I honestly thought Fnaf was done after 3. I didn't know where it could go from 3, the children were set free, the murderer was burnt to a crisp, Fazbear Entertainment was no more. What more could you do with this series? Then, Fredbear's Family Diner came into the picture. Everyone, including myself, wanted a game based around Fredbear's Family Diner. I had my own ideas, hell, at just ten years old, I wanted an entire sub series about Fredbear's Family Diner. I wanted another three games based just on this Diner that got like, two mentions at most in the series. A little game came along called Five Nights To Remember that helped fuel that passion for a Fredbear's game. Today is actually the anniversary of the original release of that game, so thank you FNTR, the original is still one of my favorite fangames of all time, top three easily. EDIT: Once this is released, it is no longer the anniversary lol. Still love the OG game though.

Nevertheless, me and my friends were at the library and one of them gasped so loudly, we were all shushed and almost got in trouble for it, but we checked out what got him to gasp like that, and our jaws dropped.

Crazy shit. This was my first exposure to Fnaf 4 and... this was not my cup of tea. I remember being a little upset that this was there and Fredbear was nowhere in sight. But of course, we were Fnaf fans wanting lore, so we checked the source code and that was when we knew what was going on. The 87's, it was leading us to the Bite of 87. Hyped as my friends were, I stuck to the sidelines and simply just let things ride out. This was not what I wanted, I really wanted an official Fredbear's game.

More teasers came in and it was peaking my interest a little bit.

The whole shtick of trying to figure out the culprit of the bite was cool, and Scott clearly was leading us on with that. But, I still was upset that it was the main four once more, where were Fredbear and Spring Bonnie?! That was what I wanted. Admittedly, I was only ten and super upset with Scott that Fnaf 4 wasn't taking place at Fredbear's and had these weird animatronics that looked like, to me at least, was going to be another horror attraction. I actually thought it was going to go the TRTF 4 route and basically Fazbear Entertainment was going to come back with a brand new horror attraction. I think that idea actually got turned into a game.

https://youtu.be/g98PuMtazaI?si=0dDtHuoBXTPTuucW

I don't know if this game is still around but I do want to get around to playing it one day. Either way, I wasn't super hyped for Fnaf 4, my theory didn't turn out to be correct though, and I was jumping with joy when I saw the next teaser.

Brightening it up would allow you to see the faded text that would be "Property of Fredbear's Family Diner". Now I was more than interested, maybe the game would be revolving around Fredbear's. My suspicions were confirmed with the next teaser.

I thought that this was going to be some monstrous Fredbear. I actually thought that someone was doing demonic rituals at Fredbear's and these animatronics would be called "Demonic animatronics". Funny how I predicted TJOC's story where demons are there. Anyway, the next teaser was Plushtrap and that was all fine and dandy.

It looked cool, and strengthened the idea of me playing at Fredbear's... and then I saw the trailer. Looking back, I think the trailer is cool, but back then... I hated it. I hated everything about it. It wasn't Fredbear's. I wasn't at Fredbear's Family Diner as a security guard. If you must know, when Fnaf 4 shadowdropped that day, I played Five Nights To Remember in protest. I was that angry. It's funny looking back on how stupid I was.

I'll save my reaction to the Fnaf World teasers for... Fnaf World's review. But I was also there for the Halloween Edition teasers.

This was during an era where I was losing faith in Fnaf, for reasons I will get into in this review. But I wasn't as hyped for Halloween edition, it was just Pumpkin Bonnie, what else cou-

WHAT?!

Okay, I was hyped for Balloon Boy, that was indeed cool. It's weird how he is the only canon character out of this entire thing, but the others aren't canon until much later in the timeline.

This teaser I thought was lame. It's just the Freddy plush that's on the bed, what els-

This is the creepiest fucking thing ever. I do like Nightmarionne a lot honestly. Was one of the best parts of Fnaf 4 in general, in my opinion.

I knew something was being secret in here, so I turned up the brightness.

Was not disappointed. I wish all the Nightmare toys were in the game honestly, would have been better than just Jack-o's and three Nightmare toys, but you can't win them all.

I will be honest, Fnaf 4 is one of the weaker games in my opinion. There's a lot I don't like, BUT! Did replaying it make me realize that it might not be as bad as I thought?

... yes actually.

Gameplay:

Different from the other three games in the series, Five Nights At Freddy's 4 no longer has you as the wonderful security guard, but rather, someone who is inside a bedroom dealing with Nightmare Animatronics.

This had to be brightened because this child just cannot flip a light switch or have a night light.

You also have a bed!

With the quality Freddy Fazbear plush. I think it's after this game when the series got official merch with plushies and such. That's a nice fact. Anyway, you will be dealing with a variety of threats during these night segments, so let's go over them one by one.

Nightmare Freddy:

Nightmare Freddy, and by extension, the Freddles (which were called Mini Freddies before but were then called Freddles) will be behind the bed. You have to turn around and hold your flashlight on them to get them off your bed, otherwise, Nightmare Freddy will materialize and end your run with a jumpscare.

Nightmare Bonnie/Jack-o Bonnie:

Nightmare Bonnie and by extension, Jack-o Bonnie come from the left hall and will make their way towards your door. You can flash them in the hallway to make them retreat but if they get close enough to your door, you will hear breathing. If you hear breathing, shut the door and keep it closed until you hear deep footsteps of Bonnie walking away. The breathing can be a bit hard to hear so don't be like me and not play without headphones.

Nightmare Chica/Jack-o Chica:

Works basically like Nightmare Bonnie except goes to the Right Hall. Close the door if you hear breathing and if you are quick enough, you can send them away with the flashlight. One thing about the Chica's is that they can go to the kitchen of the house, allowing you to actually check on Nightmare Bonnie more often. I would however still recommend checking the right hall. Especially because of our next character.

Nightmare Foxy/Nightmare Mangle:

Both of these characters patrol the hallways, running between one hall or the next. When you stop hearing them run, run to the hallway you last heard them and flash the light. If you fail to do this, they will enter the room and you will have to run to your closet and keep it shut until they turn into a plushie. You can run away while they are in a different phase, but it is important to deal with them when you can. Nightmare Mangle can actually make your life a living hell by playing their audio while in your room, making it hard to listen to breathing.

Before we get to the next few characters, I have to say. The game is actually fairly balanced. You are given a lot more time than you think to deal with characters like Freddy and Foxy, just don't forget about Bonnie and Chica if they are close and you will be fine. It made playing the game a whole lot easier on my end, except Nightmare Night and 20/20/20/20.

Nightmare Fredbear:

I guess I did get a Fredbear game after all.

This honestly cool design of a character will appear on Night 5 and Night 6, he stays throughout Night 5 and on Night 6, appears at 4am. Nightmare Fredbear will roam your halls and when you hear him stop, run to the door, flash the light and then close the door until you hear him stomp away. Simple right? Well, in my personal opinion, it can be a bit easy to lose track of Nightmare Fredbear. So try and keep the flashlight where he goes all the time. Sometimes, he will immediately stop when you first deal with him so make sure to deal with him again. He can laugh as well, making it so that you have to close the door to the closet, or shine the light at the bed. He can also fake laugh to throw you off track so make sure you listen carefully.

Nightmare/Nightmarionne:

Both of these guys appear on Night 7 and 20/20/20/20 mode. Appearing at 4am I believe, or if you're a masochist, you can do a challenge that has both of them active at the same time. Masochist though. Anyway, they act like Nightmare Fredbear, but move way faster and some may say they "cheat". Never really had a problem with them though... except I still didn't beat Nightmare because I just didn't want to play 4 anymore lmfao. Nightmarionne does have the music box playing so it may be a bit hard to hear the footsteps. But both act the same and play the same as Nightmare Fredbear, down to fake laughs and all. Even Nightmarionne laughs so don't worry about the music speeding up or anything.

Plushtrap/Nightmare Balloon Boy:

Fun fact: For some ungodly reason that I don't know of, Nightmare Balloon Boy is canon.

Plushtrap and Nightmare Balloon Boy are relegated to a post night section (not minigames). You find yourself in a long hallway with four doorways and a chair at the end of the hall.

Look at the fucker.

Your goal is to stop Plushtrap or Nightmare BB right on the X. Doing this will allow you to skip two hours into the next night. If you fail however, you won't skip two hours into the next night. Also, you have the possibility to get jumpscared in these sections. So make sure you are listening out good, Nightmare BB can throw you off because he has a slightly deep version of his voice lines in Fnaf 2.

Jumpscares and Atmosphere:

Now, I am of the belief that Fnaf 4's entire premise was made because Fnaf 3's jumpscares are not really that good. The game was clearly gameplay and horror first, story later. While the writer within me is not really happy with that, I do have to say that the jumpscares and atmosphere are really well done in this game, especially the atmosphere.

The Atmosphere of Fnaf 4 is really well done and I feel that most Fnaf fangames that try to replicate Fnaf 4 fail to capture that atmosphere. All alone in a bedroom with a flashlight as these monstrous animatronics come to try and kill you while all you hear are the chiming bells of a clock and the occasional dog barking. You also hear the reversed audio of phone guy, which, more on that later. Fnaf 4's ambiance is best heard with headphones and I feel replicates Fnaf 1's atmosphere a bit better imo. The game is also balanced enough that the breathing will try to be louder than the ambiance, so you will always know when to close the door. On my replay, I realized that Fnaf 4 is actually well balanced, which is nice.

The jumpscares are effective, but that's because it goes from pitch black, to loud screaming and all up in your face.

The hallway ones are especially good, but they can get inside your room and show the jumpscares.

This bastard jumpscares me each time lmfao.

This is honestly my favorite jumpscare in Fnaf 4.

This is not an accurate representation of Nightmare Fredbear, this guy is SUPER TALL.

Fnaf 4 did it before it was cool. I loved that the Cupcake got a jumpscare.

Of course, I can't leave out the other two.

Yes, even these guys have jumpscares, they don't give you a game over, just a "Too Bad!" screen. That's about it in terms of jumpscares. Nightmarionne and Nightmare have kill screens like Golden Freddy in Fnaf 1 rather than just jumpscares. They wouldn't be given proper jumpscares till UCN. The little scream they have however, if slowed down, sounds like a flat line. This is important for the story... SPEAKING OF WHICH!

Story:

There is no story to this game.

Closing Thou-

Okay okay! I'll talk about the story and why it fucking sucks in my eyes.

Unlike the last three games stories which were simple, easy to follow, and could be understood even with just the bare bones material shown to you. At least, in my opinion. I felt that even if you didn't go scavenging for secrets, you could pretty much understand the story to some extent. Guy kills children, children possess robots, robots go after you, you survive, murderer dies, murderer possesses robot, murderer burns down, everyone is free. Pretty easy to handle for something dumbed down to that, but if you looked closer, you would see the finer details.

Fnaf 4... you have to look REALLY CLOSE.

Similar to Fnaf 3, you get to play minigames. This happens before the first night and after every night following. In those minigames, you play as a child that, as of now, has no name. Not one.

He's still a silly though, look at him.

Anyway, the main story revolves around this child and his fear of the animatronics, which causes him to have nightmares... right?

The night 1 minigame follows the child trapped in his bedroom, locked in by someone or something.

Foxy's head is torn off for some reason and I don't know why. You are locked in here with your plushies, in which going towards them will prompt the text "These are my friends". First of all, go outside, second of all, you don't have any human beings as friends? Loser.

You can't escape this room and trying to exit through the door will make the child fall to the floor crying, prompting the text "Tomorrow is Another Day" by your best friend, Fredbear.

Yeah, this thing. It's alive somehow and I will be getting to any theories on how it could be alive when we get to my personal favorite game in the series: Sister Location. But for right now, just go with it being alive and don't question it.

Now, the second minigame has you exploring your house, in which the Fredbear plush tells you of someone hiding and that you need to be careful. If you go to the left, you progress the minigame, if you go to the right-

Hi Mangle, you shouldn't exist yet, why are you here?

You can go to this room twice, and Mangle will still reside here. It's weird, whatever, if you go to the left room, you will get a small jumpscare from a piece of shit we call: The Older Brother.

He ain't Michael Afton just yet, he's just the older brother, whose skin... just changes for some reason.

It's weird. But Fnaf sprites have always been kinda inconsistent and will continue to be inconsistent even now. Just part of the show. This guy gives you a little jump and you fall to the floor crying, with once again the prompt of "Tomorrow Is Another Day".

The third minigame puts you at none other Fredbear's Family Diner. I had a little squeal of joy when I saw this on Youtube, maybe I really could give Fnaf 4 a try if there was a plot about Fredbear's.

Also yes, fun little easter egg with Purple Guy putting someone in a suit, whether that be a kid or not, I don't think it matters. You have to go to the exit, but the guy in the Fredbear suit is blocking your way, meaning that you have to go the other way to the Shadow Animatronics... shadows of animatronics performing on stage... even though a guy is already wearing a Fredbear suit??? Whatever, you break down crying and are hit once again with "Tomorrow Is Another Day".

Next minigame has us at Fredbear's once again, but now we can go outside to learn a bunch of lore and question ourselves "Why is the Tiny Toy Chica missing her beak?"

Look closely and those few pixels might just solve the lore according to Fnaf World. You go home after hearing about some weird lore cues and have the potential to turn on the TV, revealing Fredbear and Friends "Est. 1983". This wasn't the first introduction to 1983, source code leading up to Fnaf 4 had the 87's switched to 83's. I don't really mind the change to this because The Bite of 87 happening anywhere but Fnaf 2 just never made sense in my mind. There is a grand reopening, obviously something happened before that caused the building to get shut down and then reopen for the bite to commence. Never been a fan of the idea that Fnaf 2 has been opened for a short time period.

Rant aside, you make your way to your room and your Older Brother Jumpscares you once more, you fall down crying, Fredbear plush says his iconic catchphrase.

The next minigame is a small one. You don't actually move around in this one. You are trapped within a room, what appears to be the backstage of Fredbear's and possibly, the room in which the Purple Guy stuffed some person into a suit (or just helped out a performer).

Many people have tried to figure out what is in that suit. Hair? Just part of the suit? Even springlocks? We'll never know probably, but the child begs to be let out of the room. He falls down to the floor and cries, with the words "Tomorrow is Another Day" appearing once more. Finally, we move on to the second to last minigame, everyone's favorite minigame.

In this minigame, the child is surrounded by his older brother, as well as other kids wearing the masks of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. Yes I haven't mentioned it until now, but those are the masks of the Fazbear Four. They talk about taking the child over to Fredbear and giving Fredbear "A Big Kiss". And then... you all know what happens.

Spring Bonnie still jamming out though, they just don't care.

Yeah, The Bite of 83. I don't remember if I mentioned, but with the main teasers of the core four nightmares, there was stuff in the source code that led to "87" being everywhere. It was The Bite of 87, and then Scotty C either thought the bite happening at Fredbear's didn't make sense or simply forgot to fact check the fact that Fredbear's, at least in Fnaf 2, had been "closed for years now. I doubt we'll find anyone." and changed it. I don't mind or care about the change of it being to 83. Rewrites happen, things are going to get changed. Maybe he did forget to fact check his work and just forgot. No big deal, that's not the problems I have with Fnaf 4's story.

The last minigame involves the Crying Child and his plush friends.

They talk about how sorry they are and that they are still his friends, if he still believes that. Fredbear plush ends with one line that has still stumped the community to this day.

Yeah, I don't think there was ever a follow up on this. It is a sad part though as after this, you can hear a faint flatline, which signifies the child's death.

Now, I skipped over a LOT of this. There is so much more to go over when it comes to Fnaf 4's story... simply because Scott went to vague. I have yet to mention The Box.

The Box, Fnaf 4's magnum opus after you beat Nightmare Mode, still locked to this very day and probably forgotten like it was meant to be. This was, as Scott put it in the Halloween Update Steam Post, the pieces put together. Fnaf 4 stands tall and proud with this box and many people still speculate what could be inside of it to this day. But I feel that it isn't worth answering, because it might not just show up ever again.

Most people put Fnaf 4 as a perfect ending to the Five Nights franchise, I however, do not see it that way. Fnaf 4's story stands on very cryptic easter eggs that all meant something. Going back to that Steam Post, Scott didn't do any coincidences with this game, meaning that all these random easter eggs meant something to the plot. I remember reading that back then... and being really angry with it. In my ten year old mind, the story was just "That was just a bunch of cheap walk cycles!" from that one Spongebob episode. Now a good nineteen years of age... I still have no idea what is going on.

Fnaf 4 is way too vague and cryptic, in the first Dawko interview, Scott himself mentioned it. I'm glad he knows his mistakes at least and acknowledges them. But let me just ramble a bit on a few ideas proposed by a good friend of mine that he actively defends is Fnaf 4's story. Now, Nightmare in the Game Files of the game is actually labeled under "Nightmare Shadow Freddy" which ultimately solves what Nightmare is: a Nightmare Version of Shadow Freddy. Something to also mention was that back in Fnaf 2, Shadow Freddy is also in the game files of the "Dream Sequences". Those little cutscenes before each night, those are dreams I guess. Now, this must mean that you play as Mike, Mike has dreams about the Fnaf 1 location in Fnaf 2, someone is having dreams about the Nightmare Animatronics in Fnaf 4. Problem solved, Mike is the older brother. Woohoo, let's go get some pizza. But my friends, put down that pizza slice and let me ask you... what does that have to do with anything?

Shadow Freddy gives dreams to people... why? What's his end goal here? Make Mike suffer? Make Mike go to Fnaf 1? Does this mean that every character needs to suffer some lucid dreams so that they can start going to pizzerias and taking night shift jobs at them? Thanks Shadow Freddy, you're doing a bang up job. Take out the dreams and this affects... nothing. It no longer gives Shadow Freddy relevance, but he already had some relevance by leading the animatronics to the safe room in Fnaf 3. The Shadows didn't need to have anything overly complicated with them, Shadow Bonnie helped send a kid to Happiest Day, Shadow Freddy helped Purple Guy to destroy the animatronics. Bing bang boom, relevance. Doesn't need to be a giant wall of text when it comes to the relevance. Giving people dreams doesn't mean they automatically want them to go to pizzeria locations to free souls (Mike shouldn't even know the animatronics are possessed cause it's a dream).

So there's that but what about Crying Child? Was he shafted in his own game? Aren't we playing as him? A viable theory that I want to talk about at a later date. As for Crying Child, at least when it comes to Fnaf 4, I feel we are playing as the Older Brother. Crying Child shouldn't be able to hear the Fnaf 1 call (which is distorted and used in the ambiance of the game) because he died before then, meaning that leaves the Older Brother, aka, Mike Schmidt to do the unthinkable, have nightmares. The flowers, pills, and IV bag, that's all of his memories from the hospital. But what about Crying Child? We saw him through a bunch of minigames, what does he have to do with anything then? Well, as of late, and when I mean late, I mean idfk ago but still around the modern era of Fnaf, a theory has been brought up dubbed "Shattervictim". In which Crying Child's memories are used as links for Happiest Day. I will go more into that when I talk about Fnaf World, this section is already as long as is. However, I will bring up something, if this was the case for Fnaf 4 when it released... why did we need an explanation for how Happiest Day worked?

Happiest Day was just the souls being set free, we didn't need an entire fucking game to explain "Oh, that's how Happiest Day was created, through the memories of one kid." Why do we need an explanation for that? We don't need an explanation for everything in the world for something as simple as Happiest Day, which is just the souls of the murdered children being free. It feels like Fnaf 4 was made with gameplay in mind first and story after, in which the story was just needless explanations for things that didn't really need an explanation in the slightest. We didn't need to know why Mike took the job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, we don't need to know how Happiest Day was created. Sure, if the series continued after 4 and went into more complex territories, which it did, then I wouldn't mind if Happiest Day had an explanation that revolves around memories or whatever else Scott thinks is a good explanation that the fans would be satisfied with. But when it comes down to the first four games, and the main three that didn't require you to look too deep into things... why do we need explanations for things that could be explained with "Mike took the job because he needs money" or "The souls are freed because the fire destroyed Springtrap". It feels so unnesecary.

Closing Thoughts:

Five Nights At Freddy's 4 is clearly gameplay first and story after. That is the mindset Scott probably took for this game and it shows. Fnaf 4 actually has decent gameplay, if not the game still having some problems, I didn't mention the fact that the the hallways will sometimes take a while to load, same with the closet and bed. But the game is fairly balanced and has a great atmosphere and some decent gameplay. Honestly, I think it could actually be the scariest game in the franchise if it played it's cards right. What really brings it down for me is the story. I'm not going to say the lack there of because I do think Fnaf 4 has a story, but with how vague and cryptic it is, it is clear that it was an after thought. For a supposed final chapter, I was not satisfied with it and ten year old me started to lose a bit of faith in the franchise (most of that because Fredbear was barely in the game lmfao).

Despite that, looking back at it now, I think there are some people who are too hard on it. Fnaf 4 isn't as bad as people make it out to be, except the story, the story is kinda ass. With all this said, I don't know who was waiting for this, and if you decided to just skip to the end for a "I ain't reading allat" joke or if you actually did read it all, thank you for taking the time to look at all of this if you did. I know I did spend a lot of time on the story but I really do care about it and want to go over some more extensive thoughts on it later with these reviews and theories as well.

With all of this said, thank you so much for making it this far and I'll see you all in... Fnaf World.

How is this game a lot of people's favorite?