The last of the Napishtim Engine games might actually be my favorite one. Ys Origin combines pretty much everything that I love about Ark of Napishtim and Oath in Felghana and transforms these qualities into something new and beautiful. Right from the start, when the intro played, I had a feeling that I was about to witness something special. The opening cutscene hooked me instantly as it had this transcendent feel to it which was emphasized even more by the French voice over. At first, I was taken aback somewhat and thought that I had somehow messed up my language settings but no, this is how the opening is supposed to be. Considering that the legend of Ys, which the game series is loosely based on, is concerned with the disappearance of an ancient city by the same name in the French region of Bretagne, this is somehow strangely fitting. In any case, as I have recently played Ys I & II for the first time, I instantly recognized some of the references to these games that were shown in the opening. And I was intrigued.
The opening really manages to set the tone for the game. It is indeed the origin story of Ys, set 700 years before the events of the first game with many recurring names, items, and places that players of these games will immediately recognize. Feena and Reah, Solomon Shrine, the Black Pearl, it’s all here and it was really cool to see so many of these references contextualized in a new way. Probably the most prominent link to good ol’ Ys comes in the form of Darm Tower, the endgame dungeon of Ys I, that was repurposed as the setting of Ys Origin. Yes, you’ve read that right, the entire game takes place in one tower. When I first realized that this was the case, I was kinda bummed out. I mean, Darm Tower (I have to chuckle every time I read or say that word because “Darm” means “colon” in German :D) wasn’t the worst dungeon in the world, but it was a confusing and somewhat lengthy mess in the first game. Also, I felt that having only one dungeon to explore might become boring really fast due to lack of variety in aesthetics, enemies and so on. So, I was skeptical whether I would enjoy my time here for the entirety of the game. It didn’t take long to realize that my fears were unfounded. Yes, the game indeed only consists of one tower but this tower is divided into distinct areas, that are really different from one another. That holds true for the environments, which come in your typical dungeon crawler variety. So, you basically still have a lava dungeon, a water level, a desert-themed dungeon and so on but not as distinct places in the world but as levels in a tower. This was a huge relief to me as I think that dungeon variety is vastly important in an RPG that is mostly focused on exploration. And that aspect of the game is still really fun. Exploring the dungeon, finding treasure and secrets is great and I truly feel that the developers perfected the level design in this game. I never got lost or confused not knowing where to go. The game communicated really well where the main path was and where some optional stuff might be hidden. And still it felt super good to find stuff and not like the level design was too simplified. However, I did somewhat miss exploring a world in a way that I could in Ark and Felghana. I just loved going around in those games, talking to villagers and story-relevant characters whenever some plot-heavy stuff was going down and NPCs had something to say about it. I loved running around in the little village in Ark of Napishtim or the beautiful medieval town in Felghana, solving sidequests and just…being part of this world. Origin doesn’t really have that. It really is all about that tower.
So, besides exploration, Ys games are all about combat. And my god, combat in Origin was so damn fun. I can’t really put into words how they did it but the combat feels so fluid and responsive and the sound effects when hitting enemies or picking up items were so satisfying, it was just a bliss to play. This was the first time in an Ys game, that I was so immersed by the combat, that I reached something like a flow state and totally forgot time around me when playing. That was wild since these days, that rarely happens. I played as Yunica, the melee-focused fighter and one of two playable characters available from the start. Playing that way reminded me of Napishtim, where you have your normal attacks, three different elements to switch from and special attacks dependent on these elements. No magic, just good old hack and slay action. I like how fighting felt somewhat simplified but not dumbed down. You only have one weapon which you can upgrade by finding materials throughout the game. On top of that you can buy upgrades for your character and gear at every Goddess’ statue, which are the checkpoints in this game. Another quality-of-life feature was that you can teleport between statues right from the start. Finally. Backtracking was basically non-existent with some minor exceptions here and there (I’ve had to run to Rado’s Annex and back one too many times 😉). The only thing that really interrupted the flow of the game for me was the comeback of status effects. Yeah, they’re back baby and they still suck. Poison, heavy, confusion….I felt like those were so unnecessary and I had hoped I would never see them again since they weren’t in Felghana. But alas, for some reason they came back. And since there are no usable items to cure your character, you can’t really do anything about them but wait which was pretty frustrating at times.
But hey, for the most part, level progression was flow-y and fun and I just wanted to keep going. And then there’s the bosses and I gotta say, Falcom nailed it with those. Bosses in Origin were the perfect middle-ground between Napishtim and Felghana for me. While most bosses in Napishtim were a bit too much on the easy side, some of Felghana’s encounters offered just straight up Dark Souls levels of difficulty :D Though I preferred Felghana’s approach, it was sometimes a bit too hectic for me. That was not the case in Origin. Every boss was a proper challenge. I had to pay attention and learn how to react to certain attacks. It was beneficial to remember attack patterns but I didn’t feel like I had to be killed 10 times before even getting a chance of beating a boss. It felt like, in each battle, I had the chance to kill the beast first try if I paid attention and adjusted my strategy accordingly. I love that stuff. Reminded me of the good old days, when Souls games weren’t all about breaking your spirit with ridiculous boss moves like spinning in a circle for eternity or changing the direction of a jump attack mid-air but all about a fair challenge. But I digress. Let me just say that boss fights in Origin were a highlight for me, never unfair or frustrating but just right.
Besides the boss fights, I really enjoyed some of the character-driven moments in this game a lot. As I said earlier, I played as Yunica for my first playthrough and she was a delight to play as. Normally, in other Ys games, you play as Adol Christin, red-haired swordsman, hero, and very silent, very bland protagonist. Here, things are a bit different. Yunica has a ton of personality, humor, and heart-felt moments, that were actually kind of well presented and cute. There were even some moments of self-doubt, requiring her to find her inner strength and deal with trauma of the past which was really cool. Don’t expect a narrative masterpiece in terms of character writing or story in general but I do feel like the writers did a fine job here.
So, that concludes the Napishtim Engine games. I had a blast playing these titles. Every single one of them shines in its own light which sets it apart from the other games. For me, Origin represents the culmination of qualities from all Ys games up to this point. It has a great game flow, relatable characters, amazing music (to nobody’s surprise :D), and high replay value. I’m looking forward to my next playthrough as Hugo and can hardly wait to see what the rest of the series has in stock for me.
The opening really manages to set the tone for the game. It is indeed the origin story of Ys, set 700 years before the events of the first game with many recurring names, items, and places that players of these games will immediately recognize. Feena and Reah, Solomon Shrine, the Black Pearl, it’s all here and it was really cool to see so many of these references contextualized in a new way. Probably the most prominent link to good ol’ Ys comes in the form of Darm Tower, the endgame dungeon of Ys I, that was repurposed as the setting of Ys Origin. Yes, you’ve read that right, the entire game takes place in one tower. When I first realized that this was the case, I was kinda bummed out. I mean, Darm Tower (I have to chuckle every time I read or say that word because “Darm” means “colon” in German :D) wasn’t the worst dungeon in the world, but it was a confusing and somewhat lengthy mess in the first game. Also, I felt that having only one dungeon to explore might become boring really fast due to lack of variety in aesthetics, enemies and so on. So, I was skeptical whether I would enjoy my time here for the entirety of the game. It didn’t take long to realize that my fears were unfounded. Yes, the game indeed only consists of one tower but this tower is divided into distinct areas, that are really different from one another. That holds true for the environments, which come in your typical dungeon crawler variety. So, you basically still have a lava dungeon, a water level, a desert-themed dungeon and so on but not as distinct places in the world but as levels in a tower. This was a huge relief to me as I think that dungeon variety is vastly important in an RPG that is mostly focused on exploration. And that aspect of the game is still really fun. Exploring the dungeon, finding treasure and secrets is great and I truly feel that the developers perfected the level design in this game. I never got lost or confused not knowing where to go. The game communicated really well where the main path was and where some optional stuff might be hidden. And still it felt super good to find stuff and not like the level design was too simplified. However, I did somewhat miss exploring a world in a way that I could in Ark and Felghana. I just loved going around in those games, talking to villagers and story-relevant characters whenever some plot-heavy stuff was going down and NPCs had something to say about it. I loved running around in the little village in Ark of Napishtim or the beautiful medieval town in Felghana, solving sidequests and just…being part of this world. Origin doesn’t really have that. It really is all about that tower.
So, besides exploration, Ys games are all about combat. And my god, combat in Origin was so damn fun. I can’t really put into words how they did it but the combat feels so fluid and responsive and the sound effects when hitting enemies or picking up items were so satisfying, it was just a bliss to play. This was the first time in an Ys game, that I was so immersed by the combat, that I reached something like a flow state and totally forgot time around me when playing. That was wild since these days, that rarely happens. I played as Yunica, the melee-focused fighter and one of two playable characters available from the start. Playing that way reminded me of Napishtim, where you have your normal attacks, three different elements to switch from and special attacks dependent on these elements. No magic, just good old hack and slay action. I like how fighting felt somewhat simplified but not dumbed down. You only have one weapon which you can upgrade by finding materials throughout the game. On top of that you can buy upgrades for your character and gear at every Goddess’ statue, which are the checkpoints in this game. Another quality-of-life feature was that you can teleport between statues right from the start. Finally. Backtracking was basically non-existent with some minor exceptions here and there (I’ve had to run to Rado’s Annex and back one too many times 😉). The only thing that really interrupted the flow of the game for me was the comeback of status effects. Yeah, they’re back baby and they still suck. Poison, heavy, confusion….I felt like those were so unnecessary and I had hoped I would never see them again since they weren’t in Felghana. But alas, for some reason they came back. And since there are no usable items to cure your character, you can’t really do anything about them but wait which was pretty frustrating at times.
But hey, for the most part, level progression was flow-y and fun and I just wanted to keep going. And then there’s the bosses and I gotta say, Falcom nailed it with those. Bosses in Origin were the perfect middle-ground between Napishtim and Felghana for me. While most bosses in Napishtim were a bit too much on the easy side, some of Felghana’s encounters offered just straight up Dark Souls levels of difficulty :D Though I preferred Felghana’s approach, it was sometimes a bit too hectic for me. That was not the case in Origin. Every boss was a proper challenge. I had to pay attention and learn how to react to certain attacks. It was beneficial to remember attack patterns but I didn’t feel like I had to be killed 10 times before even getting a chance of beating a boss. It felt like, in each battle, I had the chance to kill the beast first try if I paid attention and adjusted my strategy accordingly. I love that stuff. Reminded me of the good old days, when Souls games weren’t all about breaking your spirit with ridiculous boss moves like spinning in a circle for eternity or changing the direction of a jump attack mid-air but all about a fair challenge. But I digress. Let me just say that boss fights in Origin were a highlight for me, never unfair or frustrating but just right.
Besides the boss fights, I really enjoyed some of the character-driven moments in this game a lot. As I said earlier, I played as Yunica for my first playthrough and she was a delight to play as. Normally, in other Ys games, you play as Adol Christin, red-haired swordsman, hero, and very silent, very bland protagonist. Here, things are a bit different. Yunica has a ton of personality, humor, and heart-felt moments, that were actually kind of well presented and cute. There were even some moments of self-doubt, requiring her to find her inner strength and deal with trauma of the past which was really cool. Don’t expect a narrative masterpiece in terms of character writing or story in general but I do feel like the writers did a fine job here.
So, that concludes the Napishtim Engine games. I had a blast playing these titles. Every single one of them shines in its own light which sets it apart from the other games. For me, Origin represents the culmination of qualities from all Ys games up to this point. It has a great game flow, relatable characters, amazing music (to nobody’s surprise :D), and high replay value. I’m looking forward to my next playthrough as Hugo and can hardly wait to see what the rest of the series has in stock for me.