YIIK: A POST-MODERN RPG
The Mother of all nostalgic throwbacks
Raiding the nostalgia drawer Undertale previously ransacked, and punctuated by delightful moments of dread, YIIK (pronounced ‘why-two-kay’) is a unique beast even before you begin to ask, “Wait, how can a RPG be post-modern, anyway?” Alex Eggleston, your protagonist, kind of sucks. He’s that fake-deep guy you inevitably run into at some point during your early 20s (maybe even dating them). Returning to his home town, degree in hand but minus any greater sense of direction, he wallows in self-pity and his own half-baked brand of philosophy. But after a strange encounter, he finds himself tied into the mysterious disappearance of a young woman named Semi ‘Sammy’ Pak and embarks on a strange journey through the distant land of 1999 and the bizarre vistas of his friends’ minds.
Alex’s introspective narration frames each chapter; at first it’s tooth-grindingly selfobsessed and flowery to a parodical degree. Mercifully this indie RPG is completely in on the joke, poking fun at its lead character’s navel gazing just as much as it lays bare his flaws and the self-doubt motivating them. Nestled between a jamming soundtrack and colourful low-poly world is a story concerned with far more than just nostalgia for the last decade of the 20th century; it’s not every day you get to play as a protagonist grappling with such a relatable sense of existential angst.
SOUL BLAZER
The game delivers on the subtitle’s promise of a different take on the genre. What appears to be a spiky-haired PlayStation 1 protagonist in the streets proves to be Shadow Hearts in the sheets, with fights being more involved than the usual turn-based RPG fare. Every character has a number of unique rhythm minigames that dictate damage, and you have to time your button presses pretty precisely if you don’t want to get absolutely slaughtered by stop signs and sewer dwellers. This can be tricky as your crosshair doesn’t move at a consistent clip, unlike the aforementioned series’ Judgement Ring, though taking hits gives you the power to slow it down so you can nail important prompts later. While full of interesting mechanical quirks like this, fights feel dragged out as enemies soak damage like the world is ending… which it just might be.
It’s not just our world Alex and the gang need to worry about, either, but for fear of spoiling things for you, nothing more about the plot will be revealed. What you need to know is this is a lovingly presented urban fantasy adventure with plenty of twists and turns you’ll want to follow until the end. My time with the game will have long since passed when you read this but I still can’t stop thinking about it… not least of all because the Mind Dungeon theme music is an absolute banger – it’ll haunt your dreams.
VERDICT
“THE HERO EMBARKS ON A STRANGE JOURNEY THROUGH THE DISTANT LAND OF 1999.”
Between the unusual character arc at its core, funky beats, and rhythm-based beatdowns, YIIK has a lot more to offer the RPG genre than just doomsaying. Jess Kinghorn