Written by Cora Fisher, Staff Writer
Yuppie Psycho is a pixel-styled horror game released April 25, 2019, by independent developer Baroque Decay. The game was later updated Oct. 29, 2020, with brand new content applied to all later future versions under the subtitle of Executive Edition.
It’s your first day on the job, and you have to find the root of all evil from the company, along with facing near-death scenarios. It’s a story of uncovering the history of what really happened to the company in the first place. It’s a story where your choices matter, and what you do – or don’t do – changes the fate of not only yourself, but of everyone around you.
You play as Brian Pasternack, a young nobody going through his first job with the megacorporation Sintracorp, where things quickly become apparent that not everything is as it seems. Pasternack is not tasked with office work. His true job, instead, is to kill the witch, the supposed cause for all of the horrors lurking within the company.
The game is heavy in dialogue and dependent on the player’s willingness to explore, with 48 achievements, and several of them easily missable, being based on small actions. There are six endings to the game, and all depend on the actions you take. The six endings are split in half, three belonging to what I refer to as the “main path,” and three belonging to what I call the “DLC path.” (These are nicknamed such based on the game itself: the main path was the only route until the ‘DLC’ came out with more endings.) As you seek out answers to your questions, you learn not only about the company’s history, but also about several of the odd coworkers you share your time with.
While being a horror game, RPG elements are borrowed, such as having a health bar, healing items, key items, and boss entities. However, true to the horror nature, your only option for dealing with enemies is either hiding or running away. In fact, during the later parts of the game, there are a couple key encounters that spin the mechanics you’ve grown accustomed to on its head, forcing you to rethink your strategies. The game’s saving mechanic is also of note. The save points are photocopiers, and the papers you save the game with are limited and become the currency for certain items late in the game. Not being able to save your game at any time sounds daunting — there’s also an achievement for beating the game without saving — but in practice is easier than it sounds.
While dealing with hostile entities and talking with the people around you makes up the most memorable parts of the game, most of the game is done with puzzle solutions. While the amount of puzzles lessens as the game progresses, the early game is plagued by having them be the main way of moving forward, some less enjoyable than others. Like any puzzle in a game, the answers are around if you seek thoroughly, but they are still quite annoying to deal with. The game’s ‘open’ style of play, where you are free to explore, is great and fun for those who want to know all about the world you are playing in. However, for the less intuitive, very important lore is locked behind activating three separate statues on the main route, and the DLC route is entirely missable if one does not take the care to do a certain sidequest. Those who are used to playing straightforward games will probably be left wondering why there are over half their game achievements not unlocked despite ‘beating’ the game.
My praise for the game lies in not only its atmosphere and characters, but the artstyle as well. While a simple pixel art style is used for the overworld, cutscenes and dialogue sprites are done in a beautiful, more ‘anime-like’ pixel style. As mentioned before, the sound design for the atmosphere of the game makes the horror hit harder, not only with the soundtrack, but even the ambient noises, which made me afraid of what was waiting for me up ahead several times. The ensemble of characters you meet – as well as the one you play as – are also lovable, and also makes me wish they were given a bit more of a chance in the spotlight. You’ll learn who your real friends are, as well as who your true enemies are, as you go along.
Despite singing the game’s praises, there are little things that prevent me from thinking the game is a straight 10/10. Several unnecessary lines of dialogue could have been cut and nothing would change, particularly a mean-spirited one that comes up out of nowhere during one of the endings. I also feel like an entire character could have been removed from the game, and that would make the game a 10 right then and there if I’m quite honest. Her only purpose as a side character, it seems, is to make both the protagonist as well as yourself very uncomfortable whenever you even talk to her. Aside from that, the game is satisfying to my tastes personally. Will you put an end to the horrors and kill the witch? Or can you even kill the witch at all? Several have tried before you, and all have failed. Can you put an end to it all?