the kiseki series. yes, all of it. ranking them individually is not possible because they're all valid and important and peak and no you can't make me choose gdi!!! i can't possibly do my love for kiseki justice with some tiny lil blurb so go stare at my kuro review if you want just a glimpse into how fucking feral i get over this series.

tldr: kiseki is my favorite thing ever.

near 10/10. but there's still a power gap between "worst kiseki" and "best non-kiseki". origin is proof that adol holds back ys to an insane degree. it's not even always his fault either, but i genuinely think he must be cursed or smth. bc goddamn, the ONE ys game w/o him is genuinely so fucking compelling. it has not 1, not 2, but THREE protags- each equally superior to strawberry link in their own special way. whether it be yunica's ascent or hugo's descent or toal just being one of the most gassed up chars falcom has ever written. they're all amazing

peak atmosphere peak falcom ost. narrative is kinda whatever but it doesn't matter since the dungeons and exploration are the meat of the game anyway. they're gas. it's like vagrant story dipped into the lovechild of zelda and diablo. plus ability gating bc why not. it's a dope ass package. final dungeon is maybe my fav on the list. oh and i named the mc BigXan all while blissfully unaware that the main girl was named char so that was fun

about as good as a game starring adol possibly can be. deranged soundtrack. dynamic and profoundly cathartic boss fights. fun ass platforming in the dungeons. surprisingly competent narrative despite adol being an active detriment just by standing there while chester and elena do peak shit. still a fun ass game in spite of Adol; again, who i regret to inform you is, in fact, a character in this video game. play on nightmare for that goddamn chester fight and final boss

playing this crunchy ass game on nightmare is a formative experience. distilled, primeval suffering in the most indescribably compelling way possible. 8/10 would not recommend.

nothing crazy, just an engaging and beefy ass dungeon crawler with some neat wrinkles to exploration and combat. it's cute and fun and charming and always engaging. despite its mechanical simplicity throughout, the game has a ton of depth and i always looked forward to seeing the next dungeon gimmick. final dungeon is an insane culmination that's just a pure blast to triumph over. dela sweep you know the vibes

prettier than the ys1 remake and has better music. but it doesn't have a nightmare difficulty so that's a dealbreaker sry... malding and screaming at vaguillion and dark fact on nightmare is the entire appeal of ys1 for me. so i def can't rank it higher than the remake. still rly good tho. both versions are waaay better than ys2 and its completely baffling that i literally never see this opinion anywhere else

unlike with ys1, aesthetics and ost put this above its remake counterpart. prob because ys2 nightmare isnt that hard/fun so idc. magic makes ys2 more ""complex""? sure? ig? but it 100% flies in the face of bump combat's tension and tradeoffs in doing so. you no longer need to get close to enemies to attack. therefore, you are no longer ever in danger. this alone ruins the appeal of bump combat. inb4 "what appeal" ok fair but also shut up. it's also insanely cryptic for some reason. op slaps, remake ver is top 10 falcom tracks easily

pretty close to the original ys2 ig. def has its perks over ys1-adoroo transformation is cute for monster dialogue. and the dungeons slap (after the first cave cuz dear god). especially solomon shrine, good shit right there. but does it rly matter when the one thing that is usually servicable in ys (combat) is completely trivialized by boring magic? not to mention the ending is rushed to shit with a final dungeon that clearly should've been there being... one hallway? idk its a no from me

the quintessential "ys" game. why? because it does absolutely nothing great- let alone remarkable, plays it safe from beginning to end, and never once passes the bare minimum threshold of being compelling in any respect beyond "haha swing swordie fun". the most headass 6/10 in existence. combat is the only reason to play this, though ig the dungeons are interesting enough to help propel you thru as well. if you're going to play it, nightmare is the only way to spice things up enough to actually be worth your time

read my review for more. tldr; generally underwhelming but has charm and an engaging gameplay loop which sort of set it part kinda but not really. cute but probably not worth playing for more than a few hours. no game ranked below this is even worth trying imo

typing of ys on hard mode is genuinely cracked out of its mind though. unironically peak minigame

a lot more charming than the rest of these sorry ass games it's surrounded by. but the novelty of 3d zwei is offset by poor optimization, uninspired combat, and level design which hardly makes any fun use of the admittedly cool platforming mechanics. either pick up and play for like 30 minutes or outright pass

it's genuinely impressive how unremarkable such a novel concept ended up being. if i can fight as loewe and chester and still can't play your game for more than 7 minutes then there's a problem here. thanks anyway geofront 'preciate u

pros are the OST and the fact maya exists. that's it. this game is so bland it's genuinely fascinating. it tries to have a complex narrative so that's kinda groundbreaking in ys terms ig. doesn't stop the execution from being aggressively boring tho. this game's like if oath had a more intrusively "ys narrative" and FAR less interesting dungeons oh and was also like 10-20 gd hours longer for no reason. i'd rather play an outright bad game than something this bafflingly dull. ig ill put it above celceta tho since for whatever reason i actually played the whole game. pass

no

please no

idk what demon invaded my body and compelled me to plow through this entire game but... dear god if it wasn't one of the most unremarkable 15-20 hours i've ever invested into a game. if one of your main characters is a cute vampire remilia scarlet knockoff and i still want to skip all of your game's dialogue you should idk probably make it less shitty or something

"i'd rather play an outright bad game than blah blah blah"- me like 2 seconds ago

ok i lied now take it away please. this game is the epitome of "so i heard u kids like them squaresoft games, eh? well lookie here at these menus, we're just one of the guys, rite?" its hilarious how miserably it fails to stack up to... well. any video game. let alone those ones. ugly as sin, soulless, notably boring even in the context of the series, easy as piss, and doesn't even have the usual saving grace of a decent ost. ys5 is a super hydlide tier embarrassment sry