Benzyme's Warp-Zone

The early days the Nintendo DS were an exciting time. Before it came bloated with shovel-ware, Nintendo's first party lineup was slim (Mario 64 DS, Metroid Prime: Hunters and Warioware: Touched) but what was really interesting was how many random franchises and JRPGs popped up trying to make use of the DS's touch and dual screen features. I remember my brother picked up a bunch of random games. 

I think he had stuff like Lunar: Genesis 

And LostMagic: 

Stuff my 10-year-old brother was picked because it had cool anime on the cover and we were fairly certain between SNES and PS2, any and every JRPG was an amazing goldmine filled with wanderlust and adventure. 

So when he discovered Ys Strategy, it was cheap and looked cool! The classic pre-internet gamble a kid had to make buying a game seemed certain we had a winner! 

Except we did not... From my initial memory I didn't remember Ys being a bad game. I was a big fan of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. But I just relooked up screenshots and oh... OH... 

I think the concept was probably cool at the time. Use the DS stylus for a little dual screen age of empires RTS thing. That's pretty creative and novel for the time. Still kind of might be if you don't count phone games. BUT because I was a big FFTA fan, I don't think this stuck with me for very long... it's pretty ugly and where was the cool anime charm? This left a bad impression in me and I thought all Ys games were strategy games not for me. I like classic adventure JRPGs. 

Boy was I doofus and I've been putting off a massive franchise that probably would have altered my brain chemistry if I played it earlier. 

The Ys franchise is massive! There are 10+ core games with spin-offs and a billion rereleases. The outlier is actually Ys Strategy, all the others are some kind of action-based JRPG but they do change gameplay styles pretty rapidly. In this sense the Ys games are the Kingdom Hearts of of classic JRPG game. Because they play through a continued world and timeline, you are usually the same character being caught up in many adventures, but more importantly if you want to play through the whole franchises stories, they are confusing convoluted not in story, but in platform release! GOOD LUCK hunting down ways to play every Ys and working out which one is the best to play. But I am keen SO lets see how I go!

Maybe I'll even watch the OVA series one day!

Right now, all I know is the main character is called Y.

NOPE. I've been wrong about that for 25 years. I guess I always thought the game franchise was called: "Y's" but there's actually no apostrophe. The main character is called Adol Christin. He is the signature red-haired protagonist. I have nothing against redheads, I married one. I have also learned that the Ys refer to a series of six "Book of Ys" named after an ancient kingdom called "Ys" and contain instrumental knowledge to save the world! I guess the Ys are kind of like the Japanese elders-scrolls. 

So lets boot up Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished on the good old classic Japanese gaming computer whose aesthetic and zombie ecchi games everyone fell in-love with, the good old  PC-88...  

And uh... oh... hmm...

I could play this version. But I am really not from this era. My parents did not get it on early enough. I am a 16-bit console kid, not so much an 8-bit PC-88 '80s guy. I am sure there are modern enhanced versions to play. Let's research the best version to play! 

Well I could stick to the classics. In 1989 Ys I and Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter were both ported to the PC Engine CD bundled together in an enhanced edition called: Ys Book I & II. Probably still too primitive for me. A lot of these versions are easy to find though. They were released on the Wii Virtual Console in in 2007 and while the Wii Shop music is dead forever, these early games have been ported arcade style over to the Switch and Steam etc... etc...  the modern rereleases are now in English but I should mention the original platforms are still Japanese. Actually I think Megadrive and Turbografx-CD english versions exist of these early games. But like I said, I am looking for a few more bits to byte my teeth into. Apparently one of these versions is one of the first games to have english voice dubbing so maybe that's worth looking up for the lols. 

BUT I could also play Ys I & II Complete which was released in 2001 which is a bundle of Ys Eternal and Ys II Eternal which featured updated graphics, complete animation sequences and FMVs for cutscenes and a newly arranged soundtrack. Okay now we're cooking. But this version is still in Japanese. 

So I could play Ys I & II: Eternal Story (2003) on the PlayStation 2. Which added even more new content in the form of new characters, items and voice-overs. Wow! Except this version is still Japanese only and I don't even think a translation romhack exists yet. So this one is not for me just yet. 

Fortunately in Japan Ys DS and Ys II DS would be released and by 2009 in America, these thrice enhanced versions would be released formally in English for the first time bundled as Legacy of Ys: Book 1 & Book 2. Apparently this version had some 3D visuals and MULTIPLAYER for up to 4 people?! Remind me to revisit this version on the R4 card. 

So the version I settled on, despite the possibility of playing Ys I & III Chronicles+ on Steam was Ys I & II Chronicles un-plus on the good ol' PSP.  It emulates and upscales real well and is very beautiful.

I found the game to be incredibly charming with its pixel art. It has some carry-overs from its PC-88 origin, such as making use of Visual Novel style scenes when you interact with NPCs with deeper options. 

I was really having a good time talking to everyone, but I wanted to try the game's combat. But nothing could prepare me for the "bump" combat system. I walked outside. Started a fight with a giant tree, tried to press the attack button and nothing happened. Bumped into him and he took damage. He bumped into me and I took damaged. As my brain's gears slowly reconfigured that this was going to be different to Zelda, the tree bumped me to death. And I died. 

Look I planned to continue, but as I was researching and downloading more Ys games I accidentally looked over at Ys VI: The Ark of Naphishtim on the PS2 and saw something, truely, very special... 

I am not sure I've ever seen an opening cutscene with such bad acting, such ugly yet charming character models and the pacing of the opening scene hahaha. Incredible! 

Blunderlust aside, after this opening the game blew my mind. Adol washes up in a new tropical island adventure, surrounded by elvish beast people and THIS GAME IS GORGEOUS. 

It's hard to find a screenshot that will do it justice, especially to my upscaled 4K output on my retro box. But there's something about the vibes man, they really capture the Ragnarök Online peak JRPG whimsical fantasy era. The lush jungles and blue skies coast of the early 2000s immediately hook my wanderlust. And the most charming thing of all to my shock and disbelief, every character, every line of dialogue, every NPCs is fully voiced in English language.  And not badly either! Every character is doing some interesting accent or performance! It's incredible immersive! Some voices are hilarious and a bit distracting, but this should really have become the standard. Nothing kills some vibes like a JRPG that opens hard and then english dialogue dwindles out replaced for static text. No only that, modern voice acting is so dry. Think of something like Octopath Traveller being a slog. But this game, its exciting to meet and explore and discover every NPC just to see how they sound. It sounds like the voice actors are having fun without Matt Mercer narrating their dice rolls! 

Wait a second... 

Huh... most of my screenshots are coming from the 2003 pre-rendered cute aesthetic 2003 PC version which was the original. The PS2 I've been playing actually looks different. The models are fully rendered in 3D. It was still cute and charming to leave an impression. But apparently there is a better Steam port rerelease from 2015? I want to play with the cute pre-rendered chibs!

GOSH DANG IT! Why is the Ys franchise so confusing!!! 

The final thing I'll note, what has sparked my curiosity is each Ys game seems to play radically different. From Zelda-like early Japanese PC-engine style JRPGs, to even attempting side-scrolling in Ys III: Wonderers from Ys, the series is still going to day. The modern look looks more like the cheaper anime artstyle and I hear the story drags in parts but I hear in like Ys IX: Monstrum Nox he turns into some kind of werehog Muppets Monster Adventure Van Helsing. I also heard the most recent game on PC Ys X: Nordics got a Tales of style multiplayer mode patched in retroactively. So I am interested in what a Ys XI with multiplayer built in from the start might be like. 

Anyway Ys VI: Ark of the NappyTim is in real-tine action combat girly era of Ys games. It's real simple. You have an attack, jump and use Zelda-item button button. You can combine these and I think you get elements later. But you progress through those gorgeous voice acted story zones through little combat zones. So far I really like the enemy designs. They're really simple but have attack patterns and rules that you must learn to defeat. They're the biggest threat when they swarm you with more then seems fair, but you level up quickly and get new gear to get stronger and then its satisfying pushing through an area that killed you. There are good logical spots for save points and dying allows you to continue from your last one without losing too much. Bosses raise the stakes and might be BS later but the attack patterns are simple enough. 

So far it reminds me of the best parts of a classic MMO from this era. I've used wanderlust a lot but that is an ancient nostalgic feeling gone from modern gaming that motivates me a lot when I find a soul incarnate game like this. I am driven to continue to see what is around the corner, so I like the zones gate you with new enemies and pathways that are mini-dungeon like, you must manage your healing items and risk and reward choices to continue or go back and recover at a save spot and enhance your gear or press on. They feel like little MMO zones, you can kill and grind till you feel satisfied to continue. The speed of combat is so good that this doesn't feel like a hassle at all. 

I had a hunch that this gameplay would work well for an MMO. 

WELL I found out later there is actually Ys Online: The Ark of Napishtim which came out in English in 2022 on Android and iOS and is, has a new art style and is a free to play MMORPG. What the horsey sauce?! But as interesting as it would be to self-insert as my own character, I don't like the art style as much and it looks too micro-transactiony for me plus we don't romp with phone games here. 

Anyway I plan to continue this game, I want to explore more Ys games and become a Ys guy. Y? Because it looks like a beautiful JRPG gift that keeps on giving. 

But the question isn't Y. But HOW? WHAT? WHERE? HOW DO YOU PLAY THESE GAMES? WHAT DO YOU PLAY THEM ON? AND WHERE DO YOU PLAY THEM? 

Well... I'll keep you posted as I discover. My final piece of Ys-dom is a recent english translation of the PS2 game Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand came out and you can find it on cdromance.org/ . 

What but this game also came out on SNES and was remade for PS2? WHICH VERSION DO I PLAY?! AAAAAAAARGHHHH! 

Oh also Ys is apparently according to one NPC in Ark of Napishtim, pronounced "Yees" not Whys? 

So there goes every pun I just made... I blame the Yees Chromosome.