YMMV / .flow

• Adorkable: There's something rather cute about seeing Oreko frantically working on her machine in her house, occasionally sleeping on her arms over it (implying she'd fallen asleep in the middle of working), or simply sitting on the stool and swinging her legs. As well as the fact that whenever Sabitsuki fires the handgun, Oreko instantly goes to check on her computer.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Ripe for all kinds of interpretations here, like Yume Nikki and Yume 2kki. Even so, the general consensus is that Sabitsuki is a girl with a fatal disease of some kind.
  • Rust: Is she a malevolent alter-ego of Sabitsuki created by a disease to take over Sabitsuki's body? Or is she really an alter-ego created by Sabitsuki to defend herself against the virus and other things that could possibly threaten Sabitsuki? Is she a protective split-personality turned malevolent and trying to kill Sabitsuki?
  • Smile: Sabitsuki's brother, former boyfriend, or former platonic friend? A popular boy in school that Sabitsuki looked up to and/or felt overshadowed by? Did he intentionally hurt Sabitsuki at one point (corrupted school event), and was it either out of malice or self-defense? Is he an author avatar of lol or simply just another character?
  • Sister: Just Smile's shy little sibling, or an innocent-looking girl with a secret dark side? The latter interpretation seems to be fueled by lol's artwork of a Sister-like girl.
  • The Cleaner: Is she simply a maid that works at a bar, or is there something more shady behind her? Is she connected to the asylum the Sugar Hole is located next to, or the seedy psychedelic town, or both?
  • Oreko: Sabitsuki's imaginary friend, or a real friend she once had, who may or may not be now dead? The existence of a child version of her, found in the asylum, may support the childhood friend interpretation.
• Awesome Music: Like Yume Nikki, .flow has several amazing and memorable tracks found inside. Overall, the music generally does a good job of creating the game's atmosphere and adding to the horror/surrealism.
  • "olg", the peaceful yet beautiful track that plays when Sabitsuki sleeps in her bed.
  • "bgm49", the track that plays on the white hand hill, is two and a half minutes of an absolutely beautiful, calming and solemn melody. It really contrasts the heavy slow disco beat of the areas before it, and fits the lovely minimalistic pixel art of the area it plays in.
• Crack Ship: Sabitsuki is sometimes shipped with the Kaibutsu.
• Creepy Awesome: Smile has some pretty creepy moments, but he's one of the most popular and iconic characters in the fandom.
• Demonic Spiders: The Kaibutsu, which are pale white-haired figures resembling schoolchildren with bleeding faces. Usually they simply wander around, minding their own business, but then if you smack them with the iron pipe, they become enraged and chase you. Touching them teleports you to inescapable areas. Some of them don't need to be smacked to be enraged, since they already are. Luckily, you can avoid them by using the ghost effect's invisibility cloak, but touching them still teleports you away.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Sister notably gets a rather disproportionate amount of attention in the fandom, for an NPC that only has a minor appearance in one place, where she is overshadowed by her brother Smile. lol drawing lots of art of a Sister-like girl probably helps; that and her apparent status as beta protagonist before Sabitsuki.
• Even Better Sequel: Some view .flow as the superior game to either or both of Yume Nikki and Yume 2kki, usually due to .flow have a more tightly-packed and coherent theme and world compared to the more random nature of the other two games, and having some semblance of a plot.
• Fan Nickname
  • Sabitsuki is often shortened to "Sabi". However, "Sabi" is also occasionally used to refer to Rust (given that "sabi" literally means "rust" in Japanese), which can lead to some confusion.
  • "Candle world Kaibutsu" for the Kaibutsu in the blood-path area after the hospital, via the Music World. Enrage it, and it chases you faster than the broom can fly.
  • "Bar Kaibutsu" for the Kaibutsu that can be found in the Sugar Hole on occasion.
  • Fans have also given names to the different Kaibutsu, most commonly "Gabe" for the bar Kaibutsu or the eye-face Kaibutsu. "James" and "Carrie" have also been used to refer to the other two Kaibutsu.
  • "Charlotte" ("Takibi-san" ingame), for the pink-haired girl that sits by the fire in the alleyway behind the children's hospital. Bonus points for having been initially named by a Tumblr user.
  • The Doctor is called "Doctor Ochki", which is the Russian word for "glasses".
• Friendly Fandoms: With Vocaloid, due to fan songs using the software existing.
• Goddamn Bats: The red demons. Though they only appear in one part of the game — specifically, the deeper areas of the womb level with floating mouths in the background — they nastily disable your effects upon contact and add a little to the corruption meter, not to mention there are a lot in said areas. In the endgame, though, they become even worse. They're just about everywhere at this point in the game, they slowly wear Rust down, move erratically, and have an annoying habit of speeding up when they have a clear path to Rust. On the other hand, they make certain spots that normally had Kaibutsu easier as they replace a lot of them, meaning Rust can just tank the damage and move on. Except that if you touch too many, you explode in a bloody mess!
• Iron Woobie: Sabitsuki is obviously a very damaged person and most likely mentally disturbed in some way, but she still manages to shoulder a lot of suffering, past and present. She is also commonly interpreted as a stoic woobie.
• It Was His Sled: The ending twists of the Cleaner apparently existing in real life, Sabitsuki getting her legs cut off, and Sabitsuki apparently becoming a Kaibutsu.
• Les Yay:
  • Some of Oreko's interactions with Sabitsuki, as well as the existence of the friendship meter, are interpreted as this.
  • Happens whenever Sabitsuki is shipped with the female Kaibutsu. Sometimes she's also shipped with her alter-ego Rust, which may or may not also be selfcest.
  • The Sugar Hole-related event in the apartment briefly shows a vision of Sabitsuki dining at a table with a black-haired girl. Some have come to interpret this vision as a date, and the NPC as a past girlfriend of Sabitsuki (as this event and the white hand hill implies that the two became distant). Notably, this NPC wears a dress like one that Sabitsuki herself can find in the underwater village and wear.
  • And then there's the Sugar Hole event in 0.19, which features white statuesque women in compromising poses as female moaning is heard in the music. At the end of the maze, you find the same girl as mentioned above, blocked by hands. Considering how you get to her, it doesn't seem much of a stretch that she was a crush or past girlfriend of Sabitsuki's.
• Memetic Mutation: Smile and potassium.^Explanation Originates from "wwww.wav", a sound file with a recording of an almost inaudible voice, that plays when you try to attack Smile in his house. Someone interpreted the voice to be saying "potassium", thus giving birth to the meme.
• Nausea Fuel: All over the place. The deeper levels of the body area, the viscera effect, the dying girls and bloody room events are a few of the most prominent examples.
• One-Scene Wonder: Sister only appears in one room in the entire game. Despite of this, she is one of the most popular characters.
• Paranoia Fuel: Although not as abundant as the nightmare or nausea fuel, the game certainly has its paranoia-inspiring moments; for example, the shady town and its resident randomized event, and the nightmare event.
• Squick:
  • Some theories speculate that the Sugar Hole's cake is made out of human flesh.
  • The fact that the Sugar Hole is located in the sewers, of all places.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Mostly thanks to the small sprites the game has, which don't allow for much detail.
  • Oreko and Sabitsuki are sometimes mistaken as male; Sabitsuki mostly due to her short bedhead hair (and that her skirt can resemble shorts), and Oreko due to being obscured by her diving helmet in all but one of her appearances.
  • The Kaibutsu (mostly the short-haired models) are a constant source of confusion, being interpreted as either male or female; this is not helped by false rumors of lol confirming their genders.