A video essay about YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (Part 1 of 3)

[@DarkArtistKaiser]

Its not link. Its far worse. Its the main character from Two Brothers, the game the devs made than abandoned after release.

[@ginogatash4030]

The "2 brothers" plugins are really fucking painful, they remind me of that shitty Final Fantasy movie plugin in Strange Things, where the protagonist says "I don't care what people say, it's the best sci-fi movie ever) only worse. I mean, the "have you heard of 2 brothers?" dialogue was pretty shameless, but what purpose does the character encouraging you to try again at the end does it serve to the story? I mean, it's like as if at the end of Avengers Endgame Elsa joined the battle cause Disney, it's not cool to have these deus ex machina cameos, it's just out of place and ruins the story. I guess the shirt is meant to make Alex more of a Hipster, though it doesn't really help to improve his design, in fact it just makes him a joke, and it doesn't really make sense that Alex has that shirt, unless it was from the 90's, IDK I just assume it isn't because they're indie developers. Speaking of which, the characters in this game look quite 2010-esque, a lot of times i forget it's supposed to be taking place in 99, despite the title. Also roman numbers aside, did they really need to put the "a post modern RPG" subtitle? It's not clever to put random big words it's just annoying, though I guess it's fitting with Urban Dictionary's "vaguely explained", "hipster shit" and "just shit".

[@genyakozlov1316]

Cancelled WIIU update of Two Brothers looked a lot more promising than this game. The song in that trailer was beautiful. Too bad that game was released in almost unplayable state, as even in that state it's a lot more appealing to me than YIIK is. I guess I'll keep waiting for the creator or someone else to fix it, as I want to see it in full.

[@yareyarejose5080]

@@ginogatash4030 thats the thing that really annoyed me- games that do really well do so because of the content that they have, they don't advertise themselves as these amazingly profound games that are very smart and clever. A "postmodernist rpg" shouldn't label itself as one, it's incredibly pretentious. Mgs2 did a far better job being postmodernist and that game went through great lengths to advertise itself as an ordinary metal gear sequel; games like Undertale and Nier are still spoken about and have a dedicated fanbase to this day through word of mouth because of the content of the games, they never made themselves out to be profound, it's something that you let the audience figure out for themselves. It almost seems as if Yiik from the start wanted to be on that level aesthetically, as if what people are more annoyed by isnt exactly the content of the game but the fact that it copies the sheen of a profound rpg inspired by Earthbound like so many other games; maybe if they just focused on advertising it as a fun rpg in a modern setting, some more play testing (cuz good god the dungeons get pretty repetitive after awhile), they would have had a better time reaching an audience.

[@marin0the0magus]

@@yareyarejose5080 You only think it's incredibly pretentious because you don't know what postmodern means. It's an accurate title that represents well what the game is about (deconstructing the Y2K narrative into the cultural anxieties that surrounded the phenomenon)

[@yareyarejose5080]

@@marin0the0magus i get that. I feel if yiik understood what post modernism is they could have done more with the setting, like pointing out how the main characters seem to have such nostalgia for games that only came out a few years ago, or how alex looks like a caricature of 2010s era hipsters, and pointing out how the setting seems to be a mishmash of different eras, but there wasn't any of that. Also my favorite genre of books are surrealism and post modernism, but what really annoyed me most is how it wore that label on its sleeve and how it seemed like yiik was so sure it was going to be that profound indie rpg that people are obsessed with and make fanart for.

[@Namingway248]

this game's story in summary: VELLA, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?

[@QuikVidGuy]

Vella: *explains what's going on in precise detail* game: VELLA, LISTEN TO ME, WHAT IS GOING ON?

[@donnelwaddledee965]

@@QuikVidGuy Vella: *Clarifies AGAIN* Alex: ¿¡¿¡QUE NANI THE FUCK!?!?

[@andrejg4136]

It's so sad that I found the designs for the female chars to be actually cute to attractive, but the writing is so god-awful that I can't even with any of them. Like Vella is a walking exposition dump, Sammi is basically a personified plot device, and Chondra could almost not exist at all and you could leave the actual text of the story untouched and it'd still make sense.

[@averagechannelname9969]

Vella's 3D sprite looks perpetually pissed. Also Chondra is VA'd by Michaela Laws and I'm disappointed

[@haisay8674]

⁠ God loves you, He sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you to take your sins in his body so that you can be redeemed and saved, confess with your mouth Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in your Heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. God will never leave or forsake you

[@thebadshave503]

"Those games were the holy grails of my childhood" -a grown adult in 1999 talking about games that came out during the 90s.

[@maximmillennia]

Oh no, that makes it even worse. And you dont just 'name drop' good games to make your own game more likable. They probably hoped to develope a game that will be similarly accepted like Lufia 2, Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana.

[@mariokarter13]

Have you played Fortnite? That game was the holy grail of my youth! The key problem is that the author clearly forgot they were writing for the character and not for their blog. It makes no sense for a character that's supposed to be an adult to be nostalgic for a game that, based on the setting, came out only four goddamn years ago.

[@tvboxmimic7887]

That's like someone today saying "Undertale, Neir: Automata, Cuphead, Hollow Knight. Those games were the holy grail of my youth!"

[@anothergamer112]

They probably could've gotten away with name dropping just one if they changed the context. For example "Secret of Mana, glad that came out when it did, as it helped me maintain my sanity during my college years." If this game took place in 2019, the year YIIK came out, the "holy grail of my youth" line would at least make more sense...and would require the characters to be aged up a little so they grew up in the 90s.

[@MyPhobo]

I think that it is basically the self-inserts' of the person who made the game and by extension the game's creator himself admitting that he is a manchild.

[@juanpablorobayo3437]

Rory: “my sister killed herself!!” Alex: “bro nobody cares”

[@juanpablorobayo3437]

John Benko isn’t he? I’d say Alex was the only person not trying to calm Rory down after the lead he thought was real was just alternate him after killing himself.

[@soulless9081]

Realistically, if someone you don't know randomly reaches out to you, where you have to go travel to get to them when they're trying to help YOU, only to wrap you into their bullshit that has nothing to do with you, I'd be more angered than sympathetic. Yeah, no, even in real life, I'd not give a damn about the dead sister of some dope I just met who failed to assist me in anything at all, and has only served to be an inconvenience.

[@missshaye6591]

@@soulless9081 You dont have to care but dont be an asshole about it

[@Msliliheart]

@@soulless9081 You are an asshole. Really.

[@soulless9081]

No, I'm just being honest. Don't inconvenience me and expect me to care about you after.

[@achyka3802]

Fellas have you ever heard about a mysterious death of a woman and thought "gosh I wish I was there to save her, I bet she would date me then"

[@phoebeaurum7113]

I think it's romantic to want to help someone but I think it's misguided to materialize that into a story where you fulfill that fantasy. Seems like a really good way to weaken your grasp on reality.

[@andrejg4136]

@@phoebeaurum7113 you see, if a clever person was writing this, that'd be clue 1 that reality was going to pot.

[@rakshithanand8262]

Gender flip that, and you more or less have Sayaka from PMMM

[@WillieManga]

Not me. I'm homosexual.

[@ShermTank7272]

It’s only romantic if you _don't_ save her and just watch as she's abducted, then later on meet her ghost and reconcile with her.

[@ianleather5699]

Seeing as how Chondra seems to be the only female character Alex doesn't seem to want to bang, I'd say your theory on her being the creator's least favorite sounds about right. (Although, seeing as how the young, african-American Alex is likely Claudio and Chondra's little brother, perhaps it was just avoiding incest by having Alex not fall in love with someone who's his sister)

[@ApexGale]

it's also implied Chondra is parallel Michael? god this game was a mess

[@ianleather5699]

@@ApexGale Exactly. It seems like it was a few steps away from being genuinely interesting, but feels just very pointless to try to understand

[@ApexGale]

@@ianleather5699 it seemed like the general underlying message behind all this preening and posturing was that across every single reality alex would be connected to these people somehow? like, friends by soul and not by matter? except for rory for some reason idk what he was there for

[@ianleather5699]

@@ApexGale I think I heard somewhere that somehow, Rory is yet another version of Vella/Semi, explaining why Alex can kiss Rory at some point

[@Sigismund697]

@@ApexGale maybe they just wanted a character for Yuri to voice

[@qwormuli77]

Wait, somebody actually liked this game? "I sighed as the elevator began to shake, vibrating with motion." - Most evocative experience ever.

[@r.p.4756]

"any game is a good game, aslong as it triggers the libs"

[@Assimandeli]

@@r.p.4756 This game triggers laughter from all parties.

[@ApexGale]

I breathed heavily, the sound of my exhales exiting my body with a repeated intensity god that sounds so stupid

[@alexkozliayev9902]

Dude, Schrodinger's cat thought experiment was made by Schrodinger to demonstrate that notion of actual superposition is stupid, and now everyone use it to back it up.

[@Alikaoz]

Schrodinger: Suffering from Success

[@danielwilson8604]

You'd be surprised how many philosophers fall into that pitfall.

[@Powersd451]

People aren't using it to back it up, they're using it to explain it. Schrödinger came up with the idea to use it as an argument from incredulity against an early understanding of quantum mechanics. "Lmao so your sayin if we did this a cat would be dead and alive until we observe it and one possiblility is actualised, come one bro" And today everyone is like "Actually, yes." It's amazing how many people talk about Schrödingers cat while not understanding the origin, the actual thought experiment, or the implications, or none of them. The weather and umbrella analogy in this video is amazingly butchering it. It has basically nothing to do with the actual Schrödingers cat, and is at best tangentially related to the many-worlds interpretation.

[@danielwilson8604]

@@Powersd451 also Schrodinger himself did not actually understand the philosophy. Namely that the superposition would not be the cat alone, but the world and failing to realise Geiger counter would, in fact, be an observer and therefore actualise it. Since the proposed philosophy is about unmeasured nucleus decay and the experiment depends on a Geiger counter measuring it, it doesn't work as an example, the experiment undermines itself by collapsing the wave function.

[@lerquian1970]

He was just explaining the butterfly effect, Schrodinger's cat has nothing to do here. Also he added the dimension split thing that has nothing to do with either of them.

[@T-Jex]

The story gets a lot creepier when you learn that Sammy is based of a real person thay actually died in real life.

[@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist]

Yes, as the developer put it: "Her suffering was influential".

[@hanerd4270]

You misspelled offensively bad

[@MxPokirby]

Makes sense. It's pretty normal for creators to have their creations be influenced by things they went through in the past.

[@Deadflower20xx]

@@MxPokirby He didn't go through anything related to her lol. His closest connection to that dead girl is some text he read on the internet and the video before her suicide. Any suicide is tragic, but it's clear he had some weird creepy crush on this dead woman who suffered from bipolar and depression. She deserved better than to be creepily immortalized in this game.

[@SpookyEggs]

Axsen _ pretty sure it’s not confirmed to be a suicide, no one really knows what happened to her

[@FangzV]

When you showed Chondra on screen to talk about how little she shows up I had whiplash. I realized that for all I've read and watched about YIIK, I had never seen this character in my life.

[@fulcrum6760]

Rory should’ve been the main character.

[@pppoopoo4880]

THIS. the soul survivors/aliens would be more impactful, with the final boss potentially being his.

[@0ctopusComp1etely]

...Dude, that would have fixed so many issues right there for me. I would still have a lot of problems with the game, but since Alex alone makes up the majority of them, I think shifting to the much more interesting Rory would have fixed a ton immediately. Brilliant.

[@unorthodoxic4691]

Alex is such a boring character, replace him with literally anyone else and the game is significantly better.

[@George_Gogo01]

@@unorthodoxic4691 Feel like a fucking hipster self insert of the game dev.The part i hated the most where the *mental* monologue that instead of just *thinking* it like every other normal game...he just ''talk'' while thinking...the game is literaly put on pause while you literaly *see* him ''talk'' his inner thought...wouldnt be as bad if it didnt last 5 FUCKING MINUTE each time.

[@nolansena8911]

Besides everything else everyone else mentioned, perhaps integrating his suicidal thoughts into a gameplay mechanic could've been interesting. The game ends prematurely with your suicide if you don't balance your mood properly, kinda like diet Darkest Dungeon. Could even tack on a hardcore mode where suicide deletes the save outright so it's less a "well guess I gotta go through that dialogue again" mechanic.

[@halfpintrr]

I want a game about Claudio and Chondra. A hackeysack samurai and a girl who fights with Jojo poses sounds awesome.

[@hkkobayashi7657]

I don't like how he based that one girl off of someone who actually died in mysterious ways and even went so far as to include a reenactment of her in the elevator, the last time she was ever seen, but added the aliens. And even the ending where she confesses to the main character. Even the dev explaining why she was in it was just fucking stupid. I hate itttttt. The main character is also way too fucking weird around girls and talks too much about them. Like the part where he takes ages just to say "the bitch is a robot."

[@caramel9154]

thANK YOU

[@sas.tronaut5055]

he doesnt just say “this bitch is a robot” he says “this bitch is a robot i wanna bAng”

[@ssouriaa]

i feel like the game would be pretty alright with competent writers. like, the dads voice being an amalgamation of his moms voice is a pretty clever idea, along with some other bits. it shows theres some thought put into the plot. the writing and pacing beat that to death. it shakes me and i vibrate with motion. genuinely though it sounds like the kind of story id like if it was by anybody competent. also, someone else said this, but this would be waaaaay better if rory was the mc instead of alex. thematic ties to the concepts and structures within the story. this all is ruined potential in the hands of egomaniacs. bleh. edit: oh also if chris niosi wasnt in it. bleh.

[@Azzie_S]

The lesson to learn. Don't tell a story with elaborate multi-universe rules while having certain characters lie about them. It becomes impossible to tell author mistakes in YIIK and inconsistencies from characters lying or being inaccurate about the rules. e.g. the plot point about the Ultima LP some of the record shop clerks seemingly already listened to it, but a plot point was that it wouldn't exist until the year 2000. Vella enters Alex's reality a month before the events of the game...which would be when Sammy is still alive...but only 1 soul can inhabit the reality according to her and Vella's one of the characters who is not supposed to be lying. You'd have to be pretty confident everything is air tight to try and mix misinformation with information and not end up with a tangled messed.

[@Winasaurus]

Not to mention when you add in BLATANT mistakes or intentional undercuts, like sammy and alex getting the cats gender wrong multiple times, even shortly after when she corrects him, she gets it wrong herself. And the infamous golden alpaca scene as an example of an undercut. After those, anything even remotely high-concept is out the window. Did the clerks really listen to it? Are they lying for whatever reason? Is the record even real? Who cares. They can't even keep the basic information about a cat correct, I don't trust them to structure anything important. For all we know, even the most blatantly stated things might be wrong out of sheer ineptitude. Not to mention the game is willing to waste half an hour of your life making you find the record guy after a whole dungeon and his life story just to say "what, you didnt read the case you had the whole time? dumbass". I'd be semi-ok with this if you could find the item in your inventory and check it and force the plot to advance, but even then I'd still be annoyed that they're even bothering to make the main character so stupid he can't read a sleeve with his own face on it.

[@Azzie_S]

@@Winasaurus Yep, and the worst part of the Record Quest is the majority of chapter 3, several hours dedicated basically nothing beyond adding 2 members to the party. Right after chapter 2 which was also wild goose chase itself. Considering the game is supposed to be "Earthbound with a story". Its embarrassing that that each section of Earthbound with its minimalistic script consistently establishes and foreshadows more relevant plot points and characters than this game.

[@Winasaurus]

@@Azzie_S Exactly. I've seen the probably accurate idea that because the mountain dungeon was made for the demo early in the game, they needed some place to put it in the game, and so quickly knocked together a dead-end story about seeing a record guru just to be sent back anyway so then they can have the dungeon and not interrupt the rest of the story. I have a feeling the original story was far more simple in terms of simply getting the record from somewhere with claudio and chondra and then taking it back to vella for the mind dungeon. Maybe a small quest looking for claudios brother with a soul survivor boss or something. But then they scrapped it since they had that pre-made dungeon and it fit well enough.

[@PointsofData]

And then add in reality literally shifting. There is no concrete footing for the player to get a grasp on the story.

[@pantslesswrock]

Since the game takes place in 2013, that doesn't seem like a plot hole to me. The clerks listened to it some time between 2000 and when the game starts, in the summer of 2013.

[@mayamelodyegg1607]

"Alex is bisexual" THAT CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD LMAO

[@misteryA555]

I watched like seven reviews of this game and people barely ever mention his non-hetero sexuality... probably because it’s so easy to miss lol

[@allot5530]

To be honest it Probably because no one wants to be associated with Alex

[@ripleyandweeds1288]

THIS ISNT THE BI REPRESENTATION I WANTED

[@Wveth]

Well, the Y2K problem WAS real (or could have been) but it was fixed pretty easily. If it had happened though, it might have caused some serious issues in places like government facilities, hospitals, schools, etc. Although it wouldn't be doing things like launching nuclear warheads as some people believed. lol

[@Alex-0597]

IIRC, a Y2K bug actually caused a miscalculation in weather satellites that measured the global temperature to be a couple degrees higher than it actually was.

[@oskar8536]

Yeah, the y2k bug was all about time synchronisation. (Hard for a computer to tell if ’00 means 1900 or 2000) Bad for stuff like satellites and web servers but nothing would go boom.

[@FamusJamus]

It's kinda similar to how Microsoft (maybe) jumped from Windows 8 to 10 because some programs couldn't tell the difference between "Windows 9" and "Windows 9x" (Windows 95/98/ME).

[@TactlessC]

Supposed to be 90s but missed by a mile and hit "hipster" instead.

[@pantslesswrock]

Since the game takes place in the early 2010's, hipster absolutely makes sense

[@TransmutedCuppyCake]

Thank you for bringing up the epilepsy thing, I had bought the damn thing and when things started to get "colorful" I blacked out, thankfully I was playing while on my bed. Didn't help any that the "music" itself is also a nightmare for people who are sensitive to that as well, so it was a hypnotic hell I couldn't escape from. EDIT: And really it isn't hard at all to accommodate for that thing. Crypt of the Necrodancer could do it just fine, and if you look at a playthrough of that it's insane how overwhelming it can be with the glowing tiles. Hell, that's one of my favorite games that I play to relax.

[@shade4404]

Oh, I didnt know crypt had that, that's really cool

[@TransmutedCuppyCake]

@@shade4404 Yeah! They turn off the combo glowing features on the floor so there isn't any flashing light.

[@shade4404]

@@TransmutedCuppyCake I'm considering buying it, love rhythm games

[@TransmutedCuppyCake]

@@shade4404 Absolutely recommend! I had gotten it back when it came with DR3 and 2, they had made unique sprites for the game.

[@silversonome5360]

@@TransmutedCuppyCake The unique sprites are still there! Also yeah, Necrodancer is just good fun all around

[@MarioLuigi0404]

This is one of the best examples of a game that had huge potential... but was way too pretentious for its own good.

[@TooMuchSascha]

A giant love letter to the 90s, even though nothing in it is actually about the 90s

[@PointsofData]

I mean, LPs and anime and Y2K _existed_ in the 90s. And the SNES!

[@paweldziurawiec1078]

My guy. You think the game is bad for ppl with epilepsy.... Go to YIIKs official website........... Its bad

[@thebadshave503]

This feels less like an Earthbound-like and more like a desperately-appeal-to-homestuck-tumblr-fandom-like

[@bashamd96]

Hey that's a insult to homestuck at least some quality can be found in it

[@johnkramer2144]

Danta “I warned you about the stairs!”

[@jrosewater]

They even fucked up that desperate attempt, because none of us liked it either.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

Homestucks don't like it either.

[@bladehero8490]

nah this feels like a desperate attempt to make your game so nonsensical and confusing to trick people into thinking it's deep

[@ootdega]

35:11 I theorize that the writer did not understand what a catgirl is. Or knowing him, refused to understand. Catgirls are not furries. This is serious business. Do not meddle in affairs you cannot comprehend. *We will not stand for this, Mr. Allanson.*

[@andrejg4136]

I mean if you ever seen a picture of an anime catgirl and an anthro cat girl it's pretty damn evident what the difference is.

[@phoebeaurum7113]

Maybe he's one of those people who think a slight deviation from vanilla is dark chocolate.

[@whatteamwildcats4033]

At base it is the same idea, in practice however we are playing different games

[@Polygonyall]

tfw cant play the weird meme game because it can kill me

[@Full_Throttle_Axolotl]

You're not missing anything, really, just look up those dialog compilations

[@livvy94]

_takes deep breath_ The missing kid is Claudio's brother, he disappeared 'cause a version of the Essentia scared him and convinced him to leave. Which means that Claudio and Chondra are from whatever reality _that_ happened in, and don't belong in the reality Alex is from, but they're two of the many people that unknowingly slipped in and out of reality when it started breaking. I think the dev said at some point that the entire game actually takes place in 2017, but reality has deteriorated and become so broken, Alex's brain freaks out and just shows him stuff from when he was young and life was good. Hence Chrono Trigger etc. being from "their childhood" even though it's canonically supposed to be the 90s. The phone calls before the world ends are views into these alternate realities (alternate moms/dads/everything in between, alternate versions of all the characters) EDIT: I haven't seen your next two videos, but you should totally check out the video of the third ending EDIT EDIT: Found it kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHXJZpqcedWGpJY

[@ctpp64]

wait, if it takes place in 2017 then what’s with the y2k stuff?

[@BorderFreak]

Basically if it's true it'd be a simple way for how Alex's mind handles the world ending idk if it is but that's my understanding of the above comment

[@MookalH]

Lol thanks Vince

[@QuikVidGuy]

you deserve something for all that effort

[@RedTailedSmeargle]

There's another ending? Holymoly

[@eViLPaCcc]

Regarding the Essentia 2000 theory: I'm pretty sure that this is a case of author's amnesia. I mean, there was at least one instance of it beforehand, when he specifically says that the cat was female and then called it a dude in the next scene... And all the other scenes that followed

[@braelinmichelus]

I believe Semi corrects Alex on the gender of the cat.

[@RenaDeles]

@@braelinmichelus Sammy herself call the cat female in one paragraph and male in another, in lines not that far apart. She does "correct" Alex but the writers mess it up.

[@braelinmichelus]

@@RenaDeles Maybe the cat's gender fluid? (joke)

[@pantslesswrock]

It's almost like the game went out of its way early on to pile on hints that the world is not real, and instead a visualization of Alex's fractured mind. A cat's pronouns keep changing, Michael seems like a kid who halfway through getting Big'd gets unstuck in time, Alex's hometown is named after him and contains personalized welcome home signs and statues to his niche interests, to say nothing of the clashing art styles, his home is a small house that somehow has the entire set to Full House bolted on to it. And as the game continue, Alex's number one character trait, even ahead of insufferable, is that is unaware of himself and the people around him. Setting up the reveal that yes, this world that doesn't make sense is all happening in his head, of course it is, who wouldn't get suspicious at "I am Alex *Eggleston*, I live in *Eagleton* where they have signs and statues about me and my interests and I'm dressed like a 2010 hipster and my friend references the 90s like they were awhile ago"

[@zacharycoleman1117]

not sure if you found this out later but the alex on the missing poster is claudio's brother who went missing, the alex that you played as isn't from that reality. i'm sorry for knowing this. also essentia being evil was a last minute retcon, in the original ending she wasn't.

[@pantslesswrock]

That change saves YiiK

[@sizergeorge210]

please don't make yiik a story about me, a person who's also a liberal arts major and who's dad left them when they were really young and also has bpd symptoms from that incident. please, spare me the pain.

[@citronquartz2779]

so are you bisexual? I'm trying to confirm a fan theory here. /s

[@Johnny-mp2ew]

Opinion on vinyl records?

[@buhbo3250]

I don't know if you caught it or not, but Alex's dad is holding his head in what could be interpreted as either cracking his neck, or breaking it. He might have died of suicide.

[@stevenguitink5947]

Remember folks; the entire record segment could have been averted, if Alex had just looked at the cover of the record more thoroughly.

[@pantslesswrock]

What a fun Post-Modern joke about interactivity!

[@guestb8389]

If I were to explain this game in one sentence, it would be: "I'm going to do whatever I want, and no Man, Law, or God will stop me!"

[@ekeneanyanike7013]

25:46 not a theory but canon it’s Claudio and Chandra’s missing younger brother which is apparently Alex that disappeared into the soul space somehow

[@juanpablorobayo3437]

RooST the idea is that all the alternate versions of you can be whatever race or religion (as evidenced by one of Essentia’s alternate selves being a Muslim scientist). So one version of Alex was Chondra and Claudio’s little brother in another universe Which is sweet except not really

[@andrejg4136]

@@juanpablorobayo3437 Would also explain why Chondra is like the only named female that Alex doesn't go on at length about.

[@juanpablorobayo3437]

Andre Jg I think it’s like, supposed to be a sort of idea that we are all our brothers and sisters. That we should feel each other’s pain and struggle as if it were personal because in some alternate universe we are related in those same ways. In that sense we should feel the loss of a family’s child as deeply as if it were our own. And I can jive with that to a point. We should suffer with the oppressed and pray with those who seek a better tommorow. We really should. However I think that this game takes a weird way to do things that crosses a line. Alex’s relationship with Sammy mirrors the relationship that the Devs has with the irl girl who disappeared. He said that her pain was instrumental to making this game. What is the game? A story about a guy getting obsessed and into a parasocial relationship with a dead girl because he has nothing in his life, who eventually learns to let her go and become more mature... Except not really. Because of the Soul Space. Because Sammy is Vella is Essentia is all the women in Alex’s life. When we say we suffer with those who suffer, we mean it in an idealized way but we would never mean that we get to a point of closeness that Alex gets. the game doesn’t tell you that Alex lets Sammy go but it’s so shit at conveying its messages that the end result can go either way-which isn’t good if you’re trying to convey a message about not entering into parasocial relationships with victims. So when Alex was shown to also alternately be Chondra and Claudio’s missing brother...it’s like the way Sammy hugs him at the end and validates all his shittiness. It’s parasocial. It’s Alex not being able to actually help so he basically makes himself feel like he’s really their brother or some shit. And that’s not a good message. We can not intrude into the private lives and loves of those who need our help. That’s vampiric and voyeurism. That’s the problem with the soul space as it’s conveyed. It’s voyeurism.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

Yiik stole? No dignity.

[@kaythecunt1355]

i do get the reference

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

@@kaythecunt1355 the robot wafiu is just Foo Fighters.

[@firepuppies4086]

The irony? Or funny thing... Chris voiced the MC here but because stuff, he was replaced in voicing Byleth... By Koichi's voice actor

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

@@firepuppies4086Dont be dong. I'm talk about how the robot character looks a bootleg version of mouth flipping foo fighters!

[@funninoriginal6054]

What a beautiful dwang

[@speak_last]

The game takes place in New Jersey which might take them an hour or two to get to New York, three hours max with traffic.

[@Geno746]

I was super excited for this game when I first saw and so when I bought it I was pretty disappointed. I find the characters really poorly written and the story pretty but I really like the graphics, and music. I kinda want to finish it but I doubt I will.

[@lizardfishbird]

Missing poster theory: the reality our Alex is in is not his original reality. It’s the little boy Alex’s reality. Our Alex accidentally swapped realities when he went into the weird wonky place with Sammy at the beginning of the game But hey. That’s just a theory. A G A M E T H E O R Y

[@Duothimir]

That's actually more likely than not, because Chondra and her brother have a weirdly racially charged discussion about how their six-year-old little brother went mysteriously missing one day and was never found. It goes on for an awkwardly long time and Alex is the only person who reacts to it at all.

[@MondoMurderface]

It's not 90s at all.

[@koatam]

Guy in his 20's nostalgia gushing over games that came out 5 years before the events of the game. Filled with hipster crap. Main character is into vinyl discs when the only people doing that were DJs. The abundance of beards.

[@andrejg4136]

Someone in a different comment thread postulated that the game is really is supposed to be in the late 2010s timeframe, but reality is kinda taking a dump so everything is getting misconstrued in universe. (Basically the creators trying to justify the shoddy writing after the fact). Like seriously a large lemonade MIGHT cost $4 at a super niche pizza place today. It'd barely be $2 back in '99.

[@happyhydralisk6885]

"What is this hot topic" "This is a pizza place."

[@ssouriaa]

"happy pride month? i guess?" that kills me

[@ezracarson4543]

wow for the 90s his hair, outfit, and glasses sure are 2010

[@WhisperShoes]

The Proto prefix means that the character is a base version of themselves (primitive). Proto-Michael is just Michael not necessarily Michael from that universe. In this context Protowoman is just a base entity (I don't think she's actually a person but maybe I read that wrong) however this is irrelevant because Protowoman is part of the book the dev "referenced".

[@andrejg4136]

To me "Proto-Michael" should have been named "Ascended Michael", because it's kinda clear that he's supposed to have ascended to a higher plane of consciousness in-game.

[@WardogblackyEX]

Things I like about this game: Well...it's an RPG Things I don't like about this game: Pretty much everything else. Good video but this game looks like a hard pass for me.

[@hinata167]

In the mind dungon you actually see his dad but he's a scarecrow like the librarian to paraphrase what he said "sometimes people make mistakes and they realised those mistakes need to eat and go to school and I can't work with that but your mom can so I'm going to leave you guys for a younger woman with nice legs who lives far away. You can have my clothes and records. Hope this won't scar you."

[@MegaAmir46]

DEEp

[@SirisLayer]

Hey thank you for pointing out the epilepsy thing. This is actually the entire reason I didn't end up buying the game upon release. Because I was worried to get a seizure or migraine from the footage I've seen

[@Jetblast01]

This game is a dev's fascination of a woman's mysterious death after disappearing from an elevator...her SUFFERING was FASCINATING to him!

[@eb8167]

"How to make 5 minutes of dialogue feel like an hour"

[@jonettheonly]

I think Dad is holding his head because he broke his neck during a car crash and is holding it, trying to keep it upright, or fix it back into place lol.

[@slowpoke8585]

@25:45 That little kid is actually Claudio and Chondra's little brother that "disappeared" and another "Alex". The Alex you play as could actually be from another reality which would explain the inconsistencies with his family.

[@WillieManga]

18:36 I love RPG name inputs, honestly. And it's for reasons like this.

[@joshduriden519]

Did anyone else notice that Alex is living in the "Full House" house?

[@cal593]

I know I'm late to the party, but schrödinger's cat isn't about multiple dimensions. It's a thought experiment used to demonstrate how something can be two opposite things at once and that quantum mechanics relies on probabilities.

[@WhyYouMadBoi]

"What is this a hottopic?" "This is a pizza place" best line

[@chaoticblades2382]

I haven't played it but I did watch an entire LP, so I feel confident enough in my grasp of the story to say that I'm 99.99% sure the Essentia is actually yet another Alex. King Proto-Alex has his Organization XIII death cult thing and the woman who sits next to him (let's call her "Queen Proto-Alex") has her robots, each vying for control of alternate versions of themselves to tip the power of power in their favor. I honestly didn't realize this wasn't canon at first, that's how much of a difference in narrative coherence it makes. I'm somewhat on the fence if that means the various Vella's are also all Alex... leaning towards "no" but it would be a lot more interesting than the actual story ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@Neremworld]

Essentia is suppose to be another Alex, yes. That's why the only Essentia version who isn't identified is the 'Familiar Woman' who looks like the Female You Alex from the end of the game.

[@QueenOfPessimism]

I think Essentia lied abt being Vella. I THINK that’s what’s intended.

[@PointsofData]

Then who tf are the people in her mind dungeon?

[@whatteamwildcats4033]

Vella sliding into the screen as your friend says 'JESUS' in perfect sync as if she said it will always be the best part of this video for me

[@CantusTropus]

I assumed the "Proto" prefix was meant to show that a character was the Platonic Form or "True Version" of themselves, like Proto Michael is the being that all the other Michaels were reflections of.

[@Dr.Sho_Minamimoto]

33:25 the answer to that is found out when you level up till a certain point. At least, that’s what I remember when someone made a video about all the secrets when going deeper into that leveling head thing.

[@Kafka_Garezerra]

Do you have a link to that video? I wanna see those easter eggs without having to touch the game

[@ootdega]

Seconded

[@Dr.Sho_Minamimoto]

Sera Feather here you go... you? Me? Sho? Eh, here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYKpdYyep5qnpJY

[@WillieManga]

If you're still interested in YiiK for some odd reason, there's a revised edition coming out a la Persona 5. YiiK I.V, aptly named because haha, we're still using roman numerals.

[@Ball-vw4lx]

i really love the art style of the game. its a shame that the story and writing is so all over the place.

[@cryomancerlex7493]

I can name a good thing about this game: it made me find your channel.

[@Neremworld]

Proto, as far as I can tell, just means that person is the originator/'aware' one. Dunno about Proto-Woman though.

[@dorialine1]

Bro what you mean, thats chondra and claudio's missing brother that they talk about all the time, thats why theres a missing poster in there, and why he says Alex is like a brother to him and why the brother disappeared, Essentia took him there. And Essentia is also just Alex, she IS lying.

[@TysonRex37]

The event Y2K was an actual problem, not because they thought computers couldn’t count last 200, but because the date was only represented by two digits. So when it ticked from 99 to 00, all sorts of problems would occur, like banking systems suddenly accounting for -99 years of interest. It was an actual major problem that took a lot of people to fix before 2000 rolled around.

[@AL2009man]

I was originally going to make a video review of YIIK, but I decided to make something else more productive (which, I spend a better month on). and just as I'm editing my livestream highlight (PER CHAPTER...), I found this. and I'm glad I don't need to make a Video on YIIK this time around...instead I have to suffer by making livestream highlights of YEEK.

[@nifftbatuff676]

You should do some pere cotte instead.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

"[...]Proto-Alex, the most evil Alex to have ever Alex'd in the history of all Alexes[...]" Perfect~

[@Shadowstar128]

While watching this I realized something about this game, YIIK is basically a bootleg version of Homestuck. Multiple different versions of a character or characters based on different worlds, the widespread influence and use of 90's pop culture, aliens, becoming god/a godlike being, the main character(s) causes the end of the world,etc. If I actually played the game rather than watch videos about it like this one I could probably find more but I'm honestly surprised that I'm the first person to realize this as far as I can tell because some of these connections seem really blatant.

[@GrantTheHierophant]

I really like the energy in your voice. It's usually hit or miss in reviews but I'd say it works well here.

[@Sullenify]

It’s always sad when a game has potential to be great, but because of the ineptitude of the developers, it utterly fails on every level. That doesn’t make me angry, it just disappoints me.

[@RoninCatholic]

The Y2K bug was a real thing _but_ with a little bit of planning and effort we completely averted the disaster, leaving behind very little damage; a couple factories' computers went into screensaver and had to be rebooted ("You'll need to do that again in 100 years, presuming you're still using this computer and not a newer one by then.") and a few pieces of edutainment software automatically print fake "diplomas" labeled with years 1900-1920 but nothing critical is broken. It wasn't completely unwarranted worry as people born in this century seem to think, it was just nowhere near as bad as it was hyped to be, as with most "global crises".

[@burgerhouseinthehouse2079]

“Is it weird that seeing this kind of mixed reaction makes me want to play it more?” That’s me with Little town hero in a nutshell.

[@elcatrinc1996]

When, not a creator, any person, uses "Gamers" as an insult, you know its time to turn off your ears, because its not worth hearing what they have to say, Scott Cawthon recieved a LOT of hate from his early games, and he heard them all and made a horror game because people told him his characters looked like spoky animatronics, the creator of YIIK is just a ginger version of Yanderedev

[@Sigismund697]

Yandev wishes he could be like this guy, at least he finished his game and released it

[@thatlazywarlock3246]

Aight, but Chondra actually kinda cute doe

[@fobelotus3716]

I really hope he makes an essay series. It kinda sucks seeing that his normal videos don't get too many views. These are his most popular videos, and his voice and the way he talks about stuff is great. I'd understand if he didn't make any more essays, because this probably took a LONG time to make.

[@shanekunz]

After reading a few reviews, hearing the developer's opinion, watching this video twice, and seeing the 2 additional endings... I'm prepared to give an opinion: (Just a warning to going into this, while I don't discredit the quantum parallel universe inspiration to this game, I also feel the soul space definitely relates to the modern internet as well. I'll focus on the later inspiration more in depth in my analysis to offer a different side.) The developer intended to make Alex an unlikable character, this is confirmed by developer interviews. The whole story is him making bad choices until the very end where he makes a finally good decision. Sammy is his love interest, but he let's the soul searchers (in my opinion, depressed internet/hivemind people), take Sammy. Vella is a different version of the original love interest Sammy. He should be heeding her warnings, but instead listens to a soul searcher internet alien and takes the music record from Vella's mind, symbolic for a very personal part of her. This awakes an amalgamation of the internet, or more generally, a hive mind, The Essentia 2000 that will now end the world. At this point he's caused the end of the world, tries to fight anyways, dies, and becomes a void in the soul space (internet). He sees the deepest truest form of himself connected to the Essentia 2000 primitive internet amalgamation, which is the evilest Alex. It's down to one decision, take a selfless risk that could end in his own death by flipping the switch, or don't take the risk. And he finally in the end, he takes a good risk.

[@Wveth]

Christ this sounds bad.

[@THEFRISKIESTDINGO]

My favorite part is when Alex becomes Elliot Rodger 2.0 and gets his revenge on all the girls he monologues about.

[@Barakon]

Roy is from the pervious game of the devs of YIIK

[@NerdishGeekish]

You know what? This game kinda makes me sad. It would have been such an amazing spiritual successor to Earthbound. The seeds were all there. If only the writer and lead developer didn't have his head so far up his anus that he could see the light at the end of the tunnel... if only...

[@Zadamanim]

I always forget that Two Brothers isn't the far more popular Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons, or the Rick and Morty fake movie trailer Two Brothers.

[@masonasaro2118]

25:47 alex (4) is claudio’s missing kid brother. 29:29 this scene was alex’s mind filling in the eldritch speech proto woman was actually saying. like how you can’t comprehend the true form of gygas’s attack

[@theteethburglar4716]

The Owner from Flagtown has some flavor text after you visit the old man talking about how his little brother went missing and how his father never gave up looking form him, putting up posters and giving them out to stores, that being the little kid you see in the missing poster. This implies that in some timeline the reason he goes missing is that he goes to the weird inter-dimensional planet.

[@Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

Rory is voiced by Yuriofwind and every time I hear someone say they hate Rory’s voice, it makes me depressed. Poor guy. I really like his voice.

[@felabugg1]

YIIK? More like YIIKES.

[@xarshoon7157]

YIIKES: A Post Mortem RPG

[@Yoshixandir]

That name would be fitting

[@nooneknows1907]

The kid you mention is a Alex in the dimension the story mainly takes place. The kid is the brother of Claudia's and Chondra's little brother who went missing as you the Alex you play as entered that dimension I think.

[@larryinc64]

4:22 with Y2K, most computers actually were programmed to not be able to count past 1999 becasue it only stored the last 2 numbers, 99, and would see 2000 as 1900. This was kinda fixed one way or another in the push for Y2K compliance, but some old software still messes up.

[@StagFiesta]

So with Alex (6), I remember Chondra and Claudio talk about their younger brother whom disappeared and that was never found and that many missing posters were put around, hence the missing posters found throughout the game. So its implied that Alex is just a version of THEIR brother, and the game KIIIIIIINDA implies that Alex is actually in a different reality? At least kinda? Towards the end of the game, Alex and Panda talk about how they remember with Michael, that he actually moved away long ago and they never actually talked after a point. But the game kinda, doesnt do anything with that after a while. So, who knows.

[@teacup4561]

25:43 that kid is claudio and chondra's little brother. Alex was their missing brother in another timeline

[@MyLittleGravitystuck]

You see discount PewDiePie, I see Mello from Death Note

[@CanIswearinmyhandle]

Research is always good

[@brainsandbolts]

Maybe the dad died by getting his neck snapped and that's why he holds his head like that.

[@tjlnintendo]

25:42 That’s the little brother of Claudia and Chandra who went missing at a young age. It’s hinted that said kid may be Alex somehow. Idk.

[@dionysus6892]

That missing poster is for Claudio's missing brother. Take that as you will...

[@TerisOfficial]

Is nobody going to talk about how the home you start in looks like an exact copy of the "Full House" living room?

[@Chiquicheeta]

Thank you so much for this essay, it's so informative and entertaining to watch!

[@chaoticcatartist]

22:55 sound effect genuinely spooked me

[@skeleytonz5319]

It's like a tumblr poet if they became a game

[@wraithgear4216]

“Then you meet link from legend of Zelda” Oh sweet summer child. No your wrong. I do hope you talk about that as any claim involving pretentiousness must take that ...thing... into account.

[@chadthundercock4806]

What?

[@wraithgear4216]

@@chadthundercock4806 sorry its been a wile. i can't remember exactly my thoughts, but if its the part i am thinking about, its actually a reference to another character from a different game by the creator that was basically stroking the creators ego, and lamenting that people didn't "get" his game. there was a lot more, but in 7 months i have put it from my mind.

[@mobymobymobymoby]

am I the only one who knows Claudio and Chondra are literally named after The lead singer of Coheed And Cambria and his wife, Claudio and Chondra Sanchez

[@jamlife919]

This is great, I hope you do more video essays

[@ajflink]

Fun Fact: The name for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was either an accident or "intentional". The game ends on Day 358.5 (i.e. the start of Kingdom Hearts II). I assume that whoever named the title was thinking 1/2 as 0.5 and wrote 358/2 by accident. I think you are supposed to read it as "358 and one-half days" but most read it as "358 by 2 days".

[@shiethegal]

Actually, the sub-title "358/2 Days" is meant to symbolize the experiences of *2* people (Roxas and Xion) over the course of *358 DAYS*

[@ajflink]

@@shiethegal Oh! That makes more sense!

[@brilliantchicken4873]

25:46 I believe the black Alex is Claudios lil bro that got lost a while ago. Hence why Alex reminds claudio of him