Review for YIIK: A Postmodern RPG. Game for PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/01/2019
The Treccani encyclopedia explains "post-modern"As the term" used to connote the anthropological and cultural condition resulting from the crisis and the alleged decline of modernity in the societies of capitalism [...] giving rise, on the creative side, rather than a new style, to a sort of aesthetic of citation and del reuse, ironic and unscrupulous, of the repertoire of forms of the past, in which any residual distinction between the 'high' products of culture and those of mass culture is abolished ”.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (pronounced why-two-kay) by Ackk Studios, carried on by brothers Brian, Andrew and Brigid Allanson, ago of ironic reuse his past forms flag, because it reproduces the 90s with both hands, and with more than 40 hours of experience in your pocket we are ready to tell you why, how but above all if it is a video game that brings something new to the medium with its challenge of overcoming the modern and approaching "mass" video games, like David against Goliath.
Do not judge a book by its cover
Looking at the trailers scattered on the different platforms, you can get a general idea of YIIK: A Postmodern RPG: a Pretty colorful and bizarre 3D RPG, with a turn-based combat system. Maybe too bizarre. Rather than motivating the undecided, the trailers make them run away: this is one of the first impressions we had when we watched the launch trailers. The more they were released the wackier the game became, to the point that it felt like an indie experiment of a purely recreational nature with no desire or commitment to dig deeper. Well, perhaps never as in this case you must never judge the book by its cover: YIIK is more than the trailers suggest.
Let's play as Alex, carrot-skinned hipster just graduated from university in humanities in 1999, one step away from the new millennium. Behind him, a computer mother so brilliant that she gave the whole internet access Frankton, a charming hometown of the protagonist; in front of him, however, an uncertain future. Her postgraduate life is shaken by meeting a cat, called Dali because of his mustache, and his mistress, Sammy, in a strange building. The next disappearance of the girl (or it would be better to say abduction) shakes Alex from numbness. This allows him to divert doubts and worries about his future, at least for the moment, by throwing him into a 'adventure with surreal outlines in which we are made participants since Alex, using his narrative ability, will break through the fourth wall, speaking (it seems) directly to the player, showing himself in all his defects (and merits).
The game, entirely in English, is about themes lived and explained in a heartfelt way, such as music, philosophy, metaphysics, astral travel, love and the future. The plot will soon take a turn "paranormal“, In some ways absurd, but that will be carefully unraveled in the course of the adventure. Many, playing even just ten minutes, may have gods dejà-vu by EarthBound, A 1994 RPG that also served as inspiration for Undertale (with which YIIK has something in common), and from which YIIK takes the eccentricity and makes a postmodern game, taking from the world of the 90s what is most iconic, in a riot of quotes to the worlds of Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Ninja Turtles and much more.
The first thing the player has to come to terms with is there graphics: saturated, minimalist and edgy, a re-invented pixel-art, but also capable of comforting high definition models that pop up during the dialogues. Being an RPG with a freedom of movement that increases over the course of the game, reaching the long-awaited open world map, the game is full of dialogue and interactions. Alex moves in an interactive world, being able to converse with the NPCs scattered in different places, opening chests and rummaging in the garbage cans for hamburgers, drinks and dollars, respectively care items and game currency with which it is possible to buy trinkets in the various shops. Graphics that feed the bizarre of some sprites, such as Alex, perpetually frowning, the companions he will find during the adventure, not to mention the "Bestiary" of YIIK, corollated with weird figures as stop signs with arms and legs, aliens, zombie boxers, sheep men and everything that was possible to give birth to the Allanson brothers, who poured most of them into the title, starting with the protagonist, towards whom it is difficult not to feel semi-autobiographical vibrations.
We see that the plot - although it takes on singular and sometimes complex nuances - was built by the Allanson brothers in a serious but fun way, managing to be compelling, at times moving and above all able to generate reflections, but the lion's share is the music. The soundtrack, curated by Andrew Allanson, is the strong point of the title: it is wonderful, engaging and colorful. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a jukebox in which music for all palates has been inserted: rock, jazz, funk, which are enriched with chapters. Music among which the battle themes certainly pop up, hit the spot in every context, and it is no coincidence that Toby Fox, Undertale factotum, collaborated by recording a track. Each shop and each city have their own personal track, allowing YIIK to have a very strong identification mark. More than three hours of music that ranges from intimate tracks to epic tracks: a joy for the ears and a more than justified reason to buy the title.
Alex, in order to let off steam and tell the strange events that led him to meet Sammy from the simple chase of a cat, will have the opportunity to mend relations with Michael, aspiring photographer, among the members of ONISM: 1999, conspiratorial site / forum that gives voice to all that is occult, mysterious and paranormal (not without references to the X-Files), a meeting place for secondary quests too. Through the same site, Alex will meet Rory, a teenager grieving her sister's untimely death and will broaden her circle of acquaintances with Vella Wilde, mysterious raven-haired girl who works in Frankton's new arcade. These are just some of the characters that will enter the party, each adding a piece of their own character to battles.
"Quick (?) Time Event"
The fights are the heart of the title, like any self-respecting RPG. The combat system it is strictly turn-based, which can be memorized but not kept visually thanks to the speed statistic of the characters. Every character wields a different weapon and each character has a unique way to strike - or miss - with the aforementioned weapon. Our Alex, for example, music lover, will use discs to hit, Vella his keytar, as proof of his dark past as a singer, Michael his trusty camera, while the pacifist Rory will have an exclusive defensive function. The attacks will hit if respected certain quick time event: With Alex will only need to click on the colored parts of the turntable, with Vella releasing the analog after a few seconds, with Michael pressing the right buttons on the camera roll. In case if we are wrong, the damage will be weakened or in the worst case canceled in full. Dodging is also a quick time event festival: when an enemy attacks us, one will appear vertical bar close to the target and we will have to be quick enough to "defend" (take less damage) by clicking in the small yellow window of the bar or "dodge" completely by clicking on the even more skimpy red line. The bar will change according to the different attacks, forcing us to click multiple times for more points or a combination of keys. The different party members will also have peculiar abilities that will waste PP and which will also require a combination of or keys real minigames like PONG to go to sign. Other things you can do on your turn is defend yourself, then get into a defensive stance and partially absorb the future blow, use healing items, swap party members, and escape.
Il escape system it is quite peculiar and it too will be a game of reflections: to decide whether the escape will be successful or not will be a mini game (improvable) where we will have to jump over obstacles. Sometimes escape will be impossible and we will be forced to fight. One of the criticisms leveled at YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is that of having long fights, bordering on exhausting. This is true: the fighting can take a long time, because of the negligible damage that the characters sometimes seem to do. Sometimes it will be the difference in levels, but once this "excuse" has been dropped, most of the times the basic attacks will seem not to be enough and even the special ones will inexplicably seem to do very little, as sometimes the experience received at the end of the battle will be inexplicable. Perhaps also for this reason Ackk Studios, aware of the lengthening of the battles (with a Mimic we arrived at 15 minutes), have inserted the fast forward, feature that is rarely seen (especially on consoles) that would have been even more appreciable if not crippled by the "natural" times of the fighting.
Il leveling to try to keep up with the threats of Frankton and surroundings it is referred to as "Mind Dungeon". Basically Alex will train in his mind, accessing it from phones scattered throughout each area which also act as rescue system. Once in his personal Mind Dungeon, we can customize the stats by shaping Alex at our will. Companions will level up with Alex, but we won't be able to decide their stats. Each level is represented by four gates, on each of which we can choose a stat (HP, attack, defense, luck, speed, PP) and increase it by the number written above the door. If, on the other hand, the door has a book then it will always unlock a skill. This long operation it will have to be done for each level we choose, going deeper and deeper into Alex's mind. There is also the possibility of having the crow in the mind of the bearded protagonist choose his own statistics: by doing so, the character will be less optimized for the battle. The game also offers the choice of not leveling at all by following a path similar to Undertale's “pacifist” one. This choice is actually impossible, given the impossibility of escaping from certain enemies or saving them as we could in Undertale, so level up as much as possible.
YIIK guarantees more than 40 hours of play, duration more than worthy for the proposed price (19,99€). Unfortunately, most of these hours are occupied by long fights, as we have already highlighted, but perhaps above all by puzzle, in which YIIK struggles and fails, ending up being one of the sore points of the game: not very intuitive and unnecessarily long, can lead to a search for a solution on the internet, a legitimate practice but which should not be encouraged. Often times we will be forced to turn in search of the solution looking inept, a deficit attributable to the developers who could refine this (deliberately) twisted aspect of the game much better.
The plot choices (and not) are few and not very marked, if not towards the end: we point out for example an attempt to choose the sexual orientation of the protagonist, which is appreciated but remains so, an attempt only hinted at. We strongly recommend that you have multiple save slots since a couple of bug have tried to invalidate our experience on the title, specifically the inability to re-recruit a friend (recruited only thanks to another save file done cautiously previously) or the curious case of the X key, essential for attacking and dodging, who decided out of the blue not to work anymore, except to reload the game.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is an unusual and original role-playing game, a jukebox packed with the most disparate musical tracks and the real strength of the title. Colorful, thoughtful and wacky, with hundreds of quotes (the same name, Y2K, is inspired by the millennium bug which, between 1999 and 2000, should have messed up computer systems all over the world), the postmodern appellation it fits him perfectly, managing to stand out on the medium's “tall” products with his ad hoc extravagance. Unfortunately, the combat system and the puzzles that linger sterile for the (insipid) taste of being long are a well-founded and shared criticism, but the studio manages to restore the sense of friendship in a small provincial town and a whimsical adventure of personal growth.
► YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is an indie-RPG type game developed by Ackk Studios Ysbryd Games and published by Ackk Studios Ysbryd Games for PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/01/2019
