Secret of the Mimic – Origins

For some context on how we got here, check my other article showing the timeline of events thusfar in the lead up to the Secret of the Mimic trailer.

The lead up to the SoTM trailer

The trailer we’ll be looking at is below.

Steel Wool

The first moment of note in the trailer is Steel Wool’s logo, which glows with the Mimic’s eyes as it fades away. This is of interest as this appears to be the same eyes as the Mimic from RUIN rather than the swirled ones that we encounter later in the trailer.

Secret of the Mimic – The Van

The next opening shot is a voiceover over the top of a van driving along an incredibly damages street. This van appears to be the one we saw stealing MXES in the Help Wanted 2 patch, with a different logo on the side.

Entertainingly this logo had to have been added later on, as the one in the HW2 patch was still a default asset with a standard logo on the hood (though this probably wasn’t intended to be seen)

My first thought is that its weird that a location as potentially lavish as Edwin’s location could be in such a run down area.

Secret of the Mimic – Fazbear Entertainment

The van pulls up alongside the camera and stops to show us the worn company logo on its side. Fazbear Entertainment. This is interesting as we are led to believe through the aesthetics of what we see (at least in the concept art in HW2’s patch and the year we input into the door) that this game is set 1979, we’ve never seen the company this early.

It’s ominous that their logo has balloons on it, given the balloon symbolism later and its connection to souls.

Secret of the Mimic – Edwin Murray

The voiceover says. “So let me explain the situation, one of our contractors — Edwin Murray — has gone missing.”

This would have been a baffling moment for anyone who hadn’t read the books (or failing that, heard the song that everyone now quotes forever)

His name is Edwin, he made the mimic, and we now know for certain that he features in this game. However, for anyone who has read the Mimic stories in tales from the Pizzaplex, they will immediately have questions in mind. This does not line up with the timeline we are given in the books, and certainly doesn’t line up with how Fazbear come to arrive at Edwin’s lace factory in them.

Secret of the Mimic – The Work Room

The next scene we get is of what appears to be a warehouse or workroom, lit in a deep red. I’ve tried to lighten it below for clarity too.

In this scene we see what appears to be some kind of Totoro creature (its not clear what it is supposed to be, it has sharp teeth and a flecked tummy), There is a slinky-esque dog with a party hat, some kind of goose or duck behind that. We can see the bee at the top that featured in some of the posters from PAX West. There are several cutouts too, one of a dog suit, and the other of a sleeping lion in the background.

My first impression of this scene was that it had an overall lack of cohesiveness. I know we are supposed to believe that these items were created by the same person (Edwin Murray) but I don’t think they appear coherent at all. The dog cutout appears to be a head-on turnaround style shot without character. A promotional piece would give us an idea who we were looking at and what their personality was, especially in an era where making these would be cost-prohibitive. To be fair, it still is! A FNAF fan spent about £100 getting a cardboard cutout of Scott Cawthon. It would have been even moreso in the 70s and 80s.

The dogs do not look of a similar design aesthetic either, with one with large chunky eyelashes, the other without. There’s a similar design language to William and Henry’s designs and none of the examples we see here really seem to match one another in any real way. The lion in the background is yet another style altogether. I felt like this whole scene wasn’t a good representation of an environment that tells us a story about an absent character.

Spaces should speak, and this feels hodgepodge. At least the sitting dog’s paws align somewhat with the Tiger Rock plushie from the Help Wanted patch. But I was not very wowed, if I am honest.

We zoom through the space and we are able to make out a sheep eating popcorn in the same style as the lion and ascertain that there is what appears to be a trampoline (to be held) and some drums on the tarp on the floor.

In the background, there is a little toony balloon animal.

Again, I am just not feeling a cohesive design, only a vague cartoony/circus theme.

As we pan around the corner we glimpse a jester cutout, but once again this just feels like incomplete concept art for a model we might see later on. It is not standing in a pose that tells us anything about this strange character.

This character appears to echo the bee at least in face structure but clashes with many of the other designs. By his side are two frogs which seem to be a throwback to kermit the frog, once again completely incongruous in style with everything else.

Secret of the Mimic – Technology

In the next scene we cut to some kind of machinery, presumably used in a puzzle to enter the office as we can see it through the windows. I’m not sure why Edwin would have a barred off office, given that in the books we see he has no money and built the Mimic as a companion for his son, this shouldn’t be a location with roaming animatronics to fend off.

My first impression of the tech is that it doesn’t read seventies to me just yet, but I’ll see how it holds up in further context.

In this brightened version of the pan shot, you can see there appears to be an owl in the far left hand side of the shot. It also I’d say doesn’t line up with everything else. This shot also affims that we are indeed seeing a steel sealed door and what appears to be a security office.

Within the security office there are kids drawings on the wall. There is what appears to be a kid in a (mushroom?) costume, a tall and small figure with a star and some kind of face on the right. I’m assuming these are meant to be David’s drawings.

Secret of the Mimic – The Security Office

Within the office we get a look at the surroundings and can see what we think this environment has to say about this era and the game itself.

I’d say the first impression is that this space is of the era to a degree, with a twist to make it a little bit unique. It doesn’t read as as 70s as I might like it to be.

The first things that strike me are the clock which will no doubt be a timer at some point, the terminal, the security monitors and most interesting of all to me, the large machine on the right which appears to have a screen attached to something larger.

There’s a pizza box on the couch, a mushroom guy on the filing cabinet and a fan without a front guard.

We also see a poster threatening employees with punishment if they are late. This was odd to me as it seems to imply that Fazbear was excessively controlling and cruel, even in these early days. This is a strange bit of characterisation as it didn’t really feel like this was the case till later (from what we saw in Fnaf 4 etc)

I think there’s a bar heater under the desk.

The main terminal is operated by what appears to be a “data diver” that plugs into the slot on it. We get a better look at this later. Its of note that something is covered with post-its on top, it has a rabbit ear aerial and an extendable one at the back, along with some kind of warning on the side.

This machine is operated only by dials and switches.

Secret of the Mimic – Edwin is Missing

The voiceover tells us that the player’s mission appears to be retrieving their property that Edwin has “abandoned” in his warehouse.

Our job is to enter the warehouse and retrieve the technology that he was developing for Fazbear Entertainment.

He tells us its a kind of prototype endoskeleton that can adapt to any costume and become any character. He says they expect it may be malfunctioning so to be aware of the slim but non zero chance that you could sustain not insignificant injuries while attempting to retrieve it, included but not limited to death or dismemberment.

As always Fazbear reassure us that they expect things to go smoothly and without incident but just in case to get our affairs in order before arriving.

It’s worth mentioning here that the voice actor here is almost certainly Andy Field, who does the voice of Hand Unit and Dread Unit, iconic roles within the series. However here he sounds human, the cadence of his voice easy and natural. This seems to be the living breathing human who inspired the later machines.

I will say that I don’t like the trailer giving us SO much context on what we are doing, it feels like there’s nothing at all to surprise us in there at all. They could have snuck the scenario up on the player, but this is almost too much context.

Secret of the Mimic – Still More Mascots

The next shot pans across a row of mascot suits which once again don’t align in style. We see the dog whose cutout we saw earlier and then we see a horrific version of the elephant from RUIN. Once again these feel like someone glanced at the Fazbear aesthetic but pulled it together in radically different ways. The dog has three whisker dots for instance.

The elephant has rosy cheeks and a face made of plastic-looking material or shiny latex with a lazy party hat. It doesn’t look like the same artist as the dog.

It lies in contrast to the other elephant, scarier but more strange.

The final suit is the totoro guy, I have no idea what he is supposed to be. He looks like a porg from star wars. This guy has two large upper teeth like tusks. He looks kind of like a seal or walrus? Again though, his eyes are COMPLETELY different from the other designs we’ve just seen.

Three suits, three of them completely different.

Secret of the Mimic – Tiger Rock

The next shot is Tiger Rock, a life-size version of the “plushie” from Help Wanted. Calling it a plushie is loose at best as it is clearly just a scaled down mesh of a much larger mascot costume. In HW 2 we could see it had soiled feet, and most disturbingly of all, an interior filled with meat.

In this shot it appears to be hunched back in a chair, breathing, as though someone is stuffed inside it.

I’m guessing its probably Edwin, though I’m not sure why they’d give this away in the trailer either.

Echoes of MXES

We see Jackie in the next scene watching us through the bars in a repetition of the scene in the daycare where we see Mxes watching us before he leaves. I guess both of them have no legs.

We are also introduced to the wind up mouse distraction toy (once again, with a different eye style and design aesthetic)

Secret of the Mimic – The Poster Hallway

In the hallway with the elephant we see some familiar posters in the form of the Fredbear’s posters, and on the far right of the screen we can make out a new one with a dog on it.

I tried correcting the perspective on this one and brightening it up.

Appears to be some kind of salon, though I can’t make out the text clearly.

I love the Freadbear’s posters, I use the Spring Bonnie one as my pfp for discord and have since day 1, however I would have liked to see something new for a new game rather than just showing them again. It has been a lot of years at this point.

I’m not much of a fan of the 1983 easter egg being on the phone poster in this era either, it’s kind of annoying anachronistic.

The Mushroom Costume

The next costume, after a shot of Jackie in the vents is the mushroom one. This seems to be an oddly important costume in this game? There’s a figure of it on the table in the office and a kid (possibly David) dressed up in this one.

He once again doesn’t incredibly resemble the other suits, more faceless, with just simple eyeholes. His suit is more garden like than circus-like. It just doesn’t quite fit.

People love him though. This shot appears to be the main look we get at the mimic’s eyes in this iteration?

Aesthetically these are fun, but those are also heated coils, I can’t see any reason why they aren’t. They look like the rings on an old electric cooker.

He would SET THE SUITS ON FIRE. I get the idea that he’s meant to be made of found items but HE WOULD. This is dangerous and crazy, even for Fazbear, it would melt and stick to him.

They have more budget than this, they have the music man, they have a hundred suits, why are they using hot elements for eyes?

Secret of the Mimic – Remnant Machine?

The next part we see appears to be a puzzle section with what appears to be a GIGANTIC FUCKING 70S REMNANT MACHINE.

And this machine has GOLD remnant in it, not blue, which implies it is either overly molten and ruined or it is the actual living remnant.

The elephant is on the floor here with its arm missing, which I’m assuming has to be to do with the plot progression.

At least there’s a first aid kit if you horrifically burn yourself in here, and it doesn’t have Helpy on it this time.

We can’t make out a whole lot more than that, other than the office to the side of this machine, looking in on it. Can it be remotely operated like the scooper?

The next shot shows the player (wearing safety gloves in green and yellow) opening the machine , which slides open to reveal the mechanism. It appears we are connecting these pipes to fill some kind of overflow valve.

We do get to see an unflattering angle on the elephant.

The Mail Bot – Proto STAFF Bot?

In the scene we see next we see a robot without any legs who appears to be some kind of prototype of the STAFF bots, with a little mail hat. Again, this implies Edwin for some reason has an advanced robot to do his mail, something he absolutely did not have in the stories, another clear deviation from the books amongst many here.

There is a giant gift box in the corner of the room with a crank. This might be the other side of the security office, as the view of the factory floor appears similar and there’s a huge sealed steel door.

The next shot if the person in the green jumpsuit and gloves opening a door with the same fencing we saw earlier in the trailer, but with a box of arms in the background.

Secret of the Mimic – Even MORE mascots

The next shot is the mushroom outfit, lit up strangely wandering through yet another room. This one has the bee on a swing and the elephant to his(its?) left. Something with claws is hanging above him.

In the background is one of the most hideous cutouts yet, this one has a PUSH ME button on it like Poppy’s Playtime’s cutouts. I’m not sure what it is supposed to be. Maybe a Space Monkey?

I hate it with my whole heart.

Outside??

The next shot is on the roof of the building in the snow but is not overly interesting, mostly showing a skylight and some air conditioning units. It doesn’t feel like a lot of bespoke assets. Mostly its interesting where we are is cold, and the last time we saw snow was at the christmas tree farm in Help Wanted.

Secret of the Mimic -More Mysterious Tiger Rock

Next shot is of Tiger Rock with glowing eyes, which if they were lit by glowing COOKER ELEMENTS they would not look like this. This might have been mysterious if they hadn’t shown us the whole suit already, but as it is, it isn’t.

WIFI in the 70s?

We get a closer look at the terminal here (or another version of the terminal as this isn’t in the office) and what a “data diver” might look like.

Clearly this is a prototype or early version of the fazwrench, which again feels weird to me as the wrench in Help Wanted had William’s code from Fnaf 3 on it.

It has a type of buttons which were almost unheard of in the 70s/80s but thats fine I guess. The icons however are of note. One of them looks hilariously like the modern symbol for wifi. I’m assuming its volume or something but its certainly modern looking. The other set of switches is out of order and labelled as such.

You can see H.E.L.P.E.R is on this too.

In the background we have more random characters. These ones have googly eyes, different AGAIN from the others.There’s a pirate shark and a starfish with a hat.

And of course the fucking bee is here too.

Also there’s a cake, because why not? This one has sprinkles like the one in Help Wanted.

H.E.L.P.E.R – Terminal 0.00

We get a look at the UI of the terminal here. It’s not quite period accurate but it gives the right sort of vibe overall.

Of note here is that we can seemingly run a welcome show in this area, presumably some kind of welcome to Edwin’s Costume Mansion house of horrors introduction.

The executive access line is interesting. William DOES fit on the first line, so I can live in eternal hope.

Its interesting that we see Helpy here, called H.E.L.P.E.R because this raises immediate and acute questions about if Helpy came first of Funtime Freddy, or even who invented him and when. The twist might be that this is Fredbear since we can’t see his colours but I’m not even optimistic about that.

This part made me feel weird and concerned about the direction of the lore.

Goodbye Nurse – Dolly

The next scene is a terrible terrible design. I hate this nurse, I hate it completely. The face feels mean and derisive and I just hate its vibe. It is probably going to be a friendly Npc we are meant to bond with in some way, but I just do not like it.

Her legs are tattered like springtrap’s and she has trailing phone cords like you’d find on a rotary phone.

In this room we also see a really weird head with a mustache, andmore creepy ducks. I’m assuming this is a build area. All in all, maybe my least favourite scene in the trailer. Also again, there is a lack of comprehension in the design for me.

She has faceplates on her face like Sister Location’s machines but NONE on her body. Just her face. Why?

I do have to say the lighting is good and the environmental design and arrangement in these scenes is beautiful, just the assets fall down. The animations are also excellent. Though I hate this character a lot, the heavy and juddering way she moves is truly intimidating, and Jackie’s scenes are also, likewise, beautifully animated. Even the mushroom guy walks really well.

Secret of the Mimic – More Warehouse

We see more of the warehouse and the view of the security room in the next shot with everything properly lit. There are several characters here, the bee of course. But also a gator character and a very strange pig along with more ducks. This scene seems to be to show the player using a distraction.

I really don’t like the pig at all.

The gator feels like monty’s cutouts.

All in all they still fall foul of that incongruity.

A GIANT FUCKING MUSIC MAN

And FINALLY the weirdest thing in the entire game, perhaps in the entire franchise to date. The giant music man here is made of industrial struts and shatters the entire ceiling of the building.

I just don’t know why this character is here. I assume it was because VR would make this scene impressive, but they have completely cut VR at this point and now we just have something that throws into question everything we know.

I’m not sure how anyone could read Edwin’s story in the tales from the pizzaplex novels and line that up with a man who had the means or the funding to build something like this.

It has hands in its underbelly and appears to be themed after a ringmaster possibly. It has Edwin’s moustache from what I can tell, but it’s white, when he’d be younger here.

Frankly the only way I could swallow a 40 foot ringmaster spider nightmare machine would be if it was at the end of the game and scooped the mimic up into its belly, only for William Afton and Henry to saunter out of it and scold us for being shit.

Because this kind of tech at this point in time? This is bizzare. Really bizzare, and I don’t know how I feel about it at all (bad mostly)

It’s pretty fun that the thing’s mouth it based after an old music box, it’s very inventive design, but I just really am not sure why he exists and why he got spoilered in this trailer lol.

Secret of the Mimic – The End?

And that’s that I guess, we now have the release date for the game, which is the 13th of June 2025

I can’t say I’m incredibly hype this time. I’ll play it, but my feelings are mixed.

Ultimately I feel like unless handled incredibly powerfully with a great narrative and real drive from Scott, I don’t think this is going to be very good for the franchise. I am not getting good feelings about it at all. And this is not to say the people at Steel Wool aren’t talented, they clearly are, but this feels like it was not done to the best it could be and some assets were used when they perhaps didn’t fit as much.

You could get away with a lot more with the Pizzaplex than you really can here.

Also again the elephant (hah!) in the room is that this game really does look and feel like a Poppy’s Playtime game. And I don’t think that’s a good comparision to be making, because having watched a playthrough of Poppys recently, it looked better in many places. Their assets were careful and fitting of the world, the cutouts were character building. It felt more intentional and complete.

I think many of the set pieces and scenes here are gorgeous and the animation is /chef’s kiss. But the meat of the game is not making me feel great.

I find myself hoping this entire era of FNAF was all a VR dream that we will wake from one day and that feeling grows more and more with every new game we receive.

I want to love this era of the series, but I am finding it harder and harder to believe we are standing on firm ground and that anyone really cares about Scott’s lore all that much.

Secret of the Mimic – The Mascot Suits

Finally I really wanted to say, the mascot suits kind of bug me. I know they were in the Mimic story, I know Henry had a book on them in the silver eyes. But FNAF isn’t a story about MASCOT SUITS. It’s not a story about ugly lumpy mascot animals who are wholly unappealling. Its about animatronics, and the focus of this game shifting just makes it feel like a fangame who is bored with the material of the games.

Also like, part of FNAF is also people being enthused about the animals. I’m a furry, I’m the most picky critic of any animal mascot char and these feel like they were made not by someone furry or even furry sympathetic but that a lot of them were made almost spitefully. They are ugly, intentionally ugly, and though that might be what they are going for with Edwin, it doesn’t make me feel very enthusiastic or like this is a FNAF game at all.

I can’t explain why Scott’s stuff feels incidentally ugly but kind of cute, while this all just feels repulsive.

It has bad vibes.

I really hope those bad vibes don’t carry through to the final game.