Definitely not the strongest entry in the series but still just fun to play around in. You can tell they were a little apprehensive to get rid of their bump system, leaving the combat to feel fairly simple in comparison to later entries. I honestly don't have much to say about it. Music is nice as usual. It's a tight game that rewards exploration significantly. It satisfies that itch I imagine a lot of people have where they just need to see everything, because it doesn't make it all that hard to do so. I do think the grind can be a little obnoxious, which is saying something for an Ys game. The world didn't feel that much larger than previous games, but ended up taking twice the amount of time to finish due to the grind, and unless you want to really, REALLY struggle, the grind is necessary, but again, that isn't anything new to the series. All and all just a solid game all around. This franchise has yet to disappoint, and is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

An ok game but the weakest in the Ys series out of the nine that I've played. Grinding for material to upgrade three different swords is annoying as it's like grinding for money and XP but it doesn't always drop, the magic attack each sword can do aren't that interesting. Annoying and hard to do dash jump platforming is required to get some items. Many of the bosses are either very easy or seem to have serious hit detection problems, missing you when their blows connect and hitting when they clearly miss or before you should have gotten hit. The locations and new characters aren't very interesting. Music can get repetitive and I wasn't very impressed with the soundtrack, which is usually one of the high points of the series.

One of my favourite older Ys games.

Gameplay and combat are pretty fun, but having played the game after Felghana and Origin, I found them a bit more "clunky" and basic than these other two titles. Which makes sense, since this game was released before them. And despite all that, I didn't have any problem with it, so this isn't exactly a complaint or something, just an observation. However, the boss fights, while not bad, were just okay, with basic patterns to observe (with the exception of some). You might also need to grind for some levels, since being underleved in an older Ys game means no damage dealt to the enemy. And we all know that the dash jump mechanic was a mistake. Fortunately, you do not need to use it in order to beat the game, but if you want to grind for hidden content/treasure chests etc, good luck there.

While gameplay-wise it is a step behind its successors, story-wise and in terms of world and setting, it is actually my favourite out of that era of Ys games. The Canaan Islands were a joy to explore, accompanied by interesting lore, story, characters and, on top of that, one of my favourite Ys soundtracks. Being immersed in a beautiful world and a compelling story is one of the things I seek from video games. And Ys VI definitely accomplished that, making me overlook some minor gameplay flaws.

I'd suggest playing it before Felghana and Origin, but I recommend it nonetheless.

I enjoyed it, but I think out of all the Ys games, hell out of all of Falcom's games I've played this one did the least for me. It was the epitome of mid in basically every regard.

This was the first game on the new engine and it really shows due to how simplistic the combat mechanics feel compared to Felghana or Origin.

The concept of different swords having different elemental attacks is cool, but executed horribly because you can only damage certain enemies with certain elements therefore you constantly have to grind so you can upgrade and refine all THREE of your swords at the same time.

I typically don't mind the Ys grind, but in this game just felt so unnecessary and way too often. If you're even 1 level below the recommended for a certain boss or your weapon isn't leveled up enough you'll be doing almost no damage against them.

However when you are properly leveled up combat is extremely easy compared to Origins or Felghana which were much more challenging, no boss really stood out to me other than the 2nd to last boss.

Level design is your typical Ys, but this time it felt more bland because I didn't enjoy the gameplay as much.

OST has a few standout tracks, but still one of the weaker Ys OSTs to me.

The story also didn't really do much for me. Your typical Ys story. Adol arrives in a new land, has to collect magic artifacts for the people of the land, learns of some ancient prophecy that will throw the land into turmoil and has to stop it. Like I said, not bad, but very by the numbers. The racial conflict between the Rehda and Eresians was interesting, but I didn't really care much about any of the main characters aside from Geis and Ernst.

Anyways, the game wasn't bad, but it was incredibly underwhelming and I expect much more from Falcom.

You only need to see my ratings for the other Ys games that I've played to see that I am a pretty big fan of the Ys series. It's without a doubt my favourite action RPG series and I like all three main styles of gameplay that are prevalent in the series (bump combat, solo hack n slash and the party member system of modern Ys games).

There are a lot of other Ys fans who for some reason get really defensive about Ark of Napishtim, but it becomes evident just from playing it for a little while that Ark was a very rough start to the solo hack n slash style of Ys games. The combat feels clunky and relies on the player regularly using a kinda hard to execute lunge attack move, and most enemies and bosses are just completely unbalanced and the whole thing just feels like a mess much of the time. It's still good enough for a single playthrough and the finale is genuinely great but unlike other Ys games when I finished Ark of Napishtim I felt no desire to continue with a second playthrough on a higher difficulty and shelved it aside.

I think the main reason why some Ys fans get so defensive about Ark is that it has a pretty engaging story and is the game that contributed most to the Ys series setting/lore, with story entities from Ark of Napishtim being referenced in various other Ys games. Along with that, the soundtrack also really slaps. Ark of Napishtim is probably my second favourite Ys soundtrack just underneath Ys VIII and Ruined City of Kishgal is legit one of my top 5 favourite videogame songs of all time. If only the gameplay was as strong as the music.

Probably the weakest of this engine's trilogy of games but that's not to say it's not great, it's still got a lot going for it. I feel like people blow the game's worst aspects out of proportion a lot. Grinding is present but fairly quick overall, Limewater Cave isn't that bad, only a select couple bosses were questionable, and one hit crits yeah i can't defend that one.
However, a lot of the accessories essential to surviving higher difficulties felt a bit too hidden at times compared to Felghana and Origin, and the points of no return got a bit out of hand, though i'm probably biased about that last part because I accidentally overwrote my save before the first one and got stuck in a boss underequipped and had to complain on discord to get a new save which was on catastrophe which made the rest of the game much harder so basically yeah use multiple saves please.
Definitely wouldn't recommend for a first game but it's still a solid part of the series overall.