I'm so done listening to the popular opinion when it comes to established franchises. It's not about being a contrarian, but it just so happens that there have been multiple instances of me finding enjoyment in games that others seem to dislike to varying degrees. Let's see, there's: Final Fantasy XIII and Type-0, Mega Man 1, Tales of Zestiria, Need for Speed (2015), Corpse Party: Blood Drive, etc. Add this to the list of games I think don't deserve the hate.
"Play Dawn of Ys instead." I mean, I will, eventually. I wanna get through the entire Ys series eventually, but I already had a SNES emulator ready to go so I played this one first. Despite the general negativity surrounding this game, I went in with no expectations and I came out pleasantly surprised, and frankly a bit saddened to know not many people like it as much as I do. Ys I + II provided the framework. Two very solid games that mainly suffer from some obtuse map design and the occasional bullshit boss (if you know, you know). But Mask of the Sun does away with most of the annoyances I endured in those games and provides a more straightforward adventure with what I think is a slightly more competent plot. The bosses are for sure a lot weaker here, though.
Of course, I can't pretend that the game isn't somewhat janky with its gameplay. For one, you can only move in four directions, which took some getting used to after having been accustomed to the fluidity of Ys I + II. The hitboxes are kinda messed up too, but I barely noticed it save for a couple of specific enemy encounters. Bumping into enemies still felt good and the typical grind-fest that is known of these early Ys games was therapeutic here. And yes, the final dungeon is still a somewhat confusing/tedious maze but, give me this over Ys II's Solomon Shrine any day.
I think Mask of the Sun is an unfortunate case of being undermined by its more well-known and popular sister game. It's a really short game (like most of the early Ys games), and I believe that alone is a fair excuse to check it out, because I really do think it's nowhere near as bad as people say. It's a hidden gem among the vast Super Famicom JRPG library and makes for a fairly compact palette cleanser in-between much longer JRPGs.
"Play Dawn of Ys instead." I mean, I will, eventually. I wanna get through the entire Ys series eventually, but I already had a SNES emulator ready to go so I played this one first. Despite the general negativity surrounding this game, I went in with no expectations and I came out pleasantly surprised, and frankly a bit saddened to know not many people like it as much as I do. Ys I + II provided the framework. Two very solid games that mainly suffer from some obtuse map design and the occasional bullshit boss (if you know, you know). But Mask of the Sun does away with most of the annoyances I endured in those games and provides a more straightforward adventure with what I think is a slightly more competent plot. The bosses are for sure a lot weaker here, though.
Of course, I can't pretend that the game isn't somewhat janky with its gameplay. For one, you can only move in four directions, which took some getting used to after having been accustomed to the fluidity of Ys I + II. The hitboxes are kinda messed up too, but I barely noticed it save for a couple of specific enemy encounters. Bumping into enemies still felt good and the typical grind-fest that is known of these early Ys games was therapeutic here. And yes, the final dungeon is still a somewhat confusing/tedious maze but, give me this over Ys II's Solomon Shrine any day.
I think Mask of the Sun is an unfortunate case of being undermined by its more well-known and popular sister game. It's a really short game (like most of the early Ys games), and I believe that alone is a fair excuse to check it out, because I really do think it's nowhere near as bad as people say. It's a hidden gem among the vast Super Famicom JRPG library and makes for a fairly compact palette cleanser in-between much longer JRPGs.