This was my first of this era of Ys, and wow, what a game. The part that always seemed the most iffy to me when it popped up on Steam in years past was actually the best part:
The combat in Ys Origin is tight.
Even outside of the context of the series this is just a game every action-RPG enthusiast should play. It's quick, it's fluid, it keeps you on your toes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, but if you wanna stick around they give you plenty to do.
What I was kind of wondering about was how the game would play without a dedicated defense option. I'm a big fan of the kind of interplay of offense and defense you see in Dark Souls and modern Ys and it's hard for me to go back to the way things were done in Diablo and other older style ARPGs where the defense option was "grit teeth then chug potion." Thankfully Origin doesn't fall into that with use of hitstun, well designed attack patterns, and a set of player skills that allow for aggressive counters. I found that it established a rhythm at a great pace and kept adding just enough new obstacles to keep things fresh without disrupting the flow (aside from one particular section).
The greatest highlight for me were the bosses. There were well implemented platormer-esque elements without turning them into completely rote exercises as the RPG style health and damage elements were still at play. To put it another way, you can play it clean and proper if you know all the patterns and punch above your stat line, or you can leverage your stats to punch as hard as you can before you're whittled away by stray hits and misjumps, or some mix of the two. Very fun, very memorable.
One big difference in this game from the other Ys titles I've played is that there are multiple characters you can play as, but unlike modern Ys you're locked into that character for the whole playthrough to see their unique version of events. One character has to be unlocked, so I won't say much about them, but the initial two are an axe warrior and a mage. The warrior was more my speed as her playstyle was more interesting to me (fairly reminiscent to Dana in VIII) while the mage plays closer to a shoot-em-up.
Story wise, its definitely lighter than Trails still and didn't get me the way Lacrimosa did. But, paired with the music, its still an enjoyable tale that was just compelling enough to make me want to see all three character routes to completion. Having played Ys I & II, it was also fun to see many of the pieces of Adol's journey fall into place.
One last positive note: if you really dig the combat, there's also a bunch of extra game modes and associated unlockables you can dig into after the fact as well, which is cool to see. I'll have to skip for now, but they seem quite nice to have if you're playing on Steam Deck or PSP. Been a while since I've seen that but I shouldn't be surprised given this was a mid 00's title.
I really don't have any complaints with this game aside from that some way find the three routes a bit repetivitive in terms of dungeon content. I don't mind that all because the playstyle is so different between characters and it plays so smoothly it's like replaying an arcade game. But I know I'm particularly lenient to that kind of thing.
So overall, not revolutionary by any stretch, but very, very solid. Highly recommend to all action fans.
The combat in Ys Origin is tight.
Even outside of the context of the series this is just a game every action-RPG enthusiast should play. It's quick, it's fluid, it keeps you on your toes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, but if you wanna stick around they give you plenty to do.
What I was kind of wondering about was how the game would play without a dedicated defense option. I'm a big fan of the kind of interplay of offense and defense you see in Dark Souls and modern Ys and it's hard for me to go back to the way things were done in Diablo and other older style ARPGs where the defense option was "grit teeth then chug potion." Thankfully Origin doesn't fall into that with use of hitstun, well designed attack patterns, and a set of player skills that allow for aggressive counters. I found that it established a rhythm at a great pace and kept adding just enough new obstacles to keep things fresh without disrupting the flow (aside from one particular section).
The greatest highlight for me were the bosses. There were well implemented platormer-esque elements without turning them into completely rote exercises as the RPG style health and damage elements were still at play. To put it another way, you can play it clean and proper if you know all the patterns and punch above your stat line, or you can leverage your stats to punch as hard as you can before you're whittled away by stray hits and misjumps, or some mix of the two. Very fun, very memorable.
One big difference in this game from the other Ys titles I've played is that there are multiple characters you can play as, but unlike modern Ys you're locked into that character for the whole playthrough to see their unique version of events. One character has to be unlocked, so I won't say much about them, but the initial two are an axe warrior and a mage. The warrior was more my speed as her playstyle was more interesting to me (fairly reminiscent to Dana in VIII) while the mage plays closer to a shoot-em-up.
Story wise, its definitely lighter than Trails still and didn't get me the way Lacrimosa did. But, paired with the music, its still an enjoyable tale that was just compelling enough to make me want to see all three character routes to completion. Having played Ys I & II, it was also fun to see many of the pieces of Adol's journey fall into place.
One last positive note: if you really dig the combat, there's also a bunch of extra game modes and associated unlockables you can dig into after the fact as well, which is cool to see. I'll have to skip for now, but they seem quite nice to have if you're playing on Steam Deck or PSP. Been a while since I've seen that but I shouldn't be surprised given this was a mid 00's title.
I really don't have any complaints with this game aside from that some way find the three routes a bit repetivitive in terms of dungeon content. I don't mind that all because the playstyle is so different between characters and it plays so smoothly it's like replaying an arcade game. But I know I'm particularly lenient to that kind of thing.
So overall, not revolutionary by any stretch, but very, very solid. Highly recommend to all action fans.