u/lunationstar206

I’ve been trying to find a weird YouTube video someone remembered watching. Reposting here because I found an old post describing an extremely obscure YouTube claymation video that never really got solved, and I wanted to try reopening the search because the details really interested me. I tried revamping it the best I could 😅....

Here is the post, btw

I’m splitting everything into sections so it’s easier to read.

TITLE / LANGUAGE:

The title was definitely not English. Pretty sure it was Hebrew, but it could’ve been Arabic too. Leaning more toward Hebrew, though.

I remember the title being extremely short, maybe one word followed by a period.

The description was either blank or had almost nothing in it.

VIDEO STYLE:

Very rough claymation / stop motion.

Super low budget Choppy animation, weird lighting, muddy colors. The whole thing had this grayish, washed out filter over it.

The camera movement felt awkward and slow on purpose.

TIMEFRAME:

I most likely watched it around 2015 or 2016.

It randomly appeared in my recommendations, and the view count was really low.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE VIDEO:

The beginning faded in from black.

A clay family was sitting around a dinner table. I think there were multiple people talking to each other quietly, but I honestly can’t remember actual dialogue because there was constant static/hissing over the audio.

After a little while, the screen cut to black.

Then, handwritten looking white text appeared saying:

“dinner.”

That single word is the clearest thing I remember from the entire video.

Right after that, the static became louder, and the video glitched hard.

It then cut back to the family at the table, except now all of them looked dead or mutilated somehow. Missing limbs, distorted faces, weird body shapes, etc.

The lighting/colors became even more desaturated than before.

Near the end, the camera slowly zoomed toward what I think was the father figure. Bigger clay model, beard maybe.

Unlike the others, his face suddenly looked more detailed and realistic.

He stared directly into the camera and said something in another language (probably Hebrew).

The static became overwhelming, and the video abruptly ended.

CHANNEL DETAILS:

I vaguely remember the profile picture being brown/caramel colored.

The channel name was two words, one possibly in Hebrew and the other in English.

The English word might’ve been something unsettling, sounding like “rot,” “bone,” “decay,” or something similar, but I’m not confident about that part at all.

OTHER DETAILS:

* I do NOT speak Hebrew or Arabic
* The video had a very low view count
* I’ve searched for years and found nothing
* The atmosphere scared the hell out of me when I first saw it

At this point, I’m mostly posting this to see if literally anyone else remembers this existing.

I feel like this is a toxic way of using the website, but when I play games, I don't really enjoy the experience; I just want to get it over with so I can get that extra number on my profile hence i dont really put my effort into the game, and most of the time end up just playing it on easy mode to get it over with.  I feel guilty because I know I'm not supposed to be playing games this way, but at the same time, I only really like the feeling of having a list of games and not playing the game itself. i get this same feeling when using other logging websites such as Letterboxd or Anilist, I just want to get my numbers up, but can't really enjoy the media unless i just dont use the website and watch when i feel like it because when i do start using the website it becomes like this lifetime commitment that i have to log as many things as possible to one day have thousands of stuff logged. I don't know if this is a normal feeling or not....😭

Before I start, this post is not meant to be a rant, doompost, or attack on any specific game/studio. I actually enjoy a lot of open world gacha games, and I understand why developers continue using systems that are already proven to work. This is more of a discussion about broader design trends in the genre and how, from a player perspective, many newer titles are beginning to feel mechanically and aesthetically similar despite having different themes or settings.

I’ve started noticing that many newer open world gacha games feel increasingly similar to Genshin, not just in their monetization systems but also in their UI and overall design philosophy. It seems like all these studios are stuck in this loop of “Genshin Impact, but with a different twist”. This is honestly a problem for most gacha games in general, but I am specifically talking about open world games specifically because those games seem to be a popular niche now....

Most of these games follow a similar theme or style: Genshin with urban and setting, Genshin with creature collecting, Genshin with firearms, and so on. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with taking inspiration from successful games, the market is beginning to feel oversaturated with titles built around the same core structure.

The similarities go beyond UI design, which is already fairly standardized across many gacha games. A large number of these titles share nearly identical progression systems: Use XP materials to level the character to 20. Use ascension materials to break the level cap to 30. Use materials to level up skills. Use  5 duplicate characters to unlock additional passives or stat boosts. The equipment is made with two slots. A main slot or weapon that has base stats and a unique passive ability is leveled in the same way as the character. An armor or relic system where you equip multiple items with random rolls that add up to a set bonus. The stamina consuming modes are the same; use 60 stamina for a stage that gives you character or weapon materials. At high levels, you need materials from weekly bosses that can only be attempted 3 times a week, rinse and repeat. These mechanics work, but after seeing them repeated so often, many games start to blur together mechanically.

Attack animations are also a problem in these games. Many characters have highly flashy animations and effects, but because so many games aim for the same combat style, individual characters can end up lacking a distinct visual identity. Not only that, but I’ve also noticed that many of them feel heavily derivative of characters from other games.

Character design is another area where I think some games struggle to stand out. Male character designs in some games can feel less prioritized, and even many of the female character designs can start to feel interchangeable after a while. Now, I'm not going to accuse these game studios of using AI, but some designs can feel overly algorithmic or trend driven.

To be fair, it makes sense why studios continue following this formula. Genshin Impact proved that there is a massive audience for anime/style open world gacha games, but the only reason Genshin became popular was that, one, it came out in 2020, and two, at its core, the game's gameplay and visuals were heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild.[I know Genshin now has its own identity with its new updates, but we have to remember that Mondstadt was based on the world of BotW, especially the enemies]. But it's gotten to the point where too many games are competing within the same design space without doing enough to meaningfully differentiate themselves.

Many of these studios clearly have the talent and resources to experiment with new ideas, but instead, they refine the same formula. I’d like to see more games take creative risks with progression systems, world design, storytelling, and character aesthetics. The genre has a lot of potential, but right now it often feels constrained by trends that publishers believe are safer commercially.