When it comes to "technical milestones in gaming history", we think about our Dooms, or Star Foxes, our Mario 64s, our FF7s. But never does Ys Book I & II come up.

This was an epic 20-hour two-part RPG with animated cutscenes, fully-fledged professional voice acting in both Japanese and English, arranged OST using real CD instruments, and extensive side content all in 1989. A 500MB game in a time when games rarely exceeded 500KB. And it was all done by a small Japanese studio. This is one for the history books and it's a shame it doesn't get the respect the deserves.

As for the game itself, though? Haha, bump combat go BRRRRRRBRBRBRBRRRBRRBRR

Reviewed on Jun 21, 2021


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