YMMV / Illbleed

• Awesome Music:
  • The ending credits theme, Time 2 Get Ill!. Some fans say the game is worth beating at least once to hear it. They're right, you know.
  • The surprisingly somber true ending credits music.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Weird, random moment that comes out of nowhere and never gets mentioned again" fairly describes a good 30% of the game, but there are nevertheless a few standouts:
  • What the crap does the Cake From Hell have to do with anything? Even in one of the videos made to hype up the game, it cuts to him saying his name for no discernible reason and the video then moves on without any reference to it again.
  • The random voice that says "Are you ready?" during Mary's hide-and-seek section. In context, it would make sense for the protagonists to say this, but it's very clearly none of them saying it.
• Bizarro Episode: The "Toy Hunter: Cork Goes to Hell" level, which recasts you as an action figure named Cork who returns home just in time to watch his owner die. His Fanservice-y girlfriend, Sexy Doll, is placed in the coffin along with the boy and ends up in Toy Hell. Despondent, Cork becomes a milkoholic, shoots up a bar full of singing eggs, goes to prison, is sentenced to execution, escapes prison through the Absurdly Spacious Sewer, finds a new owner, kills him (or a least make it look like he did), is placed in the coffin, ends up in Toy Hell, fights a Satanic (and animatronic) Sonic the Hedgehog, is nearly forced to fight said evil hedgehog forever due to a programming glitch, and escapes on a rocket. It's an entire subplot made up of BLAMs, none of which have anything to do with Illbleed's story...and is considered by many to be the most memorable part of the game.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The player will piece together that "Rachel" is the Queen Worm long before Eriko/Kevin does.
  • Michael Reynolds being Eriko's father was obvious from the intro cutscene. Most players weren't even aware it was supposed to be a twist.
• Common Knowledge: Donald Cashman's boss form is referred to by just about every streamer and lets-player as "Dollarchura". It's actually spelled Dollanchura.
• Critical Dissonance: Critics disliked this game, but it has a decently-sized cult following.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Just about everything, really. Killing an insane, heavily-burned old man after stealing his deceased son's possessions, murdering several people outside the attractions, and killing a child to be buried with the other toy he liked are among these moments, though the worst (best?) moment has to be Eriko's father only approaching her in the true ending because she's naked and he finds her attractive.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dummyman, a recurring enemy that appears in certain spots of the game. He appears to be one in-universe as well, as movie posters advertising Dummyman movies are all over the place, and he even has a photo shop!
  • Killerman. The manual states that he has a movie series as well.
  • OHNOMAN, the most popular of the three final bosses, mostly due to his name.
  • Despite only appearing as a boss in "Toy Hunter: Cork Goes to Hell", Zodick The Hellhog is one of the game's most well-known characters, and gets a fair amount of fanart, primarily because he's a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• Good Bad Bugs: Opening your map causes the enemies to freeze for a few seconds when you close it. Vital for avoiding tougher battles (like when you're a Woodpuppet).
• Harsher in Hindsight: In this game, one of the ways to die is shock death, where your heart pulse rises too high, and you die of a heart attack. The creator of the game, Shinya Nishigaki, died relatively young of a sudden heart attack just a few years later.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Finding Mr. Banballow's diary entries written before the accident. He truly is proud of his son. Counts as a Tear Jerker as well.
  • Reuniting David and his dear pet worm Rachel. You might almost feel a little bit bad for killing her after reading how he raised her like a daughter, despite it all being in keeping with the game's usual goofy surrealism... until her ghost floats into the sky and cries out for her "Papa", who quickly joins her with a great big grin on his face, speaking earnestly as he thanks the player for bringing them back together... and just casually throws in that he and Rachel are going back to hell like they're just going back home. It's a very Illbleed happy ending, but a happy ending nonetheless!
  • This image of Michael Reynolds and Eriko, which comes after beating the True Final Boss and staying after the credits.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Killerman is Killerman!" A Captain Obvious statement without context, but the Killerman level asks the player to guess who the titular Killerman is. One of your options is... Killerman. LPer Super Great Friend underscores the goofiness of this by using the phrasing multiple times in his walkthrough of the game.
  • The eponymous Cork of Cork Goes to Hell has a girlfriend named "Sexydoll". The, uh, distinctive name is said often in the level and as such is something of a meme amongst game fans, especially if said or rendered in Cork's equally distinctive faux-Southwestern accent, i.e., "SEXSADAWL!"
  • "You'll shit with fear!" Part of the tagline, as bombastic and irreverent as the game itself. Made even funnier when you hear it said by Jon St. John in his Duke Nukem voice.
  • "No one cared, because he was a loner anyway." How the opening narration for Woodpuppets unceremoniously states George MacLachlan's disappearance was dismissed after he was swallowed alive.
• Low-Tier Scrappy: Kevin is by far the worst character to play as due to being affected from shock the longest and his very short range on melee attacks making him more vulnerable to attacks than the other characters.
• Narm: A large part of Illbleed's charm is just how absurd all of the dialogue is, not helped by the bizarre script, its shaky English translation, or how seriously the various voice actors read their lines. While a lot of the game's camp and wackiness is almost certainly intentional, there are times where it can be... hard to tell to what extent that goes.
  • During the Woodpuppets opening narration:
    Narrator: Suddenly, a face appeared on the tree——and it swallowed good him. He was presumed —-lost in the wilderness or eaten by a bear. No one cared because he was a loner anyway.
  • Listen to the opening narration of Killer Department Store, the narrator flubs his line and they kept it in. If you're curious, it's around 0:35 if you just want to get to it.
    Narrator: In his warped mi...In his warped mind...
  • Playing through the Killerman section as Randy without a brain. Whatever little bit of seriousness from that section is completely blown to bits.
    Brainless Randy: OOAGH CAHSUHSWAHHASUH HABUGLBLAHHH
    Cunningham: You must be one of those part-timers.
  • When David is reunited with Rachel at the end of The Revenge of Queen Worm, it's actually kinda cute, with their ghosts (which are, albeit, simple floating images of Rachel and David's beaming disembodied face respectively) drifting up to each other, and David being glad Rachel looks like she's okay (by ghost standards, one supposes) and heartily thanking the player for reuniting them... before he says, just as chipperly as everything else, "Let's go back to hell!"
• Narm Charm: David's story in level 2 is goofy as heck, but it's also sweet in a weird way; from the way he talks about her, you're made to think Rachel was his honest-to-goodness daughter for much of the stage.
• Nightmare Fuel: Make no mistake; there's a lot of very creepy and disturbing atmosphere underneath all the cheesy stuff. Examples:
  • The grim, decaying remains of Banballow Hostel, along with the practice room in the basement— the walls of which are covered with bloody messages in praise of Banbollow's dead son.
  • The blood-drenched, dimly lit, but cheerfully decorated aisles of the Killer Department Store.
  • The Morgue in Stage 5. Take a good look at the texture they used for the enormous pit full of corpses.
• Nightmare Retardant: The villain of the Homerun of Death, Banballow, is horrifying... right up until you hear his bizarre voice and deranged ranting.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Playable characters other than Eriko will fall down and crawl away from enemies for a long moment, allowing them to get many hits on you. Picking up the Shock Brace item removes this limitation, however. This is actually a bit of Gameplay and Story Integration, as Eriko's backstory explains that, being put through shock tests since childhood, she's pretty much Immune to Jump Scares.
  • The analog controls for movement mean you that have to push up gently to walk and briskly to run, which would be fine if you didn't have to release the analog stick completely to switch between the two.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Playing as anyone but Eriko is this by default, as everyone else will be paralyzed with fear and unable to attack if they get surprised by an enemy. Brainless Randy especially, as his lack of adrenaline will result in you being nailed by just about every trap.
• So Bad, It's Good: A large part of the game's cult appeal comes from how unapologetically bizarre it is.
• That One Boss:
  • Trent The Tree in "Woodpuppets" is considered annoying by fans of the game, since you have to get through the aforementioned Woodpuppet section to fight him.
  • The three Killer Worms you have to fight outside the produce aisles in stage 4. Presenting a moving target by darting around like a madman and landing single blows whenever you can is the only reliable way to beat them at all, and they can still very easily crowd around you even then.
• That One Level:
  • The Cutey Mary section of "Killer Department Store", especially the instant death jump-rope, are notoriously irritating among fans of the game.
  • The hunting section in "Woodpuppets" where you get jumped by lumberjacks every minute.
• Underused Gameplay Mechanic: As neat as an idea it is the multiple playable character system doesn’t see much use due to losing a character putting you back to a save point anyway meaning you wouldn’t lose any progress by just loading a save, and because of that there isn’t any reason to use any character other then Eriko and Michel who are objectively the best playable characters unless you are doing a challenge run.

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