YIIK: A Postmodern RPG should be a blended expertise. There are parts of the game, significantly the music, which can be wonderful. There are these, just like the fight, that aren’t so good. I anticipated to be speaking right here about how I’m a toddler who was born in 1994, and whether or not that affected my enjoyment of the game’s pervasive nostalgia bait, and different such fascinating questions.
Unfortunately, it has a elementary drawback, and his identify is Alex.
YIIK is a story-heavy RPG with turn-based fight and flippantly puzzly dungeons. As the game progresses, you gather new social gathering members who every have their very own distinctive battle mechanics and discover gadgets to make them stronger. But all of it begins with Alex following a cat into an deserted constructing, the place he witnesses a stranger (a girl named Sammy) get kidnapped by supernatural creatures. He decides to attempt to rescue her, which might arrange a reasonably commonplace (although considerably drained) story, if it wasn’t for the truth that Alex is so deeply unlikable that it’s a main plot level.
It’s made evident sufficient from his on a regular basis interactions, like the way in which that he complains about being requested to do minor duties by his mom, who paid his manner by school. In case these had been too refined, although, he finally blows up and screams that he doesn’t care concerning the demise of a 12-year-old woman, simply to hammer the purpose residence. Other characters name him out on it, however inexplicably stay his pal although he continues to deal with them like rubbish.
Then, he’s not given a redemption arc a lot as an arc the place he fairly actually turns into a very powerful individual within the universe and so all have to be forgiven.
If that sounds convoluted, it’s as a result of it’s. And along side the wonky plot, the writing itself is stilted, too, particularly when reflecting Alex’s inside ideas. And, sure, it’s typically peppered with 90s references, Ready Player One model. Again, I used to be six within the 12 months 2000, besides they serve little objective past jolting recognition within the participant, and particularly conflict when given in-universe variations. Alex would possibly speak about booting QuickTime on his pc, however he places the ‘Backalley Boiz’ in his file participant.
There are additionally hesitant makes an attempt at social commentary. So hesitant that it’s troublesome to inform the place the game lands politically. Early within the game, Alex corrects his preliminary assumption that girls can’t have facial hair, after which nearly instantly makes what he calls a “lame joke” about “ginger” being a slur. The solely black man within the group of mates, Claudio, leans on the fourth wall to level out that it might be a racist trope if he was the one one who might choose locks – and but he’s.
Claudio’s sister, Chondra (the one black girl within the game) is given essentially the most frequent and specific traces about these sorts of points, and but they appear to go nowhere. She talks about her brother going lacking and says nobody cares when it’s black children, however her brother is barely talked about once more and by no means turns into plot-relevant just like the lacking or useless white and Asian characters. She additionally pointedly asks Alex if he’s on a saviour mission as a white man chasing after a lacking Asian girl that he barely knew, and whereas Alex is considerably exonerated by the plot in spoilery and impossible-to-summarise methods, the precise game doesn’t appear self-aware sufficient to grasp that it’s nonetheless trafficking in that very same trope.
Chondra can be the one feminine character whom Alex is just not head over heels in love with (aside from his mom, who makes two transient appearances to nag Alex about getting a job). After Sammy’s disappearance, Alex meets and turns into obsessive about one other girl named Vella, who is aware of way over Alex however spends her entire time explaining issues to him in order that he might be the hero.
When her data is exhausted, one other girl steps into the very same function. They would possibly often inform Alex that he’s being an asshole, however they by no means truly stand as much as him, simply settle for his half-baked apologies and proceed to have their lives revolve round his. Late within the game, the second girl tells him: “at every turn, I have been there for you, even when you have harmed me,” with completely no trace that perhaps she deserves higher (besides me, silently screaming at my monitor after having put up with this for almost 20 hours).
Those 20 hours are additionally made for much longer than they should be by the fight. Every character has their very own model, within the type of rhythm or reflex-based mini-games, however they shortly turn out to be repetitive. Tapping repeatedly on the proper time as Alex’s file spins to construct up a combo, for instance, will get previous shortly, particularly when most enemies have a tonne of well being however pose little precise risk. Most of their assaults might be dodged completely when you have the timing proper, that means fights turn out to be lengthy stretches of chipping away at a too-long well being bar and little else.
There is a few solace in the truth that these lengthy stretches give a showcase to the battle music, which is actually wonderful. The music and sound course are usually nice all through, however there’s a particular consolation to at the least having the ability to chair dance alongside as you enter the thousandth consecutive equivalent struggle.
It’s small touches like these that make the general irritating nature of the game much more disappointing. The dungeon exploration is usually a nice intermission, and there are some areas, particularly within the late game, which can be genuinely unsettling. A piece that includes discovering volunteers to be beheaded, and one other the place the cellphone simply received’t cease ringing, creepy voices asking pointed questions on the opposite finish, typically really feel like they belong to a significantly better atmospheric horror game.
There’s additionally the PC interface, the place you may entry emails from different characters and browse a message board for followers of the supernatural. It is, maybe, too real looking at occasions in portraying the awfulness of individuals on-line, however units up facet quests that may be welcome distractions. Reading a submit about somebody’s brother misplaced within the mountains above the city after which having the ability to go and discover him and provides him a strolling stick in order that he can get again safely brings the world to life in a manner that the principle plot merely fails to.
But you then’re in a dungeon and there isn’t a save level for an hour and the game crashes, so you must repeat a number of battles and click on once more by a kindly exposition the place one of many ladies coddles Alex way over he deserves, and the entire thing comes crashing down.
YIIK might need been capable of get away with a few of its points if different areas had been capable of choose up the slack. I’ve sat by loads of tiresome fight to search out out what occurs in a narrative, and a convoluted plot might be effective if it’s allowed to breathe by fascinating characters. But Alex himself is that this game’s millennium bug, stopping the participant from even rooting for their very own actions, as a result of they’re all filtered by this deeply unlikable proxy.
After all, he’s a very powerful individual within the universe.
