This is a game I want to like more than I do, but I just can't on board with "bumper" combat. It's not even that it's difficult or necessarily bad, but rather that it just feels stupid. Just let me swing my sword, man.
That complaint aside, Ys actually bothers with a story, good music, and dispenses with a lot of the mechanics that made something like Super Hydlide such a frustrating experience. The mechanics that it does retain are relatively straightforward (including the novel combat) which makes it pretty easy to get through.
Though the overall fidelity of the visuals is stronger than something like the first Zelda, the world and dungeons are unfortunately pretty sparse in the look department which makes playing through this feel somewhat dull.
All in all I think you can clearly see that Ys is a stepping stone a refined action RPG genre that just wasn't there yet, but earnestly trying nonetheless.
That complaint aside, Ys actually bothers with a story, good music, and dispenses with a lot of the mechanics that made something like Super Hydlide such a frustrating experience. The mechanics that it does retain are relatively straightforward (including the novel combat) which makes it pretty easy to get through.
Though the overall fidelity of the visuals is stronger than something like the first Zelda, the world and dungeons are unfortunately pretty sparse in the look department which makes playing through this feel somewhat dull.
All in all I think you can clearly see that Ys is a stepping stone a refined action RPG genre that just wasn't there yet, but earnestly trying nonetheless.
Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8
Yet another of the 21352346 ports of Ys. And I can say with some authority that this is definitely NOT the best of them. The graphics look really old, the music’s not great, but the gameplay is still the good ol’ Ys oldskewl that’s kept us coming back for twenty-some years. If you didn’t know, combat in Ys involves running into your enemy. The only way that you can attack the enemy and not get hurt in return is if you are a half-tile off in either direction. Or, if the enemy’s not facing you, of course. It’ll make sense when you play, I hope.
Yet another of the 21352346 ports of Ys. And I can say with some authority that this is definitely NOT the best of them. The graphics look really old, the music’s not great, but the gameplay is still the good ol’ Ys oldskewl that’s kept us coming back for twenty-some years. If you didn’t know, combat in Ys involves running into your enemy. The only way that you can attack the enemy and not get hurt in return is if you are a half-tile off in either direction. Or, if the enemy’s not facing you, of course. It’ll make sense when you play, I hope.
Played this as part of Ys Book 1 & 2 but I don't have the desire to finish 2 right now :/
At a time when every RPG was simulating the grand adventures, rag-tag parties and obtuse mechanisms of table-top games, Ys is shockingly homely, meditative and streamlined. A short jog through the woods hiding in your backyard. It's just two towns, a couple adjacently-connected mini-dungeons, and a back-half set inside a giant tower. Although it has to commit to the 'monsters are becoming more dangerous lately' bit to justify the natural aggression of enemies, the conflict is archival instead of actively present; an ancient evil you seal for good, rather than a ravenous and militant force. Conversations are up-close and intimate with detailed character portraits, the menu-hopping grind is substituted for raw movement that Falcom themselves described as 'popping bubbles', and the game ends with Adol being forcibly teleported out of Esteria, his visiting time no more than a fleeting vision. These trendsetting quirks make this a tender and seminal must-play. But these same strengths are a mask to unfortunately bad dungeon design, bosses that range from punching bags to torture, and deathly repetitive sprites and tilemaps.
At a time when every RPG was simulating the grand adventures, rag-tag parties and obtuse mechanisms of table-top games, Ys is shockingly homely, meditative and streamlined. A short jog through the woods hiding in your backyard. It's just two towns, a couple adjacently-connected mini-dungeons, and a back-half set inside a giant tower. Although it has to commit to the 'monsters are becoming more dangerous lately' bit to justify the natural aggression of enemies, the conflict is archival instead of actively present; an ancient evil you seal for good, rather than a ravenous and militant force. Conversations are up-close and intimate with detailed character portraits, the menu-hopping grind is substituted for raw movement that Falcom themselves described as 'popping bubbles', and the game ends with Adol being forcibly teleported out of Esteria, his visiting time no more than a fleeting vision. These trendsetting quirks make this a tender and seminal must-play. But these same strengths are a mask to unfortunately bad dungeon design, bosses that range from punching bags to torture, and deathly repetitive sprites and tilemaps.
It's the late 80s right? Like, almost the 90s really. The Legend of Zelda, and other Nintendo and Nintendo adjacent titles, are thriving on an aesthetic of minimal abstraction, which gives them a certain absurdist charm and a kind of timeless and ageless quality. Like, Mario is a plumber that jumps on turtles and stuff, and no one even knows what the hell Link is doing. In the world of Nintendo-aesthetics there's no space for logic or urbanism, there's just a dude living in a cave that's like "here, have a sword", and that is, and has always been, kinda beautiful.
On the other end of the spectrum, PC RPGs and dungeon crawlers were presenting aesthetics deeply rooted in fantasy novels and D&D, with the latter connection made stronger by their mechanical density. These were clearly aimed at a vaguely more mature audience, and every character looked like either Conan the Barbarian or Gandalf.
The original Ys kind of lived in between those aesthetics. Way more concrete and "realistic" than TLoZ, but way more streamlined and simplistic than most PC RPGs of the time. Its aesthetics and tone are naive and direct in a way that almost lays bare the absurd framings that make the foundations of the RPG genre. Like, where TLoZ is the rich inner world of a child playing pretend, Ys: The Vanished Omens is a passerby looking at that child and only seeing an idiot who's waving a stick around. You play it and you can't help but think that it's kind of weird that most RPGs, no matter how mature and complex, are fundamentally built on a foundation of us playing pretend that we're warriors on some silly quest.
I'm not really going anywhere with this really, but yeah. I don't know why we're so obsessed with medieval times honestly.
Anyhow, this is a pretty fun RPG with fairly streamlined mechanics. It has nothing too obtuse on it, and the progression is quite satisfying. Honestly, it has aged quite well. Someone could have released it in the 2010s as an Indie game (capital I indie), with some obnoxious tagline like "Finally we're streamlining boring RPGs with the innovative mechanic of bumping into things", and it would have been a modern critical darling.
(Ok, the level design of the dungeons is a bit ass, but that was sort of the style at the time)
On the other end of the spectrum, PC RPGs and dungeon crawlers were presenting aesthetics deeply rooted in fantasy novels and D&D, with the latter connection made stronger by their mechanical density. These were clearly aimed at a vaguely more mature audience, and every character looked like either Conan the Barbarian or Gandalf.
The original Ys kind of lived in between those aesthetics. Way more concrete and "realistic" than TLoZ, but way more streamlined and simplistic than most PC RPGs of the time. Its aesthetics and tone are naive and direct in a way that almost lays bare the absurd framings that make the foundations of the RPG genre. Like, where TLoZ is the rich inner world of a child playing pretend, Ys: The Vanished Omens is a passerby looking at that child and only seeing an idiot who's waving a stick around. You play it and you can't help but think that it's kind of weird that most RPGs, no matter how mature and complex, are fundamentally built on a foundation of us playing pretend that we're warriors on some silly quest.
I'm not really going anywhere with this really, but yeah. I don't know why we're so obsessed with medieval times honestly.
Anyhow, this is a pretty fun RPG with fairly streamlined mechanics. It has nothing too obtuse on it, and the progression is quite satisfying. Honestly, it has aged quite well. Someone could have released it in the 2010s as an Indie game (capital I indie), with some obnoxious tagline like "Finally we're streamlining boring RPGs with the innovative mechanic of bumping into things", and it would have been a modern critical darling.
(Ok, the level design of the dungeons is a bit ass, but that was sort of the style at the time)