YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

 PC
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 47
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 47
  3. Negative: 25 out of 47

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  1. Hosep
    Jan 22, 2022
    10
    YIIK A Postmodern rpg is a breathtaking experience that's delightfully different from anything else that could currently be found in the games market, the visuals and music are pure art that perfectly compliment the gameplay, I would recommend this one to anybody.
  2. BlueROSEz
    Jan 26, 2022
    8
    YIIK v.1.25 is a hit-or-miss kind of game.

    The combat is engaging and enjoyable as long certain factors don't impact negatively your experience or if you have no problem reducing the difficulty (option available at any point of the game) in the eventuality you end up finding it more tedious than expected. First of all, the combat system lacks variety from a tactical perspective. The    YIIK v.1.25 is a hit-or-miss kind of game.

    The combat is engaging and enjoyable as long certain factors don't impact negatively your experience or if you have no problem reducing the difficulty (option available at any point of the game) in the eventuality you end up finding it more tedious than expected.
    First of all, the combat system lacks variety from a tactical perspective. The limited patterns of attacks from the enemy side and the limited amount of effective skills from the allied side, tend to impact that.
    Because of this reason, even if the game still manages to give a moderate challenge while playing on normal mode, it doesn't usually offer the satisfaction to face hard battles, except in a few cases depending on your playstyle.
    It's also highly recommended to rely on the Fast-Forward feature (be sure to read the tutorial signs for this one, otherwise you won't even become aware of its existence) and on the Beat Downs. If you don't use the Fast-Forward, you will end up facing slow-paced battles for the rest of the game. This pace will be ok at the beginning when the battles are easier and shorter, but it will eventually become worse going through the game unless you use that feature. Relying on normal basic attacks is not a good idea either, after the first part of the early game. The Beat Downs, which are special basic attacks, are way more efficient in terms of damage even if they cost some MP, and this applies to any difficulty mode. The normal basic attacks help create a better progression of the pace in the early game, and they will be way more useful on STORY MODE (Easy mode), but at a certain point you'll end up dropping them when you'll realize that there are better options. In summary, not relying on the Fast-Forward and the Beat Downs will make last the battles longer automatically, even if you are playing optimally. This is the biggest flaw of the combat. If you avoid this flaw by following my advice, you're going to have a fun experience with it at best or a tolerable one at worst.

    The story is weird for the best and the worst, but mostly because of its multi-layered narrative structure. This structure tends to change the meaning of certain events and of the story itself, after some revelations in the end game, and most importantly, after reaching a specific level which is possible to reach only NG+. It means that to have a compelling understanding of what the story is about, it would be required to play the game at least one more time.
    This would be required not only to unlock an important cutscene after reaching LV 70, but also to look back to the story you experienced the first time, and completely revalue it from the ground up through the pieces of information got from that cutscene. It's exactly ridiculous as it sounds and trying to decipher some things from it without external help would be pretty difficult, especially if you want to understand everything.
    This doesn't mean that what you would experience during your first playthrough, wouldn't be enjoyable without meeting all these requirements, but the story and its characters might end up being underwhelming or less interesting outside of their actual context.
    Especially considering that the first layer of this narrative structure, the one you would experience the first time playing, is unreliable because of the presence of a narrator that deceives the events by making look the protagonist less despicable than he is.
    That story is a metaphorical hoax. The wonderful world of YIIK is just a reality used as a safe place by a pathetic individual that doesn't want to accept his actual reality where he banished the people close to him by being a piece of ****
    If you end up even believing that this story is about growing up or about redemption, you fell into the trap. The game is not called “YIIK” just because of the presence of the computer virus, but also for the parallelism between how this one works and the protagonist, which leads to a neverending cycle of delusions, where growth and redemption are out of the question.
    This is cool, but unfortunately, it's something that it's not told but rather that it has to be deciphered to figure it out.
    The writing tends to scatter also some clues about this aspect, but superficially and indirectly. You might even miss them without knowing the actual context behind them.
    If you are into analyzing stories and putting together pieces of a bigger picture that is behind the curtains, you might probably enjoy the game more from a story perspective.
    It's also highly recommended to check the posts on ONISM 1999 to have a little help in understanding the story.

    The review continues here, thanks to the character limitation: https://pastebin.com/fE7fJmjT    … Expand
  3. Florole
    Apr 21, 2022
    10
    I love YIIK a postmodern RPG. It is truly one of the greatest pieces of media of our times. Its very existence sets a new bar for videogames and movies alike. The subtle nods and references to other games, alongside the questioning of what it means to be an RPG in this FPS and life simulator world is truly shocking, and a wake-up call to the videogame industry.
  4. Philemon1999
    Sep 16, 2022
    10
    While the game is not for everyone, it is absolutely perfect for anyone interested in supernatural mystery and postmodernism. The story is engaging and the characters are fun. It looks fantastic as well. Beautiful, surreal, worth playing and replaying.
  5. Bek_
    Feb 1, 2023
    10
    YiiK: A Postmodern RPG is one of the most essential games you'd ever need in this lifetime, If you've ever played an RPG before you'd know they ALL lack ONE simple thing. That thing every RPG is lacking is Alex from YiiK, which is what would make every RPG ever absolutely perfect. If OMORI had Alex YiiK we would like it, If Final Fantasy had Alex YiiK it would be better and if CoD had AlexYiiK: A Postmodern RPG is one of the most essential games you'd ever need in this lifetime, If you've ever played an RPG before you'd know they ALL lack ONE simple thing. That thing every RPG is lacking is Alex from YiiK, which is what would make every RPG ever absolutely perfect. If OMORI had Alex YiiK we would like it, If Final Fantasy had Alex YiiK it would be better and if CoD had Alex YiiK I would actually play it! This is why I love YiiK and Alex from YiiK… Expand
  6. lostsocks
    Feb 13, 2023
    9
    I enjoyed it a lot. The environments are great. It really excels at creating a creepy surreal atmosphere, kind of like if those parts of Earthbound were an entire game. And I've never seen a game make such good use of camera angles to add to the effect the way YIIK does. The soundtrack is quirky and has a lot of singing, which I appreciate. It's cool to hear songs that sound more likeI enjoyed it a lot. The environments are great. It really excels at creating a creepy surreal atmosphere, kind of like if those parts of Earthbound were an entire game. And I've never seen a game make such good use of camera angles to add to the effect the way YIIK does. The soundtrack is quirky and has a lot of singing, which I appreciate. It's cool to hear songs that sound more like something you'd hear from a band than a video game. My favorite song on the soundtrack is Michael's Theme. So odd yet pretty. The way it starts out with camera shutters and an eerie beat that slowly turns into something very pretty and wistful. I've grown to really enjoy the combat the more I play it. There are a lot of interesting things about it, like how Rory can use Pacifism to greatly up his defense and take hits for the party. And when he does, the enemies take damage from running into him. So I would intentionally not dodge with other characters so the enemies would take damage when Rory protected them. Try this strategy against the soul survivors that are hard to damage with regular attacks. It won't kill an enemy, but it'll get them down to 1 HP.

    The plot is pretty interesting, always keeping you theorizing about what everything means. I'm someone who loves ghost stories and mysteries so it really got me hooked when I found out about the additional endings and got involved with the community looking for the ones that haven't been found yet. Initial feeling was an 8/10 but I'm feeling like a 9/10 after getting into secret hunting in my new game+.    … Expand
  7. raytci
    Feb 13, 2023
    8
    I really like this game! I found it to be just a generally fun experience. This game gets a lot of hate for several aspects, including the story, the dialogue, the characters and the combat system. But in my experience, none of those things got in the way of me enjoying this game. If anything, I think they add to its character and personality. This game also has some seriously great stuffI really like this game! I found it to be just a generally fun experience. This game gets a lot of hate for several aspects, including the story, the dialogue, the characters and the combat system. But in my experience, none of those things got in the way of me enjoying this game. If anything, I think they add to its character and personality. This game also has some seriously great stuff that's often overlooked, like for example the music, the graphics and the way it uses camera angles to create atmosphere. I seriously do not understand why so many people hate the game this much. It's a genuinely fun and interesting game! I'd strongly recommend this game for anyone who wants something different and isn't afraid of playing a non perfect game. 8/10… Expand
  8. StarlightLune
    Aug 30, 2020
    10
    YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is important to me. It's a game that I learned a lot more from than I was willing to give it credit for at first, and it makes me really, really sad to see the reception that it has. There is a lot to be said about YIIK, so much so that I want to do a long, long video essay about it someday, but I will conclude for now by saying that if you've only heard about thisYIIK: A Postmodern RPG is important to me. It's a game that I learned a lot more from than I was willing to give it credit for at first, and it makes me really, really sad to see the reception that it has. There is a lot to be said about YIIK, so much so that I want to do a long, long video essay about it someday, but I will conclude for now by saying that if you've only heard about this game from the rumors about the dev or the out of context screenshots, please, PLEASE give the game the honest chance it deserves. You might not get another chance to experience something quite like this in your life.… Expand
  9. 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, 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 inThis 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
  10. Calibur-X
    Jan 22, 2019
    10
    This game is amazing, not perfect but so far from the bad critics based on political views
  11. PixelOrange
    Jun 13, 2023
    9
    I killed my wife for life insurance to finally play this game. That was probably my single most impactful decision in my life. I am now in prison, but I got to experience YIIK. Was it worth it? Probably.
  12. Niteonites
    Jul 20, 2023
    9
    Yiik is unlike any other game I've played. There are some familiar structures, tropes, and themes, but the game uses them in a way that I did not expect when I first started playing. For me, this game is one of the few that I actively think about even years later -- with most games, I tend to move on entirely and only vaguely remember them from time-to-time.

    The updates for the game    Yiik is unlike any other game I've played. There are some familiar structures, tropes, and themes, but the game uses them in a way that I did not expect when I first started playing. For me, this game is one of the few that I actively think about even years later -- with most games, I tend to move on entirely and only vaguely remember them from time-to-time.

    The updates for the game have all been for the best with an eye for giving players a better experience. While some may point to speculative drama regarding the game and its influences, I think looking at the actions of the developers and the work they created is far more productive.

    As much as I wish there were more games like yiik, I'm glad it's one of a kind.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. CD-Action
    Dec 11, 2019
    45
    The problems of this game are rooted deep within and were caused by the developers’ self-admiration, their overambitiousness and poor sense of the whole medium. [03/2019, p.53]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 4, 2019
    40
    A lot of good ideas and interesting concepts are run down by a poor execution that crushes the dooms the game to a grey average, where it will be probably forgotten for eternity. [Issue#293]
  3. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 4, 2019
    70
    YIIK is an interesting experiment in western RPG waters. It tries to emulate the world and wonder that the Earthbound game had, but only partly successful. Its combat system can be unfair at first, then repetitive and boring later. Level up system is needlessly convoluted and time consuming. But the world is bizarre and wacky, puzzles are great, and the characters are funny enough to have you invested just enough to see the game through at least once.
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