YIIK: A Post Modern RPG / Ackk Studios / Andrew Allanson - "I wanted to make a game with a protagonist who was very unlikeable" - From Someone who is equally unlikeable. Currently developing Version I.V (1.5)

[Buckaroo]

Like he claims Alex was meant to be unlikable right? Well it comes across like he was too pussy to make Alex too much of an asshole either for some reason.

I think his obsession with Asian/exotic looking women and conspiracies is supposed to be what makes him an asshole, but there's just the one conspiracy and his awkwardness with women is just Alex YIIK being mildly autistic.

 

[X Prime]

That's literally the point though, he brings this up in his tirade on the dick show about how gamers need their flawed heroes to still be beautiful or to have some kind of redeeming qualities.
So from the sound of it he intended Alex to be an irredeemable piece of shit yet at the same time he comes across like they were too pussy to go all in and actually make Alex a reprehensible piece of shit. At least then he would have SOMETHING to make him interesting, but yet somehow he's the fucking most boring man which is also hilarious considering according to the game he's also like the center of the multi-verse or something for whatever reason?

I don't think it's that.

It's sort of like how just because a person knows the components of what makes a character people on the Internet get obsessed with, does not mean that they can put those components together themselves.

Alex as a whole is an irredeemable piece of shit if you were to take the actions of his alternate selves into account. Abandoning Vella for a younger girl for example. The problem is that Vella then tells you that Alex YIIK is not responsible for what the other Alexes did. However, Vella herself is part of the Essentia, who is a liar who did the same thing as one of her alternate selves, abandoning her loving family as a Muslim woman to chase strange dick. So she's not exactly the most reliable source about responsibility!

This is too much to put together for most people because the game is not very fun in gameplay or aesthetics. It's like Dark Souls tier breadcrumbing without the combat that makes people want to actually engage with that breadcrumbing.

 

[Kiwi & Cow]

Alex's problem is not that he's unlikable. His problem is that he's unlikable with no attributes that allow people to overlook it.

Many popular characters would be unlikable if you sat down for five minutes to think about it. Cloud Strife for example would be insufferable to actually hang around. However, they cover it up with "rule of cool overrides everything else". Whether it's looks, fighting skills, etc.

Alex has none of the mitigating factors. He's not done in an attractive style that would make fujoshis squee. He does not use his record as a discus that cuts foes to ribbons before it dramatically returns to his hand. And so on.

I kinda get that, but there are many assholes in video games that people like, take Trevor from GTA 5 for example. I'm inclined to say @Bob Barbas is right, nobody would hate Alex if YIIK wasn't a boring piece of shit where everything takes forever to get anything done and his long-winded unskippable diatribes of word salads trying to sound philosophical while coming off as pretentious as fuck, something that the game often gets criticised for BTW.

A character doesn't have to have redeeming qualities, he just needs to not be badly written and annoying like Alex. If the game sucks he's already going to be at a disadvantage and you may as well give him redeeming qualities so he wins solely on the basis that he's "relatable".

 

[30+GameOvers]

He does not use his record as a discus that cuts foes to ribbons before it dramatically returns to his hand. And so on.

I mean, he kind of does in the 1.0 release where that toss skill is so absolutely retardedly OP that you realistically won't use anything else. Oney Plays infamously killed the final boss in one hit with it.

 

[X Prime]

I mean, he kind of does in the 1.0 release where that toss skill is so absolutely retardedly OP that you realistically won't use anything else. Oney Plays infamously killed the final boss in one hit with it.

Oh yeah absolutely. The problem is he doesn't look cool doing it.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Alex's problem is not that he's unlikable. His problem is that he's unlikable with no attributes that allow people to overlook it.

Many popular characters would be unlikable if you sat down for five minutes to think about it. However, they cover it up with "rule of cool overrides everything else". Whether it's looks, fighting skills, etc.

Alex has none of the mitigating factors. He's not done in an attractive style that would make fujoshis squee, for example.

That was what was so telling about the interview. It's not that Allanson didn't know that you had to have some sort of mitigating factor to overcome a character's problems, whether sheer charisma, talent, or some other factor, he thought he was writing a character that was above all that and was supposed to be viewed as some sort of genius.

He didn't need to be an overt asshole, though, all you need to do is have some sort of backstory that sets up an unhappy childhood and why he became this way, reveal that he's deeply unhappy with his current situation, maybe something else, and with a natural talent that would be helpful in going out in a big adventure anyway.

None of this would have to be particularly original (including optional transformation to "restored" Chad Alex as previously discussed) but it would hit all the right story notes as far as a 16-bit inspired video game can go.

At the end of the day it's another game that clearly took inspiration from SNES-era RPGs without having any idea of what made them have interesting characters and be entertaining.

By the way, the thing that I've always liked about 16-bit RPGs is a good soundtrack, I remember the song playing after the "Llama of Destruction" was rape to my ears.

 

[GratsTheat783]

He didn't need to be an overt asshole, though, all you need to do is have some sort of backstory that sets up an unhappy childhood and why he became this way

NG+ has a scene that sort of does this. Alex's father has an illegitimate daughter (Allison/Carrie) who's come to stay for a few months. Alex's mother is absolutely pissed about it. It's supposed to be movie night for Baby Alex and she's adamant about keeping it that way. While bossing the daughter around, making her do the dishes, bring Alex's toys down from his room, etc, the mother and father loudly argue, the mother referring to her as his "mistake" while the father keeps trying to calm her down while arguing that she's raising Alex badly due to letting him sit in front of a TV all day. Not really an "unhappy" childhood for Alex, but does show a big part of why he is the way he is. It also brings up the question of whether it's really Alex's fault he is the way he is.


I completed Benevolent Psychosis, the new NG+ mode. It was really good.

Spoiler: The endings

Micheal is about to shoot Alex, who is chained up and skinny, which Asuka tells him not to. He talks about all the alternate verisons of himself that have been hurt by him, which Asuka tells him is just a meme propagated by the Essentia, there are no alternate selves and that the Essentia wants Micheal to be the host for "the King". Through his hatred for Alex, he's become like Alex or something like that. Then you're given a choice to absolve Alex and leave Micheal for later or to Comfort Micheal. Absolve option gets you the bad ending, where Micheal shoots Alex, Asuka and then the screen, presumably taking Alex's spot. With the other choice, Micheal falls down and starts crying, as ropes tie around him. Asuka frees him and he is carried off by Cyrille's fairies. Then she tells Alex that he really doesn't deserve it, but she sets him free as well. As he flies off, he waves back crying. Then Asuka flies off.

I thought the devs said Alex wasn't meant to have a happy ending, but it seemed happy enough. Unless there's something in NG++ I have yet to see...

 

[internet friend]

I honestly thought that the ending to benevolent psychosis was pretty weak. The parts with Carrie/Allison were interesting and fun, but I couldn't give less of a shit about asuka and the whole "it was just a movie" plot line. Felt even more pretentious than regular yiik (if such a thing is even possible) and wasn't satisfying at all.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I completed Benevolent Psychosis, the new NG+ mode. It was really good.

That ending sounds like dogwater. The original release had something going for it, problem was the ending and end game being a complete flop. Your description makes it sound like they turned YIIK into a generic gory indie horror game, not to mention giving Alex unnecessary family drama that didn't need to be there. Nobody asked what the deal with his dad was, or at least I didn't.

 

[X Prime]

Benevolent Psychosis is a Christian allegory. The "benevolent psychosis" is essentially the belief that God has a plan and it will all turn out okay in the end. This is in contrast to the less-mentioned "malevolent psychosis," which is essentially extreme narcissism and fear of death/anger at how the world is making the person think they know better than God.

Essentia is basically an avatar of Satan (called the God of Despair), and orchestrated everything in an attempt to avoid death by setting up ONISM to force the world to change by creating enough collective psychic force. It does not work, because obviously you cannot actually beat God, the idea is fundamentally delusional.

No seriously, that's legitimately what is going on. It has trinity imagery, Alex at the end is basically crucified, there's a grail full of blood, et cetera. That's why it mentions forgiveness, they specifically mean to say God can forgive even Alex.

 

[GratsTheat783]

Benevolent Psychosis is a Christian allegory. The "benevolent psychosis" is essentially the belief that God has a plan and it will all turn out okay in the end. This is in contrast to the less-mentioned "malevolent psychosis," which is essentially extreme narcissism and fear of death/anger at how the world is making the person think they know better than God.

Essentia is basically an avatar of Satan (called the God of Despair), and orchestrated everything in an attempt to avoid death by setting up ONISM to force the world to change by creating enough collective psychic force. It does not work, because obviously you cannot actually beat God, the idea is fundamentally delusional.

No seriously, that's legitimately what is going on. It has trinity imagery, Alex at the end is basically crucified, there's a grail full of blood, et cetera. That's why it mentions forgiveness, they specifically mean to say God can forgive even Alex.

Holy shit, I didn't know the Allinson brothers were Christian. I remember them saying they didn't like Gnosticism on a livestream when someone asked if they were inspired by it, but didn't think much of it.

What does the bad ending symbolise then - where Micheal kills Alex, Asuka and then shoots the camera? I've also heard there's more content in NG++, so what would that symbolize?

 

[X Prime]

The problem Michael has is that he hates Alex, who he blames for his girlfriend Allison (Alex's half-sister) disappearing. He knows enough to be aware of some of what is going on, but he can't let go of his hatred and forgive Alex. By picking the correct choice, he lets go of his hate. If you don't, well, he doesn't and lashes out because you're making the error of having Alex be the center of the universe again by trying to take care of him first. There's no symbolism really, it's just "are you stupid, he has a fucking magic gun!"

As for NG++, the idea there is you're indulging the delusion. You get a few bits of extra where the Essentia explains being basically an avatar of Satan if you think to go inside the church with a hexagram on top of it in the Mind Dungeon after picking the delusion-indulging KNN ending path to get a branch of that. Hamfisted "I am the snake who tempted Eve" email included.

 

[GratsTheat783]

The problem Michael has is that he hates Alex, who he blames for his girlfriend Allison (Alex's half-sister) disappearing. He knows enough to be aware of some of what is going on, but he can't let go of his hatred and forgive Alex. By picking the correct choice, he lets go of his hate. If you don't, well, he doesn't and lashes out because you're making the error of having Alex be the center of the universe again by trying to take care of him first. There's no symbolism really, it's just "are you stupid, he has a fucking magic gun!"

The game does that thing it did with Rory where it automatically highlights the correct option and you have to willingly pick the wrong one. Not sure if that means anything.

As for NG++, the idea there is you're indulging the delusion. You get a few bits of extra where the Essentia explains being basically an avatar of Satan if you think to go inside the church with a hexagram on top of it in the Mind Dungeon after picking the delusion-indulging KNN ending path to get a branch of that. Hamfisted "I am the snake who tempted Eve" email included.

So did the world actually end then? Are all the characters dead and Alex is stuck in purgatory since he refuses to let go of his delusions?

 

[Bob Barbas]

I think the funniest part about the game's plot is despite the game sitting there and just outright spoon feeding it to you for like half an hour at a time I'm still very confused on what the fuck the plot of the game even really is.

It's like they tried so hard to convey the plot to you that it becomes information overload and ironically ends up becoming confusing instead of helpful.

 

[LucasSomething]

He has the gall to call other people pretentious while insisting he's this genius and everyone else is just too stupid to understand the game.

This seems to be a running trend with yiik defenders like hellkrai. Anytime someone calls yiik pretentious they call them back pretentious and insist they're too stupid to get it. They can't argue the game is fun or even good, it can only be insulting back.

He didn't need to be an overt asshole, though, all you need to do is have some sort of backstory that sets up an unhappy childhood and why he became this way, reveal that he's deeply unhappy with his current situation, maybe something else, and with a natural talent that would be helpful in going out in a big adventure anyway.

You can't give Alex this type of backstory because it "ruins" him. He only "works" because he's a normal ass guy with a normal ass life and no excuses. He's not even evil, he's simply entitled and boring.

The problem with Allanson was that he thinks being post modern means "a fake hero who turns out to be truly unlikable and doesn't save the day" and that's all it takes to be high art. He forgot those type of protagonists are usually very proactive or their unreliable narration is well written and makes so much sense in hindsight.

Hellkrai will literally preach how YIIK is a game where nothing happens and Rory isn't even real and that's just a waste of time for everyone involved. If Alex at least got shit done through the game people wouldn't mind him but the whole game is him is him failing and giving up.

Not really an "unhappy" childhood for Alex, but does show a big part of why he is the way he is. It also brings up the question of whether it's really Alex's fault he is the way he is.

I really dislike this new Alex backstory. It was already implied Alex had an "awkward" childhood with his father leaving and his mother working 24/7 and not having time to raise him. Andrew didn't need to have tragic flashback played completely straight, and especially not give Alex a valid freudian excuse.

 

[Buckaroo]

Speaking of unreliable narration, I'm still surprised the intro didn't depict Sammy as being Alex's girlfriend to make his whole thing with Vella paint him in a more negative light and make the reveal of him never having met Sammy more of a surprise. Maybe I'm just retarded, but I feel like that would have help with Allanson's intent for the character but also give the player more material to have actual feelings about Alex.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Benevolent Psychosis is a Christian allegory. The "benevolent psychosis" is essentially the belief that God has a plan and it will all turn out okay in the end. This is in contrast to the less-mentioned "malevolent psychosis," which is essentially extreme narcissism and fear of death/anger at how the world is making the person think they know better than God.

Essentia is basically an avatar of Satan (called the God of Despair), and orchestrated everything in an attempt to avoid death by setting up ONISM to force the world to change by creating enough collective psychic force. It does not work, because obviously you cannot actually beat God, the idea is fundamentally delusional.

No seriously, that's legitimately what is going on. It has trinity imagery, Alex at the end is basically crucified, there's a grail full of blood, et cetera. That's why it mentions forgiveness, they specifically mean to say God can forgive even Alex.

meh, I liked the original draft where it was just multiple universe shenanigans and all the weird shit was weird for the hell of it. Once you start explaining everything or making the game a generic bible allegory, it loses it's luster.
The original had that same charm that NGE had, ie a world threatening event that was undermined by the personal hardships the characters were going thru, in this case Alex and his crew each dealing with their own issues as reality around them is coming apart.

What I'm getting here is that the devs thought Alex spending half an hour at a time spouting exposition wasn't enough so now we have to add symbolism to the game so that the dumb gamers will get it. Keep in mind, the 1.0 release had a lemonade obsessed alpaca in it as a boss fight. How does that relate to god?

The problem Michael has is that he hates Alex, who he blames for his girlfriend Allison (Alex's half-sister) disappearing. He knows enough to be aware of some of what is going on, but he can't let go of his hatred and forgive Alex. By picking the correct choice, he lets go of his hate. If you don't, well, he doesn't and lashes out because you're making the error of having Alex be the center of the universe again by trying to take care of him first. There's no symbolism really, it's just "are you stupid, he has a fucking magic gun!"

As for NG++, the idea there is you're indulging the delusion. You get a few bits of extra where the Essentia explains being basically an avatar of Satan if you think to go inside the church with a hexagram on top of it in the Mind Dungeon after picking the delusion-indulging KNN ending path to get a branch of that. Hamfisted "I am the snake who tempted Eve" email included.

Is "Micheal is evil and he wants to kill you with a gun" really the payoff for giga-chad Micheal we've seen in 1.0?

 

[Don Yagon]