YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

1. Calibur-X

   Jan 22, 2019

   10

   This game is amazing, not perfect but so far from the bad critics based on political views

   • 1 of 6 users found this helpful
2. MrButtButt

   Jan 23, 2019

   9

   This game is awesome! YIIK, in it's current state, is a little buggy at times, and there are a few things that could be fixed. However, thisThis game is awesome! YIIK, in it's current state, is a little buggy at times, and there are a few things that could be fixed. However, this game absolutely does not deserve the sheer amount of hate it's receiving. The main character, Alex, is a self-centered egotist, and you aren't supposed to agree with that. His friends call him out on it, and even he calls himself out on it later in the story. YIIK is a story about growing as a person and while not erasing past wrong doings altogether, but ultimately doing your best to make up for them. Do not turn into a sheep and blindly jump onto the bandwagon that this game should be passed on, because you're only doing a disservice to yourself. The soundtrack is really good, and while at some points feels a little out of place, in others it perfectly captures the mood I was looking for in the scene.
   
   There are a couple things that I would've liked to see though. A little bit faster battles, which I believe IS being implemented in an update. A small amount of the set pieces seem out of place, such as some of the pictures you find around the world looking like stock photos. Also more enemy variety would've been nice too, after seeing some of the same enemies throughout the game.
   
   I wholeheartedly do not regret my time spent with YIIK, and I plan to play through it many more times. it doesn't deserve the reputation it's currently going down as having, and I really hope more players come out to show how much they enjoyed it.… Expand

   • 1 of 3 users found this helpful
4. kuehnau

   Jan 19, 2019

   4

   What starts off appearing to be a delightful, Earthbound inspired meta RPG quickly devolves into unpolished schlock almost as soon as you areWhat starts off appearing to be a delightful, Earthbound inspired meta RPG quickly devolves into unpolished schlock almost as soon as you are given control over the main protagonist.
   
   The main character's constant inner monologues get tiresome even befor the half hour mark simply because they feel a overwhelming desire to constantly repeat what was either already said or shown just seconds before hand. It isn't endearing in any sort of aspect.
   
   The graphical assets of the game are wonderful, but is almost always constantly marred by ugly artwork in contrast. Good examples are paintings hung on walls that look like they were ripped stright from Google Images, basketballs that are photorealistic that don't even roll when kicked, ect.
   
   Character animation is another one that looks janky and ugly. The models themselves look great, but their movement is stilted and jarring as if they are missing a number of frames from them, but then other animations, such as water moving or trees swaying move just fine on their own.
   
   I think the worst aspect of the game and one that happens to effect the game the most is combat. Every single action, from attacking, to dodging and even running away are made into these stupid little mini games. The first time you fight, it's okay, but now try playing a RPG that has hours worth of content having to play the same mini games over and over and over again. It's simply terrible and out of all of the issues I have with the game, this one is the worst, this is the one that caused me to HATE this game.
   
   There's a lot to like about YIIK, but unfortunately there's so much to dislike about the game it's impossible to actually enjoy, which is a massive shame.… Expand

   • 5 of 6 users found this helpful
5. benpaco6

   Jun 15, 2019

   3

   In some regards, I feel bad giving this such a low score. At its most surface level, YIIK is an RPG that overstays its welcome and suffersIn some regards, I feel bad giving this such a low score. At its most surface level, YIIK is an RPG that overstays its welcome and suffers from poor writing, with a unique but subpar combat system and great music and aesthetics. This is the sorta thing I'd usually just sort of move on from, but the game feels so poorly conceived and constructed that it's worth talking about.
   
   Much has been made of how the game doesn't respect a player's time, with every combat minigame taking longer than needed and dialogue looping and looping. While this is true, I think it is a factor that could be overlooked if there was something behind these issues to prop up. The Paper Mario series minigames aren't terribly dissimilar, but the mechanics, world, and characters are so much better explained that it doesn't feel like such a chore. Dragon Age Inquisition suffers from lengthy dialogue during cutscenes, but these cutscenes develop new issues rather than just repeating the same information, and are skippable until decisions need to be made. YIIK just feels like a crew of people trying to make something that would work by ignoring mechanics and ignoring writing and ignoring a sensible story and instead trying to assemble a good aesthetic (successfully so) and make something different (unsuccessfully).
   
   The whole "post modern" element is also really lost. Many of the moments of commentary are either so incredibly on the nose that nothing of any interest is being said, while others leave so much to be desired. The NPCs in Wind Town are a great example of both of these. We meet a group of goth kids complaining about capitalism before asking the player if they have any change. This is commentary, sure, but nothing's really gained by it. If instead, they complained about capitalism, and you had a dialogue option to bribe them, the game would incorporate a mechanic that would allow for commentary - at this point, satirize away. We also see a character, "Future Robber", make a statement that his mom's new boyfriend doesn't hit him as hard as his dad did, but he also has less love in the punches. Sure, this is sort of commentary in that a sad thing happened to a kid, but what's being learned? What's being remarked upon? A sad thing is happening, you don't fix it, encounter it again, anything. It's not part of his dialogue in or before battle, just a weird anecdote at the end.
   
   The Future Cop and Future Robber are an example of the other end, where something interesting might have happened, but since this is YIIK, it didn't. I think the pun is intentional, that these kids could both be playing a game of "Cops and Robbers" and also literally become cops and robbers some day, but nothing happens with that. They aren't even close to each other, they aren't showing playing with each other or in relation to each other. If they were brothers, maybe you could make a comment on how the world is simply unfair in opportunities, and one would become a cop while the other would have to resort to crime. If the roles were reversed in their game from reality, maybe you could make a comment on the problematic state of policing in America. Instead of fighting both, you could have the cop temporarily join your roster to fight a future robber, played totally straight for commentary or as absurd as possible for laughs. But instead, you just get two totally disjointed fights with a vague connection at best, and random tidbits that the authors found clever are the closest you get to anything meaningful or interesting.
   
   That's what YIIK is. Vague, disjointed, tryhard, and "random" in its characters, mechanics, plot, etc. Being vague and disjointed doesn't make you clever or postmodern. DeLillo never had sudden "golden alpacas" interrupt the discussions about the fear of death in White Noise, Vonnegut never gave any random tidbits of past domestic abuse for shock value unless it would become a repeated theme, DFW was never outwardly spiteful to the working class unless it was to show that a character was bigoted. Even the authors who this piece DIRECTLY lift from, word for word, like Murakami, have the knowledge to know that their dialogue works as written, but not aloud, something this game repeatedly ignores.
   
   I wanted to like this game. A genuinely clever, intellectual post modern RPG is achievable and could be wonderful. The artistic design and music, lifted into another game, could have complimented a wonderful piece of art. But as is, YIIK let me down at every turn, failing to live up to any of the potential it seemed to have.… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
6. Ndi

   Jan 20, 2019

   1

   Bad controls, zero innovation, bull story, bad voice acting and a combat system from 1947.
   
   It brings nothing to the world and it's SOBad controls, zero innovation, bull story, bad voice acting and a combat system from 1947.
   
   It brings nothing to the world and it's SO pleased with itself, harping on about meta this and souls that, but the characters are not defined, have silly cookie cutter motivation, people have breakdowns missing people they met for 10 minutes, etc. Whoever wrote this can't write.
   
   Voice acting is awful, from audio quality to people having breakdowns because the death of a family member but can't even change the tone, like someone is reading a paper on their characters.
   
   It is "inspired" from many games, straight up taking mechanics and ideas and adding nothing, like the babble the story is should carry it.
   
   As for the animation and art, 3-frame animations, only a few poses, making the character grab and pull his hair 230 times in all kinds of situations. Less work than a visual novel shoveled from Steam.
   
   I don't know what was supposed to carry this game, none of the components are good.… Expand

   • 4 of 6 users found this helpful
7. NEPGYA

   May 29, 2019

   1

   When a game describes itself as "post modern" and has a name that requires a graphic on its store page telling you how to pronounce it, youWhen a game describes itself as "post modern" and has a name that requires a graphic on its store page telling you how to pronounce it, you know you're in for something special. The game is pretentious, poorly written, and has a lot of dialogue but ultimately says nothing. If the developers sought to write a realistically obnoxious hipster for the main protagonist, then they ironically/unironically succeeded. It's like they wanted to make a Persona/Earthbound-esque game without understanding what makes either franchise great, and the combat is a tried-and-failed ripoff of the combat system from Shadow Hearts. The 20 dollar asking price is a near criminal rip off for what you get, and I could only recommend it to anyone who wants to spend roughly 20 hours hating it and hating themselves for wasting the money to purchase it.
   The art style has a kind of charm to it though, I'll give it a point for that.… Expand

   • 2 of 2 users found this helpful
8. TheGrandEditor

   Apr 21, 2019

   0

   Painful boring and unfunny. Don't bother wasting your money or your time. Story is awful the writing is terrible and the gameplay non existent.

   • 2 of 2 users found this helpful

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