What I love about PAX South is that the convention has quickly grown to become the home for indie games in the five years it has been running. And 2019 was no different as there were many weird and odd indie games vying for attention. One of those games that caught my eye was YIIK A Post-Modern RPG, developed by Ackk Studios and published by Ysbryd Games.
At first glance, YIIK A Post-Modern RPG is a weird looking trippy kind of RPG, and yet the visuals felt so familiar. That’s because the game heavily draws inspiration from 90’s culture. Brothers Brian and Andrew Allanson explained that they were inspired by the media of the time: such as shows from, NickToon, games like EarthBound, and postmodern authors like Chuck Paulanick and Haruki Murakami, and of course from their own experience growing up. That’s the condense version that they gave me during the convention. Here’s a bit more detailed answer that they gave post-PAX South:
We were inspired by postmodern novelists like Haruki Murakami, Chuck Paulanick,
and Thomas Pynchon. We wanted to explore certain elements of postmodern
literature such as use of metafiction (the work within the work). With YIIK this refers
to ONISM1999, which is the conspiracy/occult image forum that the game revolves
around. We also wanted to explore pastiche story telling, where the game’s story
sort of wears many different hats of various genres. In addition to that, we also
explore Paranoia, Hyperreality, Fragmentation, and Magic Realism as themes. This
also does come into the gameplay later on in the game, but I’d like to keep that as a
surprise.
They also mentioned that the biggest draw of inspiration was 90’s internet:
The biggest is the use of technology. Everyone wasn’t connected like they are now.
People weren’t always in their phones. Misinformation online was less likely to be
called out.The biggest pull is 90’s internet.
With the game sounding so deep, you would think that it would be hard to get people to join the team. Not really, as it turns out they said:
Not so much! We worked with people who had similar interests as us, plus we had
everyone read some books and play some games that inspired us.
With all of that said, how does YIIK A Post-Modern RPG? The demo that was being shown off was a side quest special made for conventions so that people can get a feel for the game so that the story won’t be spoiled. A very good idea if I may say so. As I mentioned, the demo is a side quest where I am introduced to games main protagonist, Alex. In this side quest he is helping a friend who is investigating a rumor about a missing woman’s baby. Gameplay is your standard exploration, solving puzzles and turn based battles, but all done as if the game was from the 90’s. It felt so much like classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy or EarthBound, right down to the timed button inputs that multiply damage. A few puzzles, battles and 30 minutes later, I was finally at the demo’s boss battle. It took me another 10 minutes to take down the boss, which happened to be a lady’s demonic baby thing.
I enjoyed my time with YIIK A Post-Modern RPG and from what I played, I’m starting to understand what the Allanson brothers were trying to convey, and that was just the demo. I could say more, but I’ll leave that for the review. In any case, I can’t wait to dig deeper into YIIK A Post-Modern RPG.
