Game Theory - Joyville 2 Goes To Some DARK Places...

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Join Game Theory host Tom as he breaks down the DARK lore of Joyville 2

What happens when childhood trauma is left unchecked? What happens when that child grows up to create giant cuddly mascots? And what happens when that person then puts a little more into their creation? You get no, no, no. Ah, yes, Joyville. But while all of that might sound cliche, the truth hiding within these colourful walls is not what you'd think. Hello, internet.

Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's always here to bring you joy. And speaking of Joy, it's probably about time I talked about the new indie horror game to hit the scene right at the end of last year. Joyville 2. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, wait, Joyville 2? What happened to Joyville 1? And that's fair because there is a Joyville 1 that came out back in 2023. But the reason we never talked about it was, well, because the plot the game gives us felt very familiar. It takes place in an abandoned childhood paradise called Joyville.

loved by children and the brainchild of one visionary man. Unfortunately, the place had to close down after all the staff and children suddenly went missing. Years later, our nameless protagonist returns to the abandoned facility to find out what happened, solve some puzzles, eventually get chased by a monster, and that's about it. It's not hard to see why people thought this was a carbon copy of Bobby. And so it didn't really feel like there was anything more to say about it. But here's the thing. I also remember when people said the same thing,

about Poppy Playtime's first chapter, labeling it as a generic FNAF rip-off. Yes, yes, FNAF, we hear you. You're very special. You did it first. But fast forward to today, and Poppy has set itself apart as its own indie horror giant. So, I wanted to give Joyville 2 the same chart and see if it would be able to throw off the shackles of its Poppy clone origins. And boy, did it deliver. This is no longer a walking simulator, friends. We've got time travel mechanics, a variety of different mini-games, and even a pink cat monster that flips us off. I guess that's one way to set yourself apart. Huggie would never degrade himself to such vulgarity. But while cool game elements are fine and dandy, you know me.

I'm here for one thing and one thing only, the law. Enjoyville too has certainly grown up in that department as well. Hidden around every corner of this abandoned kindergarten are little details that everyone missed at first glance. And when all put together, we uncutely, we uncutely. a tragic story of how one man's inability to face his own personal demons turned his once-beloved dream into a nightmare for everyone. Hold on to your magic teddy bears real tight, loyal theorists, as we find out how all the joy was sucked out of the halls of Joyville. Joyville, too, picks up right where the first one ends, right after the final chase scene with totally not yellow huggy, Willie Bully. Except now, we actually got some backstory as to why our character came back to this godforsaken blight. As we approach the front door, we are treated to some flashbacks of us playing in Joyville as a kid,

along with our sister, only for her to give us one simple request. Brother! We haven't returned to this place for the sake of nostalgia. We're here on a mission. Our sister was one of the children that went missing the day everything went wrong. But can we still save her? According to the game's Steam page, the events we actually play through take place decades after the incident. Well, it might be more possible than you'd initially think,

Because instead of being equipped with faza blasters or grab packs, we're given the most logical thing you'd find in a kindergarten. A toy bunny. That can break the rules of time and space itself. Man, if only all my toy bunnies would do that, instead of, well, you know. With this toy, we can turn Joyville from a decrepit horror attraction into what it once was in all its colorful glory. Although, we aren't the only ones who are stumbling around this place. Throughout Joyville 2, we are introduced to three unique mascots that have. help us along our journey. We have the star, a dancer with an unflappable positive attitude.

Follow me and don't be afraid to experiment. Dance is joy, it's freedom. There's Luminor, an excitable cat who's just caked up for some reason. You can ride the slides, dive into a pool of softball. And then there's my personal favorite, Tidy, a sea monkey who loves exploring the ocean depths in search of treasure. I've found all sorts of cool stuff underwater, but, uh, Some of my favourite things have gone missing. Well, you certainly haven't lost your dapper sense of style, Tidy. I tip my own hat to you, sir. Or at least I would.

But as soon as I use the time-traveling ability to take us back to the present day, let's just say the years have not been kind. One by one, the mascots go from kind and friendly to corrupted versions that are hell-bent on killing us. Yes, even dapper Mr. Tidy. And we have to defeat all of them in order to reach a door of light where we can hear our are laughing. We're blinded by the light, and the game ends. Always with the cliffhangers.

That is basically everything that Joyville tells us about its story. And immediately you can see there's a bit more going on here than than the original Joyville. However, it's the stuff they don't tell you that really scratches that theory itch. One of the first questions I always ask myself is, when does this take place? It might feel like a simple or even boring question, but it can tell us a lot about the universe we're in. And when it comes to Joyville, we might be a little further out than you might initially think. At first, I was focused on this old school rotary telephone that you can find in a secret room,

as these stopped being produced sometime in the late 1970s. But then you also have this cool DDR-looking machine in one of the employee offices, and DDR was first released in the late 90s. Is this another instance of old-school businesses developing technology that shouldn't have existed for several more decades? That's where I was leaning, until tidy showed me this. This is crazy. I've never seen anything like it before. I found this at the deepest part of the ocean, surrounded by all this debris. Tidy goes on to say that it's all very sci-fi, but once you really stop and look of what he's talking about, it's certainly not futuristic or fictional. That is a Logitech F710 wireless game pad. The same controller that was used on the Titan submersible in 2023 by Ocean Gates.

That's right, Tiny has collected the game controller from the wreckage of the Ocean Gate tragedy. Ocean Gate is canon in Joyville. They even have the little 3D printed sticks that Ocean Gate added to the stock controller. Man, it's been a while since an indie horror game left me completely speechless, but just wow. What's even crazier is that if we really are using time travel, this scene takes place in the past section of the story, supposedly set decades ago, which means the present is... decades into the future, a future that we've not even seen yet. I guess that makes sense, considering, you know, time travel doesn't exist yet, no matter how much we want to change the past.

But if that's true, then we need to be focusing less on the when of everything and more on the why. If we can figure out why everything fell apart in the first place, maybe we can stop the prophecy from coming true. Although, that's easier said than done, considering the game keeps throwing us into chase sequences. Hey, I kind of went in expecting these to be your classic law, like The Hour of Joy or even more generic warnings like, Turn Back Now. However, what we got instead is just, well, it's just sort of mean. You're a joke to everyone.

They'll never accept you. You're so gullible. Weakness is your only trait. Those are very antagonistic and very targeted lines. And in Luminous section, we seem to find out who they're targeted at. Do you miss me brother? Brother? The only brother we know is, well, us.

Are these being written by our sister? These lines are placed right in our face in the most intense part of the game. It would make sense for them to be aimed at us. Although you're not exactly giving me much incentive to save you. But maybe much like how time has slowly corrupted the once happy go lucky mascots, whatever evil befell this place has slowly corrupted our sister as well. The trouble is, the writing is all different. The writing appears during each chase sequence with one of the mascots,

but each time the writing uses a different. font, implying that these mean messages aren't just from one person but several, almost as if it's the mascots themselves writing them while trapped in their rooms. That brotherline specifically comes from Luminers chasing. So maybe she is our sister turned into a monster? It's compelling and it definitely fits with other games in the genre, but after going through every single message, two of them completely upend that idea. You can't hide from me, Harrison, and just give up Harrison. That name isn't new to us. either. No, it's not our character's name. It comes from one of the very, very few pieces of law the original Joyville offered us. There's a newspaper you can find that tells you that Joyville was created by a highly respected entrepreneur and member of the community. That man's

name was Harrison Vanderbilt. Could that mean that we are Harrison? Sadly, no. Because Harrison created Joyville. And yet, we are having flashbacks to playing in Joyville as a kid. Plus, According to the article, when all of the staff and kids vanished, Harrison was arrested. That was decades ago, but being responsible for dozens of missing kids and adults is the kind of thing that gets you multiple life sentences. Or worse. So, we can't be Harrison, which means these vicious mockeries on the wall weren't meant for us the player. They were likely written for Joyville's founder, Harrison. But if he's in prison, why would whoever wrote these think that he'd see them?

Oh, just every time I think I have something, it just doesn't seem to make sense. How am I supposed to write theories when... Not now, Steam, I'm busy. What? Oh, an update for Joyville 2? Okay, sure. Wonder what's so important it needs to happen now a few days after release. Patch 1.0.3, new content.

Added seven interactive radios to uncover more about the universe's law. What? This is exactly what we need. Oh, Steve, I could... Kiss you! I won't! I learned that lesson from Monica! So, what do these radios have to say? We invite you to delve into the story of Harrison Vanderbilt, the creator of Joyville, a man whose dream turned into a tragedy for many. Oh, buddy! This sounds like it's about to be the setup for a classic villain origin story. But the more you listen, the more tragic, Harrison becomes.

Harrison's life began like many others, with people in his childhood whose actions left deep mark. Not all of these marks were born of love. Some were shadows that seeped into his soul. As we listen, we learned that there were three such people who ended up having a negative impact on Harrison's life. First was his older sister who used to use manipulation to control and belittle him. Her attention wasn't born of affection, but of a cunning desire to exploit his mistakes and weaknesses. And while his sister was extremely hostile, his mother was cold and distant.

Her care for her son never eclipsed her other interests. After his birth, she appeared indifferent, leaving Harrison with a sense of insignificance that followed him throughout his life. The third negative influence on Harrison's life goes unnamed in the recordings, but that doesn't make them any less important. This individual, embodying discipline and harsh perfection, treated Harrison with a cold detachment. To him, Harrison was an object, something disposable. Perhaps this was some sort of teacher or coach or mentor that was particularly harsh on Harrison for even the small, smallest mistakes. And with horrible people like that in Harrison's life at a young age, you'd probably understand if he grew up to become a bitter, broken man, incapable of love.

But that clearly wasn't the case. According to these recordings, it was because of his rough childhood that he wanted to create Joyville in the first place. Years later, Harrison's desire to create Joyville was driven by a yearning to provide children with what he lacked in his own youth. He envisioned a place where children could feel safe, where friendship and joy The fact that Harrison was able to take that awful hand he was dealt with as a child and turn it into something that created so much joy so that no kid would ever feel the same way he did is frankly amazing.

But of course, we know this story doesn't have a happy ending. But creating such a world required more than imagination. It required Harrison to breathe life into his creations, unknowingly infusing them with parts of himself, parts he didn't fully understand or perhaps feared. Uh-oh. I've played enough indie horror games to know where this is going. The mascots of Joyville became more than just companions for children. They absorbed aspects of Harrison's memories, his emotions, his past. They carried within them fragments of Harrison's shadows.

Subtle habits, gestures and glances, echoes of his own painful memories manifested in the mascots. The mascots, quite literally, became the evil people he thought he left behind in his childhood. We have a sister who is incredibly mean and manipulative, just like we see in the evil version of Lumina. Then there's Harrison's mother, who is always obsessed with her own interests at the detriment of her son, just like Tidy's one-tracked love of the sea and going on adventures. And then there's the star, whose evil version was an overly critical perfectionist, just like the mysterious mentor who hurt Harrison. Those messages we find during the mascot chase sequences, like you're a joke to everyone,

and weakness is your only trait, aren't just random insults. They are the sorts of things, these people, these monsters, said to Harrison as a child. And now they're repeating them because while Harrison may be in jail, there's a part of him that remains inside Joyville. And I don't mean these three mascots. At the very end of Chapter 2, after you defeated Lumina and all the other mascots, there is a room that leads to the final door that takes you to the credits. Most people just walk right through, but if you stop and look at the war, your first find one last wall scribbling, written in a completely different font than we've seen from the mascots. It says, hello, future me. Now, in a game with time travel mechanics, this made me

reconsider the idea that we may be playing as Harrison, but then I noticed everything that was happening in the room leading up to this point, and admittedly, it feels really out of place. After the climactic final boss fight with Lumina, and after walking through a bunch of testing rooms where all the characters were created and studied, we have this very easy puzzle. All you do is mix some colourful liquids together based on a clearly visible recipe. But what caught my attention wasn't the puzzle. It was the colours of the goo we were mixing. We mix goo that is pink, purple and green.

The same three colours as the three main antagonists from this chapter. And for some reason, when you mix pink, purple and green together, you get yellow. Now, I've watched enough of those satisfying colour paint mixing TikToks to know that that is not how that works. However, given these all seem to be linked to the mascots, there is one mascot we've not really talked about that would fit this yellow colouring. Woolly bully, the mascot who chases us around in chapter one and who is suspiciously missing from chapter two. By combining the essence of these three mascots, you get this new yellow monster. And who else is made up of the essence of these three monsters? Harrison Vanderbilt.

His trauma was split amongst these three creatures. So by combining them back together, Harrison made a mascot that is essentially a mascot version of himself. Hello, Future Me. It makes me wonder if when we see Willy Bulley again, it may turn out that he isn't like the others we faced. He may look like just another monster, but in reality, he's like his creator. When you look at the experiments and what happened to this place, it would be very easy to label Harrison as a villain. But really, he was a tragic hero. A man who wanted to create a dream world for children to ensure that every child had a place of joy in their lives.

But unfortunately, laying dormant in Harrison's soul was a darkness, a pass that he ran away from and never fully addressed. It festered and attached itself to the mascots, his creations, ultimately hurting the people he sought to protect. And now, here we are. Coming in and killing off the demons that haunted Harrison for so long. Maybe by teaming up with Woolley, we can not only save our sister, but also rid Joyville of the physical manifestations of trauma that destroyed it.

And I think that's a really good message for us to take away from this story. We all have our metaphorical demons in our pasts, some big, some small, but we can't run away from them forever. Otherwise, they will fester and begin to not only hurt you, but everything and everyone around you. Joyville is what happened when those demons are left unchecked, turning the most noble of dreams into a living nightmare. But by working together with someone else, we can. can overcome our demons.

Whether it's a close friend, a family member, or a licensed therapist. By talking through this stuff, it can immediately have less of a hold on you and those around you. I started doing that a few years ago, and without it, I literally wouldn't be here talking to you today. That and theorist would probably be full of these weird, creepy mascots that are just mean and horrible for no reason. Hmm, maybe I should give my therapist a call. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.