YIIK: A Postmodern RPG Reviews
YIIK might have been able to get away with some of its issues if other areas were able to pick up the slack.
Trying to bring the feel of a different era into the modern limelight is quite the task, and YIIK almost pulls it off. While it sports great old-school visuals, it just can’t overcome its other flaws. The shallow combat gets old quickly, the characters aren’t all that endearing, and the pacing doesn’t do the game any favours. You’d be better off playing one of the games that YIIK imitates. Those who want to go back in time may very well find a game they love, but I didn’t.
Rough design, a lack of polish, a discombobulated story, and hard-to-bear battles make it hard for me to recommend YIIK to anyone but the most fervent collector of 'odd' games. Save yourself the time, and replay the Mother/Earthbound games instead.
If it wasn’t already obvious, I think YIIK is a game that everyone should play. It is not a perfect game – rarely do titles come along that feature wholly agreeable mechanics – but it manages to use fabulous music, voice acting, and addictive combat in order to tell an extremely original story. This is one of the rare titles that has challenged me to rethink what I believe is possible in the medium, let alone the Role-playing genre, and for that, I give it my healthiest and most adamant recommendation.
