superbpudding

Hey there, i havent posted here in a while so you know im here for posting a long ass yappost that i couldnt otherwise post on twitter. Recently i have played the I.V update with the Old Battle Mode (OBM for short) turned on from the start, beating the whole game like that. During that i've come to realize something, something pretty screwed up, the old battle mode? I like it, i like it more than the new one. It's pretty strange to me, back before I.V i used to await the new battle mode but now after more than a year of I.V being out i came to prefer the state of YIIK's combat in which i was introduced to the game.

As you can see by the title of this post its meant to be a retrospective on YIIK's combat in general, both new and old. However if you came after I.V and maybe want to try out or retry the old battle mode, this post can also act somewhat as a guide on how to have more fun while doing so.

First of all i want to adress the big elephants in the room with old combat so that later i wont have to talk about them. There are quite a few things surrounding the OBM that are part of the reason why people dont like it, however at its core OBM doesnt requires them to be like that. This includes the super slow Mind Dungeon, the tone being too silly for YIIK's story, the super slow combat, and so on. I want to also adress the speed specifically and the fact that you can hold Enter(or right trigger on gamepad) to speed up the combat, you aren't told about that anywhere and even if you were, having to hold a button to skip super long battle animations is still shitty imo. Here i want to focus mainly on the core game design of fighting system itself while mostly ignoring the bad systems on top of it. Also last note before i properly start, when talking about OBM i mean the 1.25 version, i haven't played the 1.0 and dont really care honestly.

The Affinity System

When comparing the OBM and NBM the thing i want to discuss first is the Affinity System, despite the fact that from the first glance the Affinity System is identical in the 2 battle modes, however the ways they handle it are very different. Originally it was added in 1.25 update with improving the OBM in mind and honestly i'd say that OBM is where it can really shine. The main idea of Affinity System is that every character is assigned one of 5 affinities that work with each other like rock paper scissors by granting you resistance to an affinity you're strong against but getting more damage recieved from affinity you're weak from.

This system encourages you to use an option often overlooked by YIIK's players-switching party members, if you dont know the "SWITCH" button at the bottom of the list allows you to switch your current party member to any you have in reserve, this DOESNT waste a turn and you can switch your party member as any times as you want until you actually do something. In combination with the Affinity System, it's recommended that in the case all enemies are strong against your party member's affinity it's better to switch to someone else or if you lack such character to instead use an item or a supportive skill.

This combination of OBM and the Affinity system reaches it's peak potential in Vella's Mind Dungeon, where you can access all 5 affinities at any time you want. The Essentia's Mind Dungeon on the other side suffers plenty from it, counting that you have only 2 party members and they both have the same affinity, literally not allowing any strategy around it and making you suffer if you encounter an enemy that is strong against metal.

Ultimatly i'd say that this dance of switching your party members on the go, especially in fights with wild card affinity, can be pretty fun and is done pretty well.

The I.V's use of it on the other hand feels very underused and added only because they already added it in 1.25 and didnt want it go to waste in I.V. You cannot switch your party members on the flight in I.V so the amount of damage increased and resisted from affinity isnt as noticable as in OBM.

In NBM Chondra also lost her ability to have a proper Wild Card affinity, while in OBM it resulted in her affinity changing every turn, in NBM it just means that you change it by using the Copy Element skill to copy Affinity of an enemy you're currently fighting, making her have effectively the neutral affinity if she doesn't. Want to note that in OBM Chondra has a Strong Stance, it doesnt say so in skill's description but chosing this stance swaps Chondra's affinity to instead copy the affinity of enemy who attacked her, which can give you more control over your affinity since it will stop changing every turn on its own now, but at the cost of not being able to use other stances.

It is also weird to me how the star of the show of NBM-the Kartas, don't use Affinity that much. The only exception is the Deep Well karta that always changes your Affinity to water, which IS useful and can be used for strategic play, however there being no other karta that change affinity in any way at all is really weird to me, since if done right it could probably replace having the need to switch characters with having to use your karta at the right time to get needed affinity.

Status effects

You'd assume that since NBM completely lacks minigames and is more focused on the traditional RPG combat it would have more focus on status effects than OBM. You'd assume. Surpisingly NBM isnt really that focused on status effects with it being more advised to just attack most of the time, theres also very limited amount of characters that can apply status effects at all.

Outside of bleeding (which gets irrelevant more and more as the amount of HP you and the enemy have increases during progression) the main status effect there is is being Blinded, something that can be applied only by Michael and Asuka from your party and not a lot of enemies, with the Blinding Flash skill usually failing so often it would be better to just punch the enemy instead of wasting turns.

Same can be said about the Confused status effect that is als applied by Michael and that also mostly misses, i want to note that there is no accuracy stat that would make you hit these more often as you progress and that these skills arent affected by LUCK at all.

You can set enemies on fire as Alex and theres a very limited amount of enemies that can set you on fire, with fire being mostly just bleed 2 where it stops mattering the more hp the enemy and you have, making the flamethrower skill on Alex basically worthless by the time you get it.

There is the seal skills effect that can be used by Nameless, however what exactly counts as an enemy skill and who you should use it on isnt at all clear.

Confuse used by enemies is an interesting and actually dangerous thing to happen to you, however there are only 2 bosses in the whole game that can apply Confuse on you, one of them being Xenanu so theres basically 1 boss that can apply it and no enemies, making it more of a gimmick of this specific boss and not a full on status effect. Same can be said about the "Nostalgic" status effect that can only ever be applied on Chondra in Perfume King fight but for some reason is listed in the status effects list in Mind Dungeon.

The OBM despite it's main focus being mini games gives you access to better status effects to use. Alex and Essentia can apply sleep to enemies, this allows you to deal with an enemy later and focus on other enemies instead in case you want to kill them 1 by 1. Michael can apply sickness on enemies, while also capable of applying buffs on ATK and DEF on party members, which can be stacked, making him a good support character. You can apply stun on enemies if you do well on Claudio's bushdio minigame, applying some good damage alongside it. Enemies using status effects are also more threatening in OBM, with monsters such as the Stop Sign and Sheep Man being extremely dangerous, requiring you to either take them out first or use status effects yourself from preventing them to attack you.

Weapon Progression

The weapon progression in 1.0 and in I.V is very different, with the biggest victim of these changes being the MC himself-Alex. I will also talk about some other characters' weapon progression but not all of them because the most important and biggest change being to Alex's.

Alex's weapon progression

Pre I.V

In Chapter 1 you start with your worst record, however get an upgrade to it pretty fast in either Factory Hotel or if you but it at Record Stop. In Chapter 2 you can buy the Stolling Bonez LP, which has objectively worse stats but allows you to spin Alex's record one more time in his Beatdown minigame, rewarding players who are good at this minigame. Chapter 3 has whole 4 different records you can get as you progress through the chapter, each of them giving you different amount of spins on record in Beatdown minigame and different stats, giving you a big variety of records to use before you achieve the Mystical Ultima LP Legend-the best record in the game. After that the only records you will get are One Hit Wonder in Chapter 4 and Legends of Ragnarok LP in Chapter 6, each of them being sidegrades to MULPL that you can spin less times in the beatdown minigame but give you buffs on other stats, which can be useful if you use the EP Strike or LP Toss skills on Alex often since they're not affected by the buff on Beatdown minigame.

I.V Chapter 1 is the same with same 2 records being in same places as where you get them in old version, however starting with Chapter 2 there are big differences. There are no new record you can get during Chapter 2, none at all, you beat a whole ass fucking Golden Alpaca with Chapter 1 LP. You can get Blinkerton in Chapter 3 during the path to radio tower, Strolling Bonez is now available after you beat perfume king and thats it you get MULPL you get the ultima weapon. Despite the fact you already got MULPL, you can get 2 whole records in Chapter 4: The Vampires of Goth LP and the Back Alley Boiz LP, 2 whole records that are significantly worse than MULPL but that you can still get for literally no reason. Also a reminder that in I.V there are no minigames or anything that can be buffed by the records, so them having worse stats is just them having worse stats there is no choice between stats or between more spins. The Broken Record is now a weapon you can use for some reason, however in stats its still better to use MULPL. The Legends of Ragnarok is the only record in game that is better than MULPL, which has most of it's stats better than MULPL.

Claudio's and Chondra's progression

Ok this one is going to be way shorter.

Chondra lacks a lot in weapons early on in 1.0, with her not having any new weapons at all in Chapter 3 but getting multiple in Chapter 4, with her ultima weapon the flaming hula hoop being given to you in Chapter 5. In I.V you can get a glowing hula hoop after beating the perfume king, but otherwise its mostly the same.

Claudio can get a new sword in the Mt. Town Cave, with getting better swords in further chapters, his ultimate weapon being Masamune that you can get right before the fight with proto comet. Claudio's Bokken of the Ageless Tree is the best weapon you can get before the world starts ending, however it gives you the least time to use Claudio's bushido, encouraging you to be faster with it to properly utilise it's stat increase. In I.V you get swords more on him more regularly, with the Bokken of Ageless Tree not having really any downsides at all.

In conclusion i'd say that in I.V it's better.

Bosses

When Michael in I.V said that hell is an eternity of quality, not quantity, he certainly didnt meant the I.V bosses because there are way more of them than in previous version, however most of them lack any real challenge or a mechanic to make them really unique. Most of the bosses in I.V are just damage sponges that hit somewhat hard and thats it, this issue most likely stems from how much I.V's game design relies on Kartas and trying to use them to make a fight more unique, however theres quite a few big problems with that approach.

First problem: theres quite a number of Kartas that are either effectively just a stat up for the enemy or dont have that big of an effect to make a lot of difference.

Second problem: you can destroy the Kartas. What i mean by this is that despite the fact that Kartas are these multi-purpose things is a pretty interesting concept to work with, you having to destroy them first to deal damage to the enemy makes them last way shorter in the fight, so even if an enemy has some karta that gives them a super cool effect that matters you then just destroy it early on and for the rest of the fight the boss' starting karta doesn't matter.

The few bosses that are exception to this issue are (in my opinion): the Golden Alpaca, Perfume King, Twisted Beings. Perfume King especially is the best designed boss in I.V overall, his use of status effects and also him stealing your kartas making him a good challenge, requiring you to both try to get rid of Sexy Cops stealing your Kartas and healing perfume king, but also getting rid of said Kartas on perfume king so his already powerful attacks don't hurt even more. Threatening Fan is on my memory the only boss that can get his Kartas back, which can be pretty threatening counting that 2 out of 3 of his kartas are silver spoon, however him having so little HP and you having so many party members makes him a rather fast fight, with sheep men in the same dungeon having more chances of killing you.

While the OBM has pretty interesting boss fights, there are extremely few of them in the whole game, which is especially a problem counting that the last real boss fight is in chapter 4 while you get your best equipment mostly in chapter 5. The Golden Alpaca is a well designed boss overall, however the speed at which he summons and consumes the soul survivors that you have to intentionally try to ignore them for him to even have a chance of using his special move. Then there's the Gothic Entity which starts with your entire party at 1 HP and half of it dead if you fail to dodge attacks, you are also required to switch to Vella to remove it's immunity, overall a good fight. Then there is the Yuzu fight which requires you to use the sleep status effect and Panda to prevent the med bot from healing Yuzu and to prevent Yuzu from stunning Alex, the second phase of the fight is pretty underwhelming however. And thats it, the twisted beings and proto comet are forced losses and the 4 proto Alexs are more of mini bosses.

The New Norm

If you reached the NG++ in I.V you might have noticed that the Old Battle Mode option in settings isnt crossed out anymore, making it possible to experience the OBM with addition of 3 whole new bosses from I.V: the Perfume King, the Threatening Fan, and the new Twisted Beings. Sadly these new bosses aren't the only additions to the Old Battle Mode in I.V, first of all there's a ton of bugs in general, such as shops selling items completely for free or shops being from I.V and not OBM. There is also the problem of OBM's and NBM's having an ugly child in I.V OBM that is the result of some OBM's weapons being obtainable only through chests, which are now replaced with I.V chests, however the shops are the same as in 1.0. The equipment items from I.V also all have a problem of not having their stats properly displayed, with it being possible to see the difference only if you compare it how it would be without that item equipped. The new boss fights are interesting, however they aren't that unique to play I.V's OBM just for them, the Twisted Beings fight especially is just the same as in I.V except way slower and you have to die yourself instead of there being an insta kill attack.

yeah so uhm yeah second post is finally coming yay. let's' see how long it will take until i finish with this. If you still haven't here's the first post: https://www.tumblr.com/superbpudding/775682489430786048/yiik-and-the-use-of-deviated-perspectives please read it before reading this post. Unlike previous post i will talk about NG+ and also Nameless' side of the story in YIIK1!

Also this post will lean way more into somewhat an analysis of i.v content as a whole than just drawing connections between events as it was in the last post.

YIIK1 Nameless' Side.

The path that Nameless goes through partially mirrors the one Alex goes through, but also her path is a representation of the concept of the Soul Princess and where it goes through the narrative. The parallels start at the very beginning with the Soul Princess entity first appearing in Alex's room (and waking him up) mirroring similar scene in the very first gameplay section, with it being Nameless and William now.

I also want to point out how through almost the entirety of intro she appears in a way that establishes and parallels key moments for characters' story lines and their relation to the concept of the Soul Princess.

She goes missing as Allison.

She (as referred to in YIIK2) appears as a part of the Twisted Beings that Vella sees which results in her leaving her reality.

She then also appears as Carrie, want to note how in both the scenes with Allison and Carrie the Camera is present. In the scene Carrie also hits the Entity that Rory later calls Carrie with a baseball ball and destoys it, possibly being a parallel to her suicide.

With Chondra the Soul Princess entity isn't present, however the scene is later on revealed to be related to Aaron in YIIK2, also the Camera is here too drawing connection to the scenes with Allison and Carrie.

The last scene too doesn't have the Soul Princess entity clearly present. However i want to point out how what the King and Queen here are doing is a robbery, where after they appear the poster changes from Aaron to Alexander, drawing a parallel to Alex stealing parts of Claudio's life to put into his own story.

I will talk about this specific imagery later on in the post but i want to point out how the pose Nameless has here is identical to one earlier in the intro, making a connection between Michael taking a photo of the Soul Princess and her falling into the Blackened Pond.

Can't not mention the DP of this cutscene later on happening in Yuzu fight, which draws parallels between Alex and Nameless as one who fell into the blackened pond and also between Yuzu and Alex as ones who pushed someone else into it, all while a Krow was present.

As Carrie you chase the Good Brother Rory, possibly being a DP of the Choir Entity and Rory meeting in the Soul Space, with Rory going back and the Entity following him into the sewers dungeons.

During that you step into cat shit, attaching Dali is a concept to the Soul Princess, parallel to how for Alex the very first thing he chases is Dali, also note the windmills in this room being the same windmills that Alex passes while chasing for Dali.

You go behind the rock, which DPs the scene in Chapter 6 where Alex goes behind the rock and meets Proto Alex, but also the already mentioned scene from the intro.

You also lose your status as Carrie, being no longer representetive of the missing person that Rory searches for. The whole first segment itself also in some way DPs the intro you saw earlier, with Nameless going to the party and the game's events parallel to Alex arriving there on bus.

In the next segment you arrive at the Old Frankton. Mirroring Alex arriving at normal Frankton. You remove the Dali shit from your shoe, removing Dali's connection to the Soul Princess as Alex manages to find and catch Dali.

You then enter Alex's house, possibly a parallel to the twin-tails entity that blinks into Alex's house until Chapter 3.

The third and the fourthh Nameless segment.

Not much to talk about here outside of YIIK2, however i want to note that both Antonio and Michael are giving you instructions on how to use a new tool you just got, the only other characters in game that tell you that are Panda and Krow.

Want to note that this dialogue about Dollie is almost word for word the same as Sammy's phone call in Chapter 5. However now the one asking is Avril and one being asked is Nameless.

This section with Kisage parallel a similar one in Chapter 6, want to note that one of the NPCs in this area calls it the Soul Space, while also the events of Chapter 6 take place in the Soul Space.

Also if we connect this to Chapter 6 further the scene where Krow from scene to scene plays different characters, one of which is Nameless, this could be a DP of Alex in Chapter 6 paralleling you to himself.

I don't have much to say about Chapter 5's segment and how it DPs anything without talking about YIIK2, however i want to point out how in segment 3 Nameless says that the door to radio tower leads to the mountain and the God, possibly drawing parallels between Alex going to the radio tower and Nameless climbing the holy mountain.

This scene in Chapter 6 is also playing the exact same theme that played in Chapter 4 in a cutscene after defeating Yuzu, drawing parallels between pairs of Essentia Alex and Krow Nameless.

Also the pose that Nameless hits when seeing Alex is the same one as the one he does when losing Sammy and Panda in chapters 1 and 6.

YIIK2

This scene is (obviously) a DP of the same scene from YIIK1

However i also want to present a possibility that the scene of Michael shooting Allison might be a DP of the scene of Michael shooting the Entity.

The 2 women statues from Two Brothers are also similar to these in the Factory Hotel basement with the Entity.

Finally, Krow being representation of both Michael and Alex could parallel the 2 going to the Factory Hotel basement.

The Krow you fight here also has the fire affinity, same as Michael.

This scene of Cyrille following Krow into the forest can parallel the Cyrille entity following Alex into the forest.

The same dialogue from Blue Woman as in Chapter 1 further draws parallel between the first Nameless segment and Chapter 1.

The bosses in Cyrille sections such as the Sword master and the Baby are the same one as these in the YIIK1 Nameless Child sections.

Michael in this segment is replacing Krow, paralleling the 2. The scene of him taking the photo is also present here, being a DP of him doing the same in the intro. Lastly Asuka also being photographed hints at her and Nameless being parallel.

The lines that the Handsome Perfumer says here are extremely similar to these that the Camera says in the Mind Dungeon.

This encounter with the Golden Alpaca can possibly be a DP of the scene in Chapter 2 where he attacks the Choir entity.

As for this segment i don't really have much to add, it's DP of the 2 chapter 3 segments from YIIK1, you could say that the Baby and Belzeboss in YIIK1 segments are representative of Baby Alex and Daddy in these sections. Also the scene with Kisage X appearing paralleling the one with him appearing in chapter 3 second segment. The scene with Sammy crowning Nameless after that could be parallel to Handsome Krow paralleling Nameless to himself.

Now for the scene of Cyrille's death.

This scene is actually a DP of multiple events in the game's plot, first of all the obvious one-Alex playing the record in Chapter 4. The song playing here, "Can You Hear?", is a version of A Distant Voice, which is implied to be Alex's cover of that song that he made to confess his feelings to Vella (especially counting Michael's line about the voice on record being guy'). Second is Alex entering the Essentia's mind dungeon, with Cyrille getting replaced by Essentia once again, it is also pointed out visually in the room where Essentia gives c section to Alex with the same cleaver as the one that Essentia uses here. Lastly it's the Y2K debugger ending with Alex becoming the ONISM Man and rejecting the benevolant psychosis completely.

The towering Mt. ONISM is parallel to the Holy Mountian section, however now we're climbing the evil mountain instead of the Holy Mountain. Personally i interpret the 2 mountains as being representetive of the 2 ways to get immortality in yiik-original sins and original wins, with Holy Mountain being the Original Win and the Mt.ONISM being the Original Sin. You "ascend" the mountian by going through the hall of parallel lives and going to the final room, this being parallel to Alex and Michael doing the same earlier in the game, also after you do so you can see Krow and the Golden Alpaca-2 characters who also represent Michael and Alex. In the Tower you can see the ONISM Man at the center of it all, most likely him being the God of Despair which is mentioned in YIIK1. This area also resembles Alex's Mind Dungeon with you fighting Alexs as regularly enemies, mirroring Alex fighting Nameless in his Mind Dungeon.

The scenes with Rory and Chondra are DP of the similar scenes in game's intro.

Michael giving Sammy the gun is parallel to Daddy giving his gun to Nameless in YIIK1, which you use to shoot balloon Alexs, where now you shoot the ONISM Man.

This scene (also the Madonna scene) are also DPed in the scene of Krow giving Asuka the sword.

The final scenes with ONISM Fight are actually multiple DPs of YIIK1's ending moments. First of all the scene with the gang beating the shit out of the Essentia is a DP of the scene with party getting banished-the one that plays after the Proto Comet fight. It happens in a similar area on a circle with thrones placed around it, however now the gang is the one beating up Alex and Essentia and not the other way.

However also at the same time it's a DP of the throne room cutscene, which is shown by this scene with Alex doing his signature move, the same way he does in the debugger ending.