Sometimes there is beauty in simplicity and that definitely holds true for this game. Ys I took me back to a time when games were all about the simple joy of exploring and adventuring. Going out into the wilds with barely so much as a vague direction while fighting your way through hordes of goblins, wolfs and evil knights clad in dark armor. It is a game that doesn't really follow a well-defined linear narrative thread but lets you go and seek out your own adventure in the wilds until you hit a road block. It is only then when you have to retrace your steps and ask yourself what you might have missed. It's a game that doesn't guide you. You will have to visit towns, ask around for information and talk to specific NPCs multiple times to learn where you have to go next. Sometimes, an item-description might have some clue that will help you find the solution to some puzzle that kept you from progressing. It's old school and I'm all here for it.

Once you're out in the open, you'll start bumping into enemies to fight them. Yeah, the combat system doesn't require you to swing your sword or block manually, you just bump into stuff and hope that the enemy takes more damage than you. At first, I didn't quite get it :D I was dying constantly and I was sure that I hadn't fully understood the combat mechanics. But no, I was just underleveled and had to upgrade my gear. So I started grinding for a few minutes, gathered some gold and experience, bought new equipment and tried again. And it made a huge difference. Gear and levels really matter in this game. At fixed intervals, I would have to take some time to grind. It wasn't unbearable but since the combat is so simplistic in nature, it got old really fast. All in all though, the bump system was pretty fun. It's just satisfying as hell to bump into enemies and trap them in corners where they are squashed to bloody bits :D

Graphically, the game has its charme. As with many other aspects of the game, the visuals are rather simplistic but the art direction and love for detail that the devs poured into it, really make Ys shine. Even though the game offers only simple sprites for enemies, they were so distinct, that I could easily tell them apart. I felt that each design had personality and character. Same goes for the environmental design. Seeing the shadows of clouds that are passing by overhead may just be a small detail but it shows that the developers cared. I love stuff like this. The character portraits of special NPCs you talk to are absolutely gorgeous just as the cutscenes that are composed of beautiful hand-drawn images.

So far the review has mainly touched on positive aspects of the game and if you've read up until this point, you're probably wondering why I've given the game such a mediocre rating. Well, I did have some issues with the game. First of, navigation in dungeons, especially in the final dungeon of the game, can be a real pain. You have no map and no idea of where to go most of the time. Sometimes you are even surrounded by darkness which makes it extra hard to get your bearings. There are sections in the game where you have to traverse through multiple levels of a dungeon back and forth which confused the living hell out of me.
On top of that there's the boss battles. Some are ok, they mostly feel like wars of attrition. However, for most of them, there is a great deal of luck and randomness involved. I'm not going to spoil anything but there were 2 bosses that made me almost drop the game for they committed mutliple cardinal sins of bad boss design :D The final boss in particular was a disaster design-wise.

Nonetheless, I had a good time with Ys I. It's a charming, simplistic and short Action RPG which is still very playable today. I loved the character art, music and level of detail. For me, it was my first Ys experience and I'm looking forward to playing more games of the series in the future.

Has anyone who worked on this game ever actually walked on wooden floors before?? Every time these hulking masses of man meat entered a busted-up domestic structure, the foley of their boots stomping on hardwood completely dominated our entire living room as if it was a "bass boosted" YTP from days gone by. Floors don't sound like war drums, guys!

Anyhow uhhhhhhh pretty good co-op experience! The reload timing is cool, reviving is a nice alternative to respawning, campaign length is nice and tight, and I like way those deep voice enemies say "BOOM". Besides having Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time do the footstep sound design, my only real complaint is how frequently you reach a door, have a need to go through that door, and then have to wait for the door to be opened for you. I'm 500 pounds of surly beefcake and jagged metal, just let me through already!

Oh and I constantly forgot that Jack existed, it's like I had no object permanence for that weird little robot

I love this series so much. Another absolute triumph from RGG that easily cemented itself in my top 3.

As much as I will always love Kiryu, Ichiban has grown on me immensely between LAD7 and Infinite Wealth. His relentless optimism, goofiness and loyalty is the perfect foil for Kiryu's cool, tough and solemn demeanor. They complement each other perfectly, and Infinite Wealth did an amazing job at giving them both a time to shine.

The gameplay is a ton of fun and is very much an improvement from the already great turn-based combat of 7. Mixing and matching skills from different classes, utilizing combo attacks, finding the perfect team synergy for each battle - I never got bored of the combat. I was felt fairly over-leveled by the end of the story, but the final boss still put up a decent fight that felt fair.

The amount of content in this game is absolutely absurd. I like to focus on the story during my first play-through of a game, although I did manage to do a good chunk of side stories and optional activities but still feel like I barely scratched the surface. I have a lot of clean-up to do, but with so much variety in the activities I know I'll never get bored trying to finish everything and get the platinum, which I absolutely want to do with how good this game is.

The story was also excellent, although I think I liked 7's just a bit more. I'm always impressed by how well RGG can connect all of these seemingly random plot points together into a cohesive whole, as well as how big they can make the stakes feel in each game. Just when I think they couldn't possibly come up with something as grandiose as their previous game, they always manage to outdo themselves in the next entry. I appreciated the globe-trotting adventure of Infinite Wealth, and being able to flip between the two locations and parties (with no spoilers) kept things fresh and allowed the game to keep moving at a good pace. Couple that with their ability to tackle complex themes like the homelessness epidemic, wealth inequality and the harmful effects of Internet virality and you have a really amazing narrative overall.

Before I had played LAD7 I first played through the previous games in the series to catch myself up. Going into 7 I felt really connected to this story and these characters and this world, and I was nervous that with the longer wait between 7 and Infinite Wealth that I would lose that sense of connection and have a hard time feeling immersed in the world. I'm happy to say that isn't the case - playing Infinite Wealth felt like coming home in a sense, and it didn't feel like I had missed a beat when I loaded it up for the first time. This is a really special series to me, and I'm already counting down the days until we hear about the next adventure for this goofy, lovable found family.