YMMV / Identity V

• Awesome Music: Many of the tracks available in-game play during chase scenes, so they’re sure to get the blood pumping. Survivors usually have tracks that inspire dread and urge them to get away, while Hunters have tracks that show them they are working towards victory.
  • Each map has its own music as well, which matches the atmosphere the map displays. Special mention goes to the music in Moonlit River Park, which sounds like slightly-demented circus music. An extended version of the map's soundtrack can be listened to here.
  • The stage play's theme songs - for the first episode, there's "Diagnosis" and "Destiny", the themes for the Survivors and the Hunters respectively. Chiba Mizuki, the actor who plays Eli Clark [Seer], sings the first one.
  • In the second episode, Mizuki returns with the even more high-octane High & Low.
  • The third episode has him singing the more mellow, but still awesome, Ikite, while the Hunters' side has "Acclamation" as its theme.
  • Though short, the song in the Call of the Abyss III music video is pretty awesome.
  • The Call of the Abyss III tie-in song, "Secret", sung by PAAM and produced by Basta Production.
  • The background music for the game's 2nd Anniversary Event, "Belladona! Belladona!" is a jazzy song perfect for the event's glamorous theatre setting. Remarkable that the Japanese version of the song is sung by Rie Tanaka, Mary [Bloody Queen]'s Japanese voice actor.
    • The English version of the song , also sung by Rie Tanaka, and accompanied by an animated music video, is just as awesome.
  • The Hunter Chase Theme for the Halloween event is also pretty catchy.
  • The Truth & Inference song, created for the game's 3rd Anniversary, and the closest thing the game has to an outright anime opening.
  • The Call of the Abyss IV MV is even more animesque, and just as catchy.
• Base-Breaking Character
  • Patricia Dorval [Enchantress]. While a lot people like her due to her usefulness in matches, her design, and her sympathetic backstory, she is disliked by others because of her being associated with toxic players.
  • Kreacher Pierson [Thief]. He is liked by some fans because of his amusing emotes and implied Hidden Depths. However, others don't like him because of his generally creepy behavior towards Emma Woods in the Diaries and how he tried to force himself on her.
  • Mary [Bloody Queen]. A lot of people dislike her due to her association with toxic players or because they consider her to be too OP while others like her because she's fairly easy to play as and argue that as the result of continuous nerfs she is no longer OP.
  • Michiko [Geisha]. Most newcomers, especially on the Survivor side dislike her because in lower tiers she's considered OP and associated with toxic players. Others like her because she's easy to play, and a lot of senior players and high-tiers agree that she is underpowered and needs a buff instead.
    • She did end up receiving a buff that made her tournament-viable.
  • Fiona Gilman [Priestess]. If you ask someone in fandom about their opinion on her, chances are their answer will either be "one of the most useful Survivors ever" or "an annoying roach who needs to be nerfed." The fact that she seems to be at about the same tier as the likes of Seer or Mechanic at the time does not help matters.
  • Grace [Naiad]. Just like Bloody Queen above, she is either considered too OP and often associated with toxic players, or she is a fairly easy hunter that shuts down the much-maligned "tight kiting" technique yet has noticeable weaknesses that one just needs to learn to play around.
• Broken Base
  • Try asking the fans if they think the game is 'Survivor-sided' or 'Hunter-sided' and watch as they fight.
  • Like in many other games, whether certain characters should be nerfed/recieve buffs or not.
  • The changes from the beta version to its current version. There are a lot of people who dislike how a lot of the elements were Bowdlerised from the beta version (such as changing the nooses Survivors were put on when incapacitated to rocket chairs and changing Leo Beck/The Hell Ember's weapon from a sickle to a shark), stating that said changes took away from the game's intended horror and made it "too family-friendly". Others however, are happy with the changes believing that they help differentiate the game from Dead by Daylight and make it so that it doesn't scare younger family members as much.
• Cargo Ship
  • Emma Woods [Gardener] x Rocket Chair.
  • Also Emma Woods [Gardener] x Mr. Scarecrow (this can also intersect with No Yay if you believe that the latter plays the role of a Parental Substitute in the former's mind).
  • Aesop Carl [Embalmer] x Coffin
  • Emily Dyer [Doctor] x Syringe
  • Luca Balsa ["Prisoner"] x Honey
  • Luca Balsa ["Prisoner"] x Cipher
  • Michiko [Geisha] x Pallet
• Catharsis Factor: For Hunters, Detention kicking in and being able to one-shot Survivors. Especially if they have been giving you trouble multiple times during a game.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: For both hunters and survivors.
  • For Survivors, especially in professional or high-tier play people will often use Naib Subedar [Mercenary], Eli Clark [Seer] (if he's not banned), Tracy Reznik [Mechanic], Vera Nair [Perfumer] (although she has somewhat fallen out of the meta), and Fiona Gilman [Priestess]. New contenders for the rosters are Luca Balsa [Prisoner], Andrew Kress [Gravekeeper], Melly Plinius [Entomologist] and Ganji Gupta [Batter] (at least until his nerf).
  • For Hunters, people will often see Mary [Bloody Queen], Galatea Claude [Sculptor] (just like Seer, if she's not banned), Robbie White [Axe Boy], Bonbon [Guard 26] and Yidhra [Dream Witch] in professional or high-tier play. Meanwhile in lower tiers, one could expect to see a lot of Jack [Ripper], Wu Chang [White and Black Guards], and Michiko [Geisha].
• Common Knowledge: A stupidly high amount of misinformation surrounding the Undead character can be found quite easily, especially by fans who hate his "creator" Ashley Woods. Many believe that he is a "crossover character", that Ashley Woods is the reason he has no skins and that playing with him leads to Ashley Woods making a profit. None of this information is correct, and Ashley was only commissioned to design his "original" costume, not having any control over the character.
• Cry for the Devil: A lot of fans are more sympathetic towards the Hunters due to a lot of them having tragic backstories and actually being good people prior to their transformations in contrast to some of the more morally gray Survivors. For specific examples, see Jerkass Woobie below and the Hunters folder for the Woobie page.
• Die for Our Ship: While they don't seem to be hated, shippers tend to ignore the existence of Gertrude and Miles who are Eli Clark [Seer]'s and Michiko [Geisha]'s fiancée and husband respectively. That being said given that both characters have only briefly appeared in their significant other’s deductions (and Michiko is technically dead) this is understandable to a certain degree.
• Draco in Leather Pants: While Kurt Frank [Explorer] isn't a bad person per say, and is described as not being malicious, his fans will be more than happy to ignore his less friendly side like him stabbing Servais if he's not interested in talking to him, beating William when he criticizes Kurt about ignoring other people's feelings or the fact that he canonically lied to his teammates which is in fact the game 9 primary source of conflict. The fact that the character he opposes (Servais, the Magician) is in fact a character highly hated by the fandom probably helps a lot. Expect to see people arguing that these are just bad endings and ignoring that many of Servais and Naib's bad actions also happen in bad endings.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Given his status as the former owner of an infamous manor, and how disconnected he has largely been to the game's main lore, many have started to wonder if Joseph [Photographer] was one of the former owners of Oletus Manor or, perhaps, the true identity of Count Barriere.
  • Given the slight resemblance that the presumed captain of the shipwrecked crew from the Season 19 Essence 1 Backstory Story, who, after being rescued by two young children, betrayed their young saviours trust and destroyed their "paradise" - something theorised to reflect a key part of Orpheus and Alice's backstories - has to Jose [First Officer]], theories have emerged that Joaquin Baden and his crew, as well as potentially Jose himself, were involved in the bandit attack on the manor that claimed the lives of Alice's parents. The fact that Jose is said to have been a "gift" from a friend who passed away, and the author of the Experiment Files briefly being willing to put an end to the experiment being conducted on Jose at the manor after discovering that his mental state was deteriorating, has led some to further theorise that, if Jose, his father, and his crew were indeed involved in the death of Alice's parents, this was the unspecified event that they had covered up, as well as what led Jose to become The Alcoholic.
  • The fact that both Survivors are noted to dislike dogs and both possess a Mysterious Past has led some to wonder if the manor visitor that Orpheus used Lucky Guy as a placeholder for was Emil [Patient].
  • The release of Episode II of Ashes of Memory inspired many a theory, some more far-reaching than others.
    • Wu Chang [Black & White Guard]'s umbrella being mysteriously absent when Alice [Journalist] investigates the greenhouse on the same night that a storm just so happens to be raging on outside has led some to theorise if the umbrella has the ability to control the weather.
    • The brief glimpses of the bespectacled brunette doctor with a mole on his cheek present in Alice [Journalist]'s flashbacks set forth a flurry of Wild Mass Guessing in regards to his identity, with some theorising him to be Demi [Barmaid]'s adopted brother, Sam Bourbon, others believing him to be Ada [Psychologist]'s father, Charles Mesmer, and a few raising the possibility of him being Melly [Entomologist]'s husband, Joshua Plinius. Alice's first letter appears to confirm him to be Sam Bourbon.
    • The fact that the only currently named housekeeper in Oletus Manor just so happens to share the same first name as the birth name of one of the Survivors has led to the theory that Lisa the maid and Lisa Beck/Emma Woods [Gardener] may in fact be one and the same.
    • Given the presence of a letter addressed to "Eury Lamb" in Alice's house, many have theorised that Villhelm Lamb, a man that, as revealed in Wu Chang [Black & White Guard]'s fourth letter, Jose [First Officer]'s father, Joaquin Baden, had done business with concerning trade involved with a specified area in the Mediterranean Sea, was the medical professor who adopted and experimented on Alice. Further supporting this belief was the fact that Villhelm Lamb is believed to be based on Viscount Melbourne, former Prime Minister of England under Queen Victoria, with Alice's extended backstory containing the detail that it was Melbourne (the city in Australia named after William Lamb) that she was taken overseas to after being adopted.
    • With his apparent backstory focused on in Time of Reunion having since proven to be inaccurate at best, it didn't take long for fans to theorise that the Forest Ranger who played a role in the death of the DeRoss couple, as well as his wife - both of whom are pictured with Orpheus and the DeRoss couple in a portrait found in the manor's study during both Ashes of Memory and the flashback segment of Time of Reunion - were Orpheus's real parents. The mention of the medical condition of the mother of an unidentified boy's condition worsening when Orpheus traverses the Muse Corridor during a dream segment in Time of Reunion, as well as the implication that a person believed by fans to have been the Forest Ranger had issued a loan, that he had signed six months before and paid two weeks after the manor tragedy, to pay for a private clinic, has led many to believe that the Forest Ranger betrayed his employees in order to get the money to pay for his wife's treatment.
• Fan Nickname: Quite a few, both for gameplay terms and characters.
  • '2v8' for the Duo Hunters game mode.
  • 'Rat' for Freddy Riley [Lawyer].
  • 'Noib' or 'Nob' for Naib Subedar [Mercenary]. For his 'Cheshire Cat' skin, there's 'Nyaib'.
  • 'Rugby Boi' for William Ellis [Forward].
  • 'Roach' for Fiona Gilman [Priestess].
  • 'Rat Boy' for Luca Balsa ["Prisoner"].
  • 'Mama' for Michiko [Geisha].
  • 'Papa' for Leo Beck [Hell Ember], thanks to him being a good father to Emma Woods [Gardener] even after becoming a hunter.
  • 'Evil Clown' or just 'Clown' for Joker [Smiley Face].
  • 'Spider' or 'Spider Queen' for Violetta [Soul Weaver].
  • 'Uwu Chungus' or 'Uwu Chang' for Wu Chang [White and Black Guards]. Thanks to impressive gameplay videos from a certain top-tier CN player, they have been nicknamed 'Cyka Blyat' as well.
  • 'Wobbie' for Robbie White [Axe Boy], owing to his status as a young child (who often mispronounces words). It alternatively could also be a reference to another trope.
  • 'Takoyaki Day' for Hastur [Feaster]'s Character Day.
  • "Broken Queen" for Mary [Bloody Queen], mainly due to how many players consider her to be OP.
  • 'Popo' for Brooke Rose (Eli's owl).
  • Flywheel Effect has been nicknamed "Dead Hard" due to being very similar to said perk's pre-rework incarnation from Dead by Daylight.
• Fanon
  • A lot of fan works portray Leo Beck [Hell Ember] as a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad whose main reason for hunting Survivors (mainly Kreacher Pierson [Thief]) is so that they don't hit on his daughter, Emma Woods [Gardener]. In others, he is portrayed as the Team Dad for the Hunters.
  • Thanks to him having a skin inspired by Día de Muertos and his dance emote (supposedly) being inspired by the Latin American folk dance Cumbia, many fans interpret Norton Campbell [Prospector] as being latino/mixed.
  • Jack [Ripper] and Joker [Smiley Face] being Those Two Guys.
  • More obvious in the Asian side of the fandom (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) but artists would often potray Skins as Alternate Self of a character with different personalities and Essences as Alternate Universe.
  • There is nothing in canon that says that Eli Clark [Seer] is blind (he is certainly not in the stageplay), or that his owl sees (the literal world around him) for him, but this is a view that is popular among fans.
  • The fandom also likes to interpret some skins as being related to one another or a continuation of some sort. Some examples are:
    • Eli Clark [Seer]'s 'Recluse' being a continuation of his COAIII Skin 'Surveyor'. That, or 'Recluse' being a detective investigating The Mafia from Season 8's Essence.
    • Similarly, Naib Subedar [Mercenary]'s 'Mr.Deduction' skin being a continuation of his COAII Skin 'Steam Teen'.
    • Wu Chang [White and Black Guard]'s 'Broken Blossoms' being the continuation of their 'Far East Wind' Skin.
  • Norton Campbell [Prospector]'s Trademark Favorite Food being donuts.
  • Tracy Reznik [Mechanic] was the one who made Violetta [Soul Weaver]'s Artificial Limbs.
  • Aesop Carl [Embalmer] hitting people who make him angry with his coffin or throwing it at them.
• A lot of fanworks involving VALE have a Nice, Mean, and In-Between dynamic regarding the characters, Victor with being the Nice to Andrew and Luca's In-Between and Edgar;s Mean.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Just about any ship between a Hunter and a Survivor.
  • Freddy Riley [Lawyer] being shipped with Emily Dyer [Doctor] (who he hates), Kreacher Pierson [Thief] (whom he mutually despises) or Leo Beck [Hell Ember] (who hates him).
• Friendly Fandoms: With Dead by Daylight (another game of the asymmetrical horror genre and the inspiration for Identity V) and Sky: Children of the Light (another high-quality video game that has a Chinese server also hosted by NetEase).
• Game-Breaker:
  • Eli Clark [Seer] is the most banned character in Official Tourneys like Call of the Abyss. He himself is fine, but his owl is the main problem, being able to protect and block teammates from one damage. When timed right, one owl can turn the tide of the whole game. Not to mention, it's rechargeable by aiming your camera at the hunter. A good Seer can easily rack up owls when they kite, granting endless protection. He does get a 10% vaulting debuff whenever his owls was hit which cap up at 50%, but it doesn't mean much especially when he can just use his owl to protect him as he vaults.
  • Tracy Reznik [Mechanic] is the other most banned character in the game. Both she and her doll have 125% decoding speed, and while Tracy has a decoding debuff whenever her teammates get injured, the robot itself does not. Not only that, but Tracy can still operate her robot while knocked out and/or chaired, meaning that she can decode while down/chaired with her robot at 125% decoding speed. In fact, even after several nerfs to her, Mechanic constantly stays at the top of the meta.
  • Fiona Gilman [Priestess] has received the most nerfs/adjustments out of every other survivor in the game, yet remains top tier. Her portal mechanic that allows her to travel through walls can be used for kiting, supporting, and rescuing. She hard counters basements, as she can make a portal straight down, and if the hunter doesn't manage to break the portal, bring the rescued teammate right out of the basement. And that's not even mentioning her global portals, which can transport survivors from one end of the map to another. On a large map, any hunter without a teleport ability is screwed.
  • In the hunter side, while mostly considered the most difficult hunter to use well, Yidhra [Dream Witch]. She can have up to five followers scattered across the map that she can take control of anytime, and God help you if you get trapped by more than one of them at once. Adding to this, the main body and the followers do not share the same cooldown on Traits, instead having their own separate cooldowns. This means that it is absolutely possible for Yidhra to send a patroller to a survivor from the main body, hit them with her follower, then let the follower send another patroller at the injured survivor to ensure a knockdown. Granted, a few nerfs followed suit that both reduced the effectiveness of using Patroller several times in a row and gave survivors a notification when Yidhra is nearby, yet in the right hands, Yidhra continues to dominate the meta - it's just that it takes a lot of practice to become skilled at her.
  • Still on the hunter side, Galatea Claude [Sculptor], who arguably has the highest banrate of all hunters in the game, and for good reason - being a chip hunter (meaning she can deal damage with just her abilities and not deal with the post-attack cooldown, coupled with not speeding up survivors after a hit) like Bonbon [Guard 26], she already has good potential, but what firmly puts her in Game-Breaker territory are her two traits she unlocks with Presence - Hieroglyphic Graveyard, and Sculpture of Nobility. The former allows her, for a short period of time, to basically place her sculptures anywhere on the map, meaning she can safely camp chaired survivors while still pressuring ciphers, while the latter eliminates the one difficult aspect of her gameplay by being able to combine her statues into ones that fly towards survivors at breakneck speeds, being borderline unavoidable at times. While a few nerfs have made her more Difficult, but Awesome due to the Sculptures of Nobility having a brief window of time before activating, she can still be an absolute menace in the right hands.
  • The Will Brothers [Breaking Wheel] are a whole bundle of gamebreaking - having all the strengths of chip hunters (racking up damage without dealing with either post-hit cooldown or survivors gaining distance with the speed boost after a hit) with none of the weaknesses such as slow movement speed or lengthy cooldown times. Breaking Wheel's main ability revolves around chasing survivors in Wheel form, and then emerging from it to deal increased damage after having ran them over at least twice. While the difficult controls can be a bit of a turn-off, what lands them in Game-Breaker territory is just how resilient their Wheel form is, breaking pallets and being fully immune to stuns, and they're arguably the closest thing the game has to an One-Hit Kill hunter. Not only that, but as they gain Presence, they get abilities that make their life even easier - from an increased wheel hitbox, to being able to inflict Pierce (the damage increasing debuff) on any nearby survivors upon emerging from Wheel form, to even being able to trigger Pierce manually, dealing all the damage whenever needed (damage that ignores protection such as Seer's owl). Of course, just like Dream Witch, they are Difficult, but Awesome due to their rather unconventional controls in Wheel form, so they're not seen very often, but if you do see a good one as survivor, the game might as well be over for you.
  • In a similar vein to Yidhra [The Dream Witch], Keigan Nicholas Keogh [The Clerk] is a similarly Difficult, but Awesome hunter whose ability allows her to practically control every aspect of the game when used right. Pallets? Dropped prematurely and/or rendered obsolete as she lifts them right back up the moment they're dropped or destroys them without being locked into a lengthy animation. Windows? Blocked with ease. Ciphers? Can either have their progress rolled back or have the primed cipher popped prematurely, denying a last-second Borrowed Time save AND activating Detention. The catch is, of course, that all of these require recording the survivors while they perform the aforementioned actions (pallet dropping, window vaulting, decoding etc.) with the right timing, or spending a recording on a single-use pallet break/window vault action if used on Keigan herself, but she can record survivors near ciphers, rocket chairs and exit gates from any distance, and at full presence the locations used in the recordings are blocked from any interaction whatsoever, allowing her to potentially box a survivor in completely in a chase. Needless to say, a good Clerk can have complete control of the match and then some.
  • In the more meta side of things, the persona Tide Turner and Borrowed Time (for Survivors) and Detention (for Hunters) are this.
    • Tide Turner grants 20 seconds of damage delay (meaning, even if you get hit 5 seconds in, you'd still have 15 seconds to run away) after rescuing someone from a chair for both the rescuer and the rescuee. Borrowed time grants Survivors a free, instant heal whenever the last cipher was finished, meaning a knocked down survivor can immediately get up with a well-timed cipher pop.
    • Detention, much like Borrowed Time, gets activated when the last cipher is finished, allowing hunters to deal double damage in one hit for 120 seconds. Meaning, survivors with full-health will immediately get knocked down when the hunter has Detention, with the only survivor able to withstand this being Naib Subedar [Mercenary] (who will still be knocked down but with 30s of damage delay). Even then, the Mercenary still won't be able to take a hit from a Detention Joseph [Photographer] (who deals 1.5x damage on Detention instead).
• Genius Bonus
  • Subedar is a rank in the Indian military that is equivalent to that of a captain. Naib Subedar, likewise, is a rank equivalent to that of a lieutenant or Junior Commissioned Officer.
  • One of the songs Jack [Ripper] hums is 'The Swan' from 'The Carnival of the Animals'.
  • Michiko [Geisha] will occasionally hum the traditional Japanese song, 'Sakura Sakura'.
  • In addition, when she enters her 'Prajna' form, her face turns into (or she at least puts on) a Hannya mask, which is used in Noh theater to represent women who became demons due to intense jealousy or obsession. Hannya is also the Japanese translation of Prajna which is in turn, the Sanskrit word for 'wisdom'.
  • Likewise, two of the masks on the Will Brothers [Breaking Wheel] resemble the comedy and tragedy masks (representing the muses Thalia and Melpomene respectively) that are often associated with theatre.
  • Mary [Bloody Queen]'s mirror abilities are based on the urban legend of Bloody Mary.
  • Wu Chang [Black and White Guard] are based on the Heibai Wuchang, a duo of Chinese mythological deities tasked with escorting spirits of the dead to the Underworld. Their deductions are even based on the Heibai Wuchang's most common backstory.
  • The story in Eli Clark [Seer]'s Character Day letter is from one of the later parts of the Welsh myth, Math, fab Mathonwy. (Albeit with the names of the characters changed).
  • In the English version of "Belladonna! Belladonna!", there is are the lines "Open wide, your eyes, open wide" and "In my eyes, toxic eyes". The Belladonna plant was historically used by women in France to make their eyes dilate as it was considered attractive. Said plant was also a type of deadly nightshade.
  • The Painter's Background Story Trailer contains allusions to famous paintings made by Leonardo da Vinci (The Last Supper), Edvard Munch (The Scream), Vincent van Gogh (The Starry Night), Édouard Manet (Claude Monet Painting in his Studio) and Giorgione (Mystery and Melancholy of a Street).
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game proved to be rather popular across East Asia, especially Japan, where it topped the Appstore download charts for weeks. It eventually led to several crossovers with popular Japanese franchises such as Bungo Stray Dogs, Case Closed, Death Note, The Promised Neverland, and Tomie, along with a Japanese theatrical adaptation.
• Harsher in Hindsight
  • When questioned by William [Forward] in the former's Diary, Kurt [Explorer] claims that Servais [Magician] had called him a lunatic. At first, this just seems like an example of Servais being a Jerkass, merely insulting Kurt's eccentric nature. Then Kurt's Character Day letter was released...
  • Following his 2021 and 2023 birthday letters, any time that Aesop Carl [Embalmer] chooses to embalm Victor Grantz/The Postman or Anne Lester/The Toy Merchant during a match can be seen as this by some players.
  • Violetta [Soul Weaver]'s Frozen Heart S-Tier Accessory, depicting a spider frozen in a block of ice in the shape of a heart and which contains the blurb that "Violetta's tragic past has made her cold and bitter," became a lot more horrifying after it was revealed that she was tricked, immobilized and left to die in the snow by Joker [Weeping Clown/Smiley Face].
• Ho Yay:
  • Xie Bian [White Guard] and Fan Wujiu [Black Guard]. They were always together during their lifetime and after Fan Wujiu drowned himself, Xie Bian also committed suicide as he could not live without him. Their 2020 Character Day letter is a poem written by Xie to Fan and the wording in the English and Indonesian versions implies that the two of them were in a relationship.
• Les Yay:
  • Emma Woods [Gardener] seems to be really attached to Emily Dyer [Doctor] and is shown to have no interest in Kreacher Pierson [Thief]'s advances (though it's kinda understandable as to why she wouldn't). For a large part of the fandom though, it's a No Yay, since Emily has known Emma since she was a child.
  • Melly Plinius [Entomologist] is also teased with many girls in both essences and canon to the point that a common joke is that she has a new girlfriend in each essence. The most common however seems to be Alice Derross [Journalist/Reporter], Melly appears to be the only person Alice can trust at the Manor, and The skin events imply that Melly wants to protect Alice from her own impulsiveness. The fact that Alice's animal motif is a Moth and the A-tier skin themed around Melly and Alice's canonical story, "Professor of Zoology and Botany" being based on a species of moth whose sole purpose is to find a romantic mate helps a lot.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Emma Woods [Gardener] is one of the most commonly derided survivor due to her skills only barely helping her kite, and her ability to break chairs deemed useless as hunters can simply fix them right up in short time. While there do exist people who manage to make her shielding ability work well - usually for rescuing, using it as a poor man's version of Seer's owl - she is basically fully Overshadowed by Awesome as both a kiter and a rescuer.
  • Kurt Frank [Explorer] is less-hated but he's generally agreed to be Overshadowed by Awesome by other decoders such as Tracy Reznik [Mechanic], Helena Adams [Mind's Eye] and Luca Balsa["Prisoner"]. While his password pages provides 50% instant decoding, the time needed to look for passwords is often deemed not worth it and he's better off decoding normally. The problem? He doesn't have any other decoding buff, so his normal decoding speed is no different than any other survivors without decoding debuffs.
  • Freddy Riley [Lawyer], especially before his buff. He's classified as a decoder, however his decoding buffs are outclassed by other decoders and his map, while useful for people new to the game, is largely of no use for people who have memorized the stage. He was buffed so now he cannot get terror-shocked anymore and his map displays everyone's (including the hunter's) positions, but people still consider other characters more beneficial to use. Eventually he got another buff to grant him extra movement speed and vaulting speed as the game progresses, which makes him a decent Jack of All Stats, but still not performing any better than dedicated decoders, containers or rescuers.
  • Aesop Carl [Embalmer] isn't so much considered terrible as he is basically unable to find a proper niche in the meta - he has no buffs to help him either decode or kite, only the slightest decrease to his chair countdown, and his ability basically amounts to merely resurrecting a downed survivor or saving one off the chair from a safe distance. The catch? The coffin takes a while to place and even more time to set it to the right survivor, it can only be used once per match unless you actively go out of your way to rescue other survivors, he has to see the other survivor at least once to be able to make the coffin resurrect them, and the hunter will immediately be able to see the position of either Embalmer or the saved survivor for the entire timer countdown. Not even the 7-second complete invulnerability and the 15-second Tide Turner effect granted upon exiting the coffin seems to be much of a saving grace, either.
  • "Memory" [Little Girl] is unique in that she manages to tick off both sides of the playerbase each for their respective reasons - survivors hate her because a lot of Little Girl players prefer to just attach to a single survivor for the entire match, and mistiming her knockback is even more punishing that Prospector's magnets - for example, interrupting the hunter's attack recovery and resulting in you taking two hits in quick succession - and the decoding buff is generally agreed to be so terrible that even a solo decoding Forward (with 30% decode speed debuff, mind you) is considered more efficient. The hunters, however, hate her for said knockback being incredibly annoying (Not helping matters was how, for a while, the animation didn't match the knockback duration, meaning you could get knocked around just because you steeped a single pixel into the fragment area of effect that still had at least one frame of animation left), the ungodly potential for taking hits for survivors by disentangling from them mid-chase, and the global teleport ability that a lot of players derided as just being too much by this point. Needless to say, she was very quick to receive heavy nerfs shortly after release, which might just dip her into the low end of the spectrum for good.
  • Bane Perez [Gamekeeper], especially before his hook was buffed. Nowadays with enough presence he can damage hooked survivors, but even so his subpar movement speed and tricky hook controls made him Overshadowed by Awesome. Eventually, he was given some more tools (added mobility by being able to grapple onto walls and dash towards them, coupled with bear traps that immobilize survivors and synergize well with his hook) and now he is more of a mid-tier Jack of All Stats that works as a niche pick on certain maps.
  • Joker [Smiley Face]. All in all, he is an M1 hunter that doesn't even get his power until Presence Tier 2 (unless you get lucky with finding the right limited details to obtain a single-use charge of the power early), has very difficult controls while using said power and has to go through a lengthy cooldown even if it does hit, and gets shut down by tight kiting hard. While it should be noted that Joker has a surprisingly high skill ceiling (being able to shut down loops with ease, and some Loophole Abuse with the cooldown of his Rocket Dash allowing him to double hit survivors with ease) and can pull off some impressive moves in the right hands, he is ultimately considered Overshadowed by Awesome by most players.
  • After a myriad of nerfs very shortly after his release, Percy/The Undead has quickly plummeted in terms of overall usefulness in the eyes of many a hunter player. While his high mobility, coupled with conditional stun immunity and being able to break pallets with just normal attacks, sounds awesome, he is ultimately hampered down by his gimmick of being unable to chair survivors and instead having to force them to bleed out. The catch? This also means that Percy is completely unable to pick the survivors up to get them away from either an exit gate or an open dungeon. While he has been receiving more and more buffs as time went on, it didn't appear to do much to curb his weaknesses.
  • While one can arguably make even the worst of hunters work in the right hands - keep in mind that players have managed to make even Percy and Joker work in official tournaments with surprisingly good results - Orpheus/"The Nightmare", on release, was arguably the single most underwhelming hunter to have ever existed. His kit is basically a patchwork of some of the abilities of Undead (a no-cooldown dash attack) and Wu Chang (long-range teleport that can be aimed basically anywhere on the map coupled with getting information about survivors), both being lowest-tier and mid-to-low tier hunters respectively, but not helping matters is how underwhelming both abilities are - the teleportation isn't available until Presence Tier 1, the ravens used for it were basically worthless on their own and would often refuse to attach to survivors or objectives for some strange reason, and the dash was terribly clunky and had a lengthy backswing upon missing. In fact, Orpheus was so bad that even pro CN players struggled as him for quite a while. Let that sink in - players who usually manage to make even the weakest of hunters work in official high-level tournaments, and manage to make the most of newly-released hunters within the first couple days of their release, struggled to get even a tie as Nightmare on release.
  • Whereas Orpheus' hunter persona eventually got buffs that brought him up to So Okay, It's Average level (with him now being a reasonably newbie-friendly hunter that excels in map pressure and gap closing while being countered by tight kiting and pre-dropping pallets), his survivor version, The Novelist, was not so lucky - all he really has going to him is a very slight decoding buff that turns into a debuff when he has over 50% progress on a cipher (making it basically nonexistent at best, and downright detrimental at worst), and the ability to temporarily take control of one of his teammates while granting them a speed boost, or even the hunter for a very short period of time to create some distance or save a ballooned survivor. The catch? The control over Orpheus himself is given over to whoever he is currently controlling and can often result in an Unwanted Assistance situation, and in order to control the hunter, Orpheus has to be looking at them for a lengthy period of time in a manner not too dissimilar to The Seer, only getting five seconds of control (which he could not even get much use out of due to a bug on release that would halt the game for a few seconds for both players when the ability is used). Not only that, but the hunter player, if savvy enough, can just put Orpheus in harm's way by moving him as far away from any pallets or windows as possible in the meantime (and on the Eversleeping Town map, putting him in the way of the incoming tram so he gets stunned for a lengthy period of time). All in all, The Novelist is Overshadowed by Awesome incarnate who cannot do anything better than any of the survivors, and was almost completely forgotten about by both the developers and the playerbase alike shortly after his release. Not only that, but with how buggy his kit is, being able to completely softlock hunters or himself at the most random moments, he was the only survivor to be completely banned from tournaments, and eventually required a full rework of his abilities.
• Memetic Badass: Freddy Riley [Lawyer], due to being such a Low-Tier Letdown that it loopsided back into a multitude of "Lawyer OP pls nerf" meme... Until he gets a buff that made him immune to Terror Shocks, at which point the claims of "Lawyer OP" became more genuine. He is also this for some parts of of the fandom that are interested in the lore, who reason that there had to have been some reason why Martha chose him over Leo Beck/Hell Ember.
• Memetic Loser: Lucky Guy, most likely because of the maid dress and the general irony.
• Memetic Molester
  • Hastur [Feaster], mainly because he has tentacles.
  • Jack [Ripper], unsurprisingly. His Deduction Star quotes do not help. Nor does Naib Subedar/The Mercenary calling him 'Mr. Pervert Ripper' in the stage play.
• Memetic Mutation
  • The aforementioned Gardener/Rocket Chair ship. ^Explanation A jab at how a lot of Gardener mains tend to focus on dismantling rocket chairs rather than decoding.
  • Lawyer is OP. Pls nerf. ^Explanation The Lawyer cannot get terror shocked among other things. Because of these things, he has gained a Memetic Badass status among some fans.
  • Boars are still active. Position already confirmed. Departing today.^ExplanationWhat is written in Naib's, very short, Character Day letter. Due to its ambiguity, and the disappointment that arose from just how little it revealed about Naib, it quickly became a meme.
  • HOMOPHOBIA.^ExplanationA 30-page Document was released anonymously to the internet, pointing out the problematic aspects of the game. Most of the fandom sees the doc and the arguments as reaching at best and downright absurd at worst, with the most well-known argument being that Emma Woods/The Gardener being written in the story as an Ambiguously Gay Cute and Psycho girl is a homophobic potrayal.
  • Tonight and Always ^Explanation A Fan Nickname of Vera Nair [Perfumer]'s time-limited skin, Tonight or Never, due to the skin being voted to rerun in the annual costume voting event every single year.
  • Fan Wujiu is banned from Spain. ^Explanation Discussion about the connection between Wu Chang [Black and White Guard] and Jose Baden [First Officer] led to a misunderstanding where fans believed someone was saying Fan Wujiu [Black Guard] was banned from Spain. Fanart or edits of him entering Spain soon exploded, and the original commentator soon clarified that they were referring to Jose. (For the record, neither character is banned from Spain).
  • Peter Ratri's modeler should be locked up. ^Explanation Joseph Desaulnier [Photographer]'s crossover skin, Peter Ratri, is widely regarded to be the worst crossover skin ever released. It has a visibly rushed model prone to glitching, which made the skin the laughingstock of the fandom. Among the Chinese player base, screenshots of Peter's face was used in memes so much that the skin has become notorious beyond the Identity V fandom.
  • I'm sorry to say that I'm French. ^Explanation Frederick [Composer]'s response to Melly [Entomologist] pointing out that a presumed family member of Mary de Capet nee Kreiburg is sitting there with them while they discuss the late Austrian noblewoman's death in Ashes of Memory Episode I. While It Makes Sense in Context (Frederick [Composer] is denying any familial connection to the late Mary), it didn't take long for people to poke fun at how strange it sounds out of context.
• Moe:
  • The Mini-Hunters and Robbie White [Axe Boy].
  • Yidhra [Dream Witch]'s Servant is either this or Ugly Cute.
  • Some fans view Victor Grantz/The Postman as this due to his status as a Cute Mute and his interactions with Wick the Post Dog.
  • Violetta/Soul Weaver is considered to be this by some fans in a Creepy Cute sort of way.
  • After being announced as a Survivor it didn't take long for Memory [Little Girl] to be considered this.
• Narm:
  • In the Lawyer's Character Diary, Kreacher [Thief], after the discovery that someone had apparently left a poisonous pie out in the open in the Dining Hall, demands that the Survivors all show their hands, so as to deduce who had touched the belladonna leaves from the garden and thus experienced an allergic reaction. Emma [Gardener] and Emily [Doctor] proceed to shows their hands. The only problem is, both are wearing gloves, which none of the characters acknowledge at any point in the cutscene.
  • When a Hunter manages to hit a Survivor in a match, a comical "boing" sound will play.
  • This can occur because of some of the skins for the characters. It is hard to take a dramatic chase sequence seriously when you're wearing a bright pink and mint green suit while chasing after a Christmas elf and a guy in a maid dress or trying to kill them with a lollipop.
  • While he's intimidating in the game, Hastur's elaborate costume in the stage play sometimes gives the effect of a person in a T-rex costume. Particularly when he's trying to dance.
• No Yay:
  • Most fans consider Kreacher [Thief] x Emma [Gardener] to be this due to Kreacher's generally creepy behavior towards Emma and the fact that it is possible that she used to be a child at his orphanage. More recently, many people have come to dislike Emma x Emily, and Emma x Freddy for similar reasons, as they have known her since she was a child and Freddy is technically her stepfather.
  • For obvious reasons, most ships involving Robbie White [Axe Boy]. By the same token, practically any ship involving "Memory" [Little Girl.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: If there is a pairing in the fandom, chances are the fandom will take to adopt this as the ship name. Examples are JosCarl for Joseph Desaulnier/The Photographer x Aesop Carl/The Embalmer, JackNaib: Jack/The Ripper x Naib Subedar/The Mercenary, HasEli: Hastur/The Feaster x Eli Clark/The Seer, TonTon for (Mike) Morton and Norton (Campbell), and much more.
• Power Trio: The most common trios seen in fan-art seem to be:
  • Eli [Seer], Naib [Mercenary], and Aesop [Embalmer]. Emma [Gardener], Norton [Prospector], and William [Forward] are often additional fourth members.
  • Victor [Postman], Andrew [Gravekeeper] and Luca [Prisoner]. Additional fourth members include Helena [Mind's Eye], Demi [Barmaid], Melly [Entomologist] and Edgar [Painter].
  • Kevin [Cowboy], Jose [First Officer] and Demi [Barmaid].
  • On the side of the Hunters, Joseph [Photographer] is most often seen alongside either Jack [Ripper] and Hastur [Feaster] or both Xie Bi'an [White Guard] and Fan Wujiu [Black Guard].
  • Fiona [Priestess], Eli [Seer], and Hastur [Feaster]. Yidhra [Dream Witch] is sometimes an additional fourth member.
  • Emma [Gardener], Tracy [Mechanic] and Helena [Mind's Eye].
  • Michiko [Geisha], Xie Bi'an [White Guard], and Fan Wujiu [Black Guard].
  • If Luca [Prisoner] is not paired with Victor [Postman] and Andrew [Gravekeeper], expect him to be in a trio with Tracy [Mechanic] and Burke [Mad Eyes].
  • Andrew [Gravekeeper], Ann [Disciple] and Antonio [Violinist].
  • Leo [Hell Ember], Emma [Gardener], and Emily [Doctor].
  • Mary [Bloody Queen], Joseph [Photographer] and either Vera [Perfumer] or Robbie [Axe Boy].
  • Naib [Mercenary], William [Forward], and Kurt [Explorer].
  • Vera [Perfumer], Martha [Coordinator], and Fiona [Priestess].
  • Orpheus [Novelist], Joker [Weeping Clown], and Luchino [Professor].
• The Scrappy: A significant amount of the fandom has expressed their dislike of Percy [Undead] mainly due to the controversy surrounding his creator, Ashley Wood, even if he just created his design and netease is known for collaborating with controversial media.
• Self-Fanservice: The fandom tends to do this to some of the Hunters for (mainly) shipping related purposes. The characters who seem to be subjected to this the most are Jack (Ripper), Joker (Smiley Face), Luchino (Evil Reptilian), and Hastur (Feaster).
• Ship Mates: A lot of JosCarl shippers also tend to ship JackNaib and HasEli.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Barring the two groups of survivors whose diary stories have been released, the majority of the characters in the game have not (currently) met each other. This hasn't stopped the fandom from going nuts in fanfics and fan art.
• Theme Pairing: How a lot of the ships in the fandom have (presumably) come about. Some examples include;
  • Embalmer/Photographer: White/Grey-haired pretty boys who are both noted to be obsessed with life and death.
  • Mercenary/Ripper: The two playable characters known to have killed others for a living (or personal entertainment) prior to coming to the manor.
  • Seer/Priestess: Survivors known to worship gods or, at the very least, possess some form of supernatural abilities.
  • Priestess/Enchantress: Female Survivors known to possess some form of supernatural abilities, with a side of parental issues.
  • Coordinator/Mercenary: Former military officers and victims of societal stigma, who appear to be using aliases, and seemingly had ulterior motives for coming to the manor.
  • Mechanic/Prisoner: Driven by the desire to invent and become a big name in the world.
  • Photographer/Perfumer: Eccentric French aristocrats with issues stemming from the deaths of their twin siblings.
  • First Officer/Barmaid: Alcoholics who came to the manor in search of a missing family member.
  • Postman/Gravekeeper: Borderline misanthropic loners, who have No Social Skills (and may have been involved in criminal activities) but, deep down, just want to be loved by others.
  • Prospector/Acrobat: Implied mood-swingers, involved in tragedies that left many dead, who both have "Ton" in their names.
  • Cowboy/First Officer: Archetypal examples of traditionally heroic characters, who appear charming and confident on the surface, but are actually driven by guilt and self-loathing.
  • Evil Reptilian/Violinist: Implied Italians physically transformed by supernatural deities.
  • Axe Boy/Dream Witch's Follower: The Baby of the Bunch.
  • Embalmer/Gravekeeper: Male Survivors who aren't really good with people, both have occupations related to the dead, and have participated in activities that are against the law.
  • Priestess/Feaster: Hooded individuals who both have some relation to the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Geisha/White and Black Guards: Undead Asian Hunters who died due to unfair circumstances and were slandered shortly before or after their deaths.
  • Mechanic/Forward: Brains and Brawn
  • The Mind's Eye/Postman: Survivors whose disabilities(with the former being blind and the latter implied to be mute) are the least of their problems.
  • Postman/Seer: Male Survivors who care a lot about their Animal Companion.
  • Prospector/Prisoner: Survivors who were physically and mentally scarred by traumatic events in their past.
  • Prospector/Gravekeeper: Survivors associated with work that involves going underground in some capacity.
  • Painter/Prisoner: Aristocrat and former aristocrat.
  • Mechanic/Soul Weaver: A skilled mechanic and someone with special mechanical prostheses.
  • Going into One True Threesome territory, Postman/Gravekeeper/"Prisoner": Male Survivors who (to varying degrees) were possibly involved in criminal activities.
• Unexpected Character: In terms of collaborations, things like Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Edward Scissorhands and the works of Junji Ito both fit as they both represent the Horror genre like the game does. Persona 5 on the other hand is a Political, Urban Fantasy JRPG, with most of its horror elements coming from Persona's parent franchise.
• Unpopular Popular Character
  • Freddy Riley [Lawyer]. In-Universe, he's The Friend Nobody Likes in the original group of four survivors and is tolerated at best. Out of universe, he is considered a Memetic Badass to some fans.
  • Andrew Kress [Gravekeeper]. In-Universe, he was considered a freak by many people due to him being an albino and was ostracised because of it. Out of universe, he was much more well received by the fans.
• The Woobie: See here.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Prior to his name being released, many players thought that Edgar Valden [Painter] was female.