YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a game I’ve felt a personal grudge against ever since it came out. Even back in 2016, I saw previews of what it was and felt excited. It’s style and approach to making a “Mother-inspired RPG” always really interested me. When I played it, however, I quickly realized all it had was taken in every wrong way possible. Everything I was interested in was mangled with, hamfisted, downright unfun. I hated YIIK, and only hated it more when I watched the public reception to it. How could a game I was so excited for, something that felt like I would get a lot out of, be so bad?
The game is still bad. Nothing I say means I think it was any better than I thought it was then. In a way, I almost thought it was worse. The combat feels painfully slow and thoughtless on top of being almost totally unnecessary, the dialogue tends toward being horribly boring, the story goes in places that feel like they contradict what it initially tries to do, the puzzles and dungeons are either horribly uninteresting or frustrating, and there’s a veritable host of annoying bugs I encountered on this playthrough. I gave it one star before I did this playthrough and I still stand by it. But, more personally, I feel like I’ve been able to open myself up to be more receptive to it, and more so the people behind it.
Until now, I had treated YIIK with a vile amount of hatred. I hated the game through and through, and I would speak bad at the creator’s expense. This is par for the course with a lot of people who talk about YIIK, and even if I didn’t intend to, I would tend to catch myself regurgitating that mindset when I spoke on it too. I wholly believed that the creators must have hated the kinds of people who played games like it. That they went in with the intention to make a frustrating, awful game. Over time, my memories of what I played were influenced by the people who trashed it, making an example of it as “the worst of indie games” and then people who never even played it and didn’t want to give it the time of day. But, as I played it, I looked more into the story behind the development of YIIK. I listened to interviews with the brothers who made this game. What I found was that although the game was incompetent, it was made with a true passion and honesty. It was a game tirelessly developed over the better part of a decade, even through the worst in their life. When they got mad at people decrying their game in interviews, I can understand where it comes from. My God, if I worked so hard and put so much of myself behind something just for it to be berated and treated like a laughing stock, I’d be infuriated. What an asshole I was to dismiss everything they worked towards.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a terrible game. What it does is terrible, and what it says is bad on the outset and delivered even worse. What’s the worst part is how much it feels like it’s full of itself. But it is doing something, and it is saying something. It’s something that feels like it was made by a real person instead of just being churned from a factory, even if this kind of person is no one I’d ever want to meet in my life.
Even if it failed miserably, it really tried to make something that felt different and unique to it, and it came from a very honest place. For as bad as it is, I believe a game like YIIK is worth a thousand safe, market-tested, corporate games that are sure to please. I hope these developers learn and grow from their experience with YIIK and their previous work to make something better. I do believe now that they could.
The game is still bad. Nothing I say means I think it was any better than I thought it was then. In a way, I almost thought it was worse. The combat feels painfully slow and thoughtless on top of being almost totally unnecessary, the dialogue tends toward being horribly boring, the story goes in places that feel like they contradict what it initially tries to do, the puzzles and dungeons are either horribly uninteresting or frustrating, and there’s a veritable host of annoying bugs I encountered on this playthrough. I gave it one star before I did this playthrough and I still stand by it. But, more personally, I feel like I’ve been able to open myself up to be more receptive to it, and more so the people behind it.
Until now, I had treated YIIK with a vile amount of hatred. I hated the game through and through, and I would speak bad at the creator’s expense. This is par for the course with a lot of people who talk about YIIK, and even if I didn’t intend to, I would tend to catch myself regurgitating that mindset when I spoke on it too. I wholly believed that the creators must have hated the kinds of people who played games like it. That they went in with the intention to make a frustrating, awful game. Over time, my memories of what I played were influenced by the people who trashed it, making an example of it as “the worst of indie games” and then people who never even played it and didn’t want to give it the time of day. But, as I played it, I looked more into the story behind the development of YIIK. I listened to interviews with the brothers who made this game. What I found was that although the game was incompetent, it was made with a true passion and honesty. It was a game tirelessly developed over the better part of a decade, even through the worst in their life. When they got mad at people decrying their game in interviews, I can understand where it comes from. My God, if I worked so hard and put so much of myself behind something just for it to be berated and treated like a laughing stock, I’d be infuriated. What an asshole I was to dismiss everything they worked towards.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a terrible game. What it does is terrible, and what it says is bad on the outset and delivered even worse. What’s the worst part is how much it feels like it’s full of itself. But it is doing something, and it is saying something. It’s something that feels like it was made by a real person instead of just being churned from a factory, even if this kind of person is no one I’d ever want to meet in my life.
Even if it failed miserably, it really tried to make something that felt different and unique to it, and it came from a very honest place. For as bad as it is, I believe a game like YIIK is worth a thousand safe, market-tested, corporate games that are sure to please. I hope these developers learn and grow from their experience with YIIK and their previous work to make something better. I do believe now that they could.