I fucking love this game. It's a "so bad it's good" title to me, but in a way that this is my earthbound. I've replayed it 3 times, I have the Wrong Soul Requiem book, I bought the Deviation Perspective album the day it came out, I own multiple pieces of merchandise INCLUDING the Alex plush. So why only 1.5 stars? Because it SUUUUUCCCCKKSSSS.
It's a complete slog from beginning to end. From the boring and long combat, to some of the drawn out and awkward conversations. There's a lot more to go into, but describing the experience of YIIK would take many, many paragraphs just scratch the surface. Go watch the many different video essays describing this much better than me (I recommend Running Shine's review in particular).
Despite all of the shit in this game, there is something here. There is earnestness in the way everything is presented. Some of the environments are genuinely beautiful. There are some great surrealist moments in the dialogue. It's clear that the intention was to make a great RPG here, but something went really wrong during development (If you know, you know.)
A revision in combat would immediately bump this game to 3.5 stars, a close 5 if some of the dialogue was changed. Thankfully, it seems like the developers are actually listening to complaints and fixing more with an update titled YIIK I.V. With revised combat and a tweaked story, I look forward to the update fixing the core issues with this broken gem.
It's a complete slog from beginning to end. From the boring and long combat, to some of the drawn out and awkward conversations. There's a lot more to go into, but describing the experience of YIIK would take many, many paragraphs just scratch the surface. Go watch the many different video essays describing this much better than me (I recommend Running Shine's review in particular).
Despite all of the shit in this game, there is something here. There is earnestness in the way everything is presented. Some of the environments are genuinely beautiful. There are some great surrealist moments in the dialogue. It's clear that the intention was to make a great RPG here, but something went really wrong during development (If you know, you know.)
A revision in combat would immediately bump this game to 3.5 stars, a close 5 if some of the dialogue was changed. Thankfully, it seems like the developers are actually listening to complaints and fixing more with an update titled YIIK I.V. With revised combat and a tweaked story, I look forward to the update fixing the core issues with this broken gem.
2 Comments
@ lingspaceship
You're right, I definitely should go a bit more in depth by mentioning specific points in the writing. There's a few points where I feel the writing flounders a bit and more where it goes on for too long (specifically a lot of Alex's monologues.)
Vella's initial scene in the arcade is really weird to me. She is rightfully not trusting Alex & Michael when they first approach her about the photographs they found of her, and yet she makes the decision to go to this stranger's house to see these photos and spills out some very personal details about her life. It's just feels like a huge leap in judgement that she wouldn't make even with the explanation they gave. Alex's monologues in the following scene felt unnecessary too. At one point, he goes on about a girl he dated that's loosely connected with the metaphysics conversation but ultimately doesn't contribute much to the dialogue. The scene would be better with stronger convincing from the duo for Vella to follow them and at least some of the monologues cut entirely.
Thanks for the criticism btw! I like having to articulate myself better since I'm new to reviewing. I'll make sure to add this and a bit more to my review when I have more time.
You're right, I definitely should go a bit more in depth by mentioning specific points in the writing. There's a few points where I feel the writing flounders a bit and more where it goes on for too long (specifically a lot of Alex's monologues.)
Vella's initial scene in the arcade is really weird to me. She is rightfully not trusting Alex & Michael when they first approach her about the photographs they found of her, and yet she makes the decision to go to this stranger's house to see these photos and spills out some very personal details about her life. It's just feels like a huge leap in judgement that she wouldn't make even with the explanation they gave. Alex's monologues in the following scene felt unnecessary too. At one point, he goes on about a girl he dated that's loosely connected with the metaphysics conversation but ultimately doesn't contribute much to the dialogue. The scene would be better with stronger convincing from the duo for Vella to follow them and at least some of the monologues cut entirely.
Thanks for the criticism btw! I like having to articulate myself better since I'm new to reviewing. I'll make sure to add this and a bit more to my review when I have more time.
lingspaceship
3 months ago
What dialogue do you take issue with? For me I dislike Vellas explanation of the soul survivors in Chapter 2. It kind of loops on itself a few times and its a little annoying. But overall I didn't have a problem overall with the text