I can't even remember what it was that led to me searching for "games like X" but this one came up and happened to be on a deep sale at the time, so I snagged it and decided to take my first trip into the Ys franchise. Boy am I glad that I did!

The action gameplay in this is excellent. It's fast-paced, very tight, has a good mix of hack and slash and special power usage, and features some fun platforming elements too. Great 2D pixel graphics just hit right for me and this looks amazing on PlayStation 5, with several distinct areas to explore that don't blend together at all. And, as you'd expect, the music is quite good too.

The story is apparently told from three different perspectives and while fairly slight, I felt it does a wonderful job of presenting the history of this world and I really liked how the writing handles character development. I enjoyed getting to know them and was sad when my time with them was over. I usually don't play through games multiple times but I'm definitely considering it, just to get the other two unique viewpoints of this story. If not, I'll at the very least look up that information before continuing to my next game in the franchise (which is absolutely happening soon).