Recent reviews by Roobz

and with it??

if you boot up the game and go into the menu, finally, there are buttons to allow for drifting on keyboard. finally, keyboard players and controller players are now capable of competing together, with both now having their own draws and gains besides "you lose access to a major game mechanic"


nearly all of the complaints that i and many others had with the original launch version of the game are now addressed and fixed. offset now shows a color when hitting fast/slow. there is a *little* more distinction between X-Limits and Limits now (i still wish that the change was again, more apparent than "it has a minor color difference", however. S-Crits in SDVX are rainbow. IIDX P-GREATS are rainbow. S-Crits also say "S-CRITICAL" instead of just "CRITICAL").

and there are far more visual indicators of your pace compared to before. combo is now not as large.

the lines between gears/FX notes that make them look like holds??? you can disable them. the game now effectively feels and looks on par with DJMAX 8B, but with the stylings of SDVX (which is basically what the game has always aimed for)

the tutorial has been reworked to make this communicated to the player better,

gyro support is still a little shaky(mostly due to steam's fault, and overall difficulty of developing for gyro) but from what i heard, it's a little better. and there are also ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF DRIFTING FOR CONTROLLER!! there are now options to customize and set either a singular axis or 2 axes to drift inputs, allowing for more opportunities for control customization, *and* more opportunity for custom controllers in the future.

overall, the game now feels like it's creeping closer to being a finished product, even though by all means the game is still in heavy early access. they seriously need to update the screenshots on the steam page. the new hud looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing.
(not my footage, shoutout to lanterns.)

there's a lot of reviews for this demo but a lot of them boil down to "Game good" or jokes about yiik. so i want to give my opinion as someone who's followed this game for years, and started out making fun of it, to obsessively analyzing it to the point of insanity

this review, by nature of this demo's existence, will act as a review for a teaser for a version of the game that isn't out yet.

basically, this is a demo for the update, "YIIK I.V". which is planning to be this game's Phantom Liberty. a major overhaul for the game that changes multiple aspects of the presentation and editing a few aspects of the story so that it flows nicer and is more clearly communicated to the player.

GAME GOOD. GO PLAY IT.

but for an actual review.. fair warning. i'm wordy with how i write.


if you liked the parts of the original game where things were very abstract and the game's visual identity was allowed to stray outside of "quirky earthbound inspired RPG" then you will love this. if you thought those segments were pretentious, stick to the old version of the game.

the trailers show you everything. it goes off the walls. the idea of whether what we're seeing is really the truth is never explicitly made clear, and many of the abstract moments are silently (though loudly) communicating parts of the story that the dialogue never was able to properly communicate.

battles are snapper. there's more interesting things going on, animations are EXTREMELY well done, the effects are cool, and the weird way that ACKK utilizes layering makes battles something genuinely interesting to look at. The environments are also far more interesting than "just the overworld but smaller" and are abstract areas that tie into the themes of the area being fought in. the game has gone from being relatively straightforward and direct with it's visuals, to, being abstract, and, i can't believe i'm saying this, actually living up to the "postmodern" moniker


as such...the story is, in my eyes, obviously improved. because it's more clear about what you're supposed to be reading, as the player. though that's not to say there aren't portions where things are worthlessly vague or abstract (for the sake of aesthetics, not storytelling), but overall, it's a net positive. that being said, a large portion of story beats are intact. so if you take problems with specific things from the original game, it's something that the update is likely not going to fix. but there's enough being altered and change here to make it worth a try, at least.

Alex's rants are trimmed down. A lot of weird dialogue remains and the rants still occur. but they're now framed way differently and showcase more of the character. In case you care, "vibrating with motion" is still in the game, though.

there's also a cast of new characters here for this update, and they all seem like they're going to have their own unique interesting arcs that are going to be fun to watch unfold, especially when trying to figure out how it'll tie into the original game's plot (or change it) and pre-existing characters like Michael are seemingly being overhauled.


is about on par, though better, than the base game. a lot of the best songs are re-used from the original game, but there are several new tracks here that are really, like, REALLY good. the battle tutorial song was the only one that i thought was a little mid. the rest? bangers. genuinely, really solid songs. "your dreamed connections", "let's kiss like dreamers", and "i'd sell my heart for a dollar" are highlights. i urge you to download the game and just let the title screen play, or check Andrew Allanson's bandcamp. there is an actual development here as a musician and composer. it shows.

but here's the big part.


the combat is COMPLETELY OVERHAULED. and for the better. no longer, are there slow, monotanous, lengthy mario party minigames. so what is there to make YIIK stand out?

WAIT/ACT
I forgot what the game described this as, but it's a fancy way of doing something akin to the Active Time Battle system. "WAIT" is a portion of time when characters are vulnerable to attacks and waiting for their turn. Then there's the red bar which allows you to choose the move you'll make. But it's not instant. You have to wait until you reach the end of the timer, the "ACT" portion. So it's is interesting in that you can effectively plan ahead. If you see that an enemy is about to reach the "ACT" gauge, you can queue up for a character to use a bandage to prevent damage further, as any character taking a turn will inflict damage. But this is also not getting into the VERY interesting

Karta System.

Karta is a new system. "Karta"(cards) act as shields for incoming attacks, nullifying their damage, but also provide stat bonuses when held. They can be lost through two means. Being attacked destroys them, but you can also expend them yourself to do specific effects, like restoring karta, or group attacks.

So what's the consequence for losing Karta? Bleed. losing Karta means whatever attacks come your way will directly attack HP, and inflict Bleed, which is a standard DOT effect. Which usually doesn't matter, but in a game where health is EXTREMELY low (never surpassing 60-80 at end-game for most characters) it can be genuinely challenging to manage Karta and status effects and health. the game is genuinely challenging, and in a way that feels satisfying, at least to me.


I've been following the YIIK I.V update for a while since "alex yiik" himself (andrew allanson) started sharing portions of it and showed that it was a thing that was being made. I thought that it wasn't going to be as good as it looked. So far? it is. When YIIK became popular through Ruggington's clips, the Running Shine review, and the Tehsnakerer video, i obviously joined the crowd to punch and jab at the jokes. but looking into the development, talking with people who worked on the game, reading interviews and YIIKcord conversations, i realized a lot of what the game was trying to do and realized how all it's failures covered up a story and game that was genuinely unique and had so much to offer...but just couldn't.

YIIK I.V is a redemption. It's trying to offer what it couldn't before.

and i hope you give it a chance.

thank you for reading.

Needless to say, it's a wipEout clone. With controls that replicate that of the classic games and pulse(?) onwards respectively. Whether or not you're gonna like this depends on if you like wipEout. If not, then you wont like this game. If so, then you will. Controls like a dream, easy to pick up- hard to master.

Best played with a PS3 controller, since it's closest to the original PS1/PS2 controllers.