That lady who gets kidnapped in the elevator is based off a real mystery case of a woman who was found dead in the hotel's water supply. The only footage they could get of her is her strange behavior in the elevator which this game recreated. I don't recall whether they ruled it as a suicide or murder, and honestly it sounds more of the latter. The creator puts that in his game because he states he wants the "story to finish." But his inclusion is just insulting, nothing to do with the mystery. The girl he created was even stated in the game itself to just be bait to draw Alex in. She was just a damsel in distress. There's absolutely no reason for her to be based off that lady's death at all.
I haven't paid attention when watching playthroughs of it(and a pretty in-depth review of the game by TehSnakrer), but was that mystery never mentioned again after that? Because from most of the parts I vividly remember not a single one I saw acknowledges or even attempts to say what was "unfolded" in it at all
I believe it’s been ruled a suicide because there’s no evidence of foul play, it’s incredibly difficult to believe it actually being possible for her to do it.
@@Hu-kun Nada, it was just a standard "people think she disappeared but I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED" trope. One that can easily not be alluded to the actual case. It's so in bad taste.
The lock scene pisses me off because the writer is clearly trying to pussy foot around the joke while making the joke unintentionally more offensive than its meant to be by having the black guy spaz out even tho the question was directed at anyone present in group, meanwhile in Walking Dead Kenny DIRECTLY says "Lee YOU can probably pick a lock, right?"
In addition to that, Claudio’s response is nonsensical. Lee has every right to be put off by Kenny’s ignorance and responds indignantly since Kenny implied he must have had a criminal background. Claudio accuses Alex of racism even though Alex very clearly wasn’t addressing him. The joke in the Walking Dead was funny because it was accurate to Kenny’s character and his flaws. The one in YIIK makes Claudio seems incredibly sensitive and self-conscious to the point of absurdity.
@@Samm815 Killing is still a crime though, so I would say this constitutes as "criminal background" The joke comes from general racial prejudice against black people as "thugs and criminals" which people like Kenny have, so it works with him and his character, and Lee is obviously justified in getting angry with Kenny's assumption
And even then, Lee didn't go "Oh, you're not saying what I think you're saying." Until Kenny said: "Because you're... you know..? Urban?" And in this case (unlike in YIIK), Kenny is the butt of the joke (not Lee) and he says sorry once he realizes what he just said was stupid.
I honestly think it would have worked if they just knew to stfu. Like the first line and then a "nah i'm just fucking with you guys" or playing it deliberately straight for comedy in a way the character went "...so anyway" and picked it immediately. But it doesn't. He's not playing it up and being stupid about it he's just playing straight for drama. Like shit I genuinely gotta chuckle then had a glare dash across my face the longer it went on trying not to let the joke just end.
"Heavy metal is the aural manifestation of all things good and powerful in the world. It contains the perfect positive energies to dispel hate, racism, sexism, poverty!" Very obvious that this guy has never heard the vast majority of metal music
Yeah. The "we fight bad things like sexism and racism" is mostly a punk rock shtick. Think something like green day. Depending on the subgenre it can be about blood and gore (Death Metal) cults and satan (Black Metal) Mythical creatures and tales (Power Metal) historical events (Power Metal again but specifically Sabaton)
@@sharzinlalebazri5673 And even then the sound of it is completely insane. Like for example the song "Forced Gender Reassignment" By cattle corpse. It's obviously a...pro-Trans song but god DAMN listening to it and reading the lyrics is gross. No one is going to say "This totally changed my mind on the issue"
It makes perfect sense once you know about the game. Two Brothers was buggy as hell and people WANTED to like it but couldn't get past the fact that it was borderline unplayable, and rather than try and fix the game he just gave up and pulled it from Steam because fixing bugs is HAAAAAAARD. The Two Brothers reference at the end (and all throughout the game really) is just Allanson publicly denying responsibility for Two Brothers' failure and trying to claim that evil haters ruined his amazing, perfectly playable game. Which he then did AGAIN when YIIK failed. I suspect if he ever makes a third game then YIIK will be put up on the same godlike pedestal in that story.
@@SuperLlama42 Actually, I think Two Brothers actually got pulled because it stole from the soundtrack of Shadow of the Colossus. Or at least that was a good excuse to pull it, if they didn't have to do that.
This guy just reeks of insecurity. Not like Yandev, but close. He's one of those people that can't take the criticism towards his work and his response is akin to "You're just too stupid to understand my Avant-garde masterpiece. I'm an artistic genius!"
Please call Alex by his name, calling him "Yandev" makes dev sound like an insult. Also, yeah, they're both pathetic but at least YIIK's creator isn't a weeb that thinks hentai is highbrow content
@@mattwo7 Well...actually it does, if you were an actual developer, would you wanna be associated with him? Hell, even calling him human makes me feel insulted by association.
No More Heroes, God of War, Drakengard, Tales of the Abyss, Lisa, Baten Kaitos, The Last of Us, Disgaea, Final Fantasy VII and VIII and .Hack//GU says hi.
See, that's actually got me thinking. Call me basic, but take Red from Pokemon- he's canonically mute to some degree, and yet in my eyes manages to be a much better protagonist than Alex. And of course, Crono from Chrono Trigger has personality through his actions that make him a good, likable character without having to say a word.
And there’s Lea from Cross Code who is silent because of a speech synchronization problem, and can only say a few words that she is slowly given throughout the game like “Hi!”
To be fair, there are some great RPG's where the protagonist isn't silent and actually have personalities. Zidane from Final Fantasy 9 is a pretty good example imo as well as Rean Schwarzer from Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel.
All of the hate would've been more contained if the dude had just said something like "This game was made with the specific choice of being this way on purpose." But no, he had to basically insult everyone and claim his game is a masterpiece when it isn't
Even if he did that, everybody would be mad at him for making a shit game and then backing out of his mistake by making a poor excuse of it was supose to be that way and if you don't like it its just because it isn't your style. Sorry for my bad english not my first lenguege and have a good day
@@lamlelamatsiliza8550 it is certently not in any way. Its like a creepypasta made by the edgiest teenage emo kid in the world. You can see that the author wanted to do good but he just has shit taste that isn't developed, but also thinks that everything is great because he likes it. There is nothing good about this gamę exceppt the fact that it shows how bad it can get without trying to make it bad on purpose. Sorry for my bad english not my first lenguege and have a good day.
@@Kacszu I mean your English kac, sorry for not being specific about it and yeah I really hate the author, the pretentiousness of his work an interview Made me hate game even more. I just don't understand why he make art that's obviously bullseye but then think everyone is dumb for thinking videogames are not art except they are. His is just childish.
He never claimed that, and his “I thought games were art” comment was directed at a specific tweet saying games should only be fun, which is a very regressive, Modernist take on what should be recognized as an artistic medium. Also, he doesn’t have to say shit was intentional, Post-Modern is right in the title, that should tell you everything you need to know and expect.
@@fatherpucci8170 No, his mistake was thinking other people knew art, specifically post-modern art. Which this is. It's great at being post-modern art! It's just that intensely post-modern art is inherently an experience that will not try to be enjoyable in the standard ways. If YiiK were more successful in standard ways, it would be a game with Post-modern elements, not a post-modern game. Post-modern art is inherently contradictory and combative, and often dares the viewer to give up and quit. It's also rarely commercially successful or even popular amongst non-dada fanatics, and only sees success when sprinkled over a more standard product, like Earthbound/Lisa/Undertale. I'd blame the developers for thinking anyone would want to buy this if it hadn't been successfully crowdfunded. I think their surprise and confusion was earned.
@@zoeb3573 From a Post-Modern lens, which the game explicitly asks to be viewed under (which was apparently too much to ask of gamers), the game is somewhere between a B and a C-. Barely adequate to good, depending on your Post-Modern tastes. From a Dadaist lens, which the game benefits from but crucially does not explicitly demand, the game is an easy A or higher. Purely as a consumer product, it's pretty bad, unless you experience second or third hand, then it's middling again (because you get all the best hilarious weird shit without having to actually sit through twenty hours of adequate puzzles and terrible combat).
@@pantslesswrock Funnily enough, I think the main issue is that the game is way too safe. It's trying too hard to be different and post-modern, but it keeps falling face first into mainstream tropes, and it can't make it work with the rest of the vibe of the game. If it really went more into the unusual stuff, it would be a lot better. Heck, all the critics I've seen say the same - the less mainstream parts of the game are the most interesting parts and the ones they're more interested in and wished the game had more of. But it just keeps avoiding that and playing it safe. It's not so much that people don't get post-modernism. The game is just bad at being post-modern. It's kind of bad at being... anything. Which is sad, because the part where it's really trying something different are cool.
The real problem is that the Autor didn't just admit that the game had Issues. If he end up being honest and just said "My game is very unconventional, so is very normal that people are going to feel mixed about the end product since I made it in a way that people are not going to clikc right away" You would have end up saving so much face, instead of "EVERYONE IS A MORON AND YOU CLEARLY DON'T UNDERSTAND MY MASTERPIECE" Also the Writing was all over the place, there's no saving that aspect.
It’s so weird. I love YIIK as a concept and yet, it’s so awful. I find myself watching multiple videos like this one just to see how much potential it had, only to be thrown away.
@@joshshrum2764 Oh for sure!! I love what those games did for my mentality and heck, they’ve influenced my own ocs. When I say I like YIIK- it’s no where near the love and respect I have for those classics
@@ziongamer6905 They really did the same thing for me OC wise it may not be to unique of a concept but i made a female Asriel OC, though i made her very different, and more of a OC, then just Asriel, with lady parts, and a higher voice still she’s my best character and one i mainly roleplay as so i very much respect Undertale, and love that in came into my life. Lastly i love that profile of Hyperdeath Asriel, with the pocky stick in his mouth.
I hate post modernism but could still appreciate a good game, even if I disagree with its points. I think even post modernists hated that game, or they lied to themselves and others lol
@@hi_tech_reptiles Personally I like deconstruction and postmodern absurdism. It's why I like Rick and Morty so much, it's built upon both. I mean I don't care much for the nihilistic details associated with absurdism but it made Rick a great character.
Tbf, almost all "rpgs" can be considered that. Seriously there are almost no actual RPGs, just a bunch of jrpg's and "having skill tree=we're an rpg" games
Commenting on the title, I will always think that video games are art. If they aren’t art, then by default, neither is animation, music, programming, voice acting, and graphics. Everything has an art to it! As for YIIK, it’s one of those things that I forget about until it’s mentioned again, especially in terms of the long cutscenes. I do agree you can have a character who’s bad but still liked!
Yeah, GTA, Bully and even Final Fantasy X had protagonist who do bad shit and are usually assholes (I didn't like Tidus) but I still liked the game AND their story because at least you felt interest in what they whant to do Jimmy (Bully) is an asshole who wants to just be let alone and don't be bothered by other students CJ (GTA San Andreas) wants to make his gang the most important in Los Santos and later in the game wants to take revenge on someone who betrayed him Tidus wants to go back to his hometown and later in the game wants to protect a girl who he loves and kill a giant religious Godzilla
@Darling Vexa Art I'm writing a story where the protagonist is narcissistic and kinda manipulative. When he and his friends end uo discovering a dangerous secret he is the first one to say "Let's do as if we saw nothing", but when things get worse he actually takes responsibility for his actions and has to make sacrifices that affect him to save othee people
I'd agree and argue that Video Games are the most condensed form of art because it contains: Animation, Literature, Music, Visual Arts, Storytelling, etc.
In a game about taking personal responsibility, the developers seemed to want to take none. Also, they apparently rewrote the game to be less cynical yet the original ending of the game was a lot more optimistic. And then they decide to put the game's "true end" in a fucking youtube video.
@@a.dennis4835 the true ending you drive to a light house and go to another reality to find proto alex instead of fighting the hopeless fight that kills everybody.
@@a.dennis4835 Basically doing a bunch of random puzzles (that aren't actually in the game) and stumbling onto a way to confront Proto Alex before Y2K, which allows you to actually defeat him in a way that doesn't reset reality and allows everyone to survive. Alex realizes he's been a self righteous asshole and says a few things that suggest he's been through the normal ending at least once already. He makes a few comments about how he's grown as a person in a way that directly contradicts not only the normal ending, but the developer's comments about how Alex is meant to be unlikeable. And its all presented in a way that suggests the players don't deserve a happy ending because they don't praise the game enough.
From what I recall, I think that one was originally meant to be in the game. But during the productionof the game, the developers mother passed away. And after taking a break from the game to mourn, they returned and found that the ending didn't really vibe with them anymore, and thus removed it.
What Andrew needs to do - first, anyway - is to stop hiding behind excuses for why people don't like YIIK. He can't just boil it down to "They just get mad at protagonists that do bad things or start off bad," especially when there's ones like Luke, Neku, Travis, Brad, Kratos, Ragna, and so on that fit those criteria but end up beloved anyway - and that's because those characters are interesting and/or go through personal growth. Alex, on the other hand, is really boring and static.
There are great ways to develop a main character from being an unlikable ass to a good person. Take Luke from Tales of the Abyss. He’s such an ass that some people even quit playing the game before they reached the turning point in his character arc. But when the turning point DOES happen, about a third or half of the way into the game, he FEELS like a real person. Avoiding spoilers, his actions caused some extremely bad things to happen. He realizes how much of a selfish ass he was, goes through a period of self-loathing, and starts to overcompensate for all the crap he did. He reconciles with the rest of the cast, who had left him earlier because he pissed them all off, and promises that he has and will continue to change for the better. YIIK should’ve taken notes.
Overall, I’d say Yiik suffers the most from overambition mixed with pretentiousness. The writing tries so hard to be smart, unique and profound, but fails SO many boxes in writing 101 by basically telling EVERYTHING and showing nothing, the pacing is awful by just having mountains of boring and unnecessary text that feel like they’d be removed in a rough draft of a script but...for some reason, are still kept in the game!, and having characters that feel like nothing more than mouthpieces to move the story forward or plot devices rather than...well, actual characters. Other than Alex, but you already went into detail about his issues, and I call BS that people can’t like characters who are unlikable or can’t identify with. The main thing is that those characters eventually grow and have their own arc (Joel from The Last of Us) or suffer consequences for their actions (Brad Armstrong from Lisa the Painful RPG), and yet Alex has neither until the *very* end of the game, and at that point most people wouldn’t care much for his character due to have to slog through the rest of it. The worst thing you can make an unlikable character is boring, and that’s all Alex is and nothing more. I’d even say the voice acting contributes to the abysmal writing as well, since while I can applaud the creators for having a fully-voiced indie RPG, that doesn’t make it good when the voice direction is shoddy at best and the voice quality is so wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s fine, while at other times it’s like they recorded it in a basement through a phone microphone. And when you have bad voice acting to sit through atop of the poorly paced and bad writing, it just mixes into a recipe for disaster. I can tell that the devs actually tried with this game, which I can respect to some degree, but all the effort in the world won’t mean squat if you can’t nail the execution. And also aren’t a close-minded twat who can’t handle legitimate criticism for your game, since god forbid you actually use its flaws as a learning experience and improve in the future!
Andrew Allanson: Gamers don't like unlikable characters. Me: Travis Touchdown is one of my favorite characters and he's quite unlikable. Also, there Neku, Luke, Laharl, Caim, Kalas, Kratos and Martin Walker. There's more but you catch my drift.
@@ChiefMedicPururu exactly, he matured and yes not every “unlikable” protagonist has to drastically change but just an example of one of the ways to do it right
You know, I don't care much for the buzzword "mansplain" and I'm sure there's plenty of people in this comment section who don't either but I don't think there's a better word for how this game was written...
One of my favorite pieces of fiction (not my all-time favorite; that's still Dracula,) has as its main character a compulsive worry-wart, whose inner concerns and worries are explained, each in turn, to the reader, before he speaks. This comes across as a pointless waste at the beginning, but it later turns out that his endless worrying allowed him to anticipate future dangers that none of the other characters foresaw. My point is; in games, as in fiction generally, there are exceptions to every rule except one; write your story *well.*
I was so hardly disappointed with this game. I love indie RPGs, I love outlandish ideas where they just fight god, and the graphics were just fantastic. This game is eye candy and looks beautiful. .....the bad part is literally everything else and that’s an understatement
I think the Mind Dungeon was inspired by the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X, but they did it really wrong. The Sphere Grid let you customise your characters the way you like, even with basic grid that is more linear than the advanced grid. You can make Wakka (a physical attacking character) learn black magic and still win the game using him as a black mage, while Yiik just makes you upgrade stats, not learning new skills, not making you do new things, just make your numbers go high
32:40 for me the first time that I’ve ever ran into a character in an RPG was actually the first RPG I ever played and it’s still one of my favorites. Grandia 2 and its main character Ryudo. Through most of the game he snarky, but more often than not he makes good points. He said some horrible things happened to him, but it doesn’t prevent him from eventually becoming a good person willing to fight a dark God to save the world and those he cares about. He and all the other characters you play as go through arcs. Heck one of the characters is a robot and her arc is basically learning how to be a person, with every good and bad thing that entails. The sad thing is the title of the game almost shoots self in the foot. “A post modern RPG” With that. all of the philosophizing and scientific jargon they throw into this game (quoted almost Word for Word from the science section of Wikipedia) makes it far too pretentious to want to sit through and take seriously.
... Games *are* art... Just look at No Straight Roads... That game may have flaws but is a delight for the eyes :) ... ... ... ... And the ears. Oh boy it's an eargasm inducing game
No Straight Roads, Okami, Ghost of Tsushima, the list goes on. Yiik is art, too (If a banana duct taped to a wall can be called art, then really anything). Granted it's the same tier as a dyslexic 5-year old's macaroni art
Games are art, and like any artform, there'll be pretentious hacks who think they're smarter than they really are and throw temper tantrums when people don't appreciate their obvious genius.
@@marvalice3455 Modern humanities often define art as a modus of communication instead of being an inherent quality of an object anyways. That's why a urinal in a toilet isn't and a urinal in a museum is art. The latter conveys a meaning and one can think about what said meaning is. That's why games are generally an artform, they are a cultural artifact that conveys a certain meaning, either intended or unintended. However, the term "art" is often used as a pretentious term with the idea that art is the form of media, that is culturally more significant than other media is (either by being extraordinarily well crafted or having an extraordinarily important meaning). And because pretentious pricks use the term in that way, a third meaning of "art" is a pejorative term to define something, that is unecessarily elitist by design. I think the video title uses "art" in this third meaning here.
Yeah YIIK is still a bad game even with a big update/patch besides if you want true Earthbound-like games and are love letters to the Earthbound series I would recommend Citizens Of Earth, Undertale, and LISA The Painful. Heck, I would rather play Paper Mario Sticker Star and Paper Mario Color Splash even Paper Mario The Origami King these games have a story, music, characters with personalities, and fun gameplay in my opinion. YIIK and the brothers who made the game already ruined their careers by insulting people and releasing a game that pretty much slaps you in the face and put a reverse UNO card on you a very bad reverse UNO card.
plus basing a real girl's death off of a character in the story and it didn't even need to be based off of her death since the two are not the same in any way
Man, Origami King at least has a good writing and sometimes a good gameplay. I was so surprised that Nintendo was willing to kill one of your characters on screen
Another one I recommend is Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, which was originally released all the way back in the 90’s on the PS1, and just recently resurfaced as an English port on the Switch.
@@almalone3282 It’s in the opening at the start of the game. They drive past a family and Tommy suggests they stop and help them, but Joel tells him to keep driving instead since he was solely focused on their safety.
@@crossdaboss8914 Huh??? Nowhere in my comment did I even mention Ellie, so idk why you even brought her up. Edit: Just reread OP’s comment, so you should’ve tagged them instead of me.
Fun fact: heavy metals are actually deadly to people and are even sometimes made into poisons. Knowing this doesn’t just make Mark a waist of time but an inaccurate waste of time
As for minigame action commands in combat, most other games do it in much simpler and/or reserved ways. The Paper Mario games use simple commands almost all around, saving slightly more complex ones for more potent moves. Final Fantasy 10 only does this with four of the characters' Overdrives - and even then, they're typically simple commands. Mother 3 kinda does this with its "Sound Battle" mechanic - but it's just to add extra little hits to normal attacks.
@@Oreboat No i meant disliking actual furry characters not the group of people like it would be racist if anthro people were real still either way i would accept them.
@@dfox6222 That’s basically my exact point like who cares. Also to many people judge or are picky about how well endowmented my OC, is when it’s kinda rude to dislike someone for there size.
My favorite artistic game still is and will probably always be 2007's original Bioshock. While certainly not perfect, it is a game that I consider to absolutely be a work of art in every sense of the word and it takes full advantage of how video games can resonate as an artistic experience. There's so many different ways it does this, on several levels both technical and creative.
I love the fact that the whole search for the record could have been made so much less stupid, if they just didn't use that particular image as the record sleeve. the quest would still be a terrible waste of time, but changing the label would make it a slightly more tolerable waste of time. As for the Rory scene, I still don't agree with Alex. In my opinion, it is a case of "making the good point at the wrong time" with a side order of "Making the good point the wrong way." Maybe there's also a bit of "Making a good point with the wrong person," considering that Alex wastes tons of the player's time and ends up actually getting the entire universe killed.
I know my opinion won't matter since I never played the game myself and I am only judging from this video and countless other videos I seen. I actually agree with Alex it's just the way he worded it was wrong. The phrase "making the good point at the wrong time" would apply more to Rory then Alex since they just escaped death themselves and the first thing Rory talks about is the spot where his sister died. It would have been more appropriate if Rory mentioned it when the characters are talking about what happened at their hang out place.
@@stormbreak7003 I don't know if there's really a bad time to process grief, especially if it's causing suicidal thoughts. Being an asshole to someone that's going through that though, I'm not sure there's ever an appropriate time for that, even if the asshole has a point. I'm just thinking Alex should have probably kept that to himself. It couldn't hurt, seeing as his dialogue contributes nothing through most of the last part of the chapter.
Yiik rewrite ideas: Make Alex actually fucking develop Instead of taking place in the 90s, the game takes place in modern day, but with 90s aesthetics and 90s elements. Regular show took place in modern day but had lots of 80s elements. Make Rory actually scene. Like, at least give him a Gir hoodie. Make Alex’s excess dialogue optional. Like how there will be extra dialogue if you interact with things. Make sammy not based on a real person
@@alpyki2588 I'm fine, if you read the live chat, I have no plans on ever touching this game. But I should've better expressed this, once that update hits, people may consider speedrunning the game. I've no patience for a game of this nature.
If you want to make your game about a massive jerk redeeming themselves you can’t wait until the final act to have them start on the road to redemption. By the time Alex is finally self aware enough to try earnestly to be a better person all of the people who he’s hurt are already dead and it all rings hallow. If you hate Alex for how he treated his friends them seeing him vow to be better once they’re all gone isn’t going to mean a whole lot to you.
@@temp1326 Yeah, I agree. The gameplay gets boring due to stagnant character's that don't learn more moves, moves that take a lot of resources and effort for little payoff, and is kinda bland. The story is screwed up in so many fundamental ways, I don't know where to begin. Music's decent though. Overall, the game is mediocre, but it has some decent ideas that make me wish they were executed better.
oh man. That persona 4 ps2 opening is so nostalgic when i was younger. I will say though that ive been playing since persona 3/fes myself. That and shin megami tensei 3/digital devil saga also before that also.
@@Mangakamen That's the problem since it's mechanics didn't age all too well. Golden fixed some of them but mainly stayed true to the formula it already established. I like the shin megami tensei approach where they tell you to just play and not to die while doing so. I do think falcom did this really well in the jrpg department. Ys and the trails series were a bit more concise and didn't hold you hand much, if at all. The story/characters was great and well written also so that helps alot.
Games can be art, but at the same time, doesn't have to be that as well. I can enjoy a masterpiece with well written plot and characters, but at the same time, I can enjoy Dynasty Warriors of all things and pursue Lu Bu. Not saying you can't be ambitious about your game but don't forget that this is a video game. The most important thing you need for your game is fun and entertainment value, something YiiK lacks to the point of turning the game into nothing but pretentiousness.
0:58 Should have pleaded with the elevator's machine spirit instead. I hear machine spirits are a lot more receptive to prayer than gods, which makes it a good thing that the Ecclesiarchy cleared up that the Man-Emperor isn't a god.
Yeah the big thing about unlikable or otherwise "bad-person" protagonists is that they need to have some kind of hook. Characters like Walter White and Light are perfect examples of this where you can somewhat relate to what they do due to getting to see the decent from a fairly normal person into the deplorable asshole. Obviously at some point they start making choices that most any viewer would not, but by then there's usually some kind of secondary pure entertainment value from just seeing how far they're going to go. And even though the situations they get themselves into are bad, it's still interesting to see how they use clever solutions or brute force to navigate them. Other characters like Kratos work because while he obviously goes way too far and ultimately everything was his own fault to begin with, you can still at least somewhat relate to his motivation of wanting revenge for what happened to his family. Walter White and Light have this to some degree as well with their motivations for their bad actions being understandable and relatable, even if the solutions they come to are deplorable. The point being that usually an audience still needs to relate to someone in the cast to at least some degree. Especially in a game where you are literally controlling at least one of the characters. So if that character is not relatable in any meaningful capacity, and they're extremely unlikable, then there's just nothing for someone to really latch onto. At the very least in such a situation, you need some other interesting hook to keep the player engaged, and they should probably at least start their character fairly early on, instead of just say, at the very end of the game
YiiK is so fascinating to me. I truly believe it could have been something super interesting but...it’s the story, gameplay and characters that reaaaaaaaally hold it back. I don’t want them to stop making games; i want them to keep trying. I do think there’s serious potential for something good! ...and i know this is a unpopular opinion but i love the art style of the game lol. Idk, it’s really bizarre in a good way for me. Anyways. Yiik sucks but honestly I’ll check out any future projects from the team.
7:14 As badly done as that is given the year the story takes place, it is rather touching that the game's creator and/or team included a tribute to Satoru Iwata.
It would have been cool of Claudio was the main character. Since it's based in the 90s when Anime was startin to boom in the states would have been fun. Or maybe I'm just think of No More Heroes...Is Claudio based off of Travis Touchdown???
Funny thing is, the unlikable protagonist has been done right. An example that pops into my head is Luke Fon Favre from Tales of the Abyss: A spoiled noble, selfish, knows little of the outside world. Has friction with many of the team members. Is an asshole to the group mascot, Mieu. But you're still interested in him and where his story goes. And he actually becomes a decent guy by the end of the game. Alex, though... it's like the creator started with an unlikable main character and forgot you're supposed to make them change be the end.
One of Yiiks worst scenes takes place in a sewer, One of Yakuza 0's best scenes takes place in a sewer Why do I bring this up? Because I'm shilling for Yakuza
"It was May 2nd, 1998, 12:01PM" now hear me out, this could work in a book (a lot of description and dialogues from this game feel like they were written for a book, not a visual medium), if it was stated by an omniscient narrator and as a way to showcase that it was such a big moment for her that the narration feels the need to point out the very minute it happened. However, it does not work if it narrated in first person or spoken in dialogue, because her looking at the clock that closely isn't realistic. The 3rd person narrator makes you FEEL like it was so important the minute mattered even if you kinda know it's an exaggeration, but a 1st person retelling pointing out the minute is too much, because it's supposed to be taken literally, and I mean, who would do that?
Another example of a character that is pretty much a douche to sometimes downright evil but the player can still enjoy and find sympathetic towards (or at least funny as hell) rufus from the deponia series. It's a german point and click adventure with 4 parts now and I highly recommend it. Specially if you are a fan of lucas art point and click adventures.
The current day market is made up of a vast, diverse set of cliques and communities. If you execute well enough, there is a market. Getting lots if publicity and not being successful only to blame "gamers" is a huge red flag. People actually forgive bad starts, if you don't antagonise everyone the No-Man's-Sky-redemption-arc kind if path is open to you.
Now, what would have been funny would have been if Alex had said "No, I didn't assume *you* could pick a lock... I was asking if anyone *here* could... just because it would be useful. You were the one thinking that I asked a specific person."
Wait a minute... Claudio voice actor looks familiar... hold on I need to Google this for a moment. *One Google search later* Ohhhhhh..... Yeah.... It's Antfish.... Oh god, that hurt!
He's a long time voice actor online know for Anime's I Don't Watch, then Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged, and has been with Team Four Star. And he's also the guy who did the "Every Class is Different" Spy video.
I gonna say it. Without taking into account all the other problems, i would not play that game just because how the voice lines sound.....and thats without looking into the dialogue being said. edit: also regarding that "likebility" statement, made what imagine is the author failed game, i guess that GTA is just not popular anymore. You what i though while playing GTA vice city? "what a great guy this tommy vercetti is. I can totally indetify him." fuck me, one of my favorite rpgs is the hack//g.u. series where the character starts as a general asshole but he is challenged for his reckless/selfish actios, then grows and changes. men i think im gonna replay G.U.
Oblivion has better sounding dialogue than YIIK, and one of the voiceovers in Oblivion accidentally left the actress asking if she can "do it again" only for her to give a worse delivery than her first attempt.
The mind dungeon just reeks of "we're trying to do The Velvet Room from Persona 4" without actually understanding its purpose and thus creating a superfluous system.
I'm sorry to say this. Even current Ubisoft games (or any game made by triple A company) have a some sort of good story than YiiK (Don't hate me for making this comment). Edit: My standards are kinda low.
Honestly given how games have been going lately I’m done treating games like art. People who make games as art lately have become pretentious and using it as a way to dictate morality and use it as a way to say “your a bad person if you don’t agree with everything in my game” Unfortunately the most likely alternative to that is games as a service or product which is just companies going “how can we milk this for maximum profit” I want games to be treated as just that GAMES, fun boredom buster
Play disco elysium, or the first two fallouts. Games can be “fun boredom busters”, but that can also be art. Not everything has to conform what you want specifically.
I swear, if they fixed the weird repetitive gameplay and cuts the unnesecary dialouges in half and rebrands it into a "Visual Novel" it would go from 0/10 to at least 5/10 in my book.
Okay I'm going to compare Alex to Ratchet from the first Ratchet & Clank game, In the first Ratchet & Clank game Ratchet didn't really care about stopping the bad guy for most of the game. He cared more about going to the beach getting weapons and getting payback against Captain Qwark It wasn't until he saw a city being destroyed that ratchet realized how much of a selfish prick he was and goes with clank to stop Drek. Ratchet was still selfish but over the course of the game he grew into a hero
not only does the various characters' arcs and subplots don't matter (as they die before any of the subplots and arcs are even completed, hell chondra and claudio NEVER reunite with their brother, as an example) but the main plot of Sammy Pak's disappearance is compeltely discarded and never brought up again outside a difficult to find secret ending. But it doesn't stop there! The Soul Survivor stuff? seemingly completely unrelated to the main plot and once the endgame starts, it's never brought up again. We don't even learn anything about them, let alone why one of them took Sammy Pak (or anything about her) or how accurate Vella's knowledge about the paranormal is (which again doesn't matter cause she dies anyway). Like you know how in most RPGs you rarely see the main villain until the ending? This game literally does that, as the main villain only appears LITERALLY MINUTES before the final boss in order to give you an honestly vague info dump, said main villain never interacting with any characters or even being hinted at until this ending, and has NOTHING to do with the plot the game originally started wwith.
![Ranting About Terrible Characters for 46 Minutes [Life is Strange VS No More Heroes]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7OJLpFeH7nM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ranting About Terrible Characters for 46 Minutes [Life is Strange VS No More Heroes]](/img/tr.png)
That lady who gets kidnapped in the elevator is based off a real mystery case of a woman who was found dead in the hotel's water supply. The only footage they could get of her is her strange behavior in the elevator which this game recreated. I don't recall whether they ruled it as a suicide or murder, and honestly it sounds more of the latter. The creator puts that in his game because he states he wants the "story to finish." But his inclusion is just insulting, nothing to do with the mystery. The girl he created was even stated in the game itself to just be bait to draw Alex in. She was just a damsel in distress. There's absolutely no reason for her to be based off that lady's death at all.
I haven't paid attention when watching playthroughs of it(and a pretty in-depth review of the game by TehSnakrer), but was that mystery never mentioned again after that? Because from most of the parts I vividly remember not a single one I saw acknowledges or even attempts to say what was "unfolded" in it at all
I believe it’s been ruled a suicide because there’s no evidence of foul play, it’s incredibly difficult to believe it actually being possible for her to do it.
@@Hu-kun Nada, it was just a standard "people think she disappeared but I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED" trope. One that can easily not be alluded to the actual case. It's so in bad taste.
Wasn't she found in the hotel's water tower? It's a pretty messed up story that happened fairly recently.
@@alpyki2588 water tank but yes she was.
The lock scene pisses me off because the writer is clearly trying to pussy foot around the joke while making the joke unintentionally more offensive than its meant to be by having the black guy spaz out even tho the question was directed at anyone present in group, meanwhile in Walking Dead Kenny DIRECTLY says "Lee YOU can probably pick a lock, right?"
In addition to that, Claudio’s response is nonsensical. Lee has every right to be put off by Kenny’s ignorance and responds indignantly since Kenny implied he must have had a criminal background. Claudio accuses Alex of racism even though Alex very clearly wasn’t addressing him. The joke in the Walking Dead was funny because it was accurate to Kenny’s character and his flaws. The one in YIIK makes Claudio seems incredibly sensitive and self-conscious to the point of absurdity.
@@Mangakamen He murdered a senator who was sleeping with his wife. I wouldn't call that a "criminal background." He's a goddamn history professor.
@@Samm815 Killing is still a crime though, so I would say this constitutes as "criminal background"
The joke comes from general racial prejudice against black people as "thugs and criminals" which people like Kenny have, so it works with him and his character, and Lee is obviously justified in getting angry with Kenny's assumption
And even then, Lee didn't go "Oh, you're not saying what I think you're saying." Until Kenny said: "Because you're... you know..? Urban?"
And in this case (unlike in YIIK), Kenny is the butt of the joke (not Lee) and he says sorry once he realizes what he just said was stupid.
I honestly think it would have worked if they just knew to stfu. Like the first line and then a "nah i'm just fucking with you guys" or playing it deliberately straight for comedy in a way the character went "...so anyway" and picked it immediately. But it doesn't. He's not playing it up and being stupid about it he's just playing straight for drama. Like shit I genuinely gotta chuckle then had a glare dash across my face the longer it went on trying not to let the joke just end.
"Heavy metal is the aural manifestation of all things good and powerful in the world. It contains the perfect positive energies to dispel hate, racism, sexism, poverty!"
Very obvious that this guy has never heard the vast majority of metal music
Yeah. The "we fight bad things like sexism and racism" is mostly a punk rock shtick. Think something like green day. Depending on the subgenre it can be about blood and gore (Death Metal) cults and satan (Black Metal) Mythical creatures and tales (Power Metal) historical events (Power Metal again but specifically Sabaton)
@@sharzinlalebazri5673 Or Vikings. Don't forget Vikings.
@@doomguy19931 of course.
@@sharzinlalebazri5673 And even then the sound of it is completely insane. Like for example the song "Forced Gender Reassignment" By cattle corpse. It's obviously a...pro-Trans song but god DAMN listening to it and reading the lyrics is gross. No one is going to say "This totally changed my mind on the issue"
That statement alone sounds like it was said by someone who is a hardcore metal fan and hates every existing music genre.
This dude was just butthurt af when people didn't like his overly pretentious garbage, also the two brothers reference at the end made no sense.
It made since for the artist I guess?
It makes perfect sense once you know about the game. Two Brothers was buggy as hell and people WANTED to like it but couldn't get past the fact that it was borderline unplayable, and rather than try and fix the game he just gave up and pulled it from Steam because fixing bugs is HAAAAAAARD.
The Two Brothers reference at the end (and all throughout the game really) is just Allanson publicly denying responsibility for Two Brothers' failure and trying to claim that evil haters ruined his amazing, perfectly playable game. Which he then did AGAIN when YIIK failed. I suspect if he ever makes a third game then YIIK will be put up on the same godlike pedestal in that story.
Sounds like a Neil Druckman in training
@@SuperLlama42 Actually, I think Two Brothers actually got pulled because it stole from the soundtrack of Shadow of the Colossus. Or at least that was a good excuse to pull it, if they didn't have to do that.
ikr.
This guy just reeks of insecurity. Not like Yandev, but close. He's one of those people that can't take the criticism towards his work and his response is akin to "You're just too stupid to understand my Avant-garde masterpiece. I'm an artistic genius!"
And that is terrible
AND SAD
Give it this. The game is release compare to yandev.
Please call Alex by his name, calling him "Yandev" makes dev sound like an insult.
Also, yeah, they're both pathetic but at least YIIK's creator isn't a weeb that thinks hentai is highbrow content
@@cinnastag No it doesn't. It makes "Yandev" sound like an insult. Kind of a _huge_ difference.
@@mattwo7 Well...actually it does, if you were an actual developer, would you wanna be associated with him? Hell, even calling him human makes me feel insulted by association.
"Gamers get triggered when the protagonsta does something terrible and can´t relate"
Spec Ops the Line?
NieR as a whole too
Both Replicant/Gestalt and Automata
Let's not forget The World Ends With You's protag
No More Heroes, God of War, Drakengard, Tales of the Abyss, Lisa, Baten Kaitos, The Last of Us, Disgaea, Final Fantasy VII and VIII and .Hack//GU says hi.
@@DrZuluGaming oooo I just finished Tales of Abyss last month
Luke is such an interesting character
So basically any of Yoko Taro’s games?
so this is why most of RPG protagonists are silent
so thing like alex won't happen in the first place
See, that's actually got me thinking. Call me basic, but take Red from Pokemon- he's canonically mute to some degree, and yet in my eyes manages to be a much better protagonist than Alex. And of course, Crono from Chrono Trigger has personality through his actions that make him a good, likable character without having to say a word.
And there’s Lea from Cross Code who is silent because of a speech synchronization problem, and can only say a few words that she is slowly given throughout the game like “Hi!”
if possible RPG protag must not mute. so i can enjoy my character.
dont lump it with alex, he didnt represent RPG.
To be fair, there are some great RPG's where the protagonist isn't silent and actually have personalities. Zidane from Final Fantasy 9 is a pretty good example imo as well as Rean Schwarzer from Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel.
If we're Talking about silent protagonists then jacket (from hotline miami) takes the cake
Summary: It's basically "Good Idea, Poor execution" all over again.
Fully agree
I’d argue somewhat good idea, given the monologues and overly long explanations.
It's not a good idea, but that is not necessarily a death sentence
Mediocre idea
Garbage execution
@@marvalice3455 That's your opinion. I just believe any idea can become a good game if executed properly.
games are art. not all art is good. sometimes art is just pretentious and meaningless garbage. especially true with most modern art.
Agreed
My man 🤝
Games are the culmination of different forms of media and art (animation, music, aesthetic art, story, etc)
@@eternalroots6753 yes indeed
No... It's a mass product.
All of the hate would've been more contained if the dude had just said something like "This game was made with the specific choice of being this way on purpose." But no, he had to basically insult everyone and claim his game is a masterpiece when it isn't
Even if he did that, everybody would be mad at him for making a shit game and then backing out of his mistake by making a poor excuse of it was supose to be that way and if you don't like it its just because it isn't your style. Sorry for my bad english not my first lenguege and have a good day
@@Kacszu really? Though it was decent.
@@lamlelamatsiliza8550 it is certently not in any way. Its like a creepypasta made by the edgiest teenage emo kid in the world. You can see that the author wanted to do good but he just has shit taste that isn't developed, but also thinks that everything is great because he likes it. There is nothing good about this gamę exceppt the fact that it shows how bad it can get without trying to make it bad on purpose. Sorry for my bad english not my first lenguege and have a good day.
@@Kacszu I mean your English kac, sorry for not being specific about it and yeah I really hate the author, the pretentiousness of his work an interview Made me hate game even more. I just don't understand why he make art that's obviously bullseye but then think everyone is dumb for thinking videogames are not art except they are. His is just childish.
He never claimed that, and his “I thought games were art” comment was directed at a specific tweet saying games should only be fun, which is a very regressive, Modernist take on what should be recognized as an artistic medium.
Also, he doesn’t have to say shit was intentional, Post-Modern is right in the title, that should tell you everything you need to know and expect.
"My mistake was thinking games are art!"
No, your mistake was thinking you were good at art.
And his mistake was thinking he knew art
@@fatherpucci8170 No, his mistake was thinking other people knew art, specifically post-modern art. Which this is. It's great at being post-modern art! It's just that intensely post-modern art is inherently an experience that will not try to be enjoyable in the standard ways. If YiiK were more successful in standard ways, it would be a game with Post-modern elements, not a post-modern game. Post-modern art is inherently contradictory and combative, and often dares the viewer to give up and quit. It's also rarely commercially successful or even popular amongst non-dada fanatics, and only sees success when sprinkled over a more standard product, like Earthbound/Lisa/Undertale. I'd blame the developers for thinking anyone would want to buy this if it hadn't been successfully crowdfunded. I think their surprise and confusion was earned.
@@pantslesswrock It can be all that, but was it too much to ask it to be good?
@@zoeb3573 From a Post-Modern lens, which the game explicitly asks to be viewed under (which was apparently too much to ask of gamers), the game is somewhere between a B and a C-. Barely adequate to good, depending on your Post-Modern tastes. From a Dadaist lens, which the game benefits from but crucially does not explicitly demand, the game is an easy A or higher. Purely as a consumer product, it's pretty bad, unless you experience second or third hand, then it's middling again (because you get all the best hilarious weird shit without having to actually sit through twenty hours of adequate puzzles and terrible combat).
@@pantslesswrock Funnily enough, I think the main issue is that the game is way too safe. It's trying too hard to be different and post-modern, but it keeps falling face first into mainstream tropes, and it can't make it work with the rest of the vibe of the game. If it really went more into the unusual stuff, it would be a lot better. Heck, all the critics I've seen say the same - the less mainstream parts of the game are the most interesting parts and the ones they're more interested in and wished the game had more of. But it just keeps avoiding that and playing it safe. It's not so much that people don't get post-modernism. The game is just bad at being post-modern. It's kind of bad at being... anything. Which is sad, because the part where it's really trying something different are cool.
The real problem is that the Autor didn't just admit that the game had Issues.
If he end up being honest and just said "My game is very unconventional, so is very normal that people are going to feel mixed about the end product since I made it in a way that people are not going to clikc right away" You would have end up saving so much face, instead of "EVERYONE IS A MORON AND YOU CLEARLY DON'T UNDERSTAND MY MASTERPIECE"
Also the Writing was all over the place, there's no saving that aspect.
Or even just say “I designed this game in a way I like”.
His statement also really annos me. Like only he could make games art or not
at least I have a new literary term because of him, "misgendering the cat"
An artsy game whose creator lashes out uttering pretentious shit? That's an easy way to earn apathy and disdain.
@@dangerwarg9682 And make artists in general look bad by perpetrating a stereotype.
the virgin YIIK vs the chad Charles Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
The chad UnderTale.
The chad Megaman Sprite Game.
I really like charles as a character. Rough, racist, people actually blaming him for his past actions, but deep inside he's a good person.
The chads Nier, Nier Automata, Persona 4 and 5
The chad omori
It’s so weird. I love YIIK as a concept and yet, it’s so awful. I find myself watching multiple videos like this one just to see how much potential it had, only to be thrown away.
You mean you love YIIK as a concept, right?
@@ChiefMedicPururu Oh yeah as a concept, i should clarify that
Nothing will touch me as lovingly as Undertale, and Lisa, to be honest.
@@joshshrum2764 Oh for sure!! I love what those games did for my mentality and heck, they’ve influenced my own ocs. When I say I like YIIK- it’s no where near the love and respect I have for those classics
@@ziongamer6905 They really did the same thing for me OC wise it may not be to unique of a concept but i made a female Asriel OC, though i made her very different, and more of a OC, then just Asriel, with lady parts, and a higher voice still she’s my best character and one i mainly roleplay as so i very much respect Undertale, and love that in came into my life. Lastly i love that profile of Hyperdeath Asriel, with the pocky stick in his mouth.
I dunno what people expected from a "post modern RPG". It's technically everything it promised to be lol
I mean you can have a postmodern RPG with zero dialogue simply because it's postmodern so....
I hate post modernism but could still appreciate a good game, even if I disagree with its points. I think even post modernists hated that game, or they lied to themselves and others lol
@@hi_tech_reptiles Personally I like deconstruction and postmodern absurdism. It's why I like Rick and Morty so much, it's built upon both. I mean I don't care much for the nihilistic details associated with absurdism but it made Rick a great character.
Tbf, almost all "rpgs" can be considered that.
Seriously there are almost no actual RPGs, just a bunch of jrpg's and "having skill tree=we're an rpg" games
When I heard the post modern RPG part I thought it was a reference to the og fallout being called fallout a post nuclear game
*Elevator shakes, vibrating with motion*
Commenting on the title, I will always think that video games are art. If they aren’t art, then by default, neither is animation, music, programming, voice acting, and graphics. Everything has an art to it!
As for YIIK, it’s one of those things that I forget about until it’s mentioned again, especially in terms of the long cutscenes. I do agree you can have a character who’s bad but still liked!
Yeah, GTA, Bully and even Final Fantasy X had protagonist who do bad shit and are usually assholes (I didn't like Tidus) but I still liked the game AND their story because at least you felt interest in what they whant to do
Jimmy (Bully) is an asshole who wants to just be let alone and don't be bothered by other students
CJ (GTA San Andreas) wants to make his gang the most important in Los Santos and later in the game wants to take revenge on someone who betrayed him
Tidus wants to go back to his hometown and later in the game wants to protect a girl who he loves and kill a giant religious Godzilla
@Darling Vexa Art I'm writing a story where the protagonist is narcissistic and kinda manipulative. When he and his friends end uo discovering a dangerous secret he is the first one to say "Let's do as if we saw nothing", but when things get worse he actually takes responsibility for his actions and has to make sacrifices that affect him to save othee people
I'd agree and argue that Video Games are the most condensed form of art because it contains: Animation, Literature, Music, Visual Arts, Storytelling, etc.
@thunder key Well...the signed urinal and the bag of piss itself wasn't the art. It was the signature and the action thereof
"you are furry so your opinion means nothing" this is a new one by the "intellectual" type .
It's internet code for "I ran out of arguments but still want to feel like I won."
@@bat6353 that applies to the nerd and clown emoji too.
That dude just can’t accept that his game isn’t as good as he thinks
Yeah. Some "artists" have their heads shoved way too far up their asses.
NO ONE CARES ABOUT *GOOD WRITING IN A GAME*, WE ALMOST JUST DIED BACK THERE!!
If games aren’t art then why do I have 7500 hours of Brain Games for Nintendo DS?!
That’s good question
Why do you have 7500 hours in brain training
Ya brain must be super stronk now
Big brain time
Damn almost a whole year?! Stronk as brain ya have there.
In a game about taking personal responsibility, the developers seemed to want to take none. Also, they apparently rewrote the game to be less cynical yet the original ending of the game was a lot more optimistic. And then they decide to put the game's "true end" in a fucking youtube video.
What is the true ending?
@@a.dennis4835 Something about not being good enough for the player.
@@a.dennis4835 the true ending you drive to a light house and go to another reality to find proto alex instead of fighting the hopeless fight that kills everybody.
@@a.dennis4835 Basically doing a bunch of random puzzles (that aren't actually in the game) and stumbling onto a way to confront Proto Alex before Y2K, which allows you to actually defeat him in a way that doesn't reset reality and allows everyone to survive. Alex realizes he's been a self righteous asshole and says a few things that suggest he's been through the normal ending at least once already. He makes a few comments about how he's grown as a person in a way that directly contradicts not only the normal ending, but the developer's comments about how Alex is meant to be unlikeable. And its all presented in a way that suggests the players don't deserve a happy ending because they don't praise the game enough.
From what I recall, I think that one was originally meant to be in the game. But during the productionof the game, the developers mother passed away. And after taking a break from the game to mourn, they returned and found that the ending didn't really vibe with them anymore, and thus removed it.
What Andrew needs to do - first, anyway - is to stop hiding behind excuses for why people don't like YIIK. He can't just boil it down to "They just get mad at protagonists that do bad things or start off bad," especially when there's ones like Luke, Neku, Travis, Brad, Kratos, Ragna, and so on that fit those criteria but end up beloved anyway - and that's because those characters are interesting and/or go through personal growth. Alex, on the other hand, is really boring and static.
There are great ways to develop a main character from being an unlikable ass to a good person. Take Luke from Tales of the Abyss. He’s such an ass that some people even quit playing the game before they reached the turning point in his character arc. But when the turning point DOES happen, about a third or half of the way into the game, he FEELS like a real person. Avoiding spoilers, his actions caused some extremely bad things to happen. He realizes how much of a selfish ass he was, goes through a period of self-loathing, and starts to overcompensate for all the crap he did. He reconciles with the rest of the cast, who had left him earlier because he pissed them all off, and promises that he has and will continue to change for the better.
YIIK should’ve taken notes.
Overall, I’d say Yiik suffers the most from overambition mixed with pretentiousness. The writing tries so hard to be smart, unique and profound, but fails SO many boxes in writing 101 by basically telling EVERYTHING and showing nothing, the pacing is awful by just having mountains of boring and unnecessary text that feel like they’d be removed in a rough draft of a script but...for some reason, are still kept in the game!, and having characters that feel like nothing more than mouthpieces to move the story forward or plot devices rather than...well, actual characters. Other than Alex, but you already went into detail about his issues, and I call BS that people can’t like characters who are unlikable or can’t identify with. The main thing is that those characters eventually grow and have their own arc (Joel from The Last of Us) or suffer consequences for their actions (Brad Armstrong from Lisa the Painful RPG), and yet Alex has neither until the *very* end of the game, and at that point most people wouldn’t care much for his character due to have to slog through the rest of it. The worst thing you can make an unlikable character is boring, and that’s all Alex is and nothing more.
I’d even say the voice acting contributes to the abysmal writing as well, since while I can applaud the creators for having a fully-voiced indie RPG, that doesn’t make it good when the voice direction is shoddy at best and the voice quality is so wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s fine, while at other times it’s like they recorded it in a basement through a phone microphone. And when you have bad voice acting to sit through atop of the poorly paced and bad writing, it just mixes into a recipe for disaster.
I can tell that the devs actually tried with this game, which I can respect to some degree, but all the effort in the world won’t mean squat if you can’t nail the execution. And also aren’t a close-minded twat who can’t handle legitimate criticism for your game, since god forbid you actually use its flaws as a learning experience and improve in the future!
Andrew Allanson: Gamers don't like unlikable characters.
Me: Travis Touchdown is one of my favorite characters and he's quite unlikable. Also, there Neku, Luke, Laharl, Caim, Kalas, Kratos and Martin Walker.
There's more but you catch my drift.
I think he's just mad that other games get praised for their unlikable characters because they have people that know how to write.
Atleast with Travis and neku they actually have a personality and grow
Literatly everyone from the lisa series
not just Caim, literally the entire player party in drakengard lol
Don't forget Handsome Jack, he's a unlikable bastard, but is universally loved because of his dry wit and comedic timing
Yiik's title sounds like JonTron throwing up!
You can imagine that noise echoing from down the toilet.
And the game company who made it is called Ackk Studios.
It's like they're daring us to make JonTron noises jokes.
ECH
If games are not art then those goosebumps not real from the ost I listen .
He also said that people don't like bad characters I guess LISA (game) not exist.
Brad, Buddy, and if we dip into fan games, Tim and Alex, all bad people doing bad things for bad reasons, but great characters.
If you want another example of a spoiled and unlikable protagonist that is great:
Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss
Frieza Frieza, Friezahaha
hohoho and that was WAY before he became an anti-villain in Super.
@@makotoyuki345 He is only one at first, tho.
@@ChiefMedicPururu exactly, he matured and yes not every “unlikable” protagonist has to drastically change but just an example of one of the ways to do it right
You know, I don't care much for the buzzword "mansplain" and I'm sure there's plenty of people in this comment section who don't either but I don't think there's a better word for how this game was written...
There is a condescending tone to the writing.
Condescending but not mansplaining, because it has nothing to do with gender specifically. It's just a guy being a douchbag.
One of my favorite pieces of fiction (not my all-time favorite; that's still Dracula,) has as its main character a compulsive worry-wart, whose inner concerns and worries are explained, each in turn, to the reader, before he speaks. This comes across as a pointless waste at the beginning, but it later turns out that his endless worrying allowed him to anticipate future dangers that none of the other characters foresaw. My point is; in games, as in fiction generally, there are exceptions to every rule except one; write your story *well.*
Out of curiosity, what piece of fiction is that? I’m always looking for new books/stories
I was so hardly disappointed with this game. I love indie RPGs, I love outlandish ideas where they just fight god, and the graphics were just fantastic. This game is eye candy and looks beautiful.
.....the bad part is literally everything else and that’s an understatement
I think the Mind Dungeon was inspired by the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X, but they did it really wrong. The Sphere Grid let you customise your characters the way you like, even with basic grid that is more linear than the advanced grid. You can make Wakka (a physical attacking character) learn black magic and still win the game using him as a black mage, while Yiik just makes you upgrade stats, not learning new skills, not making you do new things, just make your numbers go high
I actually found the Sphere Grid to obnoxious in FFX. If that's the good example, I can't imagine how wretched the Mind Dungeon must be to use.
@@a.dennis4835 Yeah, Sphere grid is kinda annoying sometimes, but is a good sistem. The Mind Dungeon not
32:40 for me the first time that I’ve ever ran into a character in an RPG was actually the first RPG I ever played and it’s still one of my favorites. Grandia 2 and its main character Ryudo. Through most of the game he snarky, but more often than not he makes good points. He said some horrible things happened to him, but it doesn’t prevent him from eventually becoming a good person willing to fight a dark God to save the world and those he cares about. He and all the other characters you play as go through arcs. Heck one of the characters is a robot and her arc is basically learning how to be a person, with every good and bad thing that entails.
The sad thing is the title of the game almost shoots self in the foot.
“A post modern RPG”
With that. all of the philosophizing and scientific jargon they throw into this game (quoted almost Word for Word from the science section of Wikipedia) makes it far too pretentious to want to sit through and take seriously.
... Games *are* art... Just look at No Straight Roads... That game may have flaws but is a delight for the eyes :)
...
...
...
... And the ears. Oh boy it's an eargasm inducing game
No Straight Roads, Okami, Ghost of Tsushima, the list goes on. Yiik is art, too (If a banana duct taped to a wall can be called art, then really anything). Granted it's the same tier as a dyslexic 5-year old's macaroni art
Games are art, and like any artform, there'll be pretentious hacks who think they're smarter than they really are and throw temper tantrums when people don't appreciate their obvious genius.
Games are art, but art is not good in and of itself. Art is a category which includes both great and pathetic efforts
@@marvalice3455 Modern humanities often define art as a modus of communication instead of being an inherent quality of an object anyways. That's why a urinal in a toilet isn't and a urinal in a museum is art. The latter conveys a meaning and one can think about what said meaning is. That's why games are generally an artform, they are a cultural artifact that conveys a certain meaning, either intended or unintended. However, the term "art" is often used as a pretentious term with the idea that art is the form of media, that is culturally more significant than other media is (either by being extraordinarily well crafted or having an extraordinarily important meaning). And because pretentious pricks use the term in that way, a third meaning of "art" is a pejorative term to define something, that is unecessarily elitist by design. I think the video title uses "art" in this third meaning here.
@@JoniWan77 the modern humanities are wrong.
Yeah YIIK is still a bad game even with a big update/patch besides if you want true Earthbound-like games and are love letters to the Earthbound series I would recommend Citizens Of Earth, Undertale, and LISA The Painful.
Heck, I would rather play Paper Mario Sticker Star and Paper Mario Color Splash even Paper Mario The Origami King these games have a story, music, characters with personalities, and fun gameplay in my opinion.
YIIK and the brothers who made the game already ruined their careers by insulting people and releasing a game that pretty much slaps you in the face and put a reverse UNO card on you a very bad reverse UNO card.
And the new character (I wonder what recent game he got that idea from)?
plus basing a real girl's death off of a character in the story and it didn't even need to be based off of her death since the two are not the same in any way
Yeah, LISA The Painful is a great game.
Man, Origami King at least has a good writing and sometimes a good gameplay. I was so surprised that Nintendo was willing to kill one of your characters on screen
Another one I recommend is Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, which was originally released all the way back in the 90’s on the PS1, and just recently resurfaced as an English port on the Switch.
This is why I like jrpgs like kingdom hearts Final Fantasy and older persona and smt stuff .
Keep up the great videos mangakamen
32:37 did he forget The Last of Us where Joel literally abandons a family with a kid because he wants to protect Ellie and his brother
I'm sorry when was this? I played the game twice and the only family I remember is the black brothers
@@almalone3282 It’s in the opening at the start of the game. They drive past a family and Tommy suggests they stop and help them, but Joel tells him to keep driving instead since he was solely focused on their safety.
@@amirgarcia547 that wasnt Ellie was his daughter from before the outbreak but you point still stands
@@crossdaboss8914 Huh??? Nowhere in my comment did I even mention Ellie, so idk why you even brought her up.
Edit: Just reread OP’s comment, so you should’ve tagged them instead of me.
@@amirgarcia547 yea sorry didnt mean to tag you must have misclicked lol
Oh man. These Megas XLR references are like my bread and butter when watching your reviews. Keep it up
Fun fact: heavy metals are actually deadly to people and are even sometimes made into poisons. Knowing this doesn’t just make Mark a waist of time but an inaccurate waste of time
As for minigame action commands in combat, most other games do it in much simpler and/or reserved ways. The Paper Mario games use simple commands almost all around, saving slightly more complex ones for more potent moves. Final Fantasy 10 only does this with four of the characters' Overdrives - and even then, they're typically simple commands. Mother 3 kinda does this with its "Sound Battle" mechanic - but it's just to add extra little hits to normal attacks.
The creator of this game is the type that would defensively say "I don't even care" when he actually cares immensely.
Oh
A non-furry version for the Snowflakes
The Hume Kamen expressions are good, too.
People that don’t like anthro furs are racist and i don’t care what you say.
...
@@Oreboat No i meant disliking actual furry characters not the group of people like it would be racist if anthro people were real still either way i would accept them.
We shouldn’t hate on anyone tbh. We shouldn’t be hating furries, weebs, gamers, or people of a different race
@@dfox6222 That’s basically my exact point like who cares. Also to many people judge or are picky about how well endowmented my OC, is when it’s kinda rude to dislike someone for there size.
My favorite artistic game still is and will probably always be 2007's original Bioshock. While certainly not perfect, it is a game that I consider to absolutely be a work of art in every sense of the word and it takes full advantage of how video games can resonate as an artistic experience. There's so many different ways it does this, on several levels both technical and creative.
”Alex, the Ginger boy with an Attitude”
I love the fact that the whole search for the record could have been made so much less stupid, if they just didn't use that particular image as the record sleeve. the quest would still be a terrible waste of time, but changing the label would make it a slightly more tolerable waste of time.
As for the Rory scene, I still don't agree with Alex. In my opinion, it is a case of "making the good point at the wrong time" with a side order of "Making the good point the wrong way." Maybe there's also a bit of "Making a good point with the wrong person," considering that Alex wastes tons of the player's time and ends up actually getting the entire universe killed.
I know my opinion won't matter since I never played the game myself and I am only judging from this video and countless other videos I seen. I actually agree with Alex it's just the way he worded it was wrong. The phrase "making the good point at the wrong time" would apply more to Rory then Alex since they just escaped death themselves and the first thing Rory talks about is the spot where his sister died. It would have been more appropriate if Rory mentioned it when the characters are talking about what happened at their hang out place.
@@stormbreak7003 I don't know if there's really a bad time to process grief, especially if it's causing suicidal thoughts. Being an asshole to someone that's going through that though, I'm not sure there's ever an appropriate time for that, even if the asshole has a point.
I'm just thinking Alex should have probably kept that to himself. It couldn't hurt, seeing as his dialogue contributes nothing through most of the last part of the chapter.
Yiik rewrite ideas:
Make Alex actually fucking develop
Instead of taking place in the 90s, the game takes place in modern day, but with 90s aesthetics and 90s elements. Regular show took place in modern day but had lots of 80s elements.
Make Rory actually scene. Like, at least give him a Gir hoodie.
Make Alex’s excess dialogue optional. Like how there will be extra dialogue if you interact with things.
Make sammy not based on a real person
24:00 It kind of hurts chandra's point that the story starts with an asian woman going missing and no one caring.
0:22 - I wonder how many types of avatars this dude would point out to disregard critique.
The best thing to come out of Yiik was that it gave us the return of the almighty trio of good boys: Oney, Ding Dong and Julian.
There exist no speedruns for this game... might start once the game gets its big update.
Are... are you okay? Is this a cry for help? :D
@@alpyki2588 I'm fine, if you read the live chat, I have no plans on ever touching this game. But I should've better expressed this, once that update hits, people may consider speedrunning the game. I've no patience for a game of this nature.
There has to be some game-breaking bug that warps you to the end of the game. We just need to find that.
Alex speaks too much to himself that I think even Raziel from Soul Reaver would tell this guy to shut up.
What is it with pretentious indy devs acting like they're the greatest thing on earth?
Another video tearing into YIIK, one of the most condescending and poorly-made (post) modern RPGs? Sign me up!
I really went into a hole over it the only good thing is Into The Mind, and this SNES cover th-cam.com/video/vDuE8TOrGUw/w-d-xo.html
Yiikes; a postmortem rotten piece of garbage.
I hope the developers of YIIK learn from their failure and make a great product some day.
Games ARE art. Yiik ISN'T
No it’s art, however it is not good art and that is important.
@@annabella1650 Yeah, it's pretentious bullshit.
YiiK ISN'T... GOOD art! 👍
@@kawaiiqueee3489
Always remember it’s really hard to disqualify something as art, but you can certainly say that it sucks at being such!
To repeatedly quote Naked Snake: This Isn't Interesting. This Isn't Interesting.
*THIS ISN'T INTERESTING.*
me when the elevator shakes, vibrating with motion: 😨
If you want to make your game about a massive jerk redeeming themselves you can’t wait until the final act to have them start on the road to redemption. By the time Alex is finally self aware enough to try earnestly to be a better person all of the people who he’s hurt are already dead and it all rings hallow. If you hate Alex for how he treated his friends them seeing him vow to be better once they’re all gone isn’t going to mean a whole lot to you.
Oh boy. This looks interesting.
I see you in every video about YiiK omg
the games flawed
Go away alex
@IsaacInfernape2000 Okay, if you're going to make fun of Autism and Asperger's, at least spell them right.
@@temp1326 Yeah, I agree. The gameplay gets boring due to stagnant character's that don't learn more moves, moves that take a lot of resources and effort for little payoff, and is kinda bland. The story is screwed up in so many fundamental ways, I don't know where to begin. Music's decent though. Overall, the game is mediocre, but it has some decent ideas that make me wish they were executed better.
I guess the name YiiK is appropriate, knowing it sounds like what one would say if they were forced to talk about their experience playing it.
9:10 DUDE WTF THAT’S YURIOFWIND!!! YURI WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!!??!!
oh man. That persona 4 ps2 opening is so nostalgic when i was younger. I will say though that ive been playing since persona 3/fes myself. That and shin megami tensei 3/digital devil saga also before that also.
@@Mangakamen That's the problem since it's mechanics didn't age all too well. Golden fixed some of them but mainly stayed true to the formula it already established. I like the shin megami tensei approach where they tell you to just play and not to die while doing so. I do think falcom did this really well in the jrpg department. Ys and the trails series were a bit more concise and didn't hold you hand much, if at all. The story/characters was great and well written also so that helps alot.
Games can be art, but at the same time, doesn't have to be that as well. I can enjoy a masterpiece with well written plot and characters, but at the same time, I can enjoy Dynasty Warriors of all things and pursue Lu Bu.
Not saying you can't be ambitious about your game but don't forget that this is a video game. The most important thing you need for your game is fun and entertainment value, something YiiK lacks to the point of turning the game into nothing but pretentiousness.
You can tell this guy just wanted to make Earthbound but with faux deep edge lords so bad, and failed miserably.
0:58 Should have pleaded with the elevator's machine spirit instead. I hear machine spirits are a lot more receptive to prayer than gods, which makes it a good thing that the Ecclesiarchy cleared up that the Man-Emperor isn't a god.
Yiik kinda sounds like the noise my cat makes when he's about to puke.
Scott pilgrim is what Alex should’ve been but fails to do so
Yeah the big thing about unlikable or otherwise "bad-person" protagonists is that they need to have some kind of hook. Characters like Walter White and Light are perfect examples of this where you can somewhat relate to what they do due to getting to see the decent from a fairly normal person into the deplorable asshole. Obviously at some point they start making choices that most any viewer would not, but by then there's usually some kind of secondary pure entertainment value from just seeing how far they're going to go. And even though the situations they get themselves into are bad, it's still interesting to see how they use clever solutions or brute force to navigate them.
Other characters like Kratos work because while he obviously goes way too far and ultimately everything was his own fault to begin with, you can still at least somewhat relate to his motivation of wanting revenge for what happened to his family. Walter White and Light have this to some degree as well with their motivations for their bad actions being understandable and relatable, even if the solutions they come to are deplorable.
The point being that usually an audience still needs to relate to someone in the cast to at least some degree. Especially in a game where you are literally controlling at least one of the characters. So if that character is not relatable in any meaningful capacity, and they're extremely unlikable, then there's just nothing for someone to really latch onto. At the very least in such a situation, you need some other interesting hook to keep the player engaged, and they should probably at least start their character fairly early on, instead of just say, at the very end of the game
YiiK is so fascinating to me. I truly believe it could have been something super interesting but...it’s the story, gameplay and characters that reaaaaaaaally hold it back. I don’t want them to stop making games; i want them to keep trying. I do think there’s serious potential for something good! ...and i know this is a unpopular opinion but i love the art style of the game lol. Idk, it’s really bizarre in a good way for me. Anyways. Yiik sucks but honestly I’ll check out any future projects from the team.
7:14
As badly done as that is given the year the story takes place, it is rather touching that the game's creator and/or team included a tribute to Satoru Iwata.
It would have been cool of Claudio was the main character. Since it's based in the 90s when Anime was startin to boom in the states would have been fun.
Or maybe I'm just think of No More Heroes...Is Claudio based off of Travis Touchdown???
Not to take away from the arguments, because I love these videos in general, but I really like that MangaKamen uses Megas XLR clips. Love that show.
Funny thing is, the unlikable protagonist has been done right. An example that pops into my head is Luke Fon Favre from Tales of the Abyss: A spoiled noble, selfish, knows little of the outside world. Has friction with many of the team members. Is an asshole to the group mascot, Mieu. But you're still interested in him and where his story goes. And he actually becomes a decent guy by the end of the game. Alex, though... it's like the creator started with an unlikable main character and forgot you're supposed to make them change be the end.
One of Yiiks worst scenes takes place in a sewer, One of Yakuza 0's best scenes takes place in a sewer
Why do I bring this up? Because I'm shilling for Yakuza
@@Mangakamen Absolutely, also thank you for responding to my comment senpai
Also, Kuse is an awesome villain.
The only thing saving Rory for me is that he's voiced by Yuriofwind.
dear lord those mouth animation cycles are way too fast. its also just 2 additional frames for important characters which arent even full body frames.
"It was May 2nd, 1998, 12:01PM" now hear me out, this could work in a book (a lot of description and dialogues from this game feel like they were written for a book, not a visual medium), if it was stated by an omniscient narrator and as a way to showcase that it was such a big moment for her that the narration feels the need to point out the very minute it happened. However, it does not work if it narrated in first person or spoken in dialogue, because her looking at the clock that closely isn't realistic. The 3rd person narrator makes you FEEL like it was so important the minute mattered even if you kinda know it's an exaggeration, but a 1st person retelling pointing out the minute is too much, because it's supposed to be taken literally, and I mean, who would do that?
Another example of a character that is pretty much a douche to sometimes downright evil but the player can still enjoy and find sympathetic towards (or at least funny as hell) rufus from the deponia series. It's a german point and click adventure with 4 parts now and I highly recommend it. Specially if you are a fan of lucas art point and click adventures.
The fact you referenced The Walking Dead Season 1 with Lee made me want to cry, goddammit.
The current day market is made up of a vast, diverse set of cliques and communities. If you execute well enough, there is a market. Getting lots if publicity and not being successful only to blame "gamers" is a huge red flag.
People actually forgive bad starts, if you don't antagonise everyone the No-Man's-Sky-redemption-arc kind if path is open to you.
The first 8 hours of Persona 4 are the tutorial... And i love every second of it.
im on a yiik critique binge god help me
they're so addicting man, seeing all the different ways people can insult all of yiik's fuck ups is really entertaining
Now, what would have been funny would have been if Alex had said "No, I didn't assume *you* could pick a lock... I was asking if anyone *here* could... just because it would be useful. You were the one thinking that I asked a specific person."
Wait a minute... Claudio voice actor looks familiar... hold on I need to Google this for a moment.
*One Google search later*
Ohhhhhh..... Yeah.... It's Antfish.... Oh god, that hurt!
Why does that hurt? I don't know who that is.
He's a long time voice actor online know for Anime's I Don't Watch, then Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged, and has been with Team Four Star.
And he's also the guy who did the "Every Class is Different" Spy video.
@@ZionKraze I see.
Nonetheless I'm happy that this is the time when MangaKamen discovered his greatest archenemy of all time, ALEX
I gonna say it. Without taking into account all the other problems, i would not play that game just because how the voice lines sound.....and thats without looking into the dialogue being said.
edit: also regarding that "likebility" statement, made what imagine is the author failed game, i guess that GTA is just not popular anymore. You what i though while playing GTA vice city? "what a great guy this tommy vercetti is. I can totally indetify him."
fuck me, one of my favorite rpgs is the hack//g.u. series where the character starts as a general asshole but he is challenged for his reckless/selfish actios, then grows and changes.
men i think im gonna replay G.U.
There's also his creepy obssession with a dead girl that makes me wonder if he was the real life murderer.
Oblivion has better sounding dialogue than YIIK, and one of the voiceovers in Oblivion accidentally left the actress asking if she can "do it again" only for her to give a worse delivery than her first attempt.
@Darling Vexa Art I looked it up as soon as I got your previous notif, only to come back and realize that you remembered who it was.
The mind dungeon just reeks of "we're trying to do The Velvet Room from Persona 4" without actually understanding its purpose and thus creating a superfluous system.
I'm sorry to say this. Even current Ubisoft games (or any game made by triple A company) have a some sort of good story than YiiK (Don't hate me for making this comment).
Edit: My standards are kinda low.
Not that low...
YOU ARE CORRECT
Honestly given how games have been going lately I’m done treating games like art. People who make games as art lately have become pretentious and using it as a way to dictate morality and use it as a way to say “your a bad person if you don’t agree with everything in my game”
Unfortunately the most likely alternative to that is games as a service or product which is just companies going “how can we milk this for maximum profit”
I want games to be treated as just that GAMES, fun boredom buster
Play disco elysium, or the first two fallouts. Games can be “fun boredom busters”, but that can also be art. Not everything has to conform what you want specifically.
It's so weird hearing my name in a video lol. 21:59
That opening Kokichi and Tenko bit made me wheeze xD
Also something I noticed is that Michael didn't have a single line throughout Rory's introduction or around chapter 2.
I swear, if they fixed the weird repetitive gameplay and cuts the unnesecary dialouges in half and rebrands it into a "Visual Novel" it would go from 0/10 to at least 5/10 in my book.
Okay I'm going to compare Alex to Ratchet from the first Ratchet & Clank game, In the first Ratchet & Clank game Ratchet didn't really care about stopping the bad guy for most of the game. He cared more about going to the beach getting weapons and getting payback against Captain Qwark It wasn't until he saw a city being destroyed that ratchet realized how much of a selfish prick he was and goes with clank to stop Drek. Ratchet was still selfish but over the course of the game he grew into a hero
Good comparison!
Can't watch your vids as any time i do i hear that spicy Dj Subatomic Supernova theme and i wanna jam out to it.
The guy also blamed SJW’s for his game failing and may have paid of an anti-SJW TH-camr to defend his game.
wut
@@ChiefMedicPururu I’m not kidding. He may have paid a right leaning TH-camr to defend his game.
Dude the guy that made this is probably a SJW...
not only does the various characters' arcs and subplots don't matter (as they die before any of the subplots and arcs are even completed, hell chondra and claudio NEVER reunite with their brother, as an example) but the main plot of Sammy Pak's disappearance is compeltely discarded and never brought up again outside a difficult to find secret ending. But it doesn't stop there! The Soul Survivor stuff? seemingly completely unrelated to the main plot and once the endgame starts, it's never brought up again. We don't even learn anything about them, let alone why one of them took Sammy Pak (or anything about her) or how accurate Vella's knowledge about the paranormal is (which again doesn't matter cause she dies anyway).
Like you know how in most RPGs you rarely see the main villain until the ending? This game literally does that, as the main villain only appears LITERALLY MINUTES before the final boss in order to give you an honestly vague info dump, said main villain never interacting with any characters or even being hinted at until this ending, and has NOTHING to do with the plot the game originally started wwith.
“Games aren’t art”
Sour grapes, sour grapes...
You know this is off to a great start (really) when we start with the DOWNWARD SPIRAL