YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

 Switch
User Score
4.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 42 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 42
  3. Negative: 19 out of 42

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  1. cyanScientist
    Mar 6, 2019
    7
    YiiK is a game that’s very rough in a few places but also very charming. The writing is very Scott Pilgrim-esq with a main character who’s openly pretentious and childish and grows through the events of the game. The art is very eye-popping, uses lots of color without being too over-bearing. The main gripes I have with this game is its speed. Loading times feel a little to slow going inYiiK is a game that’s very rough in a few places but also very charming. The writing is very Scott Pilgrim-esq with a main character who’s openly pretentious and childish and grows through the events of the game. The art is very eye-popping, uses lots of color without being too over-bearing. The main gripes I have with this game is its speed. Loading times feel a little to slow going in and out of battle and the micro games for each character can end up feeling too slow. I hope much of this will be fixed in an update.

    Overall if you enjoy quirky western Earthbound rpgs like Lisa, Undertale, and Omori you may enjoy this.    … Expand
  2. DakTalk
    May 31, 2019
    7
    YiiK: A Postmodern RPG is a unique, quirky game that feels like a love letter to many things while at the same time attempting to explore themes not often touched upon.

    In YiiK you play as Alex whose just finished college and returned home. Upon returning he quickly discovers that there are things about his reality that don't seem quite the same as he remembers before college. Soon he is    YiiK: A Postmodern RPG is a unique, quirky game that feels like a love letter to many things while at the same time attempting to explore themes not often touched upon.

    In YiiK you play as Alex whose just finished college and returned home. Upon returning he quickly discovers that there are things about his reality that don't seem quite the same as he remembers before college. Soon he is set on a path to lead down a rabbit hole deeper than any conspiracy ever could take him.

    As suggested in the name the game is an RPG. There's a unique story to be found here for sure (possibly even more as the secret third ending has yet to be found). Unfortunately I feel like the game suffers quite a bit mechanically. The balance is fine but with combat based on Wario-Ware style minigames things get confusing quick. Unfortunately there aren't any demos or examples of the different attacks so you have to stumble through and figure them out on your own. I also feel as if some of the abilities fall flat and aren't even worth using. That being said, combat is really the weakest part of this game. I feel like the story holds up quite well and the world is interesting and unique enough to engage the player with the tried and true carrot on a stick that promises to answer what the heck is going on here. The environments are very well designed as well as being spectacles to look at.

    Lastly the music is pretty stellar. Maybe some tracks will fall flat for you, but after spending 30 hours I can't think of one I didnt like at least a bit.

    I think overall I'd give this game a solid 7/10. Give it a try! For $20 I feel like you get what you pay for. Follow me @DakTalk on Twitter

    Follow Ackk @AckkStudios on Twitter    … Expand
  3. LeesanJP
    May 31, 2021
    10
    If u are looking for a positive review here, you are in the wrong place. Not gonna talk about politics, don’t care, not gonna talk about the art style, is up to you if you like it or not (is not a jrpg with beautiful characters tho)
    What I really wanna say about the game is that it has one of the worst combat system ever, and slowest paces ever. Regular enemies are usually damage sponges,    If u are looking for a positive review here, you are in the wrong place. Not gonna talk about politics, don’t care, not gonna talk about the art style, is up to you if you like it or not (is not a jrpg with beautiful characters tho)
    What I really wanna say about the game is that it has one of the worst combat system ever, and slowest paces ever. Regular enemies are usually damage sponges, that u have to kill using the few options of attacks that every character have. They took the “undertale” microgame battle system and made it somehow more slow, more repetitive and boring. You will hate the combat on this game after the first hour of gameplay. You will not feel more powerful as you progress, all the new mechanics that you can unlock get old after the 3rd time u use them. On top of that there is nothing amazing about the history, the writing is borderline stupid and seems made by pre teenagers.
    Conclusion, how the f*** managed to made a game that has a slowest and more boring battle system than any early FF or DQ, yet making a script and a history that no one will get invested at any point. Nothing fun, epic, heartbreaking or catastrophic happens in this game at all.    … Expand
  4. Spdrstar
    Jan 19, 2019
    1
    An Earthbound knockoff with controls and game mechanics that make for a frustrating experience. On top of a luckluster story, I recommend skipping on this one.
  5. advacedgamer
    Jun 6, 2019
    0
    YIIK is the worst game ever made. Truly a disgrace to gaming and art as a whole, the entirety of my experience with this game was wrought with a reverie of agony at the hands of its story, characters and gameplay.

    Featuring actual plagiarism, the story of YIIK is a cacophony of elements taken from a figurative million other stories mashed together, beaten with hammers, glued together,    YIIK is the worst game ever made. Truly a disgrace to gaming and art as a whole, the entirety of my experience with this game was wrought with a reverie of agony at the hands of its story, characters and gameplay.

    Featuring actual plagiarism, the story of YIIK is a cacophony of elements taken from a figurative million other stories mashed together, beaten with hammers, glued together, and then treated as if it were an original experience. YIIK reaches and far exceeds the critical mass of pretentiousness while in reality being nothing more than the mindless incoherent babblings of an infant.

    The gameplay of YIIK can be summarized as wasted time. Fights can regularly take up to twenty minutes long. The reason for this isn’t because the combat is difficult or requires any thinking. No, the game wastes your time regularly because it wants you to play a mini-game every time you attack and defend. These mini-games are very simple and add nothing to the game. Not only are they not fun, you have to do them over and over and over again. Goodbye time. Hello misery.

    The characters in YIIK are all terrible, but the main problem is the main character, Alex. Alex is a truly detestable person. An arrogant, spoiled, selfish assshole. On top of that he loves to hear himself talk, and talk, and talk. Alex constantly monologues about pretty much everything that happens, and he does it with the same insufferable attitude described above.

    This game is the antithesis of fun, it’s frankly disgusting. There are zero redeeming qualities to this game. If you were considering playing this game, please do not give this fraud of a developer any money. Driving nails into your eyes would be a more productive and fun use of your time.    … Expand
  6. Westeray
    Jan 23, 2019
    10
    YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is one of the most essential experiences any gamer can have. While yes, it takes inspiration from several classic games such as Earthbound and The Legend of Zelda, it carves its own path in an original story, creative design choices, and outstanding contributions from several great musicians, such as Toby Fox, Calum Bowen, Michael Kelly, Niko Tsakalakos, and variousYIIK: A Postmodern RPG is one of the most essential experiences any gamer can have. While yes, it takes inspiration from several classic games such as Earthbound and The Legend of Zelda, it carves its own path in an original story, creative design choices, and outstanding contributions from several great musicians, such as Toby Fox, Calum Bowen, Michael Kelly, Niko Tsakalakos, and various others, along with one of the head developers, Andrew Allanson's own contributions, to make an outstanding piece of art that captures the essence of life unlike any other game. Voices from different inrernet personalities such as Kirbopher and Yuriofwind, and many others, make for a great entirely voiced dialogue. While still being very fresh to the gaming scene, there are a few bugs, but nothing that pulls from the experience the game offers. There is a puzzle at one point that felt a bit of a mess in my opinion, but probably would be a lot more easier and streamlined had my copy of the game not had some sort of flaw in the code (which had caused an item not to spawn correctly, and thus i spent an hour or so looking for the solution that wasnt there). But altogether, this game has been what ive yearned for for ages; a game that perfectly and poetically inspires you to follow your heart. I was even quickly emotionally attached to a character i had only just met, and didnt care for too much! By far one of the best games I've ever played.… Expand
  7. Metroid_Gamer
    Jul 11, 2019
    6
    It has a LOT of fails and I wouldn't recommend it by the price, but with this done.
    The game has a unique art and music, that for me is very good. There are hidden secrets worth looking for, and the progression of the game is not bad, the art and sound helps a lot with this. The exploration is really nice, the camera play tricks with you and, not showing the prize, but giving indications    It has a LOT of fails and I wouldn't recommend it by the price, but with this done.
    The game has a unique art and music, that for me is very good. There are hidden secrets worth looking for, and the progression of the game is not bad, the art and sound helps a lot with this. The exploration is really nice, the camera play tricks with you and, not showing the prize, but giving indications that there's something there, sometimes there's nothing, but that's the magic of playing with your camera, if you always have a reward, then none of then would be interesting to look for.
    The game lacks a map, and a list of sidequests, this is very anoying and I hope they gonna fix this in the future, but still the map is small and there's not many sidequests, so is not that bad after all.
    Another point that's bothering me somehow is that this game should be placed in the early 2000's, no in the end of the 90's, most of the dialogues would be more interesting and makes more sense, in fact, all in the game, about the dialogues seen to be something my generation would say in the early to mid 2000's, maybe 2005 would be a better choice.
    Also, the story is in a thin line between I just don't care and this is getting me anoyed, it's not bad, but I fell is out of place and most of it is in fact useless for the development of the game, remember, this is not a game about story.
    Now mechanics, it's a traditional jrpg, nothing new, nothing out of place either, it's good, it works fine, but it's nothing special. Now my final considerations, if you can ignore the story, it's a good jrpg with an awesome art and music, if that's what you've looking for and the price drops down someday, buy it.    … Expand
  8. Bonoclay15
    Jan 28, 2019
    7
    There is so much potential here, but the game gets in its own way. The story, exploring, music, and characters are all fascinating and its scratching that Earthbound itch. The combat system is godawful. Each move or attack is a quicktime event. Granted, there's an option for unlimited slow down time, but it really drags the whole experience down. I would give it an honest 8 if theyThere is so much potential here, but the game gets in its own way. The story, exploring, music, and characters are all fascinating and its scratching that Earthbound itch. The combat system is godawful. Each move or attack is a quicktime event. Granted, there's an option for unlimited slow down time, but it really drags the whole experience down. I would give it an honest 8 if they just patched that garbage out with a normal turn based battle system. There's so much good here, alot of spirit, and it might be one of my favorite indie games. But man, that battle system is ROUGH.… Expand
  9. DeekLeeshy
    Feb 1, 2019
    7
    YIIK is an interesting experience, if I was to grade it on charm, style and sound alone it would earn a solid 10/10. The game is certainly an experience, its visuals are like no other game, the music throughout was joyous and it had charm and well written characters. The performance though is where it starts to fall apart, I experienced stuttering quite a lot whilst playing in handheldYIIK is an interesting experience, if I was to grade it on charm, style and sound alone it would earn a solid 10/10. The game is certainly an experience, its visuals are like no other game, the music throughout was joyous and it had charm and well written characters. The performance though is where it starts to fall apart, I experienced stuttering quite a lot whilst playing in handheld mode (Which was most of the time, its how i prefer to play my switch) the loading times were also shocking, sometimes waiting a couple of minutes just to enter the next fight. Sometimes the writing and the story felt very pretentious, I'm not sure if that was an artistic choice though as we are seeing the story unfold through the eyes of a hipster.

    In the end though I feel like I would recommend YIIK to RPG fans. Its problems in my opinion don't outweigh its charm and visual appeal as well as the amazing soundtrack that I would happily listen to all day!    … Expand
  10. Antoids
    Jan 17, 2019
    9
    Full disclosure: When I asked to interview the developers prior to this game's release, they provided me with a code to allow me to speak on the game in a more informed manner during the interview.

    YIIK is a truly unique game. It's difficult to know where to start describing it, so I guess the main perception I want to correct is the idea that it's an Earthbound clone. It wears its    Full disclosure: When I asked to interview the developers prior to this game's release, they provided me with a code to allow me to speak on the game in a more informed manner during the interview.

    YIIK is a truly unique game. It's difficult to know where to start describing it, so I guess the main perception I want to correct is the idea that it's an Earthbound clone. It wears its inspiration from SNES-era RPGs like Lufia 2 on its sleeve, but with QoL updates like a fast-forward button in combat
    & mini-games for each action, which make the turn-based combat more engaging than Earthbound's. For example, the kendo-practicing Japanophile has an ability that requires inputting a series of predetermined inputs you can memorize like katas to greatly extend his damage.

    The music is one of the best parts of the game, as it should be in any JRPG. I don't feel like I need to go into great detail about that, as it's been covered to death between the main composer's work & the cameo tracks. I'm a big fan of Sammy Pak's Theme & The Mind Dungeon Theme in particular.

    The story & characters, however, are the main thrust of the game's appeal. The writing of the game is strongly inspired by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist who specializes in the type of post-modernism the title of this game refers to: genre-blending, the mixture of old & new, & the use of the surreal to evoke a primal emotional reaction -- the cause of which is not necessarily understood by the audience at the time they experience it. With that said, I think I can move on to describing the story a bit more normally.

    The story follows Alex as he tries to find his place in the world. He is characteristic of an idealistic, yet untested young man fresh out of college, & if you miss the joke, he can be a little tough to deal with. He's given to great introspection, even in the company of others, to the point the rest of the cast calls him on it. I can see this being a point of contention, as Alex is really not a likable guy, & if the fact that's intentional doesn't land, it might be difficult to invest yourself in the story. I had no trouble, personally, & laughed along with the game when jokes came at Alex's expense. The game's characters are flawed, but relatable, which is a welcome change from the cartoonish & often one-dimensional characters featured in most JRPGs.

    Beyond that, I think the story told is a dead ringer for the type of story Murakami tells, which simply don't exist elsewhere in literature, much less in video games. I see the term 'dreamlike' used to describe his writing style, which is fitting because that both perfectly encapsulates it & is wholly unhelpful to anyone who has not experienced it personally.

    While the next thing you have to do in YIIK is always clear, & you are never left simply wandering, it is sometimes not clear how or even if it will help you achieve your overarching goal of finding the missing teenager Sammy Pak & discovering why she disappeared in the first place. The game intentionally evokes an almost lazy pace in solving this mystery, sending Alex on journeys of introspection when it may feel like he ought to be looking for clues. All I can say to reassure you on this is that it's very authentic to Murakami's writing style, which at one point features a man sitting at the bottom of a dry well for 3 days to find his missing wife. I think this meandering style pays off, but it is difficult to describe exactly why without spoiling the game.

    The game is not without flaws. I think the combat is easy throughout once you find a team that works. I was able to one-shot many enemies with special abilities, & there is no shortage of restorative items or currency in this game. The game also has a lack of polish that is to be expected from an indie game made largely by two people. Sometimes UI elements don't transition perfectly smoothly, for example. I will say I am very impressed by the camerawork; the default tools for camera stuff in this engine are abysmal, so it's an accomplishment to have good cinematography.

    Aside from that, I found the level up system to be a bit opaque in how your choices affect your build. It was clear what every stat did, but being able to choose them and having varying bonuses that it seemed like you had little influence over made it a bit confusing to do valuation for them. The process is also fairly slow. Of some consolation here is that due to the game's low difficulty, you can simply level up in bursts. In fact, the game encourages this by giving fully voice-acted cutscenes every few level ups. The level up menu also has what is for my money the best track in the game.

    The tl;dr is: YIIK remains engaging throughout, tells a story you likely haven't heard before, is quite visually striking at times, and features a killer soundtrack. Everything about its delivery feels carefully considered, and it truly threads the needle on some difficult challenges in storytelling.    … Expand
  11. ExLight
    Jan 25, 2019
    3
    YIIK? More like YIIKES.

    Dissonant art style with what it is aiming for, tries to have a concept but ends up shallow, characters are just cringy and boring, too pretentious, combat is an uninteresting rhythm game, story is random hot garbage, etc.
  12. Calibur-X
    Jan 18, 2019
    10
    An unique RPG a billion times better than Octopath Traveller, amazing soundtrack, visuals and original and addictive gameplay, must have for any Mother fan
  13. Gamerheadspodca
    Jan 25, 2019
    5
    For everything that I liked about YIIK, everything that I wasn't that big of a fan of outweighed it. The story is very intriguing with the supernatural and spiritual elements which is what kept me going. Every time a battle started though, a feeling of dread washed over me. Trudging through the battles weighed down the experience of great looking graphics and good sound.
  14. Hosep
    Jul 24, 2021
    10
    Beautiful game, consistently entertaining and fun to play despite being easier than most RPGs.
  15. Yiiklover1999
    Sep 25, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Yiik actually got me through a really tough time in my life. If it weren't for the incredibly compelling story and the amazing gameplay as well as the attractive graphics, I might've done something terrible and regretted it. Yiik is truly the best thing I've ever played and without it in this universe, it would probably implode without its greatness. Liked when Alex Yiik said "It's yiiking time" and yiiked everywhere.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

65
#65 Most Shared Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 14
  3. Negative: 2 out of 14
  1. FNintendo
    Nov 21, 2019
    50
    With a 1990s environment and some attempts at innovating an RPG's fighting system, YIIK has something to go for it, but unfortunately this gets rather lost in a game that is overall too frustrating and confusing. With its inconsistent art style and gameplay and a main character that's impossible to relate to, YIIK could have explored its real potential in a much more enjoyable way but as it is, it's mostly an unfulfilled work.
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  2. GameCritics
    Feb 26, 2019
    70
    YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a bizarre title that connected with me on several levels despite a number of issues, and it kept me coming back until credits rolled. While it did take a significant amount of time to get to the ending, the characters and the themes of coping with loss and Alex’s growth made the investment of time worth the effort. That said, I don’t know if I would recommend this game to anyone but myself, yet it’s so strange and offbeat that I think there’s something worthwhile here to check out for everyone who’s not me.
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  3. GameSpace
    Feb 22, 2019
    65
    If you grew up way back in the olden days like me and can’t stomach another anime RPG then YIIK is worth a look. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is out now on Nintendo Switch.
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