On many levels, Ys Seven embodies everything a Ys game should be. Coming from Origin I immediately loved the sense of adventure that oozes from this game. It's one of my favourite elements of the series so getting that right is a big bonus. I love traveling the lands, helping people, collecting different items to progress, and upgrading my equipment. The map progression is satisfying along with interesting dungeons and landscapes to explore. There's an epic story about saving the region and as always - a banger soundtrack.

I enjoy the new party-based combat system as well. Ys always has satisfying combat, but it's naturally a bit scary when they switch their style every few games. Now it is nowhere near to being as polished as the two final Napishtim engine games, but it does remind me of Napishtim itself which very similarly had to introduce a new combat style in a new engine. We did sacrifice jumping because flying enemies have to be attacked by specific party members, but the overall feel of picking the right tool for the job is nice and party progression is well handled.

All apart from one aspect - for some reason, the boss fights in Ys Seven are quite poor. I can chalk some of it down to the more hack-and-slashy combat not being as well suited for boss fights (esp since for these you can use any party member freely without having to think about their damage type), but the primary issue here is that for the most part the boss fights themselves just aren't interestingly designed. There might be an exception or two, but for the most part, the phases aren't that interesting and you don't have to think or adapt all that much.

That being said I liked nearly everything else about this game and regard it quite fondly. I am interested to see how this party-based combat system evolves moving forward and whether we can see another jump in quality akin to the one between Napishtim and Felghana.