Two of gaming's all-time classics are reborn on DS. Stories tell of a land of yore, now shrouded by centuries of time forgotten, called Ys. Despite its great knowledge, endless wealth, and bountiful prosperity, a sudden and unexpected cataclysm devastated the realm. Soon, its memory had faded completely from the minds of man. Centuries later, a young adventurer named Adol set sail to explore the world and leave his mark on history. During his travels, he learned of the tragic tale of Esteria, a once prosperous island now inexplicably engulfed by a crippling storm. Adol plotted a course for the besieged isle, curious to unravel the mystery... Available to North American audiences for the first time, this ultimate translation delivers the most substantial version of the famous Ys story ever made. Two games in one, Ys was released separately overseas, but North American gamers get them together. One of the longest-running, most beloved action RPGs of all-time, Ys has features exclusive to DS including 3D graphics, multiplayer, touch support, and more.
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Book 1
A lot of people seem to rave about Ys all the time (mostly just Exhumy and Bone, actually...), so they've gone and hyped me up for it pretty well. I knew there was a DS version, so I was waiting until I got that so I could play the first one first, and as I recently acquired a copy, that was my action game of choice for today. It's not a perfect game, but I certainly enjoyed it enough to finish it in basically a day (in about 5-ish hours).
You all seem to already know what's good about Ys (music, graphics, style, historical influence, etc.), so I'm just gonna keep this brief and talk about what I didn't really like about it. First off, the game isn't always as clear as it probably should be with your quest objectives, but this is probably down to the port, as I doubt the original had them. Like, when I first started the game, the quest goal it gives me is "talk to the villagers." I talk to them, and then nothing! So I wander out of town, and immediately get killed by a log-thing. Granted, I was doing the right thing and trying to go to the next town over (as the only purpose of the starting town appears to be that you start there and proceed to leave there), but the game just made me feel like I was doing something wrong. However, places where your quest objective are usually acceptable down to the fact that the game world just isn't that big. It's fairly easy to check off the list of things you could possibly do to solve where to go from where you are, and there's just about always SOMEONE out of the few important NPC's who will tell you what to do or where you should go. I really liked that more simple, but still open-ended approach to your quest.
Aside from that, there are some quests and backtracking which I felt were bullshitty. Things like the puzzle where the solution is literally do nothing, having to go down the entire Dahm Tower to get a quest mcguffin that you literally only need to open the boss door. Mostly just those two things, specifically. Lastly, I'm not the biggest fan of the bump-system, although, again, that may be down to the port I'm playing. Larger, tougher enemies are very big, and their hit-boxes don't occupy the space that their graphic does. As a result, it can be very tricky to judge when exactly you should swing your sword to go for a bump when attacking from the top, especially for boss battles. Although, that might just be how the DS port handles sprites badly. I couldn't say for sure. I'm just glad the game isn't that hard on Normal mode, because otherwise I'd have much bigger problems with it.
Verdict: Recommended. It's certainly one of the best older Action-RPG's I've played. It's an YS game through and through, from how you're really expected to grind for money and experience in the start to how Adol runs around so fast and doesn't actually speak (you're only told that he says things). I liked it, and if you can manage to find one of the many ports, I'd say it's at least worth a try :D
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Book 2
This is an old-school sequel through and through. It doesn't rapidly change the formula at all, and could even, to an extent, be mistaken for its predecessor at first glance. However, like from Doom to Doom 2, there are many subtle changes that make this game distinct from its predecessor, and in many ways objetively better. It's similar to the last game, but they took everything good about the last game and made it better.
Music is much better, graphics are a little better and noticeably different (far less reused sprites and resources than I would've imagined for a games so often bundled together on one disc/card), combat is totally revamped (on an engine level) to make bumping more intuitive and allows for combos as well as much of the game being geared towards utilizing your new offensive magic powers to great effect. This in turn leads to MUCH better boss battles. The boss battles in this game were SOOOO great, and some were very legitimately challenging (although the barrier spell is a bit too broken, imo, and kinda makes the final boss pointless, but whatever (you don't GOTTA use it after all (even though I did :oops: ))). My only warning about the port though comes from the boss battles. Some of the bosses REALLY make the framerate struggle, and although it isn't gamebreaking by any means (just like it isn't in most old shmups or Metal Slug-type ventures), it still can interfere with the bump system and make things harder than they should be at time, though they were few and far between.
Verdict: Very Recommended. A fantastic action RPG! Probably one of the best old-school ones out there, and definitely one of my favorite I've played. I actually own Oath in Felghana and Memories of Celceta for PSP and Vita respectively, so they're very tempting on my "next to play" list :3
A lot of people seem to rave about Ys all the time (mostly just Exhumy and Bone, actually...), so they've gone and hyped me up for it pretty well. I knew there was a DS version, so I was waiting until I got that so I could play the first one first, and as I recently acquired a copy, that was my action game of choice for today. It's not a perfect game, but I certainly enjoyed it enough to finish it in basically a day (in about 5-ish hours).
You all seem to already know what's good about Ys (music, graphics, style, historical influence, etc.), so I'm just gonna keep this brief and talk about what I didn't really like about it. First off, the game isn't always as clear as it probably should be with your quest objectives, but this is probably down to the port, as I doubt the original had them. Like, when I first started the game, the quest goal it gives me is "talk to the villagers." I talk to them, and then nothing! So I wander out of town, and immediately get killed by a log-thing. Granted, I was doing the right thing and trying to go to the next town over (as the only purpose of the starting town appears to be that you start there and proceed to leave there), but the game just made me feel like I was doing something wrong. However, places where your quest objective are usually acceptable down to the fact that the game world just isn't that big. It's fairly easy to check off the list of things you could possibly do to solve where to go from where you are, and there's just about always SOMEONE out of the few important NPC's who will tell you what to do or where you should go. I really liked that more simple, but still open-ended approach to your quest.
Aside from that, there are some quests and backtracking which I felt were bullshitty. Things like the puzzle where the solution is literally do nothing, having to go down the entire Dahm Tower to get a quest mcguffin that you literally only need to open the boss door. Mostly just those two things, specifically. Lastly, I'm not the biggest fan of the bump-system, although, again, that may be down to the port I'm playing. Larger, tougher enemies are very big, and their hit-boxes don't occupy the space that their graphic does. As a result, it can be very tricky to judge when exactly you should swing your sword to go for a bump when attacking from the top, especially for boss battles. Although, that might just be how the DS port handles sprites badly. I couldn't say for sure. I'm just glad the game isn't that hard on Normal mode, because otherwise I'd have much bigger problems with it.
Verdict: Recommended. It's certainly one of the best older Action-RPG's I've played. It's an YS game through and through, from how you're really expected to grind for money and experience in the start to how Adol runs around so fast and doesn't actually speak (you're only told that he says things). I liked it, and if you can manage to find one of the many ports, I'd say it's at least worth a try :D
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Book 2
This is an old-school sequel through and through. It doesn't rapidly change the formula at all, and could even, to an extent, be mistaken for its predecessor at first glance. However, like from Doom to Doom 2, there are many subtle changes that make this game distinct from its predecessor, and in many ways objetively better. It's similar to the last game, but they took everything good about the last game and made it better.
Music is much better, graphics are a little better and noticeably different (far less reused sprites and resources than I would've imagined for a games so often bundled together on one disc/card), combat is totally revamped (on an engine level) to make bumping more intuitive and allows for combos as well as much of the game being geared towards utilizing your new offensive magic powers to great effect. This in turn leads to MUCH better boss battles. The boss battles in this game were SOOOO great, and some were very legitimately challenging (although the barrier spell is a bit too broken, imo, and kinda makes the final boss pointless, but whatever (you don't GOTTA use it after all (even though I did :oops: ))). My only warning about the port though comes from the boss battles. Some of the bosses REALLY make the framerate struggle, and although it isn't gamebreaking by any means (just like it isn't in most old shmups or Metal Slug-type ventures), it still can interfere with the bump system and make things harder than they should be at time, though they were few and far between.
Verdict: Very Recommended. A fantastic action RPG! Probably one of the best old-school ones out there, and definitely one of my favorite I've played. I actually own Oath in Felghana and Memories of Celceta for PSP and Vita respectively, so they're very tempting on my "next to play" list :3
I think I started this franchise with the wrong ports...
Um RPG que, mesmo sendo remake, exala as características dos antigos 8 bits. A jogabilidade é boa, rápida, fluída e dinâmica, não deixando em nenhum momento se tornar monótono. Entretando, é um jogo de que por característica oferece poucas respostas pra situações limitantes, se você deixar algo passar, terá que voltar e isso pode ser um pouquinho frustrante e talvez force a utilizar um detonado.
Bland and laggy. The attack button's nice, but I think I played these two infuential action rpg's in the worst way possible.
played da PC version and these game's own's