I had to see this one with my own two eyes for some twisted and self hurting reason, and boy was everyone right about how baffling and grueling of a self absorbed mess this one is. To me, YIIK represents the apex of the indie scene's obssession with the egocentric tortured artist narrative that has been the go-to window dressing for many of the critical darlings of the last decade, mostly due to how badly it fails on the execution of said concept.

Andrew Allanson makes his case for Alex's incredible lack of charisma and likeability by implying that those were intented attributes deliberately written to present an unlikely protagonist that defies the expectations of videogame conventions and serves to tell a "meaningful and thought provoking" narrative, but I do have to question if Andrew understands that you can write unredeemable pieces of shit and still have them be compelling people to follow, not unlike the characters from the inumerous prestigious novels and movies he so eagerly name drops as influences. The voice behind Alex's obnoxious and verbose inner thoughts and social interactions permeates most of YIIK's world and people, bloating the whole experience with an onslaught of solipsistic musings that would make your teen self cringe and inner world exposition dumps that would make Kojima blush, and a group of characters lacking in so much chemistry and entertaining banter that fill the game's dead air with loud meaningless conversations that made me appreciate how much of an art what Persona does is.

Tying it all up, you have one of the most unpleasant combat systems I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing in an rpg. A third of the way through I had to turn on Story Mode and Assist Mode while fast forwarding as much as I could, and I shudder to think of the people who subjected themselves to the rest of the game without resorting to any of those settings. There are design choices made here where I struggle to believe that someone made them without deliberately trying to make this combat system a living hell to wrestle with for 20 hours. Andrew infamously stated that if people aren't able to appreciate his game, then "games aren't art, but toys for children", an idea that I find very insincere when he himself has brushed aside the strengths of the medium as mere tools in service of his literary interests and fails to recognize the gameplay value of the many games he apes from and that already disprove his perception of the audience.

I have seen comparisons made between YIIK and The Room, and while YIIK's team has immensely more talent than whatever Tommy Wiseau has, I do see where that's coming from. You aren't so much in it to experience the art presented to you, as much as you are to see the psychosis of the artist behind it, and YIIK does have its poignant and head turning moments that reach Pathologic levels of antagonism towards the player that reveal some kind of accidental genius behind its aggresively mediocre facade. Not only does the world of YIIK unironically revolve around Alex by the end of the game, he implicates you in his self importance and passes onto you his responsibilities and obligations to be a better person, and I find the audacity and nerve to do that...kinda brilliant??, more so deserving of the pretentious "Postmodern RPG" moniker than the Earthbound/Mother 3 gimped 4th wall breaks or the doubt seered into me each time the loading screen tip "videogames are not a waste of time" popped up.

And dont get me wrong, thinking that YIIK is some misunderstood masterpiece of game design or secretely a arthouse cult classic in the making. Judging by Andrew's defensive posture when talking about the game's reception and the passive aggressiveness he slides into the game's updates, much of the artistic merit that can be inferred from YIIK is most likely just a pure casualty of someone trying to aspire to his influences and falling way short of the mark, and suggesting that most of it was intentional would be implying that someone could have the talent to consciously write and design as badly as YIIK was. But Andrew made art here, not the kind of art he wanted to make, but art nonetheless, and I do find more value in this relentlessly life draining game than most indie artsy fartsy games out there. I play YIIK and I see a sincere attempt at creating something unique and different, scrambling ideas from every piece of fiction the creator cherishes and throwing it at the wall to see what sticks, not having the self awareness to realize its own mediocrity or how misplaced and misguised many of those ideas might be, and I can definitely sympathize and relate to that.

PS: The Iwata "tribute" is the most unintentionally hilarious bit in the whole game. You have the power of videogames to make anything you want, and you put the man in a fucking tombstone.

THE FIRST PORTABLE CASTLEVANIA GAME.
who fucking made this shit. sucks ass. i know the gameboy was limited but some of these levels are just barren hallways with enemies. the 3rd level had an interesting gimmick but it goes to shit because simon controls like a fucking tortoise. mf can’t move or jump for shit. the game demands the tightest jumps from you which most of the time you will fail on your first try due to how stiff and shitty the jump is. bosses are barely even bosses and have like one attack. music was kinda good but they loop after like 30 seconds lol. i think for a gameboy game it has cool aesthetics i guess but everything else is terrible. every flaw with classic castlevania is present here in full force and then some.
my advice? play the remake on wii instead. i will personally send you the rom of that shit do NOT play this. they turned the worst 2d castlevania into one of the best how is that possible.

I actually love this game.
For me, Sonic frontiers represents the time very early in our lives where we weren't old enough to have full grasp on how to play a game yet, and so we would just wander around and do nothing in particular in open ended games like Vice City, Spyro, or Ratchet & Clank.
The open zones are fairly basic, sure, but for a while I really got a lot of enjoyment out of just running around -- because it feels good! The controls are the best they've ever been in a Sonic game, the enviroments are beautiful, and I've always wanted the freedom to just run a marathon as Sonic around an open world, without the constant trappings of stages directing you down a certain path, tight level design that slows down the action, and godforsaken grades at the end of stages. All that stuff is relegated to the cyber space stages, which are littered around the map and feature old recycled locales, and the same tired level designs from Boost Sonic games of old just to remind me how sick of it all I am.
Frontiers is a game where they drop you into an open world, with lots of collectables to pick up and lots of springs and grind rails to screw around on, and then say "okay this is the whole game. have at it." AND THAT'S FUCKING REFRESHING!
The combat is awesome too. there's all kinds of cool moves to perform, and it properly gives you action that doesn't compromise on speed. It's fun to run circles around guys and then bop them all on the heads. Hell yeah.
Also, I love the writing of this game. the world building is phenomenal. uncovering exactly what happened in this setting is spooky as hell, Sage is a really cool character, and the story feels super grounded. I haven't enjoyed the story of a sonic game this much since SA1. Though I do wish some components of the story got touched on more, and the ending didn't feel as rushed. It's clear that Ian Flynn belongs in the writing room for these games, but he's gonna need more experience at it.
Overall, I think it was a really good experience worth my time, and I don't often get to say that about a Sonic game.
And I've heard all the takes already. Even from friends. Sonic fans are fucking insufferable, and will never be satiated because they have a very narrow view of what they want out of a Sonic game and don't know how to shut up and just have fun for five minutes. I personally welcome our new open zone overlords! Sonic Team has said that open zone is the future of the Sonic series, and personally I fully welcome that. Frontiers has the bones of what could be a masterpiece of a game, and my biggest issue of the Sonic series as a whole is how too quickly Sega abandons every good concept that just needs another game for it to get better. If we get one or two more of these, I'll be happy, especially if SA3 happens and manages to merge design philosophies of open zone and pre-boost era Sonic.