Hi, I’m Grant, I stayed up late last night so forgive my under eye circles.
This new bendy information has me quite aroused.
Especially after Baldi’s Birthday Bash it’s nice to get back to a real game.
You probably know me from my many, many Bendy videos because, let’s be real for a minute,
Bendy and the Ink Machine is probably the best Indie Horror franchise.
There’s mystery, there’s story, there’s clues, but it’s not over the top complicated
or complex to the point that it’s turned my hair gray.
Looking at you FNAF.
I’m not at all ashamed to admit that in when it comes to Indie Horror, I voted for
Bendy and Alice to be prom king and queen….and then Susie went all Carrie and the entire
school got a new red coat of paint, but that’s another story.
My point is that Bendy is the best of the indie horror genre IMO, and I won’t lie,
I was a bit saddened by chapter five finally bringing the franchise to a close at the end
of last year.
But we knew Bendy was going to come back, and not just in a mobile game.
The Meatly had previously stated that Bendy wasn’t over, and finally after months of
quirky animated skits followed up by cryptic voice lines from the Joey Drews Studio Archives,
we got news.
Bendy and the Ink Machine is returning, under a different name.
A new game, a new chapter is scheduled for later this year.
When?
We don’t know.
But it's gonna be in 2019 people.
And with the taxman off my back all I have to do is wait and watch.
The title has been revealed, but not just that, a small clip of animation, along with
all the previous voice lines of the last few months.
There’s things to discuss, questions that need answering, speculations that must be
speculated!
So let’s dive into the brand new game, Bendy and the Dark Revival, and find out just what’s
waiting for us beneath the inky tide.
The first thing I want to talk about is the timing of this game.
When will it take place?
Based solely on the name, “The Dark Revival” it would make the most sense for this next
installment to be a sequel, taking place after the events of Bendy and the Ink Machine.
This idea is also backed up by the title of the YouTube video “RETURN TO THE STUDIO”.
Both “revival” and “return” make it absurdly apparent that the next game will
be a sequel.
Like stupidly obvious.
And that’s exactly why I don’t trust it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying for sure this new game isn’t a sequel, there’s
just the possibility it’s actually a prequel sequel, and that we’re being misled by wording.
Let me explain.
While both “revival” and “return to the studio” inherently make you think this
is a sequel, the dark revival doesn’t necessarily have to relate to Bendy being revived.
If this is a prequel, the revival could be referencing another character, someone we
haven’t met before.
Or perhaps someone we’ve only heard the voice of.
If you’ve been paying attention to the Joey Drew Studios youtube channel, you’ve seen
the videos that came out in the recent months.
Audio clip after audio clip of different people from the studio talking about the studio and
the going ons inside of it.
All of these clips are from quote, “The Joey Drew Studios Archives” and they’re
all dated between the 1930s and 1940s.
So I ask you, why would this game be a sequel when all of the videos teasing the game predate
Bendy and the Ink Machine?
It’s a good question, and one of the reasons we might be looking at a prequel sequel.
However the biggest piece of evidence for Dark Revival being a prequel comes from the
unknown audio file.
This file is also from the Joey Drew Studio Archives, which means this is a person, a
character, someone we don’t know, who was around and had access to all these audio snippets.
It makes me curious as to whether or not we’ll be going back to when the studio was in production,
to find out who this voice is.
In addition to these audio clips, we also see the ink machine getting dropped into the
depths of the studio.
Is this the first time it’s getting dropped into the studio?
Remember in the remastered version of Chapter 1, the ink machine is being held up by chains
and we pull it up out of the depths of the studio.
This scene from the title trailer could be from before we, as Henry, pulled it back up,
or it could be from after Henry pulled it up, being put back down.
It’s completely unclear and gives more mystery to just when this game takes place.
However the last time we saw the ink machine, it was in Joey’s apartment giving more credence
to Dark revival being a prequel since the ink machine is still in the studio.
However given the cryptic nature of Chapter 5’s ending, it’s still quite unclear where
the ink machine is and the overall timeline.
The ultimate answer is that we just do not know yet, but I wanted to make it known that
while it might seem that Dark Revival is a sequel, it could just as easily be a prequel,
and we should keep our eyes out for definitive proof one way or the other.
Now let’s go into the actual reveal trailer itself.
We already discussed the implications of the ink machine being lowered, but let’s listen
to what Alison is saying to us during this scene: “Don’t let the darkness take you.
You may walk with angels or cower before demons, but one thing always remains: the choices
you make.”
This is by far the most exciting information we get from the trailer.
“One thing always remains: The choices you make.”
Now this seems pretty clear to me.
Dark Revival is not going to be a one trick pony.
We’re looking at multiple choices, and likely multiple endings depending on your choices.
We’re going to be jedi (basically), choosing the light side, or the dark side, the path
of angels, or the path of demons.
As someone who’s given a lot of thought to Bendy and the Ink Machine, this really
excites me.
Hopefully more than just one unnecessary crossroads of choiceless decisionmaking like in chapter
3.
We know the struggle that happened within the studio’s walls.
The desire for money, power, and fame that went through Joey.
His need to push people to the brink for success, to the point Henry decided to leave.
And the dichotomy of Joey at the end of the game, being full of regret for hurting his
friend and partner and wanting to make amends.
The struggle between good and evil is obvious within the characters and an underlying current
within the plot.
Seeing that struggle not only given more limelight in the next installment, but giving the player
a choice of which side to take isn’t just exciting, it’s an excellent decision on
the dev team’s part.
Now this trailer is extremely short, and we only have one last section to look at: this
extremely small animation of...something.
First off, this section is 5 frames long, almost nothing to go on.
So everything we talk about in this section about this character is extremely speculative,
we do not know who or what this is and we can only take guesses.
We’ll go frame by frame and show everything we possibly can.
The first frame gives us a lot of information if you’re willing to look for it.
First of all, this is totally a clown.
Look at the size of that shoe!
Ok not really, but we should take into consideration the body type of what we’re looking at here.We
have a short, stocky figure, small legs but arms that look regular sized.
It’s swinging something, but the image has been heavily distorted.
You can see the light lines of the item behind it and the rest of the item blends into the
shadows, making it difficult to really tell what it is from this picture.
What we specifically can see that is almost undeniable, is hair.
This is obviously a head, and behind it, is hair, possibly even two pigtails.
We don’t know anyone in the Bendy universe that has hair like that.
This is my first bit of evidence that the person or thing we’re looking at here is
an entirely new character.
The next frame is less helpful than the first, even after we play around with it in photoshop
a bit.
What we can see is a better outline of the item being wielded.
It’s not clear enough to make out exactly what we’re looking at, but it gives us a
better idea of the item’s range.
It’s much larger than the original frame led us to believe.
However, the character itself is a complete blur, no other features get defined so it’s
best if we just move onto the third frame.
This, while still giving us little to no extra details on the character, does give us an
even better idea as to the item it’s holding.
It’s long, and seems to be heavier and thicker around the end.
Again, the picture is so distorted it’s really difficult to tell exactly what we’re
looking at here, but luckily, we have the final two frames.
This second to last frame, when brightened, gives us a few details of the item again.
If you look closely we can see there’s knobs of some sort on the item, what they are for
is unclear, but we might have an idea given the last frame.
When brightened, this frame gives us a good deal of information.
First of all we have a face.
You can see giant ears, an eye socket, and a big dog-like snout.
This is definitely not someone we’ve seen before.
The item in its hands also has more elements revealed.
It could possibly be a mallet or hammer of some sort, however, there’s also another
possibility that...is less likely, but is still possible given the images.
If you look at the item, it look like a string instrument, like a banjo.
A banjo has a bigger top section where you can tune the instrument, the strings run down
it to the circular strumming section.
If you look at the image, even distorted it does give off the look of a banjo where the
character is holding the strumming circular section and swinging the neck around.
Typically I wouldn’t include this thought in a video as it seems far too “out there”
to be a distinct possibility.
But...this is Bendy.
If you recall the beginning of Chapter 3 when we have to make Boris, another character with
a distinctive dog or wolf look to him, some food, you might remember our buddy is sitting
by his very own musical instrument: A banjo.
Considering this instrument has already been in the game once I felt it was a necessary
observation to include.
So while we may be looking at a mallet or hammer, this could actually be a banjo that’s
just difficult to see due to the lighting and shadows.
If this is true and the character is another dog or wolf, it brings up new questions.
Is this character related to Boris?
Another Boris gone wrong like brute boris perhaps?
Maybe a female character to relate to boris?
Remember we did see hair that looked like pigtails.
Bendy got Alice, perhaps Boris gets a female counterpart as well.
That seems most likely to me right now.
We get a new character, a Boris counterpart, which gives a lot more credence to her weilding
a banjo, since that’s Boris’s instrument.
Am I right?
Am I wrong?
Only time will tell, but I’m curious what you see in this animation.
Did you come to the same conclusions I did?
Or perhaps you saw something else entirely, let me know in the comments!
It’s an incredibly distorted image, so anything is possible really, this is just my best guess
with what we have to work with.
Either way when you’re done here I’d love it if you checked out our Displate collection,
the link’s in the description.
We’ve been working with Displate for a bit now and we have a profile over on their site
where you can see all my favorites.
The art is absolutely amazing and they literally have something for everyone, but especially
for gamers.
I even found a Bendy displate!
They’re metal posters that don’t need frames and won’t bend or break so you’ll
have them forever.
They’re absolutely incredible and if you use code Treesicle at checkout you can get
15% off anything you happen to get.
And our code stacks on any other discount they might be running.
I love em, I even have them on set and we change them out every so often.
So check ‘em out with the link in the description!
They make great gifts and are really amazing.
That’s all from me today, thanks for going on this journey through Bendy and the Dark
Revival with me.
I can’t wait for Chapter One’s release, and you better believe we’ll be covering
it once it’s out.
But until then, I’ll have to just see you guys in the next video.
Bye!