Playing this with having more appreciation for where the Ys series would ultimate go honestly helped me enjoy this game a good bit more. It also helps that the Chronicles remake on PSP is actually playable (unlike the DS version I originally played), even if it feels a bit zoomed in.

It's a very no frills game that really benefits from you talking to everyone. Combat's simple. The story's simple, although it feels just like a setup to Ys II. It's really short. Underneath that, it still has this charm that comes with being one of the first action RPG's/JRPG's (yeah it technically ticks both boxes). With the only three games I've beaten being 1,2, and 8 (though I don't count 2 yet because I played it in such a godawful way), it's surreal to see where Ys started.

Also this game has some of the most obnoxious boss design I have ever seen. The only two bosses that were decent were the centipede and the mantis, and the centipede was just overly simple. The vampire was a painful fight due to its ungodly small window of vulnerability, and Dark Fact is just purely bullshit. I cannot understate how terrible that fight is when you actually play it on decent hardware. The other three bosses kinda suck, but are nowhere near as egregious.

I've warmed up to Ys 1. It's nothing special, and it has some awful bosses, but it's a really solid foundation to build up from.