YIIK: A post-modern RPG immediately grabbed my interest because of the tagline. I’m always intrigued when an RPG steps away from the whole dragons and dungeons theme. It makes the genre feel fresh and it’s always a treat to see how the developers incorporate RPG mechanics in a more modern – closer to home – setting.
Y2k problem
The game is set around the year 1999 and the whole y2k craze. YIIK is just an odd way to spell y2k where they used the roman numeral “II” instead. For those who are a little bit younger and don’t know what the y2k problem was, let me enlighten you… The ’90s was the era where we fully embraced the computer. As a society, we grew more and more dependent on computer systems. The internet slowly found its way into most of our homes and many things got automated by computers.
When the year 2000 came closer, a problem occurred with the way dates were presented on computer systems. Many computer programs presented the year not with 4-digits but with 2 digits. This meant the change from 1999 to 2000 would make the year go from 99 to 00. For some reason, people in the ’90s went crazy over this. Many believed that computers would become corrupted and that mayhem would occur. People went as far as to avoid taking a plane on New Year’s Eve because they thought it would fall from the sky. Needless to say, most systems would be patched in the run-up to the new year and besides the odd announcement board welcoming people into 1 January 1900 instead of 2000, nothing happened.
Graphic Novel
YIIK: A post-modern RPG is set right in that period of much conspiracy – fueled by the rise of the internet – around the year 1999. You are Alex a 20 something who comes home from college to enjoy the summer. After chasing a cat in an abandoned factory hotel, Alex witnesses the strange disappearance of Sammy – Semi – Pak. Footage of the whole incident finds its way to a message board. Alex decides to team up with a bunch of internet friends to investigate the strange entities that seemed responsible for the abduction of Sammy. The story gets really weird but is presented neatly in a sort of graphic novel style including big chunks of inner monologues by Alex.
Crazy looking “dungeons”
After you endured lengthy parts of the story you still have a world to explore and enemies to fight. Exploring the world is a lot of fun. The different locations are all filled with fun interactions. The addition of 90’s references is a nice touch to cater to the nostalgic among us. Exploring every nook and cranny is rewarding because you’ll find items and money which can be used to beef up your characters. Eventually, you’ll end up at a “dungeon”. These are probably the weirdest creations I’ve seen, and I played a whole bunch of JRPGs. Each dungeon is basically a puzzle room filled with enemies. You solve puzzles by using a panda you put on switches or by shooting a cat at levers… Yep, it’s that weird.
Battle system needs some tweaking
When encountering enemies, YIIK goes for a turn-based JRPG style battle system. Each character has a unique way of attacking. Alex, for instance, uses a vinyl record he throws at his enemies. Developer Acck studios went for a time-based mini-game way of attacking – think Saturday Morning RPG. This will look like fun in the beginning but grows old really quick. Pressing a certain button as much as you can when Alex’ record spins over a “yellow” zone, became way too time-consuming in the end. They did add a “fast forward” function to counter the long battles but in the end, Acck decided to roll out a patch to make the battles shorter and less tedious. At the time of writing, not every system got the update yet.
Bold art style, epic soundtrack
YIIK: a post-modern RPG really did their research when it comes down to their art style. The screenshots might look outdated at first sight but that is actually the point. I remember playing games back in 1999 and have fond memories of other games that looked just like this. The polygonal style does look a bit smoother than back in the days, but I feel the “edges” were needed to align with the story and feel of the game. The music presented in this game is probably my favorite part. They even got people from Secret of Mana and Undertale, among others, to add to the soundtrack.
Conclusion
YIIK: a post-modern RPG could do with a bit less story and narrative to make it flow more but overall, I enjoyed it. The art style and music make the game feel right. The battle system tries to spice things up, but the mini-game way of attacking should’ve been removed. Pick this one up if you’re a fan of the 90s who’s not afraid of some JRPG elements in their games.
6,5/10
Tested on Nintendo Switch
