{"id":18766,"date":"2019-02-15T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T00:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18766"},"modified":"2019-01-28T14:14:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T14:14:46","slug":"yiik-a-postmodern-rpg-switch-ps4-vita-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/15\/yiik-a-postmodern-rpg-switch-ps4-vita-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (Switch, PS4, Vita, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The late 90\u2019s was a pretty memorable time for me.\u00a0 I had just graduated college and was at the peak of my game writing for The Dallas Morning News.\u00a0 So playing YIIK: A Postmodern RPG really hit home for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s an RPG set in the late 90\u2019s, and the main character even just finished graduating college, too!\u00a0 Heck, even the title feels like the 90\u2019s, as \u2018postmodernism\u2019 was a big buzz word when I was in college.\u00a0 This game always caught my eye at trade shows I\u2019ve been to in the past, mainly because of its bright and color N64\/PSOne era graphics, and the return to classic style RPG battles.\u00a0 So I\u2019m glad I got to review it on the Switch!<\/p>\n

In the game you play as Alex.\u00a0 He just finished graduating college and is now living back at home with his mom.\u00a0 On a run to the grocery store, he stumbles upon an abandoned factory.\u00a0 When he explores it, he meets a mysterious girl and gets sent to another dimension and\u2026well, the game gets pretty weird after that, so I won\u2019t spoil it for you.\u00a0 The game does a good job with the settings.\u00a0 Instead of fantasy themed towns and dungeons, you\u2019ll explore places like suburbs (there\u2019s still an overworld, though).\u00a0 You use payphones to save your game, and instead of potions, your healing items are things like cheeseburgers, salads, and sodas.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of a mix between Earthbound and Undertale.<\/p>\n

Battles are pretty typical turn-based RPG fare.\u00a0 You\u2019ll encounter silly enemies like smiley faces and cartoony rats, as well as foreboding interdimensional spirits.\u00a0 So yeah, like Earthbound.\u00a0 But there are some action sequences in battles as well.\u00a0 Your main character uses records to attack, and you must press the button at the right time as a record spins on a turntable to do combo damage.\u00a0 Another player uses a digital camera and you must press the right buttons as a roll of film goes by.\u00a0 You even play mini-games to dodge and defend, and must do a small 2-D platforming segment to run away from enemies.\u00a0 In this way, the game kind of reminds me of Costume Quest as well.\u00a0 You can also use some of your battle skills outside of fights to solve puzzles in dungeons and whatnot.<\/p>\n

Most of the problems I had with the game are just personal preferences, so the game really isn\u2019t that bad at all.\u00a0 It focuses more on story than battles, which I would rather it be the other way around.\u00a0 Also, the battles are pretty long and drawn out, and don\u2019t move as fast as I\u2019d like.\u00a0 I also wish they would\u2019ve streamlined how you level up.\u00a0 To gain levels, you must enter the \u201cMind Dungeon\u201d via a payphone and explore floors and open doors to increase your stats, and spend your experience points to move to levels below.\u00a0 It just felt like busy work to me and kept me from really sinking my teeth into the game further.<\/p>\n

Really the best part of the game is the late 90\u2019s setting, which they nailed just right.\u00a0 You can even go on the internet and visit outdated web sites and view choppy videos that take forever to download, but you can only do it on computers that are connected via phone wires to the Web!\u00a0 The below screenshot really impressed me, as it pretty much sums up the kinds of games I liked back then, too!\u00a0 If the developers make another one like this, I hope they make it set in the 80\u2019s!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is rated M for Mature with ESRB descriptors of Violence and Strong Language.\u00a0 While they do use curse words in the text, I didn\u2019t feel like they overused them unnecessarily.\u00a0 When you battle enemies, it doesn\u2019t actually show you hitting them, and defeated characters either disappear or fall over.\u00a0 All the other violence and mature themes are just implied in the text only, as they do mention things like porn sites and such.\u00a0 Honestly I\u2019d be OK with more mature, older teens playing this game, too, as long as they can handle some of the themes in the text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The late 90\u2019s was a pretty memorable time for me.\u00a0 I had just graduated college and was at the peak of my game writing for The Dallas Morning News.\u00a0 So playing YIIK: A Postmodern RPG really hit home for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s an RPG set in the late 90\u2019s, and the main character even just finished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18771,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions\/18771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}