have proposed referring to these games as "Isaac-likes"[[note]]specifically, Northernlion said that in the description of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvFNt7tQUdM his review for]] ''Our Darker Purpose'', which was released in ''2014''[[/note]].

* BasedOnADream: [[https://steamcommunity.com/app/250900/discussions/0/5017567849303206071/ According to a Discord AMA from Kilburn,]] the Red Key item was originally based on a recurring dream of his where he would find doors that weren't normally where they would be in real life, and wake up before he could open them. Edmund encouraged him to [[spoiler:connect it with the Tainted characters.]]

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games [[FromClonesToGenre imitating its basic gameplay style]][[note]]top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay, multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a {{dungeon crawler}}-like format, require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress, allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip), tend to become BulletHell in their later stages if they don't qualify from the very start (especially during boss fights), have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]], feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style, have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the [[TrueFinalBoss definitive]] FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough), and often have some in-universe explanation for why [[DeathIsCheap death is not permanent]] and why death and success alike send the PlayerCharacter back to the start of the journey (such as [[spoiler:[[TimeTravel some]] [[StableTimeLoop form]] of TrickedOutTime, [[WeHaveReserves a hilariously-large supply of interchangeable would-be heroes]], or the events of the gameplay taking place in a MentalWorld and having [[AllJustADream a loose-at-best connection to in-universe reality]]]])[[/note]]. Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', and ''VideoGame/{{Undermine}}'', among others.[[note]]To go over some of the hand-waves for multiple playthroughs: ''Nuclear Throne'' and ''Enter the Gungeon'' use TrickedOutTime, ''Undermine'' uses WeHaveReserves, and ''Our Darker Purpose'' and ''The Binding of Isaac'' itself use [[spoiler:the "story is not connected to gameplay" MentalWorld approach]].[[/note]]

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games [[FromClonesToGenre imitating its basic gameplay style]][[note]]top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay, multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a {{dungeon crawler}}-like format, require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress, allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip), tend to become BulletHell in their later stages if they don't qualify from the very start (especially during boss fights), have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]], feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style, have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the [[TrueFinalBoss definitive]] FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough), and often have some in-universe explanation for why [[DeathIsCheap death is not permanent]] and why death and success alike send the PlayerCharacter back to the start of the journey (such as [[spoiler:[[TimeTravel some]] [[StableTimeLoop form]] of TrickedOutTime, [[WeHaveReserves a hilariously-large supply of interchangeable would-be heroes]], or the events of the gameplay having [[AllJustADream a loose-at-best connection to in-universe reality]]]])[[/note]]. Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', and ''VideoGame/{{Undermine}}'', among others.[[note]]To go over some of the hand-waves for multiple playthroughs: ''Nuclear Throne'' and ''Enter the Gungeon'' use TrickedOutTime, ''Undermine'' uses WeHaveReserves, and ''Our Darker Purpose'' and ''The Binding of Isaac'' itself use [[spoiler:the "story is not connected to gameplay" approach]].[[/note]]

* IKnewIt: The game [[spoiler:taking place in Isaac's imagination, right down to it being a result of suffocating in the chest]] was old news among fans long before the final ending actually revealed it.

** Lil Dumpy debuted in ''[[VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacAntibirth Antibirth]]'' as a friendly version of the Dumpling enemies that the mod also added. When ''Antibirth'' was officially ported into the main game, Lil Dumpy was added but the Dumpling enemies were cut, leaving the reference stranded.

** Spider, the mind behind the [=SpiderMod=] program (a modified version of ''Isaac'' that runs in a separate .exe, is more optimized, and adds a number of features, including various cheats and controller support) was hired to do coding work for the remake. ''Afterbirth'' then introduced an item named Spider Mod, giving all enemies individual health bars and showing how much damage your tears do to them, which was one of the functions introduced by [=SpiderMod=].

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games imitating its basic gameplay style[[note]]top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay, multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a dungeon crawler-like format, require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress, allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip), tend to become BulletHell in their later stages (especially during boss fights), have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]], feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style, and have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the [[TrueFinalBoss definitive]] FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough)[[/note]]. Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', and ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', among others.

** Ur-Gurdy is a fictitious boss that spawned an UrbanLegendOfZelda in ''Rebirth''. She was added as "The Witness" in ''Antibirth'', (now renamed Mother), as serves as the DiscOneFinalBoss of ''Repentance''. Funny enough, what started as an UrbanLegendOfZelda ended up becoming official.

* NamesTheSame:
** Glass Cannon, [[https://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Glass_Cannon_(Challenge) challenge]] and [[https://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Glass_Cannon item]] as of ''Afterbirth''.
** The item [[http://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Cancer Cancer]] (the zodiac sign) and the trinket [[http://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Cancer_(Trinket) Cancer]] (the disease).
** Gemini, Steven, and Little Horn are the names of both bosses and collectible items. They're all somewhat related to the boss they're named after: Steven (the item) gives the same kind of head-growth as Steven (the boss), the Gemini item is one of the zodiac items but gives you a familiar version of Suture, and the Little Horn item was originally unconnected to the boss but now summons Big Horn (suggested to be Little Horn's brother) for its instant-kill tear effect.
** The bosses Little Horn and Brownie have the same names as bosses in ''[[VideoGame/MeatBoy Super Meat Boy]]''. There are also plenty of level names ("Hush", "Gurdy", "The Fallen", "The Lamb", "Stain", "King Carrion") that are identical or similar to boss names from ''The Binding of Isaac'', as well as item names ("Halo of Flies", "20/20"), though it's unknown which ones are coincidental or deliberate.
** "Pay to play" has been used thrice: as the description of Magic Fingers, as the name of a ''Rebirth'' challenge, and as the name of an item introduced in ''Afterbirth''. There's also the special seed "FREE 2PAY".

** During an interview with Northernlion, Edmund revealed that the only reason ''Repentance'' is such a massive DifficultySpike compared to the base game and ''Afterbirth/Afterbirth+'' is because he wasn't happy with players and streamers breaking the game.

** Within the mod itself, [[spoiler:the Ur-Gurdy, a fictitious boss that spawned an UrbanLegendOfZelda in ''Rebirth'', is added as "The Witness" (now renamed Mother), the TrueFinalBoss of the Alternate Route. Funny enough thanks to ''Repentance'', what started as an UrbanLegendOfZelda ended up becoming official.]]

** Eye Of The Occult and Dream Catcher originated from [[https://www.reddit.com/r/bindingofisaac/comments/2rklib/a_few_item_ideas/ this reddit post]].

* FanNickname:
** As the game doesn't give you the names of normal enemies until the credits (or at all in ''Rebirth'' outside ''Afterbirth+''[='=]s Bestiary), players tend to give them these. Anyone who has watched LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}} enough tends to use "human popcorn", "silkworms", "Conga Line", and "zambies", in place of their real names (Mulligan/Host, Charger/Spitter, Butt Licker, Knight).
** Meatboy Lvl. 5 — That's what some players call the severed body "generated" by The Shears. The reason behind it is because it used to be possible to have it constantly following you by acquiring five Meat Cubes [[GoodBadBugs via glitch exploitation]].[[note]]It's still possible to acquire more than 4 Meat Cubes, but now the fifth one you get transforms into a new rotating Meat Cube instead of upgrading your 4th Lvl. Meatboy.[[/note]]
** An even more common one is "Blue Baby" for the unwieldy ???. [[spoiler:For the True Final Boss as well as the character.]] This was ascended as of one of the updates, with his will being signed as "??? (a.k.a. The Blue Baby)" This nickname is so popular that his character card in ''The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls'' was introduced as "Blue Baby (aka ???)".
** Pooters are known as "Grandfather Flies" because their white abdomens look like beards.
** The Vis and its brethren are known as "vaginas" for obvious reasons.
** "Judgement" for the Beggars (with the "Demon" and "Key" prefixes added when necessary), because they spawn from the Judgement card.
*** Similarly, Blood Donation Machines are referred to as "Temperance Machines" because they spawn from the Temperance card.
** <weapon_name>tammy for Tammy's Head combined with a tear modifier in ''Rebirth'', the most known being [[http://edmundm.com/post/95414119920/what-would-happen-if-you-got-tammys Brimtammy]].
** The TrueFinalBoss of ''Rebirth'' has such an unintentionally ridiculous name that fans decided to make it more ridiculous by calling him [[spoiler:Mega Stan]].
** Many fans call the [[http://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Monster_Manual Monster Manual]] "Monster Manuel" instead. This is an interesting case — in the original game, it actually was the Monster Manuel due to a typo. Some fans, due to either not realizing it was fixed in ''Rebirth'' or due to finding the typo hilarious, still call it Manuel. ''Repentance'' later made it official - there's a random chance for the item to use the Manuel spelling as opposed to the Manual spelling introduced in Rebirth upon picking it up.
** Many players also refer to [[http://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Mega_Maw Mega Maw]] as "Franchise/MegaMan", whether they meant to or not.
** Edmund is referred to by more cynical fans as "Steakmund" quite frequently, referring to his [[CreatorBacklash furiously defiant stance]] on the datamined reveal of The Lost and the "No Fun Allowed" impression given to fans by so many [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks highly contested]] {{nerf}}s. In this case, "Steak" refers to Edmund's infamous reference to this mentality in the 2014 WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} [[https://youtu.be/UJVuLvGjPOc?t=8197 interview]].
** When Singe was being teased by Edmund on Website/{{Twitter}}, he was often referred to as ARG-Kun in the game's Discord server before his final name was revealed.

** Many fans call the [[http://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Monster_Manual Monster Manual]] "Monster Manuel" instead. This is an interesting case — in the original game, it actually was the Monster Manuel due to a typo. Some fans, due to either not realizing it was fixed in ''Rebirth'' or due to finding the typo hilarious, still call it Manuel.

** There are three unused bosses in ''Repentance'' that were cut for time. Cadavra, a dual-boss of sorts that only exists as two sprites (never finished despite being revealed in a Twitter tease); Raglich, a posthumous Ragman/Rag Mega that can be summoned with the debug console and is mostly functional; and The Clutch, a seemingly finished boss with an intro screen and everything that's a KingMook to the new resurrecting skeleton enemies.

** Judgement for the Beggars (with the "Demon" and "Key" prefixes added when necessary), because they spawn from the Judgement card.

** A weird meta in-universe example with the DELETE THIS challenge. It's made to look like a piece of dummied out content, from the Steam achievement description being a note to the publisher to delete this before the game goes live, it not being properly listed on the menu, and the achievement for beating it having a placeholder name and blank description. The challenge itself looks like a MinusWorld with random music, terrain types, and even glitched-out terrain and a chance to spawn ''actual'' unfinished, dummied out enemies from ''Antibirth''. Also, you start with [[VideoGameRandomizer TMTRAINER]], just to make the whole thing as chaotic as possible.

** One trinket, the Liberty Cap, was glitched so that it sometimes gave the effect of the Compass item (which would reveal all special rooms on a floor) for a single room, rather than act as a random mushroom item. This effect carried over to ''Rebirth''. Strangely enough however, the effect was later removed in Repentance, with the patch notes stating the trinket was "fixed", as if it were still a glitch.

** The [[{{Vaporware}} Rebirth is Cancelled]] joke that LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}} and his friends started can be one of the messages that you get from fortune tellers. A bit ironic, since NL discredited the meme because those who couldn't read the sarcasm started giving the devs shit over it.

** As the game doesn't give you the names of normal enemies until the credits (or at all in ''Rebirth'' outside ''Afterbirth+''[='=]s Bestiary), players tend to give them these. Anyone who has watched LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}} enough tends to use "human popcorn", "silkworms", "Conga Line" and "zambies", in place of their real names (Mulligan/Host, Charger/Spitter, Butt Licker, Knight).

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games imitating its basic gameplay style[[note]]top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay, multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a dungeon crawler-like format, require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress, allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip), tend to become BulletHell in their later stages (especially during boss fights), have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]], feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style, and have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the definitive FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough)[[/note]]. Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', and ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', among others.

* FollowTheLeader: The success of ''The Binding of Isaac'' has led to a slew of other {{roguelike}} games imitating its basic gameplay style (top-down twin-stick shooters that have generally fast-paced gameplay, multiple rooms to explore spread over several randomly-generated floors in a dungeon crawler-like format, require all enemies in a room to be defeated in order to progress, allow an extremely limited degree of backtracking to pick up passed-over items or explore other paths (you can freely travel between rooms on a floor, but progressing from one floor to the next is a one-way trip), tend to become BulletHell in their later stages (especially during boss fights), have the player and the enemies follow [[HealthDamageAsymmetry wildly different rules in terms of durability]], feature a wide variety of (randomly-placed) collectible items to adjust the player character's stats and fighting style, and have strong {{macrogame}} elements where additional items and levels are unlocked through multiple playthroughs and achieving various objectives (with the definitive FinalBoss usually not being available on the first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthrough)). Derivative games include ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'', ''VideoGame/{{Monolith}}'', and ''VideoGame/SoulKnight'', among others.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Chris-chan of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' infamy was actually one of the ‘’Four Souls’’ guest artists, but when news of her arrest on incest charges came out, Edmund [=McMillen=] made a call to have the card she designed replaced.

** As ''Afterbirth+''’s secret character, you can [[spoiler:spend the last of your health on a Devil Deal as The Soul, then switch to The Forgotten before you die. Although The Soul still dies, the run will continue and you are locked as The Forgotten until you get more soul hearts, at which point The Soul comes back.]] This was caught in playtesting, but kept as it was felt "thematically appropriate".

** With Edmund's guest appearance in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh87HkTuZj8&t=53m19s a Roundtable stream]], he confirmed that [[spoiler:the game's narrator, who voices the introduction and occasionally calls out pills/cards, is supposed to be Isaac's dad (or at least [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness a hallucination of him]]).]]

** Getting revived by Lazarus's Rags as Tainted Forgotten has Lazarus Risen appear as pile of bones with Lazarus' head stacked on top of it who still works normally. This was originally a bug during development, but Kilburn found it funny enough to keep it in for the patch release.

* ChristmasRushed: Despite the generally high quality of ''Repentance'', it's obvious that it wasn't quite finished in time for release. Almost all of the [[spoiler:Tainted characters]] unlock at least one functionless item, as does Lilith. Half of the characters have no effect for Birthright, an item that's supposed to do something different for everyone. There are a few items that make [[spoiler:The Beast]] nearly impossible due to wonky physics. [[spoiler:Tainted Lazarus]] is quite literally unfinished according to WordOfGod, and was released in an unplayably weak state. All of this was to avoid the DLC entering DevelopmentHell, since it was already pushed back several ''years'' by the time it came out. These things are being slowly fixed in patches.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Chris-chan of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' infamy was actually one of the ‘’Four Souls’’ guest artists, but when news of her sexual assault against her mother came out, Edmund [=McMillen=] made a call to have the card she designed replaced.

** ''Afterbirth'' has an unused boss known as "Skinless [[spoiler:Hush]]", implied to be an alternative form of an existing boss. Both the boss' code and spritesheet are in the game's files, but the spritesheet has only one finished sprite and, if forced to spawn in-game, the boss has absolutely no AI attached to it. Edmund claimed it was a RedHerring for data miners, although Tyrone later posted concept art showing it was at least at one point intended to be used in game. Edmund later confirmed that Skinless Hush [[https://twitter.com/edmundmcmillen/status/1378785476211998722 was not a red herring]].

** [[http://edmundm.com/post/24457249299/isaac-expansion-expansion As hinted here]], Triachnid was originally cut before the game was released. It wasn't removed ''entirely'', though. Due to a glitch, it originally would replace [[spoiler:the Cathedral's TrueFinalBoss.]] This was eventually corrected, and Triachnid was added in as a normal boss.

** ''Afterbirth'' has an unused boss known as "Skinless [[spoiler:Hush]]", implied to be an alternative form of an existing boss. Both the boss' code and spritesheet are in the game's files, but the spritesheet has only one finished sprite and, if forced to spawn in-game, the boss has absolutely no AI attached to it. Edmund claimed it was a RedHerring for data miners, although Tyrone later posted concept art showing it was at least at one point intended to be used in game. Edmund later said that Skinless Hush [[https://twitter.com/edmundmcmillen/status/1378785476211998722 was not a red herring]].
** There are three unused bosses in ''Repentance'' that were cut for time. Cadavra, a dual-boss of sorts that only exists as two sprites (never finished despite being revealed in a Twitter tease); Raglich, a posthumous Ragman/Rag Mega that can be summoned with the debug console and is mostly functional; and The Clutch, a seemingly finished boss with an intro screen and everything that's a BossMook to the new resurrecting skeleton enemies.

** ''Afterbirth'' has an unused boss known as "Skinless [[spoiler:Hush]]", implied to be an alternative form of an existing boss. Both the boss' code and spritesheet are in the game's files, but the spritesheet has only one finished sprite and, if forced to spawn in-game, the boss has absolutely no AI attached to it. Edmund claimed it was a RedHerring for data miners, although Tyrone later posted concept art showing it was at least at one point intended to be used in game.