I played this game for more than 2 hours and I cut and sped up enough of it to cut in in half. That’s just how it be with this game right now and I fully expect that to continue in the future.

As I’ve been playing I’m just noticing that the attack numbers make No Sense as Alex. What exactly is the damage calculation? Like obviously, you’ll hit low if you get like, a 3 combo but everything above that is pretty much the wild west of damage. What makes me really upset about it though is the attack animation – for the love of god, if you’re going to make numbers pop out of an enemy when you hit it, make one number: the number of damage I’m actually doing.

VELLA AND RORY

So far these are the only members in the main cast that I actually like. Well, I like them as characters; from a narrative standpoint I think the game does kind of a lousy job, especially for Rory.

Part of Vella’s thing is roasting Alex and Michael, so I like her just for that. She’s got this Banish spell that I used in the boss fight which sends Soul Survivors to the Mind Dungeon, which is kinda cool but extremely situational; I’ve yet to check the place out to see how else I benefit from it. Her sympathy for Rory is also kinda nice; feels good to see characters actually care for each other instead of only caring out of a sense of obligation, Alex.

I also think Rory is an interesting character to use, since he doesn’t attack and exclusively just tanks, which is part of why I like him. I like characters that are kinda weird to use. However, he is flawed in that it’s all he does. For people bad at timing (like me) he does see use, but unless he gets new skills, I don’t see him getting use from people good at it. Also, I’m mad that the level ups he gets still increases his strength. Like come on YIIK, you’re just trying to make me mad here. Rory’s a bit standoffish, sure, but unlike Alex and Michael, he kinda does have justification for the way he is.

WIND TOWN

God this place sucks. Everything here is just jarringly melodramatic compared to what we just left. There’s broken families, there’s open child abuse, everybody be out here trying to kill you, etc. The thing is, I’m not saying that these aren’t things that can’t be in a game, but the thing is, I’m not sure what it’s trying to accomplish?

Like, some things here feel like it’s going for shock value and other times it feels like it’s trying to make you laugh. The problem is I can’t tell the difference between them, so it kinda fails at both. And the thing is, everything being bad undermines the punch of what happened to Rory’s sister; then again the story already kinda undermines that with the long conversation before the boss battle with Alex constantly shouting about how he doesn’t understand anything.

THAT BOSS SCENE

I saw this scene being passed around Twitter months back and I thought, hey, maybe there’s some context to it. There really isn’t. It isn’t even addressed afterward either, and hey, I’m actually with Alex here: what the fuck was that?

---

We’re probably nearing the end of Chapter 2. Some of the stuff we learn in the post-boss cutscene is kinda interesting, I guess. The complete dumb shit before it kinda undercuts things but welcome to YIIK, baby.

Also, if you want to hear people talk about this game properly, my friend is recording the first episode of YIIK Pics today, so that’s going to be available soon!