I love this game a lot and honestly I'm surprised by how this game is usually considered to be one of the worst in the series, it's easily one of my favorites.
Story: Ys isn't typically known for story, but without going into spoilers I'll say I thought the story in VII was one of the best in the series, hell it might even be the best, it's at the very least right up there with Lacrimosa of Dana and Felghana. There were some awesome plot-twists that blew my mind and a pretty unique take on your typical 'chosen one' plot. Ys VII felt like Adol's grandest adventure yet.
World-building: Ys VII has some fantastic world-building that feels much more comparable to the Trails series than it does typical Ys games. I never got tired of the inter-politics of Altago including the tension induced by the Romn/Altago war of the last game and learning all about the vast history of the land of Altago and all its ancestral tribes. There was some great NPC dialogue and quests as well. Also having my fave character from Ys VI return makes me wish the Ys series had more reoccurring characters. Yet again Falcom are proven to be the masters of world-building.
Combat: This was the first Ys game to implement both a parties system, allowing the player to swap between characters instead of just controlling Adol the whole game which is utilized for different enemies that are weak against certain attack types and the modern combat of learning skills and assigning them to different buttons, while it's obviously not as polished as in VIII or Celceta, it's still a super fun and addictive system I never get tired of. I did enjoy that in this game to permanently learn a skill you had to use it enough times while fighting with its corresponding weapon.
Note about the parties system: I do have to mention that your party member AI for the characters you don't control were very broken at times, constantly falling off cliffs, running on ahead to fight other enemies when you're trying to harvest crafting resources, getting stuck behind walls etc. Celceta and Dana definitely improved the AI.
Crafting: Another element of modern Ys games that VII introduced is the crafting system allowing you to gather resources and use them to craft new weapons/armor/items. It's more rough and unbalanced here than in Celceta or VII and there's a lot more grinding required, but it's still a fun system.
Difficulty: With the addition of the crafting system Ys VII became a lot more forgiving and nowhere near as punishingly difficult as the old school games, I only died a handful of times and while I love the challenge of classic Ys, I also enjoy the more relaxed experience of this game. That said it was still harder and more balanced than Celceta which was the easiest game in the series to me.
Graphics: While the graphics themselves are clearly outdated and low-budget they still have a charm to them and I really love the character models and environments. Plus all the anime artwork for the characters has great style that fits the game, aside from Ys IX this game has my fave design of Adol.
Level Design: I thought the level design was fantastic, there was so much variety in the dungeons and all areas of the game looked beautiful. I also love and never tire of the Metroidvania style of exploration of modern Ys games where you get new power-ups that let you backtrack and explore new areas you couldn't reach before.
Bosses: All the bosses felt epic and a lot of them had cool gimmicks you had to utilize to fight them, I also loved how the final boss made you utilize everyone in your party, gave me big Trails vibes since they've been doing that since Sky the 3rd. Honestly my only minor complaint is the fights dragged on a bit because the bosses are pretty big damage sponges with massive pools of HP, but the music was so awesome I didn't really mind much. Which brings me to my next point...
Music: Ys games aren't known for having some of the best damn music in all of video games for nothing. Ys VII was no exception! So many amazing tracks, shredding boss battle themes, relaxing town themes, adventurous exploration themes, ambient dungeon themes, you name it, Ys VII has it all and is without a doubt one of the best OSTs in the series to me.
All in all Ys VII represents a transitioning of the series from that of the classic style to the more modern style with many new additions to the gameplay and while some aspects like the party system, crafting and AI can be rough at times compared to what they would become in the future, I have very little bad to say about Ys VII and this title represents everything I love about the series with the addition of extra strong storytelling and world-building on-top of the fun exploration, addictive combat and a kick-ass soundtrack I always expect.
P.S. Ys VII is also the only game in the series where you get to play as Adol's travel companion Dogi and that alone gives it bonus points.
Story: Ys isn't typically known for story, but without going into spoilers I'll say I thought the story in VII was one of the best in the series, hell it might even be the best, it's at the very least right up there with Lacrimosa of Dana and Felghana. There were some awesome plot-twists that blew my mind and a pretty unique take on your typical 'chosen one' plot. Ys VII felt like Adol's grandest adventure yet.
World-building: Ys VII has some fantastic world-building that feels much more comparable to the Trails series than it does typical Ys games. I never got tired of the inter-politics of Altago including the tension induced by the Romn/Altago war of the last game and learning all about the vast history of the land of Altago and all its ancestral tribes. There was some great NPC dialogue and quests as well. Also having my fave character from Ys VI return makes me wish the Ys series had more reoccurring characters. Yet again Falcom are proven to be the masters of world-building.
Combat: This was the first Ys game to implement both a parties system, allowing the player to swap between characters instead of just controlling Adol the whole game which is utilized for different enemies that are weak against certain attack types and the modern combat of learning skills and assigning them to different buttons, while it's obviously not as polished as in VIII or Celceta, it's still a super fun and addictive system I never get tired of. I did enjoy that in this game to permanently learn a skill you had to use it enough times while fighting with its corresponding weapon.
Note about the parties system: I do have to mention that your party member AI for the characters you don't control were very broken at times, constantly falling off cliffs, running on ahead to fight other enemies when you're trying to harvest crafting resources, getting stuck behind walls etc. Celceta and Dana definitely improved the AI.
Crafting: Another element of modern Ys games that VII introduced is the crafting system allowing you to gather resources and use them to craft new weapons/armor/items. It's more rough and unbalanced here than in Celceta or VII and there's a lot more grinding required, but it's still a fun system.
Difficulty: With the addition of the crafting system Ys VII became a lot more forgiving and nowhere near as punishingly difficult as the old school games, I only died a handful of times and while I love the challenge of classic Ys, I also enjoy the more relaxed experience of this game. That said it was still harder and more balanced than Celceta which was the easiest game in the series to me.
Graphics: While the graphics themselves are clearly outdated and low-budget they still have a charm to them and I really love the character models and environments. Plus all the anime artwork for the characters has great style that fits the game, aside from Ys IX this game has my fave design of Adol.
Level Design: I thought the level design was fantastic, there was so much variety in the dungeons and all areas of the game looked beautiful. I also love and never tire of the Metroidvania style of exploration of modern Ys games where you get new power-ups that let you backtrack and explore new areas you couldn't reach before.
Bosses: All the bosses felt epic and a lot of them had cool gimmicks you had to utilize to fight them, I also loved how the final boss made you utilize everyone in your party, gave me big Trails vibes since they've been doing that since Sky the 3rd. Honestly my only minor complaint is the fights dragged on a bit because the bosses are pretty big damage sponges with massive pools of HP, but the music was so awesome I didn't really mind much. Which brings me to my next point...
Music: Ys games aren't known for having some of the best damn music in all of video games for nothing. Ys VII was no exception! So many amazing tracks, shredding boss battle themes, relaxing town themes, adventurous exploration themes, ambient dungeon themes, you name it, Ys VII has it all and is without a doubt one of the best OSTs in the series to me.
All in all Ys VII represents a transitioning of the series from that of the classic style to the more modern style with many new additions to the gameplay and while some aspects like the party system, crafting and AI can be rough at times compared to what they would become in the future, I have very little bad to say about Ys VII and this title represents everything I love about the series with the addition of extra strong storytelling and world-building on-top of the fun exploration, addictive combat and a kick-ass soundtrack I always expect.
P.S. Ys VII is also the only game in the series where you get to play as Adol's travel companion Dogi and that alone gives it bonus points.