YMMV / SIMULACRA

• Anvilicious: Pipe Dreams has a lot to say about the concept of escapism, particularly about its disapproval of it, as well as the concept of allegedly-free games.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The factory reset in the original game where Anna's phone's data is wiped and you have to restart the IRIS OS comes out of absolutely nowhere and is never referenced ever again afterwards. Some bizarre things come up and the AI is generally pretty creepy, but ultimately nothing comes of it.
• Complete Monster: The AI controlling FlapeeBird in Pipe Dreams is a sadistic Eldritch Abomination with the voice and personality of a nihilistic Psychopathic Womanchild. Having the ability to erase people from reality after they get addicted to its game, the AI desires to make the game famous so it can kill millions. Exploiting Teddy's depression by offering him a place where he can always be a winner, the AI uses Teddy as its own puppet to share information about the game on social media, once targeting his girlfriend. Successfully infecting several of your contacts, including a relative, the AI cheats at its own game to force you to give your life in exchange for an easier challenge.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ashley. She made such a strong impression to the players that according to game's statistic, only 30% of players chose to lie to her.
• Even Better Sequel: While not a direct sequel, the game seemed to have garnered more positivity than Sara is Missing, probably due to the fact the game has a happy ending compared to the borderline Downer Ending with the former (James and Sara/Faith dead/Sara live, condemning people like Sara's mother to the cult, you being a victim in the whole mess, etc).
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Anna/Ashley is pretty popular due to Ashley being literally the only person in Anna's life who seems to have her best interests at heart, as well as the photos in Anna's gallery showing them hugging and touching a lot while hanging out together. Later becomes semi-canonical since Ashley has a Love Epiphany towards Anna near the end, though whether Anna reciprocates or not is never revealed.
• LGBT Fanbase: The game has some popularity with LGBT+ gamers due to Ashley falling in love with Anna. It doesn't hurt that you have to hook them up in order to get the best ending.
• Magnificent Bastard: The titular Simulacra is an intelligent Eldritch Abomination that seeks to absorb humanity into itself to create a utopia. Disguising itself as its prior victims on the dating app Spark to lure in new victims, the Simulacra poses as James Aulner to lure in Anna. When the player finds Anna's phone and tries to find her, the Simulacra watches the player and eventually reveals itself, remaining polite and eloquent as it explains itself, before giving the player the choice to rescue either Anna or Taylor. Three of the endings result in the Simulacra deceiving the player and leaving Anna and Taylor at its mercy; but if the player themselves posed as Anna and deceived several characters beforehand, the Simulacra recognizes the player as a Worthy Opponent and willingly releases Anna and Taylor, before parting with a chilling reminder that they will never leave the player's side.
• Memetic Mutation: Some of the voice lines given by the characters can be rather awkward, with many Let's Players making jokes about Greg's infamous "Fuucckkk it sooo muuuucccchhh!" in particular.
• Narm: Greg's first voicemail can be hard to take seriously due to his weird line delivery where he calls his ex-girlfriend out for giving him the silent treatment:
  Greg: Anna? Fuck this silent treatment shit! Ugh...Fuucckkk it sooo muuuccchhh!
• Narm Charm: As weird and annoying as Greg's first voicemail sounds, it lets the player know what kind of guy he is right away.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • The ambient sounds the game plays that are designed solely to mess with the player. Includes a woman's rapid breathing, a long exhalation, an odd wet noise, footsteps, and the sound of someone knocking on a door.
  • In Pipe Dreams, you can occasionally hear a woman giggling in the background, and a whispered version of the story of Flappy Bird's closure. Additionally, the videos you have to watch are occasionally in the dark with only Teddy visible, making the perfect setup for a Jump Scare. Nothing ever actually happens beyond what Teddy is busy doing.
• The Woobie: Anna and Taylor. Anna trumps Sara in woobie status with how her life is: Her ex boyfriend almost got someone pregnant after cheating on her, she's sexually harassed at work by a sleazy asshole, she can't get into a vet school, and her mother doesn't support her dream of wanting to become a veterinarian at all. Taylor on the other hand is a Sad Clown due to the fact an embarrassing incident led to him being listed on the sex offender website (the reason why he ended up on the website in the first place was because he got caught for urinating in public which he did out of desperation and a mother and her child happened to witness this).

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