Defending & Critiquing YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

[@amuro9624]

HELP! I CAN'T STOP WATCHING 2H LONG VIDEOS ON THIS GAME THAT I WILL NEVER PLAY!!!

[@mattpostingcinematicuniver7920]

Same

[@Spellweaver5]

Oh my. That's exactly how I feel right now.

[@Kevktp]

you're not alone

[@lemonov3031]

play it it's good

[@Snipfragueur]

play it, it's not good but it's entertaining

[@anomolouscow3761]

I'm really hoping for this game to improve with the new update. It's bad, to be sure. But goddamnit it had no right to be that bad. There was so much promise with the style and premise of the game, and I'm rooting for the devs to give us the game we all wanted in the first place

[@SirBlackReeds]

It doesn't contain story content, so it's still going to take time before it can even hope to pull a NMS-esque comeback.

[@cato3277]

Have you tried the new demo? Ive heard good things.

[@pukmin4498]

While I agreed with most of this video, there's one point that I disagree with, and that is Alex. I think it's a bit dismissive to assume that most people that hate Alex because he hits too close to home, because I think there's a much better reason: His lack of any real character development. There's no real point in the story where Alex "grows". He just becomes less of a jerk for no real reason near the end. (And this is before he ends up losing all his friends). And, for me personally, Alex isn't very interesting. He's a jerk that stop being one due to the lost of his friends. That's it. He doesn't have much in the way of goals besides find sammy (Which the game forgets about for a long ass time). Sorry for the long winded comment, I just wanted to speak my thoughts on this video.

[@andrewkos5560]

I agree. YiiK as a whole has one of the most bafflingly underdeveloped casts I've seen in a modern RPG and Alex is a huge part of that. Listening to Andrew on the Dick Show, it genuinely feels like he doesn't know the original ending is not in the game anymore, because he seems convinced Alex changed. Like, he doesn't even own up to his responsibility to save the world, he just makes the player do it.

[@darknessvamp]

There’s also the additional issues where if we take YIIK at face value then the game is framed as Alex is essentially telling you the story for most of the game until it zooms out from your OC Alex’s TV screen and it’s all done in service to inform you about reality shattering and recruiting you to help him try something. The issues being is he’s a terrible storyteller, lame at being convincing and more than a bit of a horrible person, he randomly pontificates and goes on long nonsensical monologues about nothing at points throughout his retelling, assures you he had some deep and insightful thoughts about his character and how he acts and thinks about the world but he is the one telling you all this so it’s pretty fricken biased, is fairly insulting regarding his recollection of his “friends” and proves he was an asshole in how he thought and acted towards them (which gets even worse when you realise the kissing and Rory suicide options are Alex gauging if you want his retelling to be more “romantic” or “edgy”) and he more often than not slips up and betrays that he is bit of an idiot who didn’t pay attention to important things all before claiming this fantasy bs story he is coming to you with definitely really happened before he popped up on your TV and that he didn’t forget to mention that he’s the centre of the universe and you’re just an alternate version of him so just as bad. I mean people like to claim Alex is an unreliable narrator as a defence for what he says and does in the game but they completely ignore the fact he explicitly presents himself as a shitty person who hasn’t changed even with all his claims through how his retelling is done which is despite how unreliable it could be and that’s just before he convinces you to help him and he gives up near the end of the game and dumps responsibility on your OC Alex (who has no characterisation) and then tells you to live for his sake. Like no wonder people hate him, he wastes your time and doesn’t develop at all.

[@sonicplays8740]

@@darknessvamp There is one thing that I have seen in a funny Ace Attorney video once: ''Why use 20 words when a 100 will do''. That funny line hits the nail of what Alex does most of the time, he monologues to the player in many scenarios, using a bunch of words about the situations they have gotten in and the player can't take conclusions or see for themselves. If he is in danger, confused or thoughtful the screen gets darker and a bunch of lines come, his actual reactions are told and never seen. Most of the time the game wanted to express him, it info dumps data about everything, but it never got to make us feel for Alex at all or know that he has grown a little bit compared to the start. From beginning to end it follows that same thing, Alex sees something or talks to someone then starts monologuing.

[@sonicplays8740]

The way the story was written doesn't let us who are playing understand what is going on along Alex. In the Persona series, whenever a Protag thinks or talks to his friends he usually has lines that go along our own (staying objective and being long enough) and we can start discovering the truth by their side while developing feelings for the characters along the way. But in this game's case we can't connect to Alex due to not being able to progressively learn about what is truly going on, if you have gotten a hang of the story and the line it will minutes later be over explained.

[@SirBlackReeds]

I've seen lengthier comments.

[@oxidoferroso1515]

This is a really different review from what i was expecting, as someone who loves long essays and reviews to listen in the background, this one really made me think about how i look at things.

[@addiwoodrish4852]

As another odd person who has watched way too many videos about YIIK and never intends to play it, this video stands out. You noticed many elements of the plot and interaction that likely get lost by others due to how easy it is to hate the writing and have issues with Alex. Its rare and very appreciated how level headed your approach to this game and especially the devs was. Only one other video I've seen made a similar effort to treat the devs as people who stumbled in some aspects (and fell flat on their faces in others) of making something they were clearly passionate about.

[@cato3277]

Was it the Shine review? I appreciated that he focused on the gameplay over the story and how it harmed pacing. Ik it was mostly just for goofs but he seems to genuinely respect the devs and the work they put in regardless of the product.

[@rowanatkinson3594]

I think the big problem with the writing is that it was written as a novel instead of something to be voiced over. Alex's monologues are actually quite breezy if you imagine reading them in a book but feel agonizingly slow in game format. They didn't write for the medium

[@dugonman8360]

Not only that but there's a lot of literary techniques that don't translate to a video game format. There's lots of hints that Alex never met Sammy, that the game isn't set in the 90 but the present day and that he's probably a much bigger jerk in real life. The problem is that this doesn't work in a video game unless given a more direct reason to mistrust the narrator.

[@Joe_Himself]

This really deserves more views than it has. I hope it gets the attention it needs because this video is very well made.

[@SirBlackReeds]

That bit on David Cage is worthy of an aneurysm, however. Note that one particular game was omitted (in fact, seems like he only played one of their games) and a key detail in their history was also left out.

[@DanielSantosAnalysis]

As someone that has yet to play the game and has only seen videos on it, I really enjoyed this as it gave me a new perspective on it. The interview at the end especially did so much to humanize the brothers and put a lot of disparate aspects of it into context. Excellent video, you earned a new sub.

[@kyraandreatta4522]

I still find the use of Elisa Lam to inspire Sammy is done in poor taste, despite the game pointing out the flaws of the “post mortem para social relationship” (honestly what a good term), because she is the catalyst for Alex’s adventure. Sammy follows a lot of the manic pixie dream girl tropes, and with the whole thing of her also being another version of Vella/essentia etc, also this otherworldly being comes across as heavy romanticization. Sammy, in my opinion, is never shown to be her own, real person to either Alex or us the player. It would be different if at some point, she was given a the space as a character to be something other than what she is to Alex (to be herself, in other words), but in my opinion she never does. As a result, Sammy is romanticized, and by extension, so is Elisa Lam’s death.

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

And it doesnt help that most of what we learn about sammy/vella/other parallel versions is from alex himself and how he’s attracted to them in some form

[@Merlandese]

"Sammy, in my opinion, is never shown to be her own, real person to either Alex or us the player." The neat thing about this is because... she's not real. Alex never actually meets Sammy. There are a lot of subtle clues of this throughout the game, but the major thing is that the Factory Hotel where he meets her is actually his mind dungeon (in other words, he's making this up). It's odd that there's a room in the hotel that looks just like his bedroom and he recruits his own stuffed panda, for example. The biggest problem to overcome in YIIK is that is uses the language of a genre that most gamers aren't familiar with. As Postmodern Literature, this is actually all to be expected. Alex is an extremely unreliable narrator, and we are playing the story he is telling us. But most gamers just aren't familiar with the way Postmodern Lit works, and so try to compare it to how most games play out. It's a tricky spot to be in. But yeah, all this to say that it's impossible for Sammy Park to be fleshed out into her own real character because Alex never actually met her. He claimed to meet her to convince Onism he is related to this case. If we had never played the scene he described, we'd notice his contradictions and lack of evidence super easily.

[@dugonman8360]

That's a hint in the game: Alex never honestly met Sammy. The Sammy he supposedly met was in his head that he posthoc turned into a love interest. It's kinda like when people say the clementine is a manic pixie dream girl in eternal sunshine on a spotless mind. She is, because the clementine we know is from Joel's memories, which are depicting her at her best. If shown from clementines memories, she would probably have made Joel a manic pixie dream boy as well. We can see in the film that Clem has an alcohol problem, has cheated on Joel, and most likely suffers from BDP or manic depression.

[@dugonman8360]

​@@MerlandeseI've said the same exact thing about YIIk trying to use literary techniques for an audio/visual medium and then not working at all. Another one is that the events Alex is telling doesn't take place in the 90s but the present day, as there are clues in dialogue and context in the game but you as the gamer won't notice it because you expect what you see is a objective depiction of the world. I don't think YIIK is nearly as bad as everyone depicts it but it's still shoddy with halfbaked ideas.

[@Merlandese]

​@@dugonman8360 I don't think it's bad, either. I like YIIK unironically. Honestly, in my opinion, it is baked well enough to work, but I do think that we tend to be more willing to analyze the nuance and meaning in games if we spend a lot of time having fun with them. For YIIK, I think an unfortunate truth is that most people don't enjoy the RPG mechanics it employs, and because of that don't look deeper into the theming and messages. My hypothesis is that if people had as much fun grinding in this as in a game like Persona 5, they would be more willing to investigate the story itself with an open mind. I'll find out if my hypothesis holds any weight when YIIK I.V comes out. XD

[@islandofmelanat]

Man I've been kind of obsessed with this game ever since it came out, and this is the most thorough video on the game I've seen. You did a great job covering the misinformation and hate surrounding the release, and the critique of the game itself was also spot on

[@MrAuthor3DS]

22:17 Uh, I think you got the events a little mixed up here. Her rant is in response to Alex thinking he can compensate for her shift with a measly $30. Then she apologizes for venting on him, and THEN he brings up the record jacket that she quickly recognizes, and only THEN does she try to dissuade him from looking for the record. This seems pretty common among YIIK review videos, and I figured I'd finally point it out...

[@GameOkay]

Yes, that point did get a little muddled. The argument that the two have always felt more significant than Vela trying to convince Alex not to find the record. Why the record is important to her is explained later, so I don't think information meaningful to the critique was left out.

[@rotomfan63]

To this day, I still think the Two Brothers thing was just a case of "Oh shit we forgot to remove the temp track for one scene." For reference, a temp track is a piece of music used in dev when you don't have the intended music finished. Some super early Kickstarter demos for Hollow Knight even had some Kevin McCloud classics for that cause. To me, it seams very likely that they could forget to change a single music file and have it reach launch. Things like that often happen, although it's not normally copyrighted things that are used as temp files. But it still seems to me that that is what happened rather than composers as talented as that would do just rob other games.

[@macafromthewired]

i do think you're correct here, i honestly think it wouldn't make any sense for them to purposely steal a track from a very well known game but just bitcrush it. that doesn't make sense to me.

[@based980]

makes sense

[@firephantism3561]

I think I’ve watched most of the YIIK videos on KZbin, seeing all the different criticisms and what each took away from it, and i really enjoy what you have brought to the table in terms of defending without being a brain dead fanboy. You are very fair by showing the relevant problems and issues it has but isn’t venomous and actually reached out to the developers to get their feelings on the hate and got clarification on their true meaning behind the words often taken out of context.

[@firephantism3561]

@@Dwarfplayer I think the best I’ve seen are tehsnakerer’s and running shine is pretty entertaining though it is more crude. There a few I don’t remember who made but they’re easy to find. Edit: the gaming dawg and “iced and steel” are the others I’ve seen

[@alinashard8967]

Yo this is actually incredible. Thank you for taking the time to shine a light on all the strange controversy around this game, YiiK is very close to my heart! I haven't seen any other videos on YiiK actually reach out to the main developer before, It's so refreshing!!! I was honestly starting to believe in the drama myself, with everyone echoing the same things, and how it was handled by the developers at the start. You deserve so much more attention for this video, and I hope it comes your way

[@fioledarsenic]

i'm really glad i watched this video bc it gave lots of context to quotes i've seen floating around! clearly the creators wanted to put up their flawed but finished indie game on steam like theres a dozen everyday and it blew out of proportion, its honestly super sad

[@spira-virgo5746]

You sold me man. I truly want to play this game after hearing the history behind it. I originally watched Manlybadass let’s play who was treating YIIK the same way as you, fair and with interest ❤️

[@OdaSwifteye]

It's been two years. I sure hope you waited, otherwise, do you want to play the game again for the update?

[@amuro9624]

Wow this is the first video I've seen explain the correlation between Sammy's disappearance and the "no one care of a black kid is missing" thing. The way others described it was that it was just an out of nowhere conversation that was brought up as an attempt to gain virtue points by talking about racism in an unrelated discussion. The way you say it makes waaay more sense.

[@sakykay]

I genuinely feel really sorry for Andrew Allanson and everyone else from ACKK. I wholeheartedly wish YiiK I.V to succeed.

[@jayfumi]

phenomenal video, I recently blindly played and finished the game on switch and have begun to binge all video essays on this game and yours seems to be the most unbiased and concise. having played a wide verity of obscure RPGs i seriously enjoyed the updated version of the game and felt surprisingly super immersed. theyre currently working on more QOA improvements and dlc/new cutscenes(??). if you ever get the chance, id love to see more yiik videos if the game continues to get more updates :>

[@GameOkay]

When the 1.5 update is released, I intend to make a video on that. So stay tuned!

[@huemungous7919]

This has to be my favorite bad game off all time, but I still want the devs to succeed and I was always interested on what they did next. Especially after hearing what they’ve been through... Great video! Thanks for your time and effort!

[@animegirl4209]

based bob oblong

[@devoidofskill]

Excellent video! There were seriously a lot of good ideas with failed executions in YIIK. It was also fascinating hearing that final interview with Andrew at the end, and honestly, I agree with your conclusion at the end. I know that they're planning on a content update, and while I don't know how much this will really change, I hope they will improve upon the good ideas they had along with the lesson they learned to create a truly great game.

[@devoidofskill]

Also sorry to hear about your grandmother and I hope your mother gets well soon. 🙏

[@DYNB]

Hey man, great video! I hadn't even noticed that your channel was still very small until you mentioned it. The script was very good. For some constructive feedback, try to focus on your audio quality next. Some sections were a bit echo-y. Apart from that I think you're doing a great job. Keep it up 😁

[@Ad-im1ne]

Thanks for making this video, because it broke YIIK for me. Every day YT would try to show me another vid shitting all over the game, but this really helped to demystify it's shortcomings and it's developers.

[@lilteddiursa]

I played this game a few years ago and I felt that while the execution was off, it was so weird and broken and ambitions I couldn't help but have a soft spot for it. I'm glad this video exists to really dig deep into the games themes, tries to gleam meaning from it, and to provide a reasonable defense for a lot of the harsh and quite frankly unfair criticism it received. Ya got a sub from me, really enjoyed this.

[@averagejoe5145]

I lost my father to Covid-19 early on in 2020 as well so I know what that's like. I actually found out recently about the devs trying to overhaul the game & that's piqued my curiosity. I heard about how they didn't do bug fixes for Two Brothers as well so I wondered if they'd repeat that mistake with the Y2K game. After hearing about how the devs are patching the bugs as well as making changes to the story, I'm hoping it'll turn out better than in its initial release. I hope they'll go back & fix the bugs in the Two Brothers game or whatever they're going to call the updated version. It sounded to me like the bugs were the main thing holding back that game when I first heard about it!

[@vellayiikintherealworld]

This is the best YIIK essay on the internet it’s fair and entertaining. Good job man good job man.

[@masonasaro2118]

glad i found one of these that doesn’t make a “yiiking out” joke, or call it “yiik” instead of “y2k”, maybe i can understand the story better.

[@Neremworld]

There's not really a lot of story to understand. Most of the game is about listening to technobabble with only like two real beats of plot.

[@Leiliel1]

A great video. As part of that initial drama, and someone who supports the reading that the game has an incredibly iffy attitude towards the Elisa Lam case and women, I really liked the restrained, more positive take on things. One issue, though, is that I think Mae was actually a terrible counterexample to think that a different presentation of Alex with the same personality would be more likable - because Mae makes an effort to be polite until she feels provoked. Honestly, it's the damn monologues; if Alex came off as someone who, while self-centered, was at least trying to be inoffensive while retreating into himself, he'd come off as redeemable enough to follow. His internal monologue, though, makes the *player* lose their patience with him, because one gets the sense that he's literally forcing you, personally, to be a witness to his self-absorption. Really, all that was needed was, as you said, for his thoughts to be in the background, and for it to be made blatant that his obsession is harming him, maybe by him stopping about a quarter of the way in and outright admitting that he isn't looking for Sammy to save her, but to contextualize what happened to him. And also to outright say, after the proto-Alex reveal, something along the lines of "I had just discovered I was the most important person in the world - in *any* world. And frankly, that this was ultimate proof that the divine, if it existed, was malevolent. Who made *this asshole* so important, and how do I stop it!?"

[@aslychair3096]

Great video, I've become obsessed with learning about this weird game. Your review is one of the first that actually seemed to enjoy some of the game above just the ideas it throws out there.

[@ViewtifulValentine]

I've watched a lot of videos on YIIK, it's an interesting topic to me because I was really excited for the game when it was coming out. I ended up falling asleep during the first dungeon, maybe I was bored, or it had been a long day and I was tired (I think it was the day I flew a plane) Maybe a combination of both. I was pretty disappointed and just didn't dig the pacing or the combat, that really put me off. So I didn't finish the game and yet since playing it I've periodically looked around for videos that go in depth into the game because there were aspects I found very interesting. And I wanted to know about how the story went, but just could not bring myself to dedicate the time to play through the game. I think it's fucked up that people got so personal towards the creator. I think "The Dick Show" pod cast appearance definitely put Andrew in a negative light with the way he spoke for sure, but I also feel some sympathy for the situation's occurring during production, there are things they did in the game I really didn't like, the Elisa Lam stuff for example is...ehhhh..., Anyway this is a good video, I'm surprised that I hadn't seen this video till now almost 4 months later. I'd put it up there with the Running Shine video or Tehsnakerer. Honestly I might check out the game again if the patches make significantly big changes to things like the combat system. Cause the length of battles really just killed me. Look forward to your long form video's.

[@theMoporter]

I think it's very funny that this review multiple times dismisses popular criticisms by saying players just didn't finish the game, after I'd watched 3 separate, more viewed analyses that were uploaded prior to yours, that analysed the entire game and its endings in depth, and had those same criticisms. Sure, many just didn't get far enough in the game to make an evidenced conclusion on a complete character arc or plot point, but the people who did largely seem to find the game's rationales to be insubstantial or hypocritical rather than exonerating. Mae and Asuka both have a lot of haters. There are others that appreciate these characters, as well as other unlikeable loser protagonists who look roughly like Alex, such as in Weezer's Pinkerton or Welcome To The NHK (or Evangelion's Shinji Ikari). All of these characters have defenders and detractors for their flaws. It's not impossible to achieve that if you can justify their angst. There is no highbrow defence squad for Alex because he's shallow: he's a self-centred egotist, aware of it, promises to get better and doesn't. He doesn't suffer any limiting factors to his character growth; all his terrible actions are portrayed as self-motivated choices. He ultimately gives up even trying to get better, passing the buck to the player, and is still excused by the plot and other characters. Compare that to Asuka, an abused child who relies entirely on others for her sense of self, or Mae, who cares about her friends and community deeply, but as she suffers extremely debilitating mental illness in a neglected town with dwindling finances, lacks intimacy due to her dissociative breaks and impulse control. If you want to see a successful postmodern narrative that sympathises with an egotistical, self-centred white hipster gamer guy with orange hair, who tries multiple times to improve, hurting everyone around him, engaging in self-destructive behaviours and predating on a high schooler, while mining video games and anime tropes and references, read Scott Pilgrim. If you want to see a successful postmodern narrative that sympathises with an egotistical, self-centred, American man, who tries multiple times to get better, hurting everyone around him, engaging in self-destructive behaviours and predating on a high schooler, is obsessed with 90s pop culture and also has a close relationship mentally-ill Asian-American woman with long hair and glasses, there's BoJack Horseman. Alex fails as a character not because, as you seem to believe, negative reviews are from personally-offended average middle-class white guys; it's because he's an asshole who embodies every negative trait an average middle-class white guy can have, with none of the human qualities that average middle-class white guys have in reality. It reminds us of the most frustrating people we know and has him fail upwards in what almost seems like a deliberate attempt to avoid the catharsis of him changing or downfall. The interview where one of the devs refers to critics as "triggered" like social justice warriors proved that this was all a sincere narrative failure. Exactly as bad as it looked. Just a terrible assessment of the reception. To clarify: I don't think Alex is Andrew. I don't think Alex would ever make a game like this, because he would never create anything with this much effort. Andrew is a real person, he just didn't do a good job writing this game. He failed. But he can do better.

[@yuu34567]

seconding all of this 🙏🙏

[@sonicplays8740]

Alex has gone through growth indeed, the problem with it is that it only happened at the end of the the game. Never once was it a normal gradual thing that you'd normally see in other RPG's, as an example Persona, even though the games are quite different due to how the main characters act (one talks, the other doesn't) alongside the player. In Persona you constantly are on par with the MC's thoughts, can understand their reactions and take guesses that are within a viable possiblity. However, when it comes to Alex's expressions, reactions, thoughts, bonds and what else we are offered, gets thrown at us and makes things seem unimportant and that he doesn't care about others, then by the time his development has begun, it already ended (not having felt gradual, but thrown because the story needed it to happen). This guy doesn't give off the feeling of being an empty bastard who cares about others but puts himself first, he just didn't connect at all.

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

And another point as well is that it doesnt really treat suicide with any respect or tact. The biggest offense towards this is that is the note rory leaves; where its written in leet and is edgy, hateful post that has a slight tinge of homophobia as well. Speaking from experience and others as well, that is not the type of thing that would be written from someone about to do it

[@sonicplays8740]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek And Alex doesn't even respect that one his friends is in a tough situation. The growth they went through, although the player can't feel much of it, is completely destroyed by the whole ''we are video game characters who broke the fourth wall to ask your help''.

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

@@sonicplays8740 and there’s this kinda a point made that when Alex is out of his “friends’” lives for a while, all but Rory we’re better off

[@Merlandese]

"Never once was it a normal gradual thing that you'd normally see in other RPG's," Yes, very true! However, it is a very normal thing you'd see in Postmodern Literature. The sad-but-real issue here is that most gamers don't know the language of that genre (and probably wouldn't like it even if they did!). The story you are describing, like Persona and such, is a modern story. This one is very intentionally successful at being postmodern. Now, I don't mean to imply you should like it, but if your job was to make an RPG that used the trends of Postmodern Literature and you wrote it the way you described for Persona, you would simply be failing at that task.

[@sonicplays8740]

@@Merlandese The problem is, that the narrative as of now (the current point in the story) is asking us to feel for Alex and his friends when the writing hasn't lead to them being connected.

[@GatoBellini]

Rather than Alex's personality hitting close to home, I feel like people have come to expect folks like Alex and stories like YIIK's to be handled in a particular way, but this time it didn't happen. That's how it was for me, at least. It took me some time to come to terms with the fact that the miniscule difference between Alex at the start and end of the game is all his journey amounted to. When you have an obnoxious asshole as your hero, you either begin to anticipate the moment when you get to walk in the shoes of said asshole and do the things that would be in character for him, or get the feeling that there must be a catch, a reason, and that reason is that the writer wants to tell a story of "grow as a person, don't do bad, good is better". In Alex's case, however, the player never gets to indulge in being an asshole nor do the issues with his character ever even come close to fully dissappearing. The latter conveys the game's message regarding Alex really well and also shows that personal growth is a labourious process that won't always produce the right quality of result, but it also means that the character arc Alex goes through ends up being much smaller than the one the player expected him to go through. The difference between the prediction and the actual payoff is so drastic that it towers over any progress that Alex makes (which he does). Focusing on the journey instead of the end result is difficult. Other than that, this is a great video and I love how you went into detail about important plot points and interactions that people usually glaze over completely in their reviews. The plot overview is concise and informative, and I'm surprised you've managed to outline it in a way that makes its inner logic fairly easy to understand. The way your overall approach to the game seems unbiased and how what critique you have for it genuinely comes from a good place makes the review really pleasant to listen to.

[@Neremworld]

He's basically repeating what the dev said about why people didn't like Alex, and the dev even said that they just couldn't see how he grew as a person at the end, which uhh........ did he??

[@bruh-4281]

I agree with many of the points in this video. I have been playing Yiik for a while, and im actually very excited for the 1.5 update that is coming out on December 2nd. Im hoping it brings a breath of fresh air into the game that it needs.

[@amuro9624]

Omg I saw the quote of the creator and instantly painted a picture in my head of a pretentious douchebag. I really feel bad now. Thanks for making this video, I hope à lot more people see it.

[@AluminumFusion22]

I mean, his response to the criticism on The Dick Show podcast wasn't exactly mature, though. Whether the criticism was warranted or not, he blew up and basically condemned the entire industry because "they can't handle playing as a flawed character". I get that it was in the heat of the moment, and both he and his brother had worked for around 8 years to get the game out, but his comments about flawed protagonists and how they only resonate with audiences if they exhibit "Asbergery" traits was kinda tasteless.

[@amuro9624]

@@AluminumFusion22 did you watch the video?

[@AluminumFusion22]

@@amuro9624 I'll admit: I didn't. Does he address Allanson's statement from the podcast?

[@amuro9624]

@@AluminumFusion22 yes that's what made me change my views on this and write this comment. There's a lot more to it but basically what he said on that show was just to fit a character that suits the vibe of the show. It was a very satirical "we say the first dumb shit that comes to our mind" type of show. So there was a part of it that he probably meant but it was exaggerated x100 and said in a bitter way to fit the mood of the show. Which isn't supposed to be taken seriously. The brothers even have a KZbin channel called Alex yiik where they have podcast and interact with the fan base and you can clearly see that they're not that kind of people. They're very calm and humble and don't seem to be the type to go on rambles like that. Even when given negative criticism on podcasts they take it very well and stay calm

[@plaguemouse5549]

Normally I wouldn't comment anything about this, because it's such a minute part of the video, but after watching the display of your integrity, honesty, genuine interest and effort I feel compelled to talk about it, only because I feel you'd appreciate it. Red pill, as used on the internet, originally refers to the notion of realizing that the feminist mainstream narrative of women being oppressed and men being the oppressor is a lie. This is conflated with the MRA (Men's Rights Activists) movement. The MGTOW (Men Going Their Way) movement uses the term "black pill", which is the notion that not only you realized the system is broken and a lie, you won't even interact with it anymore. So their belief is that they should isolate themselves and not engage with society at all outside of getting what they need and never giving anything back. MGTOW and MRA are not synonymous, in fact they are very antagonistic to each other. While MRAs was poisoned with time, like any organized group will regardless of intentions, their inception and core was about legitimate issues that affected exclusively men and were dismissed or even willfully ignored by the system. The documentary you referenced, The Red Pill, is actually a great watch about a feminist putting herself in the middle of MRAs out of interest from seeing how much they were hated and vilified, trying to give them and honest and non biased chance to understand them. Ironically much like the circumstances between you and WiiK. I greatly recommend you watching it based on that. I know it's silly arguing over semantics of internet linguo but this is our reality now and I wouldn't you spreading misinformation giving the values you displayed. Anyway, thank you for this video, it did make me question how far was YiiK's problems. I'm still quite divided, while previously I thought Andrew's writing was a complete joke I keep catching more and more nuanced details on the dialogue that point to something beyond just masturbatory content. The problem is that there's still so much self reference in the game. Alex is a dumb idiot but he listens to Andew's music and he likes their previous game. But then again, all characters like things he likes, Michael clearly mentions inspirations of his and Claudio's indepth interests like anime and locks most surely stem from his passive or active interests. What I find the weirdest of all is my interest in all this and my investment in learning if he is a cool guy and not so much of a dogshit writer or he is what we saw him being portrayed as, just another Alex. Why do I care?

[@GameOkay]

Thanks for your comment. I think the average person doesn't really understand the differences between either of those groups and thus they often get overlapped with each other. I'm sure that happened a bit here, despite my efforts to consult people who were more versed in the subject than I. Ultimately my goal was simply to show that YIIK wasn't referencing any of that stuff when they snuck in the Red Pill reference. And I certainly agree that there's a lot of layers to this game's writing the more I dwell on it. It's going to make the follow-up video interesting.

[@QueenAleenaFan]

Nothing will ever make me give Yiik a chance. It's $20 that could be spent elsewhere. But I've always hoped that the designers would make another game without the flaws of Two Brothers (bugged and then removed without replacement) or the 'We Typed Way too Much' of Yiik. Very much to be said for the lessons that can be learned from this. It's too bad they didn't go with the 'cut' ending where Alex puts himself in the gap and promises to be better in the future.

[@Dan-vm4yb]

This video just makes me sad. It's amazingly researched, well put together, and entertaining, yet it has only yielded 1,000 views in a month or so. I know why these types of videos aren't popular, but it disappoints me that Game Okay won't reach the popularity of Internet Reviewer #56 that mindlessly shits on and nitpicks any form of media.

[@GameOkay]

There's always time for things to get better. I certainly can't make a video like this ever day/week.

[@dontellaniwone]

For all the people here from the Running Shine YIIK review-hi. I also have something to say. There are a baffling amount of shortcomings, some with an equally bafflingly visible presence in the game. Even so, I think many people coming from that video (like myself) latch onto the negatives a lot more simply because his best jokes and points are with regard to the ridiculous flaws. It’s a bad product and a worse game, no doubt-but a bad product with the most saddening good pieces because they’re hopelessly suppressed by the bad. The overall idea and aim of the game isn’t in itself poor, considering all that could have come with the mass panic behind the turn of the century; that fact in and of itself makes the poor execution sting even more. The music is average, at times good. As Running Shine pointed out (being a very talented musician himself), however, the songs are fairly reliant on frequent modulation to keep the listener engaged, making it kind of jarring and distracting a lot of the time. The battle music, being a fairly unavoidable aspect of the game and thus completely relevant, often has very little life or pulse. Even so, there are some great bits and pieces. It’s just unfortunate that the composer didn’t seem to have the capacity to discern between the good and the bad. The plot’s execution and root aspects are a wide spectrum from boring to jarring to perverted to downright laughable. And, in my opinion worse of all, the script is muddled, unending pseudo-intellectual dribble, and not just the characters that are SUPPOSED to sound that way. Alex’s character only exacerbates this extreme problem, with the creator’s attempt at making him “unlikable” only actually making him not relatable at best and purely annoying at worse. Their efforts to redeem him fail entirely, as if they didn’t even try at all. God, if only someone play tested this game. Maybe the horrendous dialogue, the haphazard battle design (LP toss and boredom), grating OST additions and unbearable main player character could have at least been downplayed. (Though maybe Andrew Allanson wouldn’t be able to handle play testers’ criticism. As tempting as it may be to shield his character with his ridiculous “art”, he is quite clearly some kind of narcissist.) A note on something in the review. I disagree with your overall angle on depicting Elisa Lam. Alex’s obsession with Sammy in the game is played very straight and, even if the intention is to shame those who romanticized her, it ends up just coming off like the developers are trying to romanticize her themselves. They absolutely should have altered her backstory to be completely distinct from Lam’s fate aside from the mysterious aspect of it if they wanted to use it as basically a distraction for Alex to latch onto instead of improving himself.

[@sneeze4100]

You are operating from a position as though there is a gospel on the game's positive and negative traits, as well as the drama surrounding it, despite having never played it. It's fine, I'm not indicting you for it, but it puts holes in a lot of what you're saying and makes it come off as pretentious. Alex never met Sammy, Alex is the one with a fetishistic reverence for her and the things he can't have, these things are misatributed to the writer. Ultimately they are responsible for what gets put in the game, but there's a tendency to misatribute choices made to flesh out Alex's character with things that indict the writer's character. The game is designed so that ALEX is the writer, so to speak, I'll explain below. First, the overall idea of the game doesn't have a lot to do with the actual Y2K pandemonium outside of metaphors and the setting, the mission statement is, basically, to make a story where questioning the narrative elaborates on the story. The story is about a man living in 2016, Alex, who doesn't want to grow up or get a job. He wants to live in the time period he was most happy, in a world of adventure and mystery like his favourite old videogames and the postmodern novels he studied in college. And that's the world we're presented. That 4th wall break moment near the end wasn't just to be like "omg I'm part of the game!", it was to reveal that Alex has been telling you the story the entire time. Alex is a character people come unbelievably close to understanding but miss the mark, all the memetic stereotypes people act like he would be so much better if he embodied, are just what he's actually like. The storytelling is put through an Alex filter, let me give a few examples. We never visit Vella's mind dungeon, we visit Alex's mind dungeon dressed to look like Vella's, it's an entire dungeon talking about what Alex thinks about Vella, how superficially he understands her, what he wants out of her. Her real story is one of running away from her trauma by jumping ship and moving far away, which he arguably only pays attention to because she mentions her ex boyfriend (lol). Michael's plot relevance tapers off more and more as the story goes on, because his story is literally not allowed to progress. Michael is one of the first people aside his father that Alex feels like abandoned him, Michael moved away when he was 12, but he still feels connected to him through Onism which Michael created and runs. To the point Alex shamelessly steals from Onism to bolster his story as much as possible, many major scenes and ideas you see in the normal game can be found on Onism with different details. The details Alex doesn't understand and include in his own story are very telling. When you come to understand that this college graduate is spewing out high-school level essays in an attempt to appeal to the player, full of contradictions, you get the opportunity to tear them apart. This shit is not only hilarious when you understand it, it has a unique appeal that is failing to reach people because it doesn't get talked about enough. I would agree that the game is niche and doesn't appeal to THAT many people, but there is definitely an audience. MGS2 has a litany of fans whose favourite part is the ending, where the game goes on a long winded diatribe to make you question everything about the game you played, and there are many who consider its ending drivel. Undertale fans will tear apart the smallest minutiae and create theories that hold next to no weight just because its fun. It's fun to tear things apart to create new meaning. People simply don't know that this game is begging you to do that. With editing passes, much more could have been done to make the story stand out that it wants you to do this, helpful guidance, improvements to some longwinded dialogue people might have found annoying, all that stuff. Big problem though, how do you change a script when the voice acting was completed in 2015 and you've been stuck with it for years? CAN you change it? I'm less interested in commenting on gameplay and music stuff, simply put I like the dungeons, puzzles and the equipment you use to explore, but these elements feel underutilized and a few of them are too basic. The combat I don't like very much either, but it's also very simple to set it up so that you can clear every encounter with ease, even now... With all that said, the game got to this state through beta testing. They not only took critique, they took a lot of it. The minigames wouldn't be nearly as obtrusive and many wouldn't even exist without tester feedback. Many dungeons and gameplay elements were cut, changed, or redesigned. Finally, I want to leave you with this. It's fucked up to treat somebody you don't know this way over takes and events you don't understand, to parasocially diagnose somebody with narcissism is deranged, especially considering you're not saying that because you want him to improve or get over a potential disorder, you and many others say these things to shame him. I know first-hand that Andrew not only takes criticism, his development studio often accounted for it too much to the point that a lot of it hurt the final product. The production of the game was fucked up, so of course the final product would come out scuffed in a variety of ways too. The thing was developed to work on the goddamn PS Vita, LOL. Videogames are art, art doesn't appeal universally, and art should not inspire hate the way it has in the people responding to this game. Art is not above criticism, and neither is your criticism that pretends to know better. also if you wanna see some disrespect toward elisa lam, type her name into youtube. there's way worse, and people somehow accept it. way more gross than internet losers discussing a video of a girl in an elevator for a few minutes.

[@midnightjay]

Hi. I am a person who not only learned about YIIK from the Running Shine review of it but it was my first review to watch of the game. Honestly, it seems unfair to use that video as a hate catalyst. I was entertained by that review honestly if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't be watching this or other YIIK content so in many ways, though critical, these essays (no matter their objective) are making the game known. Anyway, I want to say this: You are not giving the RS review enough credit. While RS is dunking on the game he is also constantly giving it the benefit of the doubt. There are probably some people who are latching onto the negative comments (as you said you have do to the jokes) but the review seems to come from a person who wanted to love the game and probably does, as much as he can given. RS said he sees potential from Ack studios and hope YIIK will be seen as a stepping stone to a greater game in the future. I know there will be people who just heard the jokes and want to hate it for that (and the controversy) but the RS review alone is leveled and fair with its criticisms so I think it it's shortsightedness to say that review can skew people's opinions unless that's what they want to walk away with. It also deflects people's own opinions assuming another review is the reason for it. As said, it can be like that sometimes but not every single person who saw the review came out with hate without their own research. Also, it's not best to assume that your experience is a common one. Not that it can't be but to say everyone from RS's video came from it hating YIIK is a stretch. I am starting to see more positive reviews for the game, at least on Steam and people defending it more so than ever compared to the RS video release. I also think what RS said encapsulates what's wrong with discussion with the game in general: the controversy surrounding it does it no justice since most of what's wrong with the game isn't the controversy but the flaws the game has as a whole. As well as Andrew's podcast rant though as some essays mention the Allanson brothers struggled with their mother's abrupt death then YIIK did not perform or was received well for them (and probably cam form a place of hurt due to their last game being a failure). I don't know anyone from Ack studios and honestly, I'm not defending them either but I think if they make a more genuine game (WAY less cynicism), write the game like a game and not a novel (or make a visual novel though still reduce the tangent rants and improve with writing/hire more writers overall), and stop grieving their past failure (the two brothers) then they can make a good game. YIIK has insane potential it may reach with the eventual overhaul but in the future those changes could help.

[@palettemedley5676]

Not gonna lie, I wasn’t really into the hating YIIK bandwagon as much as others but I did despise the long combat, how it handled certain characters and their subjects, and how the writing went. But deep down I just hoped that they would improve on the next game they made. The characters while not in the late 1990’s style had nice designs and I did love the aesthetics and the charm of the game. It even had a bit of surreal jokes that can only be matched in surreal rpg games. This was worth all 2 hours of watching and it was a nice change in the sea of negative YIIK analysis and reviews so thank you for this really in depth analysis!! I heard the 1.25 stuff made it more bearable too!

[@idklol4197]

I'm not buying the game! just show me Alex kissing the damn robot!

[@462n]

Great video. These longer discussion type videos are great for me when I want something to listen to while working, so I look forward to it if you do any more. On the game itself,, I always feel like this game has almost too many good ideas and that trying to do them all led to a really bad execution. Tbh I do get a bit emotional talking about this game sometimes. Not because I hate the devs, but because its aggravating how close it is to being a game I'd love, but due to how the gameplay and some parts of the story are I have no interest in really playing it for myself. Had been hoping for a while that the devs would try making another game somepoint, so hearing that they are still involved with the game (not only fixing bugs and gameplay stuff, but also adding more content) made me really happy to hear. I'm hoping that maybe some of the changes to it improve it to where I'm more interested in playing it, but even if that isn't the case I'm glad to see the devs are still around. Their games have a lot of interesting ideas, and I'd like to see what they'll do next.

[@DR.SLAMMER]

They could have used the cut content as endings for multiple story paths. That way they could utilize all the ideas they want to explore without mashing all of them together into the current narrative mess they have.

[@921Ether]

How LP Toss is calculated if you're interested: >>(Int is a whole number) Initial value: int currentAttackStrength = ((actingActor.stats.lvl + actingActor.stats.GetCombinedAttackPower()) * (actingActor.stats.lvl * actingActor.stats.GetCombinedAttackPower()) / 1024 + actingActor.stats.GetCombinedAttackPower()) * this.percentageOfAttackStrength / 100; >>Value gets multiplied by 9: currentAttackStrength *= 9; >>QTE hits are added to the damage: int totalAttackStr = currentAttackStrength + resultingQTEPowerDamage; contd.

[@921Ether]

>>Checks for critical. Basically rolls number between 0 and 99 and adds Alex's luck. If number is higher than 100 attack does 1,5 times the damage: int TryForCriticalDamage = this.randomChance.Next(0, 100) + this.myActor.stats.luck; if (damage != 0 && TryForCriticalDamage >= 100) { damage += damage / 2; } >>Misc: >>LP Toss has a 10% chance to miss >>LP Toss always hits when target is asleep >>Theres a condition for a damage reduction by 25% but it is never set in the code so it essentially NEVER gets applied Had to split the comment because youtube kept deleting it

[@bluewolf6323]

2 yrs later, still going back to YIIK videos...I just like seeing different opinions and his video was certainly different. I'm now more mad and sad at the potential of this game. I feel for the Allanson brothers situation and although the updates are happening for the game, I can't play it because of just everything. I feel bad for them because this this game has potential and they seem like they're trying... I stil don't like Alex, not even because he hits close to home. Don't get me wrong, maybe some people will feel hit by Alex's actions and responses, however thag in itself feels too shallow and not the root. Alex just feels hallow and a mouth piece with legs. I can understand his actions and his words, however he sounds way too pretentious to be taken seriously and he doesn't stop it. He word vomits way too much for his own good. We can't take him seriously because it feels like he never take it seriously. He just expositions and it takes me straight out. A moment where he could exposit is good but since he does it everytime with no room, he feels too much like a dick who never changed and just says shit. I talk too much but Alex feels overkill...

[@tartrazine5]

1:39:33 It's *strongly* implied that the story about the red pill in Total Recall was real, given that his adventure matches the virtual holiday he requested and the fade to white at the end of the movie.

[@dokkisse9075]

This is a very good crisicim of the game. Despite all the faults that are present, and the fuckups of the developers, there doesn't seem to be much bias here.

[@c61dyn]

I want this video to have more views, so I'm commenting to appease the algorithm even though I have nothing thoughtful to add.

[@sarafontanini7051]

Honestly even aside from the Elisa Lam Controversy, the Sammy Pak plotline is...halfbaked. Many mysteries about her are raised (she's seemingly living alone in an abandanoned factory/hotel, finds nothing odd about a random robot being her 'roommate', apparently doesn't know what an elevator is or at least doesn't for one sentence, and there's some implication she's not from Alex's reality despite characters saying otherwise) and none of these mysteries are answered in an satisfactory manner nor is Sammy's disappearance resolved. We see Soul Survivors pull her away (and presumably murder her??? for some reason???) with ehr screaming for them not take her away again (this being one of the evidences to her not being from alex's reality) and about halfway through...the game forgets about ehr entirely, instead focusing on Essentia's plotline, making the intial plotline seem unecessaryily dropped despite all the set up of the mystery. And yes many characters do suggest Alex is being shitty trying to solve her mystery rather than get a job and thatmore 'real' reasons for noone looking for her are available (police not bothering cause she's 'ethnic' and not a cis white) but these ignore the actual weird things about the character and her mysterious circumstances and the fact that Paranormal entities are clearly involved in her case in this story (which...is rarely brought up, honestly). It feels like that the story should've either been cut or more properly answered beyond the contradictory explanations for it (such as essentia saying she jsut ascended or somehting, which flies in the face of not only the reveal Essentia's lying but also that Sammy DIDN'T want the Soul Survivors to take her) and oveerall better integrated in the story. Just my two cents on this specific part of the story and why I think its bad. another point i have aganst the game is how poorly explained and used its main villain, presumably proto-alex is.we don't find out what his goals or motives are, why he's destorying other realities(presumably), why he and essentia hate each other and he has no rpesence in the story outside of when you meet him to have a bullshit 'bossfight' with him. Again the whole "things should've been better integrated plotwise" problem.

[@Table53]

Such a lot of effort put in here, congrats! Very interesting video, I'd not even heard of YIIK before or any of the controversy, but you did a good job of explaining it

[@gigawarman12]

I thought I seen every YIIK review. Here this video is a month later and I can't believe I didn't catch it sooner. good stuff.

[@ziongamer6905]

I’d like to say, firstly, I’m terribly sorry to hear about your grandmothers passing and your mother’s illness. I hope that better things come to you and family. Secondly, this video was astounding, the effort put into it not to mention the genuine understanding you have for the brother’s work. It’s easy to rag in this game for its mistakes but you not only looked further down to find its beauty but you also stood up for the injustices that the creators were facing and for that you have my respect.

[@MisakaMikotoDesu]

It kind of seems like Yiik is starting to get a more fair treatment in recent years. It's kinda funny how people can't stop talking about this game even 2 years on.

[@SirBlackReeds]

In a manner of speaking anyway.

[@Winasaurus]

It was already getting mostly fair treatment. Just people are warming up more because the devs haven't dropped it like they did their other game. No man's sky syndrome. Though I doubt this can recover as that game did.

[@stirredwhiskey]

Thank you for your time in making this arduous endeavor. I was on the fence of buying this game out of morbid curiosity from the overwhelming negativity. Now that this game is getting a second wind, I'll definitely consider buying it once the new patch releases!

[@theythemdani]

thank you for making this! after going down the rabbit hole of yiik video essays, i actually began to really like this game! i know most people focus on the negatives and that's where most of its publicity comes from. heck, most of the yiik content i consumed was pointing out its flaws. and of course i know it has flaws and i do like hearing people discuss them. but i also genuinely love the game and i really enjoyed hearing you talk about its strengths! honestly, it's a refreshing take. i'm excited for v1.25 and v1.5 to come out and i hope you talk about it when it does!! once again, thank you for this video. it was an informative and entertaining watch. :)

[@GameOkay]

Thanks for the comment. There will absolutely be a video on the updates. I plan to start working on it as soon as the 1.5 update is released.

[@misteryA555]

I have seen every YIIK video on the internet. I don't know why. I really don't. But thank you so much for giving me this good food

[@xRidlay]

Ah, yet another YIIK video essay I have watched. And this one was up there as one of the best! I hope this video picks up more in the algorithm, not like KZbin itself is sick of YIIK.

[@iamaunicorn1232]

I cite the constant game of "internet telephone" happening as my main reason for not getting a twitter. And limiting my social media presence I'm general. I have the platforms I need to keep in touch with my friends and Reddit to browse for fandom garbage. XD also this cursed place but I'm not perfect.

[@likira111]

man i wish reddit didn't have this shit.

[@MaggotNest666]

I think you've covered a lot of very interesting points about the modern critique of media that I've often thought about. I think the notion that presenting a flawed character, or bad things happening, is an endorsement is flawed. There are a lot of very valid critiques of YIIK and I think they missed the mark on a lot of things, but so much of criticism was founded in mistruths or was just a snowball of people deciding they hated the devs so they started to believe any made up things people said they had done. I think you particularly nailed the problems surrounding Alex and the discussions surrounding complex protagonists. A character like Walter White is largely beloved despite doing much worse things in his narrative, because he's ultimately exceptionally gifted at what he does; the morality is secondary. I think so much of the resentment of Alex is that he isn't badass, or funny, or cool. He's just a completely detestable person in most ways, but in ways that we might see glimpses of in ourselves from time to time. I think a lot of people obsess over internet conspiracies and speculate on things they have no business in, or are overly cynical, or meaner to their friends than they should be, or white guys in glasses with a useless degree. It feels personal. Obviously, this is not wholly true, but I think its a factor in the response.

[@starplexus.]

thank you for this in-depth analysis. very entertaining to watch and learn background information :)

[@roondar6141]

I do hope that they can pull a No Man's Sky and drastically improve the game with their new patch, I tried playing it myself and gave up after 2 hours because the combat was too drawn out and boring even with the combat patch they put out, I'm fascinated by the game nonetheless Hopefully they'll be able to tighten up the story as well, so much feels overly convoluted, not properly conveyed, or just plain missing, or just feels mishandled, they should really focus on the more surreal and horror elements. The most impressive stuff in the game currently are when it lets things sit and get weird, like the Soul Survivor leading Alex to the radio tower, Essentia's mind dungeon, or the weird phone calls you get, they're done very well and I think they should lean into that stuff more.

[@ajflink]

From what I have gathered, there is a 1.25 patch that pretty much overhauls, fixes, and enhances things in the game like how the original copy of Final Fantasy XV added patches/updates that improved the experience to the point of it feeling more complete and fulfilling than originally. YIIK is more commendable because a lot fewer people worked on it and they managed to get the person who voice Albert Wesker to be the dreaded Golden Alpaca (which is an actual character now). They also provided cutscenes that add more to situations than a visual novel approach and the option to skip the expositionary dialogue in the game. I get now why they had Alex monologue so much, but they should have saved it exclusively for very pivotal scenes/events. Video game player generally hate what are dubbed "exposition dumps" because it is noticeable and disassociates you from the experience as no one usually likes having information explained to him or her if he or she does not care or want it. It is also seen as lazy writing potentially and can be viewed as the developers not being smart enough to understand something.

[@fy8798]

That's a really fair video. You gave some really good context. I certainly agree with most parts of the video now. Not all, but certainly, some of the criticism the game gets is WAY overblown. I do not like the Sammy bit personally, but that's really my major content complaint, and movies/tv series do way worse constantly. A game can do this thing, too. Even if I don't like it. I don't have to like everything. The thing I liked the most in your video is the discussion of the quote of Andrew. It reminds me of discussions of Phil Fish. He was angry, he said stupid stuff (easily taken out of context too), that shouldn't doom him forever. Everyone says stupid stuff sometimes. And heck, he's a Dev. Not a PR guy. Can't expect a rando indie dev to do perfectly curated PR talk. If I was interviewed after my game was trashed for endorsing pedophilia since two characters were confused with each other, I'd probably say angry things too. I hope you do more videos like this. Sub!

[@midnightjay]

I think one thing I have to refute with this video is the assumptions of audience of the game and essays online. I think the first half was good then the second you muddle your opinions with a lot of assumptions that hurt what you're trying to say imo. The game has some merit, interesting concepts and visuals/ideas but most of it falls apart with bad decisions, poor writing, and poor execution regardless of intent. I say this since there's a lot of explaining of what the game may or may not have been trying to do but there is a cloudiness there, a lot of it speculation, due to the faults during development, regardless of the reasons why. Hopefully the overhaul makes it what it should've been at release whenever it releases. 1:23:33 Assuming people who have specific thoughts about the Elisa Lam usage in the game "gave up" after a few hours. It could also be that while the intention was to capture the repercussions of pursuit of paranormal/conspiracy theories/true crime that people lose themselves but imo it wasn't handled to it's potential to convey it in a more interesting/solid way. The ground work is there but it lacks development in an organic way and at surface level is weird. The love interest part also rubs people the wrong way but again, setting that aside it's unfair to say people's criticism of this part of the game are "giving up in a few hours". Also saying that other people make money from her death as a defense, imo seems silly. I get where you're coming from "one more piece of wood to the fire it'll burn the same" but at the same time it keeps the fire burning. It's not a way to justify them doing it, inspired by the case or not. Still, I doubt it was in ill taste but like alot of things in the game it was handled clumsily. I do agree people rage about this too much though, especially since this game isn't the first to do this and won't be the last I'm sure. 1:27:28 I think again, assuming Alex's character getting hate because "people did not finish the game" is...silly? Not to be rude and I know some people have not finished or played the game but there are people who did and them not liking Alex for many other reasons is ignored when you boil it down to "they didn't finish the game". You're also assuming people who played YIIK played on PS4...there's also Xbox, Steam, and...other means. Some even admit to "acquiring" the game. So this evidence is like cherry picking, all that is proven is PS4 players typically did not beat YIIK. And Switch doesn't have achievements at all, forgot to add that. Also, can I add that even if a person played, say, 4 hours of YIIk...if they did not like Alex in those first 4 hours they are justified in that opinion. Does that mean that Alex doesn't change? No, but some people don't need to play the entire game to decide "I don't like this character so I'm not going to devote x amount of hours with them". Maybe what they don't like about him is his monologues, or the monologues/exposition dumps in general and that is consistent throughout the game even if it improves a tiny bit later on. You're correct that people who don't finish the game do not have the entire picture, I agree, but I don't think that amounts to their experience/opinion being obsolete to the discussion. Alex meaning to be an unlikable character does not excuse that he's unlikable lol What I mean is, even if a character sucks in the world they are in the audience should still be able to follow their story. The unlikeableness should not reach the audience. People use video games unlikable protags that worked many times but here's one that is really unlikable: Walter White. He was never meant to be written as a good guy but people still debate if he's really a bad guy or not and he has a huge fanbase even today. I personally didn't like him at all but he has a lot of fans despite being unlikable in universe. A great example from video games imo is the main character from Disco Elysium. Despite his unlikability and flaws I was engaged in the game, still am (currently playing it). Allanson's rant is moot (especially since, no matter where he was coming from attacking his audience in the podcast and passive aggressively in the game itself is tasteless) when unlikable protags work because they are characters, not quirks. Being called out for Alex's bad behavior doesn't automatically means he's a good unlikable character. Especially when despite anything Alex does he doesn't face long-lasting repercussions for it save Rory's suicide should you treat him bad but even in his death he doesn't blame Alex for it (ironic considering Alex is the value in the game that determines if he does or doesn't which is very sloppy with this subject matter). Like most of the game's problems, no matter the intent if executed poorly and written poorly it will be conveyed poorly. I'm still watching the video but had to stop to say this because the assumptions take away from the video but so far, everything else I've seen is still good. I'm honestly not here to shit on or defend YIIK or Ack studios but the common traits of all video essays, no matter their intent, are the glaring faults of the game. They can do better, their potential is there just not realized. I hope if they make another game they get it and learn from YIIK.

[@ajflink]

I never heard red pill or red-pilled referring to something other than a dramatically contrasting reveal of the truth behind lies.

[@yrdyekcy2709]

That's true. Alex sucked from beginning of game, but I almost stopped playing Danganronpa the same way. After that day I decided to never stop playing until 1h of gameplay, to make sure if story gets better. And well, story got much better. It was dull at the end, but I finished it either way.

[@SirBlackReeds]

I respectfully disagree on the art direction. It looks like art deco and Japanese anime/manga came together, and this union resulted in oddly squat humans. The 3D models are still oddly squat humans when Mega Man Legends had full-body models. Of course, I also have the hindsight of those sketches Brigid Allanson made. The biggest mistake Ackk made with this game was not hiring persons to pick up their slack while the Allansons were grieving the loss of their mother. If they had let other persons finish their work then they could have healed better and their grief wouldn't have spilled into the game. Oof, one can only wonder what Andrew Allanson thinks of Dick Masterson now. I'm surprised you didn't bring up the weird accusation of Neil Druckmann being into lolis in the bit where he was mentioned. It's possible that Wilfrid was initially in Claudio's place, but Ackk felt that a Japanese American otaku is cliché and thus he was swapped rather late in development. How many of the voice actors in this game had a career made through a combination of fan projects, KZbin, and schmoozing at conventions?

[@GameOkay]

I have never heard anyone accuse Neil Druckmann of pedophilia and I would hope that they have actual evidence if they are making such a serious claim.

[@liliflower1376]

I was looking for this pretty negative review of this game I watched like two years ago and I couldn't find it, because someone mentioned this game to me again, and I wanted to refresh myself on why it was so bad, so I clicked this instead. And I'm so glad I did. I think I'm going to give this game a try, especially since it looks like its been updated. I'm glad I finally got a more optimistic, clearer perspective of this game. I love these deep dive videos, I always feel so much afterwords. Thanks for this.

[@GodChaos333]

This is a very good video on this game. Man it’s pretty crazy. I never heard of it before. Actual gameplay and cutscenes are so bad in my opinion, but I will say it has some good things. To be more clear. The art, visuals, and some of the deep thinking is great. but a lot of other things is done very poorly. The dialogue, pacing, and pointless side plots. It’s all very bad. If they make another game. Please learn from these mistakes. Thanks for all your work in this video. Oh one last criticism for the video creator. The name of the video I believe is not good, but I don’t think it’s your fault. The game is hard to defend. Also because the main consensus is that the game is “haha it’s bad, right everyone?...” I think it would have been better if it was simply titled “An in depth look” or “I investigated one of the most hated indie games” (for clickbait) it might have helped people see this actually great video.

[@user-bi3bd9qc6v]

I have never heard of this before. Very interesting.

[@rotten2thebit221]

It’s not that Alex is unlikeable, Or flawed It’s that he is annoying, and to be honest his long verbose monologues aren’t interesting enough to not be frustrating. I feel it “being on purpose” doesn’t excuse this fact, there are many main characters who are terrible people who we want to follow because their lives or the events around them are interesting, even those with long monologues.

[@garudave]

New subscriber because this video was such high quality, keep up the good work!

[@idklol4197]

Subscribing for all the effort you put into this

[@cowboybarbaryn1302]

19:45 love when one of your party member’s attacks is a seizure maker

[@cowboybarbaryn1302]

1:30:26 so I’m not done with the video yet so there could be things that prove me wrong. But from everything I’ve heard so far it sounds like the game had genuinely good concepts. Exploring a dickhead protagonist who’s trying to make himself the hero of a story he has nothing to do with is one really interesting concept I like. But I think the game is held back by execution on most fronts. The game seems to do a good job of calling out Alex on his shit, but it also doesn’t seem to do that great a job of showing him learn from it and grow. It just happens, suddenly he’s a far better man than he started. I think narratively the game is held back by two things, the writing, and the shift of focus to the supernatural. Using the supernatural to tell a story like this isn’t a bad thing, it can actually be a fantastic lens to use. However the narrative gets sidetracked, delving far more into the mechanics and ins and outs of its world than it does the actual story that started us on this journey. additionally a lot of things like Rory talking about his sister’s death and Rory’s own potential death for example, should have had GREAT care put into the writing. And maybe there was, but the combination of dialogue and voice acting for those scenes comes off as largely very clunky, and in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s taking the subject matter as seriously as it should. And maybe those scenes were the writers being sincere, but the quality of the writing holds them back. Additionally a lot of the voice acting in these clips can be genuinely grating, especially in the more serious scenes. Stuff later on into the game is better voice acted, like the “death” of panda for example, but the moments that could’ve used that stronger acting the most didn’t get them.

[@chippedgoat]

An important distinction is, alex never does grow, he tries to, he really wants to, he even defeats his "proto versions" of himself. If you pay attention to the game, you will realize, that the proto versions of Alex, The fat Alex, the pretentious alex, The shady alex and the consumer alex, are all not really indicative of Alex's true faults and they are all very surface level. sure he defeated his p*rn addiction, and sure he may be slightly less pretentious, but even in his final moments of character death, he cant acknowledge his true fault... his selfishness. He can't change himself, He looks to you, to not repeat his mistakes, maybe when a friend is reaching out, you dont just ignore them, maybe dont spend all your time trying to Chace after a missing girl you have no connection to and try and get a job. That's the entire point Of YIIK, to recognize that alex is a flawed piece of shit, and to maybe learn from him. It is not, and this is important, it is NOT a story of betterment, of a man realizing his flaws and improving apon them. I think the reason why the writing seems weird and jumps all over the place, especially with character arc's is because the story is told squarely from alex's perspective. He does not seem to care too much about rory, or even understand sole survivors and the like, so the narrative is weird about them

[@septuater]

That's a very impressive work, great in-depth analysis that I wasn't expecting YIIK to ever get at this point. I hope it will work out for you with this channel. Great video.

[@bababoooeey3657]

Nice video bruv. You've got a rad voice that is clear, concise, and easy to listen to. 👌

[@velvetphi]

Actually, there IS a way to access the lighthouse dungeon in-game. I've found footage of a let's play that accidentally clips out of bounds and enters the lighthouse. It's just like in the "third ending" video, though the game freezes when you reach the boss at the end of the dungeon.

[@GameOkay]

I can't say that I'm surprised that it was possible to clip in there. But since it was a glitch, you couldn't exactly do the content as intended. Maybe that's the secret 5th ending?

[@velvetphi]

@@GameOkay I dunno. I think it's a remnant of the beta ending that just never got removed. There was probably some way to get there legitimately at some point, but it got removed when they remodeled the game. And they just never bothered deleting the loading zone for it, either. I have the game on console and I'm currently testing to see if you can still access it on 1.0.3, and once update 1.25 comes out for console I'll check it again to see if anything's changed.

[@GameOkay]

@@velvetphi I'm planning on talking more about the cut endings in the follow up video. From speaking more with Ackk Studios, I know a bit more about what they were meant to be and why they were removed.

[@velvetphi]

@@GameOkay Oh? I'm really interested to hear what you've found out! Particularly about whether the Krow named Marlene was going to have a bigger role, because of the "Krow Battle" theme in the files that goes unused. It's really interesting to ponder about what could have been from the crumbs of scrapped content left behind, so I'm looking forwards to hearing it!

[@tootsie_]

I need to make a playlist of long analyses of YiiK

[@michaelchoueiri5000]

This was really good

[@phineasfacingforward3460]

This was excellent. Subbed!

[@MrAuthor3DS]

First time I've seen anything from the Cape Juno episode, but it looked like it could have been something fascinating. Maybe it still can? I dunno.

[@avasalvator9347]

i wish they went through with the concept from the demo, it gives very much junji ito!!

[@DarknessIsTheTruth]

I've been thinking about getting this game, but only after that I.V update comes out... though I don't know WHEN that will happen.

[@mreverything7056]

Suddenly found this channel and video, but I'm definetley subbing

[@onigiri2930]

This is a very well put together video

[@livvy94]

1:18:31 one reason a lot of people haven't seen this screen is because they play a pirated version of the game that was dumped on release day, before any bugfix patches had been released.

[@Stimata]

I really appreciate the video and subscribed because of this. I look forward to seeing more!

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

looks like a boring game tbh i dont see why people would play a game when they hear its bad with the intent to shit on it before playing it like, masochism much?

[@OdaSwifteye]

The game is an onion. There are layers. It's not the same kind of bad an asset flip, or a buggy mess, is.

[@Merlandese]

good video. strong video

[@V_y-r_e]

Fantastic video. I’m sorry for your loss. I’m super happy that I saw this. Have a good one!

[@QMMarc]

It's honestly kinda great to see this game outlive that horrible PR and just not fair cyberbully-ish behavior that people gave to it, like, just that breakdown you gave on the Dickshow, which people twist and use it to go ''look how terrible this dev is'' by removing context, or the rest of what he talks about (Which I kinda agree with, some people clearly has issues being in the shoes of an asshole that isn't pretty), is enough to show that you kinda cared more than the meme of hating it. I do think people love to have something to hate and throw around until it snowballs, Twitter and social media are really toxic when a group wants to, context is easy to delete, News Network have been doing that before the internet even existed, it just, I'm just, really sad that the dev got so much hate and unfavorable editing, it's kinda horrible, especially after what they went through before even releasing the game, I don't think the game is perfect either, I like some ideas of it, but it sure trips on itself a lot, but it had more heart than half the Ubisoft games I've played, I rather something with a heart that trips on itself over a shallow experience comparable to a cheeseburger, I do like cheeseburgers, but not always. Hope this channel grows a lot! You clearly did your research, extensive even, so you clearly hard, keep it up!

[@MCarlos15]

Wow, I played throught the whole game and didn't realise LP Toss was so broken. Maybe I wasn't too good with it? xD Edit: I DIDN'T KNOW RORY COULD COMMIT SUICIDE WTF

[@aliceiscalling]

I know at least one reviewer got a glitch where Rory died despite the reviewer being kind. So the game had Rory's voice reading lines while the sprites and text box acted like Rory was gone.

[@MCarlos15]

This game is a mess. But still like it, and I'm waiting for the next update.

[@Spellweaver5]

People's annoyance with Alex really doesn't have to do with his personality or his character arc. It's all caused by how he's presented and he's presented in an annoying way.

[@stagelights_]

on the topic of the red pill thing, i think its kind of sad but also very funny that the red pill became a symbol for misogyny and awfulness when its based on the matrix primarily, a movie made by 2 trans women, and where the red pill is a clear metaphor for transitioning (while in the modern day most estrogen pills are blue, back when the movie came out, estrogen pills were red). the irony is definitely lost on the people who unironically use the term though

[@stagelights_]

@Antonio-Gransci the film is made by 2 trans women who have said the movie is a trans allegory. i don't know how more clear it gets

[@ZwartAdder]

The idea that people dislike Alex because he hits too close too home is so far fetched.

[@based980]

so cool

[@AccV999]

great video op

[@CombatLobster]

Hey, saw this in my recommends and decided to skim it a bit before watching the whole thing and I wanna make a correction to one of your sources. In the 'Two Unique Demos' and 'The beta Ending' sections you attributed the footage as 'Recorded by Grandmaparty' when really they were recorded and uploaded by me. (You can even find those videos on my channel) I understand how you could make that mistake, but I just wanted to point that out.

[@GameOkay]

Thanks for the correction.

[@flameloude]

I've never played this game, only found out about it like two years after it came into existance and never plan to. But because i've consume so much of this game through video analysis of the game i have a very stroge opinon on alex. Mainly that i don't agree with the game developer's comment about alex being an unlikable character hench the backlash he got. I belive alex was just very purely exicuted. Like i get that he's not suppose to be a likeable guy, but i don't think they intended for him to be so insufferable. You point out a few things that could of done better. Alex narration not pausing the game for what feels like a goo minute or two at the time breaking the pacing of the game. But that's not the only problem with his narration. It's the constant recollection of events that had just happen. Then there are points of waste of time. The hunt for the lp that wakes up the robot is a fine example. In the context of the univese you are sent on (from what i understand from videos) a multi hour wild goose chase just because no one looked at the lp sleeve. The whole time you have to listen to alex narrate and narrate while looking at him on a bus. Or once again retelling the events of the game the player had already been on. Oh look i just reach the point of you explaining the said interview i mention at the start.... listening to it, it kind of makes my point mute.... oh well might as well post to feed the algorithm

[@Heroman3003]

This is a great video, and Im glad I watched it, but just for myself I'll leave a tl;dr: Game's very much kinda bad, but also purely because game itself and its writing isn't that good, not due to some horrible malicious messages/intentions.