The definitive version of a game released once in the 80s and six quadrillion times since then. I think.... The Turbo CD version might be my actual favorite but it has the benefit of like a thousand years since I've played it and I'm mostly just fuming because the last boss in this version is one of the worst bosses of all time albeit also one of the funniest. I can't even be mad. Just bouncing around the screen making the floor go away when you hit him and setting off bombs in your face every 0.2 seconds it's actually comical.
Ys rules though. Amazing how "hitting guys at an angle" turns bump combat into a legitimately fun time. Not complicated, but everything moves so fast and the tunes are so rockin it works. It works!
The thing that struck me on this run was that like, for as much as I think of Ys as being grind, save up, buy equipment and so forth this first one had me hitting the level cap like halfway into the game, generously, and I assume that's at least fairly accurate to the original release, unlike the TCD version which combined the games into one long game and has you levelling up through to the end. It's almost as much Zelda as it is Dragon Quest.
I love Darm Tower as a concept. One really gigantic dungeon that takes up most of the game, a few characters scaling it parallel to you, helping you out along the way. The series would go on to have a tradition of really back-heavy final areas but I've always respected Darm Tower as the like, the progenitor, even though I now see that the later examples are just better at it. This includes the game they made that's just Darm Tower.
Anyway, I guess I ended up with some mixed feelings about the quality of the first Ys after playing it again, and obviously the plot and so on are nothing special having not even acquired the qualities that would make it funny later on, but it's still a classic in my eyes. Just like, a kinda rough classic. Dunno how soon I'd be willing to dip back in, but I could do it on like baby difficulty. That'd be fun. I'm not the kind of person who'd jack up the difficulty on this one though. The bosses are godawful as it is.
Ys rules though. Amazing how "hitting guys at an angle" turns bump combat into a legitimately fun time. Not complicated, but everything moves so fast and the tunes are so rockin it works. It works!
The thing that struck me on this run was that like, for as much as I think of Ys as being grind, save up, buy equipment and so forth this first one had me hitting the level cap like halfway into the game, generously, and I assume that's at least fairly accurate to the original release, unlike the TCD version which combined the games into one long game and has you levelling up through to the end. It's almost as much Zelda as it is Dragon Quest.
I love Darm Tower as a concept. One really gigantic dungeon that takes up most of the game, a few characters scaling it parallel to you, helping you out along the way. The series would go on to have a tradition of really back-heavy final areas but I've always respected Darm Tower as the like, the progenitor, even though I now see that the later examples are just better at it. This includes the game they made that's just Darm Tower.
Anyway, I guess I ended up with some mixed feelings about the quality of the first Ys after playing it again, and obviously the plot and so on are nothing special having not even acquired the qualities that would make it funny later on, but it's still a classic in my eyes. Just like, a kinda rough classic. Dunno how soon I'd be willing to dip back in, but I could do it on like baby difficulty. That'd be fun. I'm not the kind of person who'd jack up the difficulty on this one though. The bosses are godawful as it is.