Note: This review stands only as a review of Yunica's route thus far. I'm giving myself a little break and I plan to go back for the other two routes fairly soon. I'll edit this review to reflect those experiences as well.
My exposure to Ys was brief and over a decade ago - if memory serves, I played the Famicom versions of the first three or four games and essentially forgot the experiences over time. A few friends of mine are fans of this series, and while I stall on starting Trails In The Sky over after losing like 20 hours' worth of save progress a year ago, I figure I might as well make an attempt to get back into Falcom's other big money-maker. And wow - what a way this has been to get me back into the franchise proper!
Being that I seem to enjoy action-adventure titles like this, if my mixed but mostly positive feelings upon returning to Link To The Past mean anything, this was everything I was looking for from a combat perspective. Ys Origin gets you right into the thick of it only a few minutes into the game, and its battles are tight, dynamic and interesting. Even level grinding, which as I understand it is a series "tradition" (read: plague, but more on that later) isn't as bad as it could be thanks to the addictive ebb and flow of controlling this game. You're offered a very simple toolkit while controlling Yunica, and the game more or less goes "alright, this is all you need - now figure out how to scale Devil's Tower". And for the most part, it succeeds. There were only a handful of moments I needed to look outside what the game gave me to work with - almost all of them facepalm "oh, duh" moments in retrospect.
Story in Yunica's route is light but enjoyable. Her ardent "friendship" (zesty as hell!) with the goddesses is really cute, and the supporting cast is pretty fun if mildly engaging beyond their moments. Shout out to Roy for rocking that fluoride stare like a motherfucker. I can't wait to check out what these two angsty twinks I'm gonna get to play as offer me in their time in the spotlight, too. Yunica in particular kind of reminds me of Estelle from Trails, but keep in mind that's based on my limited time with that character.
Addressing my few grievances, honestly, they're pretty simple fixes. Give this thing a rotating camera a la Trails In The Sky so I'm not caught behind higher-level textures without being able to see my character. More importantly, allow more leeway for bosses to be killed purely through skill as opposed to just needing to be the right fucking level to progress - make those low-level runs MEAN something! - and I think you've got basically a perfect game within this style. Looking forward to seeing how I feel on return visits, but my first climb through Devil's Tower was a ton of fun.
My exposure to Ys was brief and over a decade ago - if memory serves, I played the Famicom versions of the first three or four games and essentially forgot the experiences over time. A few friends of mine are fans of this series, and while I stall on starting Trails In The Sky over after losing like 20 hours' worth of save progress a year ago, I figure I might as well make an attempt to get back into Falcom's other big money-maker. And wow - what a way this has been to get me back into the franchise proper!
Being that I seem to enjoy action-adventure titles like this, if my mixed but mostly positive feelings upon returning to Link To The Past mean anything, this was everything I was looking for from a combat perspective. Ys Origin gets you right into the thick of it only a few minutes into the game, and its battles are tight, dynamic and interesting. Even level grinding, which as I understand it is a series "tradition" (read: plague, but more on that later) isn't as bad as it could be thanks to the addictive ebb and flow of controlling this game. You're offered a very simple toolkit while controlling Yunica, and the game more or less goes "alright, this is all you need - now figure out how to scale Devil's Tower". And for the most part, it succeeds. There were only a handful of moments I needed to look outside what the game gave me to work with - almost all of them facepalm "oh, duh" moments in retrospect.
Story in Yunica's route is light but enjoyable. Her ardent "friendship" (zesty as hell!) with the goddesses is really cute, and the supporting cast is pretty fun if mildly engaging beyond their moments. Shout out to Roy for rocking that fluoride stare like a motherfucker. I can't wait to check out what these two angsty twinks I'm gonna get to play as offer me in their time in the spotlight, too. Yunica in particular kind of reminds me of Estelle from Trails, but keep in mind that's based on my limited time with that character.
Addressing my few grievances, honestly, they're pretty simple fixes. Give this thing a rotating camera a la Trails In The Sky so I'm not caught behind higher-level textures without being able to see my character. More importantly, allow more leeway for bosses to be killed purely through skill as opposed to just needing to be the right fucking level to progress - make those low-level runs MEAN something! - and I think you've got basically a perfect game within this style. Looking forward to seeing how I feel on return visits, but my first climb through Devil's Tower was a ton of fun.
PasokonDeacon
1 year ago