YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

On April 4th, 2023, I started a journey. Get YIIK hours, in YIIK. A joke, really. But now here I am, standing on the precipice of eternity. Knowing, I will never have to open this game, ever again. I'm free.
So now on April 4th, 2024, I am done.
This is a game you must play to judge it. Simply watching a play through isn't enough. Hearing about it isn't enough. To understand how truly awful YIIK is, you must play it. Sit through every line of monologue without having someone commentate over it. Play every repetitive battle, over and over. Let the crow choose your levels for the fiftieth time because you couldn't be bothered after the tenth time. Listen to battle themes you quickly grow to hate, because you hear the first fifteen seconds of them and nothing more.
In the end, I would recommend playing this game. Just to experience it. Truly take in the spectacle that is YIIK. Especially before YIIK I.V comes out. The game as it is a special breed of awful. And I can't help but love it.

honestly i have so much respect for these devs for not giving up on this game through personal tragedies and years of criticism, and not only improving on it, keeping the original playable. It is incredibly admirable and even if I.V comes out and is underwhelming I will have a deep respect for these devs for even trying.

as of today the giant 1.5 (IV) update came out, and it is a massive improvement to just about everything that was wrong with the game initially. the main giant improvement is the battle system: battles are now closer to a traditional turn-based system and very fast paced. load times have been cut down completely. the game has still retained its personality while adding huge amounts of new content and mechanics.
if you either didn't like the game in its original state or were on the fence about it, now is a perfect time to go back in and play it with an open mind. there is enough new content that it is basically an entirely new experience, even if you have seen or played it all before. i believe that the allansons have finally reached their final vision for the game, and i am incredibly glad that they stuck with it this long instead of giving up after the initial negative response.

Unironically best game I've played this year, and the IV update has doubled down on my belief of that. This game is beautiful. The narrative has helped me reflect on my self and my own downfalls in self critique and hating the world around me. This game is important and one I can easily recommend to anyone.

this is, without a doubt, my guilty pleasure game.
it does so many things wrong.
the combat is flawed, the story is overly convoluted, the dialogue drags on ages.
but shoot, it's so charming. i enjoyed every second of it, even if it was only ironically at first. it turned into genuine entertainment.
i enjoyed the hell out of v1.25, and i genuinely think the quality is going to improve exponentially once v1.5 is released.
give it a try.
but
probably once the update is out.

Disclosure: I was a volunteer tester for the I.V update and received the game for free on Steam for this purpose. I had not played YIIK at all prior to being invited to help test.
YIIK I.V is by a pretty long shot my favourite turn-based RPG to be released this year. I'm genuinely of the mind that in it's current state it's deserving of some kind of keighleyesque GOTY-trophy for it's design and it's dense and challenging mystery narrative.
I.V's revamped gameplay is truly a marvel. It takes elements from many a beloved RPG and puts a new spin on them; the karta system in particular bleeds the blood of many an experimental final fantasy game while keeping itself unique and fresh and very much itself. Gone are the sluggish mini-games and slow-loading scenes bogging down the heat of battle and in it's place is an elegant, utilitarian system of bloodletting filled to the brim with little intricacies to be discovered and optimizations to be made - it's RPG combat at it's core. It's fast, fun. I greatly enjoyed my time with it, and that enjoyment only grew as it became more complex over the course of the game with new cards to slot into my builds, and new enemies to consider them for. I really hope everyone who plays this update enjoys the combat as much as I have, because as a huge freak for RPG combat I think it's really something special now.
As for the story, if anything I said about the combat has enticed you I highly recommend discarding any preconceived notions you may have about the game's story if you haven't played it before and going in with an open mind: play the game with the intent of doing so on it's terms and thinking on it's themes for yourself, maybe even doing so in a game-book-club-like setting with some friends, because this game's story is absolutely like that of a dense and cryptic novel. There's a lot this game gives you to think about and I think that's very commendable in a day and age when so many of the contemporary works we engage with can be so unchallenging to experience from a literary standpoint.
"Media literacy" may not save the world (or maybe it would) but it will probably help in breaking down what exactly it is that YIIK is trying to convey to us.
YIIK's story is certainly one that aims to challenge, and if you think you're up to the task you'll probably really like this game when the many "aha!" moments the story can provide really start piling up.
Even with all this being said, the story may still not be your cup of tea and that could be for any number of reasons. There are elements of YIIK's storytelling and presentation that to some may come off in a certain way that others aren't accustomed to from playing other games. I'm of the mind that this doesn't make anyone necessarily wrong or right on their outlook of the quality of *anything* really, it's simply an indication of preference and if YIIK is not to your preference that should be seen as perfectly acceptable. But, not everything should be made for everyone - otherwise everything would just be the same boring slop in the truest sense of the word. We would live in a world devoid of genre in an attempt to placate everyone.
The glue that sort of melds together the story and gameplay though is by far the music. I.V is filled to the brim with new music tracks, many of which at this point are dearly beloved to me. One big reason that I've been counting down the days until I.V's release was that I have been so, so excited about being able to talk about and show some of my favorite tracks to my friends. The many different permutations of Alex's theme alone are so much fun and I'm looking forward to seeing peoples thoughts and reactions to all of I.V's musical offerings.
In full, I really love I.V. it's a new favourite for sure. If you love RPGs or mystery visual/novels I definitely recommend giving YIIK a shot.

Y'know, with games whose events are a retelling of the past, I never really... Took that in before, y'know? To me, it'd just be a neat way to frame the story (typically as a storybook adventure being played out).
In this game, I've had to actually acknowledge that's the case. And because of this, I had to think about why the protag was telling/showing me what he was.
This game is fascinating in the sense that many things seem absolutely contradictory to each other at times, but (to the author's credit) it seems entirely deliberate. And since Alex (the narrator) is getting the player to go through this, it seems like he's trying to gaslight you into believing his presentation of everything is the absolute truth.
I also love how this compliments Alex being a nostalgia ridden nerd. He basically frames his life story as being this big, epic RPG, complete with SNES sounding scores and a sword/shield overworld model. Heck, Earthbound's referenced all over the place (including one song taking some of the notes from 8 Melodies), so either he wishes his life story was as exciting as that, or he took direct inspiration from that to tell you his (the character, not the author).
All in all; It does have flaws in other aspects, but Alex as a character is so fascinating that he makes the experience work. What he lies about, why he lies, what truths slip by him or he allows us to see... It's very intriguing.
Here's hoping I.V can fix the other aspects and bring newfound appreciation/understanding to its story/themes.