Funnily enough, I do think this game has unironically aged very well. It becomes more clear as time passes that a lot of the things people were complaining about were very obviously intentionally provocative. Poe's Law hit this game hard, which is too bad since Alex's inner-monologue, while not always well written (a fault of the writer, I'm afraid), still comes across as so egregiously self-serious that I'm amazed just how much this game went over players' heads. Not that I blame the player—this game is a bit of a chore to figure out. The writing is inconsistent and arguably unfinished, and the presentation is extremely unpolished and quite often bad. AND the combat system is tedious as all hell. Everything about this game is very cool and smart in concept, but the execution is real wonky.
Judging from the recent I.V livestream, it looks like they might actually fix a lot of the problems I had with my initial playthroughs. Lines of dialogue that weren't working for me are now given a more stylish visual presentation that makes the intentions of the writing much clearer. Originally, you were stuck with Alex Yiik's perspective and forced to take him seriously. Now, even the game itself refuses to take him seriously. It really levels out the tone and gives the player more reason to be invested. Combat looks faster paced and more distinct from the game's contemporaries. New content has a lot of potential. Ideally, if they had the time and money, I'd say they should rewrite the whole game and re-record voice acting with a professional voice director, and change the way dialogue is presented all around--a lot of these lines would sound a lot better if they were presented in a looser, Oxenfree-esque style rather than the awkward visual novel chunks. I doubt any of that would be possible to implement at this point, but maybe it's something to note if they make a new game after this one. At this point, I'm happy enough with the cut lines and new cutscenes.
Regardless, it looks like the Allanson bros have already grown so much as artists (and hopefully as coders), so I'll likely give this game one more playthrough once I.V releases to see just how different a "final" version of this game looks. For as many problems as I have with it, the Allanson bros are two people I generally admire, and I hope that, if this game never really works out even with the upcoming remake update, that they get to make a truly great game on another day. They definitely have it in them, they just need more experience. I love bein' in YIIIIIK!!!
Judging from the recent I.V livestream, it looks like they might actually fix a lot of the problems I had with my initial playthroughs. Lines of dialogue that weren't working for me are now given a more stylish visual presentation that makes the intentions of the writing much clearer. Originally, you were stuck with Alex Yiik's perspective and forced to take him seriously. Now, even the game itself refuses to take him seriously. It really levels out the tone and gives the player more reason to be invested. Combat looks faster paced and more distinct from the game's contemporaries. New content has a lot of potential. Ideally, if they had the time and money, I'd say they should rewrite the whole game and re-record voice acting with a professional voice director, and change the way dialogue is presented all around--a lot of these lines would sound a lot better if they were presented in a looser, Oxenfree-esque style rather than the awkward visual novel chunks. I doubt any of that would be possible to implement at this point, but maybe it's something to note if they make a new game after this one. At this point, I'm happy enough with the cut lines and new cutscenes.
Regardless, it looks like the Allanson bros have already grown so much as artists (and hopefully as coders), so I'll likely give this game one more playthrough once I.V releases to see just how different a "final" version of this game looks. For as many problems as I have with it, the Allanson bros are two people I generally admire, and I hope that, if this game never really works out even with the upcoming remake update, that they get to make a truly great game on another day. They definitely have it in them, they just need more experience. I love bein' in YIIIIIK!!!