yiik is a game i was always half interested in pre-launch, i didn't know a ton about it beyond the really cool visual style but i always saw it on the old "upcoming games" section when i browsed limited run (a section long since gone along with the forums, sadly) and it was always there front and centre, both ps4 and psvita. years have passed since then and not only has that vita version been long since cancelled, but the LRG physical never even happened for that ps4 version, at least not yet though i still have hope there and the game came out to one of the worst receptions I've seen for an indie game, it was memed and reviled and even i kind of joined in on it because it was so easy to meme and hate on, with its reprehensible main character and overt reddit-ness, but part of me was always still interested in it, it was once a vita game and i did love that visual style, but i was held back by that reputation and its lack of a physical copy. last year though i was bedridden after a knee operation and had very little to really play on my, then new, ps5, so i caved, i bought the game on sale digitally and then proceeded to play it slowly over the course of the next year, only recently finishing it just before the launch of its complete overhaul with patch 1.5 and i came away from the game loving it, sure it has its issues in the basegame 1.0 yiiksperiance ,but the game isn't nearly as bad as the bad faith actors, many of who intentionally misread or lied about the game, had said. it has to be said that yiik owns actually. it's nowhere near that bad and many of its supposed worst points are actually not what they're represented to be, this game was a victim of the youtube funnyman hate-cycle something bad, a perfectly fine game memed into oblivion mostly by people who are going in expecting to dislike it with its reputation then furthered by people who have not, and most likely will not, actually play it, weather out of maliciousness or just plain lack of real knowledge on the game.

okay so the story, this is the biggest thing ( along with the dialogue) that's been taken massively out of context, sure it's not a perfect story, but it's also not what it's represented to be at all. if you believe the internet then this game is an asshole redditors self insert hero story, a pretentious (i don't believe this even exists as a concept, same with contrarianism, it's just not real) mess with an MC who is unintentionally an asshole and that uses IRL tragedy for edgy shock value, would you be shocked to hear that almost none of this is true? sure alex is an asshole, but make no mistake, that's the point, alex is a selfish manchild who thinks he's the main character in his world and would rather escape reality than own up to any kind of responsibility, who hurts people around him, he monologues to himself because he thinks every thought he has is important and he's almost certainly both a repressed bisexual, is at least racially insensitive and a massive misogynist, this is not some obscure reading, it's not a subtle game, it's a game about alex losing himself into conspiracy theory and becoming a radicalised asshole, you literally pick up redpills as a healing item in one ending and the essentia all but says she exists because she's created by alex as a creepy escapist fantasy to fall into and farther detach him from reality, alex is never represented as a good person anywhere but in his own head, people call him out and point out that he's a terrible person, there's a point here and it's not a hard one to get unless you're the kind of person who stands to gain from inventing a new trainwreck to mock, but anyone who actually sits down and plays it can see through the bullshit almost immediately and the rest i just don't think actually bothered to play the game at all, i mean who needs to when i can get some suspiciously right leaning youtuber who maybe makes a few too many jokes about weimar germany to do it for me, right? just as an aside most of the video's on this game are actually awful, i tried to watch a few to remind myself of the overall consensus on this game so i could discuss that and most of them either outright lie, misrepresent it or are just clearly coming at it in bad faith, one especially bad one the guys main critisism for a good few minuites was just that he had to read and he kept making really uncomfortable dick jokes and saying actual slurs and people always seemed to use that video as like a touchstone for why the game was actually bad and i was just confused at the fact anyone could take this man seriously, i really don't get youtube culture.

it's use of elisa lamb being taken out of context also bugs me, especially considering how much of the concern surrounding it comes from people who very clearly could not actually give a shit about the dead woman in question, if the game did callously use it for shock value i would be mad, but it doesn't, it's here for a reason, the game makes a lot of very explicit and very obvious points about how things like true crime and urban legends when fed through conspiracy forums and that many of the men who engage in these hunts do so because they see these women as a fantasy, a manic pixie dead girl they wish they could have saved for some imaginary reward, weather in the fictional onism or the very real /x/, these ideas and these events can be a gateway to much worse radicalisation, this happens all the time and the game using lamb, who's case did act as a gateway for much of this for people to fall down that rabbit hole, it has a point and it's one that is incredibly obvious for anyone actually thinking about it for more than a few minutes. it's a good story that's well told, it has interesting characters and something actually important to say, it's easy to get mad and make fun of it rather than trying to meet it on its own terms, especially when i suspect many of the people mocking it hate it primarily because they see themselves in alex, which is something that should be a wakeup call for many to improve, not to get angry and farther dig yourself into that hole and if you do feel like that then i hope you take this game as an eye opener, as a new start and as something that can speak to you and push you to improve, games can be powerful like that, more powerful than they ever get credit for especially in a culture like the same one that mocks this game, a culture that all but refuses to acknowledge games as being valuable works of art, i just hope games like this are something people actually start to and realize their mistakes.

i like the rest of the cast a lot too, while not everyone is developed equally (the game is very much mostly alex, vella, the essentia and rory's story first and foremost, with Michael, Claudio and Chandra being more or less tagalongs that don't get much of a real focus, Chandra especially i do wish the game did more with because you never really get to see much of her, but i still like her a lot, vella is a fun almost-secondary protagonist and she had my favourite abilities of any party member and i like how much her stuff focuses on the cooler trippy dungeons and metaphysical elements, i like rory's story a lot, his VA does a pretty great job especially when you consider that it's a youtuber voicing him (one of the very few youtubers i do like though so i have a little bias towards him) and i think the grief stuff with him handled about as well as it could have, his story can get *dark* if you to act like alex and don't try and help him, i was shocked reading what could happen with him after the fact and i was impressed they went that far with it, it feels really shockingly realistic. Michael i think is interesting because he has some of the games funniest lines and he's maybe even the games most important character, with his forum being at the centre of basically everything that happens, but i do think it's weird he's fairly underdeveloped until the last chunk of the game, where he goes a little off the rails and has a drastic character change, though i think this is expanded on more in 1.5 so i'll refrain from criticizing it too much, the essential doesn't get much screentime but she does so much for the story and i love her as an idea, being representative of the dangers of misogynistic escapism, the only one i thought was actually annoying was Claudio, mostly because i dislike male yuri fans, the archenemy of the fujoshi, his dialogue i did find really just, annoying and its the one time i'm not sure it's even supposed to be intentional, he gets grating pretty fast and it never comes across as super endearing, maybe this is better in 1.5 though, his role in the story is cool enough though and there is a good twist thrown in there with him later on that i did really like.

the world they have set up is actually really cool too, it's America of the 90's filtered through a guy who sees the world through the lens of JRPG's, his small town is seen through the lens of earthbound, wind town is a poor trailer park in the middle of the desert, so it's seen through the lens of wild arms, the mountain town reminding him of pokemon and so the cave is filled with zubats and people talk about badges, but it's not really how the world is, it's just how alex wishes it was, so it's filled with anachronisms, references to things not even released yet and complete inaccuracies, sometimes even things based wholly on his weirdo incorrect beliefs, like the local goth kids being actual demon worshippers or the sewers being filled with TMNT wannabe's, the world as seen through the eyes of the most insufferable kind of 20 something guy who refuses to grow up, too obsessed with a past that may well not even have existed. it'd be easy to write a lot of this off as just references for the sake of it, but i don't think that's the case, it all fits too well and feels too well considered, take the ingame browsable forum onism1999 for example. it gets the vibe of an old paranormal forum down perfectly, from the kinds of people who would frequent it, the kinds of threads that'd pop up, the kinds of trolls you would see. as someone who does have a background in these kinds of forums (i made up several popular fake succubus summoning methods to mess with guys on forums back in the late 00's and early 10's, i remember still seeing them posted as recently as a few years ago as if they're real lol) this is as accurate as I've seen a game get these kinds of spaces, it's really very impressive and it made browsing it super fun, plus the small town mysteries vibe the game has at the start with the group going from place to place checking out urban legends is a really great vibe, but it also speaks to just how much care was put into this world, that even something as relatively small as this, i mean most threads are skippable entirely, got as much care and attention as it did. beyond all this it is just a neat world with some cool ideas, your transport for most of the game is found via bus stops, your item shops are places like record stores and burger shops, you can find video rental places and dead malls, the game takes its setting and makes the most of it and creates probably the most compelling rpg set in America since like, shadow hearts 3 and i loved just looking around it, it feels so unique and it's pretty and colourful too, i find these kind of modern-ish set rpgs to be super appealing, it's my favourite kind of setting.

the gameplay I am a little more mixed on, not that I think it's bad, I actually think it's super unique and it can even be super fun if you play it on the lower difficulties, but god is it slow. the game is a turn based rpg with timing minigames thrown in, like shadow hearts or what people tell me the mario rpg games are like, each character and ability has their own little themed minigame (except rory who skips a lot of it because he can only defend and protect others) and if you do well in them you do more damage, or miss if you fail, even defending is its own minigame, the issue here is with how much it makes everything draaaaaaaaaag out forever, at least on normal battles can go for 5 to 10 mins sometimes and there's a lot of fights here, it's why i'd recommend playing the game on easy, enemies weaknesses don't play into it much (a system that doesn't work well here because of how little damage each character does and how characters with a poor matchup do almost no damage at all, you can't even physical your way out of it like you can in like a persona, that with how every attack, both from you and the enemy is its own minigame, plus the animations, it's very slow and on normal that's just made so so so much worse, at least on easy battles never last more than a few mins so it's manageable, but if you play above that, be prepped for a very slow game. even with this though, I do like the battle system, on easy it's fun and not super challenging and seeing all the fun minigames they come up with is a great time, I even like how the level ups are handled. it's a series of rooms you go in themed like a dungeon and each floor is a level up where you pick how you want to distribute points, it's neat and original and I like how it looks, but it does make things slower . there isn't a ton to do outside of that though, do dungeons, talk to people, see all the super varied towns, there's some sidequests with multiple endings and a kind of social linky system in the last hour of the game but it's not really expanded on at all, it's just a thing thrown in, but with all the minigames and stuff I think the game is fine variety wise, though again on normal that with the lack of other things to do, I can see the game getting very repetitive and tedius for some people (the solution here is to take the hint and play on easy). this seemed to be fixed in the new update though, with the new battle system seeming faster and less minigamey, but I do think you lose something by getting rid of those, they were fun and unique! nothing else I've ever played quite plays like YIIK and that's not something I would have wanted to lose.

the art style was also really great, it has a lower poly style a little like megaman legends and some amazing texture-work, especially with things like facial expressions and it has some really good character portraits that capture the style of the models super well too, it's the first thing that really jumps out at you about the game I think because its just a very visually striking game, especially in the trippier sections like some of the dungeons or the final chunk of the game where it becomes one of the prettiest games I think I've ever played, the trip to new York is a real spectacle and the secret endings also. on top of all this its just a super varied game, tons of cool towns with different themes, like an earthboundy town in frankton, the desert town akin to wild arms is a lil trailer park with a graveyard and a haunted tunnel, there's a beach town and a mall and even a pokemon-esque mountain town and they even change throughout the games with new npcs and quests and even new weather, like all the towns having snow in the later winter section, even the beach town does and it looks so cool and it never settles for just being basic. what i mean is even the things like caves and sewers that many games would just let be generic are given twists here with the games trippier visuals and there's great puzzles thrown in too, it made exploring them a lot of fun and i was always really excited to see what comes next, though if i did have to criticize hem a little, they can be a little too big and a little too obtuse and hard to navigate sometimes, especially in things like the soulspace, some of those dungeons could be really rough to get through and some of the puzzles were like, bordering on alundra level difficult, the slower combat can make a few of them drag a little too. i love the character designs though and i think the cast all look great, it's all super intentional and they all fit well, alex looking like he is might seem like bad character design at first especially with the goofy portraits but it's all very intentional and a lot of the designs like vella and rory and the essentia really grew on me super fast.

the music here is one of the games best points, maybe even its best point, I won't mince words, this is one of the best OST's of its generation and one of the best I've heard in any indie game, maybe even in a game, most tracks are great, there's cool vocal stuff, collabs from some of the artforms best artists like garoad (my favourite game composer who worked on VA-11 HALL-A, yuppie psycho and who helped with one step from eden), Hiroki Kikuta (of secret of mana and several other mana's, koudelka, indivisible, blade arcus, atelier escha and soul calibur 5) and toby fox (you know who this is I don't even need to say) and so much variety in genre and style. I've had it on ever since I started playing and I still sometimes use music from it here and there on the site, the battle themes, the town themes, the a m a z I n g forum theme with onism1999, it's all brilliant. the main brunt of the OST though is composed by Andrew Allanson, the games lead developer and his work here is really commendably good considering he was also the writer, director and producer, probably more too, he killed it here. some standout tracks I would recommend listening to include the aforementioned onism1999 as well as Kelly's other main songs here which are "pushing through" , one of the main battle themes and the games other best song, and carry on, which is just cutscene background music but is still really good. toby's battle theme "into the mind" is great, alex's theme is super catchy, I love all the town themes and recommend all of them but frankton hits especially hard and the wind town theme also sounds so wild arms'y and I love it, I love the krow battle theme and the title screen music and Sammy's theme, it's just, such a good OST and even if people dislike the game itself, this score really deserves so much more love than it gets, it's one of the best out there and I will always push for it, there's so much good stuff here and so much love put into it from some of the medium's best artists that I think it's super unfair how ignored and maligned its been just for its association, if nothing else, I at least ask you to check these out, recognition is sorely deserved here.

the game is pretty long, about 15-20 hours or so depending on what difficulty you do or if you do the sidequests, i skipped the latter and played on easy for the second half of the game so it was on the shorter end for me, also on the easier end too, but this is very much not the case on normal, the game on normal might be one of the hardest rpg's i've ever played so unless you really want the challenge i'd say to play on easy. so since the game originally came out there were a few updates, adding optional simplifications to the battle system and some other small tweaks like a different mode where you could lower the amount of monologues (this feels like you'd be losing a lot of the games impact though) and I think a new ending? but the big one was with 1.5, the one I wanted to beat this game before the release of, it was a full on overhaul of the game, new story, new characters, new combat system and locations and dungeons and it's basically an entirely different game, one people seem to like more but i'll see for myself I think, seemingly you can't even play this original version anymore unless you have an old save file, or if you can I just can't find the option in the menu, but if you have an old save file you seemingly still can, which is nice as an option, because there is still value here, this game as is, is pretty great and i'd have been sad if it was lost altogether with no real way for anyone to play it, still no physical yet though, which is a shame, but I do have hope that one will show up one day through someone like limited run now that the game is more or less "complete" with this version, heck I might even buy an LE or if they reprint the alex yiik plush, I do have a YIIk shirt though as merch, as bought by a friend of mine, it's cozy and pretty cool looking.

the game was wholly a passion project, funded by kickstarter (which the game references with a lil sidequesty thing at the start!) and made by a pretty small team all things considered, with a large chunk of the roles being taken by Andrew Allanson and his (brother? cousin? idk) Brian Allanson, when you think about the scope of the game and especially all the stuff added to it since with 1.5, it's very impressive, them and their studio having only made one game before this, the top down gameboy-like rpg "two brothers" it looks cool and i can see why this game would have gotten people excited for YIIK back when the kickstarter launched, it looks great! i am excited for the future of the game and the people making it, the game is great and i'd love to see more from them, i still have the 1.5 update to look foreword to, something i intentionally kept myself away from until i wrote and got this out but from what i hear it's great, people seem to be super into the game and it's led to it having a little resurgence and re-evaluation by people, which has been so nice to see! games like this, the ones that get brigaded to hell and back and given net meme status as "some of the worst ever!" don't always get that chance to and i can only imagine how awful it must feel as a developer of these games, especially something like this that is so clearly a passion project, i'm glad they didn't let it get to them and that they kept at it with the game, the game deserves the second chance. i can't wait to see what else there is in store after this though, hopefully at least a physical release maybe being on the cards, if there's any game i want to get one right now, it'd be this, it deserves one.