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Post by nocturnal YL on Nov 8, 2021 12:59:29 GMT -5
I'm at the 18th floor in Ys Origin. I use Yunica and play at Normal difficulty, because those are the default choices.
Early impression:
It feels like a Ys game. Yeah, real shocker, I know. By that I mean things like the way the characters are controlled, how double jump works, the general atmosphere, music and sound effects, and so on. Character movement (with dash always on) feels a bit slower than I thought, though.
I'm glad that this game has some modern features like analog control and wide screen support (don't know if those were there in the original Windows 98/Me/XP version). Automatic dashing is highly welcome. Menu navigation is a bit awkward though.
One thing that stands out to me is the level design. Things are laid out in a way that encourages trying out various items and skills. The earlier bosses make it rather obvious that the wind skill would be useful, and boss fights in general encourages experimentation. Also, the room before the save point is usually filled with enemies appropriate for the player's level, so level grinding wouldn't be too much of an annoyance.
I am pretty bad at action games though. I often have to get to 2-3 levels above the boss to avoid getting defeated.
Not much to say about the story yet. The characters don't stand out a lot; maybe that's intentional? I think this series is trying to be an action game first and an RPG second.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Nov 9, 2021 9:30:01 GMT -5
I'm glad that this game has some modern features like analog control and wide screen support (don't know if those were there in the original Windows 98/Me/XP version). Automatic dashing is highly welcome. Menu navigation is a bit awkward though. The analog control was always there. The original PC release supported both gamepads and mouse + keyboard control. Remember, Falcom used to be a dedicated PC developer, so the mouse controls for their PC releases were actually quite intuitive. Widescreen was added to modern releases, as you can see in some places where the environments abruptly end at the edges of the screen, or certain pathways don't even reach the edge of the screen. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Nov 10, 2021 16:00:06 GMT -5
I just finished Yunica's route. Love the music and atmosphere of the final part. Not a fan of the enemies at the end though. They're rather annoying to deal with, making EXP and SP farming slower. Level 50 is enough for Normal difficulty anyway, so it's not a big problem. The story is shocking, and I'm interested in seeing more. There are quite a lot of information that aren't detailed, and the story instead puts focus on character growth, just like Dimitri in FE Three Houses. From what I know, much of the background information is seen in the third route. I feel bad for Yunica, who had to part ways with almost everyone she cared about. I wonder if Roy's death is in the other routes? Don't answer this; I'll find out in-game. I'm thinking about playing the other routes. The story intrigues me, and speaking of the story, I want to see Ys I and II made available on Switch. Going beyond the 10th page in the leaderboard crashes the game. Yay. And some categories don't even have any attempts at all. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Nov 12, 2021 9:33:42 GMT -5
This was surprising news for me to wake up to. According to their latest financial results briefing (via Nintendo Life), Falcom will be bringing Switch development in-house, starting in 2022 with the port of The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails. After all this time of Falcom saying they were too small of a company to handle Switch ports themselves, I wonder what caused this change of heart. Maybe Switch sales have been increasing more than expected? Could this also mean higher quality ports? Also, it's interesting (and disappointing) that they plan to release another Trails game next year instead of a new Ys game, despite it being the series' 35th anniversary. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Nov 14, 2021 5:37:20 GMT -5
Finished Hugo's route at Normal difficulty. It's much easier, taking me only 8 hours to finish and I didn't spend SP on blessings. Toal's next. So Roy doesn't die… but Epona does. This game really loves the "kill the love interest" plot.
Also, the Fact family is messed up, especially with Hugo and Toal's father Cain, judging from what Hugo and Toal say about Hugo's pursuit of power coming from him. Is Cain even on the goddesses' side? I think Falcom switching side may be a result of Sony switching side. They have been westernising the PlayStation brand for quite a while, and a lot of Japanese games still primarily target PS4 now. Also, I said this before, but pretty much the whole niche of PS Vita is now fulfilled by Switch. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Nov 17, 2021 13:01:13 GMT -5
Alright, I finished all three routes. More impression: The music is excellent, as expected. I just watched a playthrough of the first game, and I was surprised to see the original versions being so close to the newer remixes. Scars of the Divine Wing is a highly motivating song and is my favourite in this game. I also like Scarlet Tempest, the area BGM for Guilty Fire. The story is good. Better than most multi-route games, I'd say. Ys Origin being a short game with 3 routes didn't give me confidence at first, but the game actually handled this format well. Each time I clear a route, there are enough unanswered questions that make me want to keep pushing, and each route built upon the last one too. Yunica has a standard character growth story, and it very purposely gave Miuscha, Hugo and Toal very little role that made me wonder why was this the case. Hugo's story dropped hints that Toal isn't the antagonist he claims to be. Toal's route finally showed what his role is, and unlike the other two routes, actually gave Yunica and Hugo enough screen time to make them feel like off-screen protagonists. I like Toal more than I thought I would, story-wise. I noticed this in Hugo's route too, but it's most obvious in his own route. He actually went out of the way to avoid fighting anyone besides Zava's monsters for as far as he could. He's fine with being labelled a traitor if it means saving Ys. And a minor thing I like is that he returned Saul's sword to Yunica, which ended up helping him in the cutscene after the Kishgal fight. Maybe it's just me, but the characters have this interesting pattern in my playthrough: Yunica is difficult to use early on, until she got the Crimson Lotusblade. Hugo felt difficult to play as mid-game, as his damage output started to lag behind until later on I realised I could just make good use of his shield to make him last longer. Toal felt awesome to use at first, but his style is reckless and he's not exactly good at defensive, campy play, making late game difficult. I wish they'd tone down the platforming parts in Silent Desert, which is pretty much my only gripe besides the grinding. I kept falling off various parts, and the moving spikes can send the character pretty far away. Yunica's route took me 11½ hours. Hugo took 8 hours and Toal took 7½ hours, even with all the grinding. Overall, it's still a short game and there really isn't much to talk about, but it did exceed my expectation quite a bit. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Dec 4, 2021 10:29:31 GMT -5
I've finished Ys IX! So, where do I start… Impression prior to startingI tend to ignore a game's pre-release information so that I can jump into the game blind. So pretty much the only things I know beforehand are that this game takes place in a prison, the player characters can transform, it's the latest game chronologically and it's based on Ys VIII's system. This gave me a very different image than what the game would actually be. I thought a great chunk of the game would be inside the prison, with Adol expanding his range of freedom progressively. I guess I'm kind of right in that it's what Adol does. It's just not the Adol I had in mind. I also thought of the transformation process to be more like werewolves, where the transformation is involuntary and locked in certain parts of the game. The actual game is a more standard kind of RPG, with an ordinary town and all. Early impressionI was a bit worried about the story at first. A group of ordinary people who can transform, fight in an alternate world, and have a hiding spot disguised as a business operation? I think they copy too much from your average ATLUS game. The references to real-world history and myth and the earlier Ys games aren't very apparent at the start. Music is another thing I'd complain about regarding the early game. Ys music excels mostly on fields and in dungeons, and town and story music, although still good, tend to fail to stand out as much. This isn't a problem in Ys VIII and Ys Origin due to the way those games are laid out, but in Ys IX, you don't get to visit the first dungeon until getting White Cat, and you don't get to go outside until Doll joins. (By the way, I'm not going to agree with what some fans think about outsourcing the music. Mitsuo Singa is fine; and as some said, imperfections seem to stem from not having enough time to edit the music rather than the composers being incompetent.) …Then came the other monstrumsI like the way the story is divided. Each part is dedicated to one monstrum, showing what they have been up to outside of their role as Grimwald Nox fighters. In Ys VIII, Hummel failed to leave me a big enough impression fitting that of a playable character, and in that aspect, I'd say Ys IX has improved. Like Ys VIII, sidequests may as well be treated as mandatory, given the amount of story-relevant information these quests give. As the monstrums join, more moves are available and more areas open for exploration. It's not a large place, but adding a third dimension makes trying to find treasure boxes and blue petals a bit more fun. The dungeons are actually a bit dull compared to Ys VIII. Instead of coral caves and ghost ships, we get tunnels, tunnels and more tunnels. The versatile moves and easier general difficulty also makes them not last as long, though. These generally don't outstay their welcome, although I wish they can be just a bit longer just for the music. Dungeon music is just so much better than town music, not that the latter is bad. Oh, and I welcome the return of Vagullion and Nygtilger, having just finished Ys Origin. At the end of each chapter is an Adol section dropped in without any explanation. My guesses on what that's about was wrong: I guessed flashbacks to before Adol broke away, rather than something that happens in parallel. Excellent job explicitly showing a secret without me guessing what it is until the big reveal. Monstrum ranger, let's go!After they're together, that's when the story got intense. At this point, there's no more city exploration that needs to be done, so the game's pacing also got a lot faster, since I was focused on advancing the story. The story came with surprise after surprise, and I'd say the overall atmosphere is one that's sad, but also with a glimmer of hope. Ys VIII doesn't have the hope part in comparison. The big reveal is that there's not a single natural human in the player party at that point. The whole alchemy thing reminds me of Castlevania. Even more shocking is the reveal that Chatelard is one too. Makes one wonder if there are other undetected ones.
Also, I like Adol's voice. They really should consider giving him a full speaking role.
The part where Marius chose to mass murder the remaining homunculi is just sad, although Gilbert's plot showed that it was the right call, after all. Speaking of Marius, was he created as an adult? The timeline seems to suggest so; Chatelard was killed 8 years ago, so the homunculus Marius should be newer than that. Which probably means the actual emperor is at the same age, and he'd be younger than Griselda. Actually, what has happened to the Romun throne…? The final dungeon raised Adol's party's level from 70 all the way to 80 in one go. With a lack of full extra dungeons in this game, it pretty much makes all other ways of experience grinding meaningless. I think the player is expected to raise levels with medicine at this point though. The final battleThroughout the game, the are references to the past Ys games. I think this is the case in parts of Ys VIII too; I just didn't notice. The final boss is… I'd call that both fanservice and fan disservice. In terms of impact on the player, it's powerful. I wish I had played the other games before getting to this one, so that I can understand these references better. Atra looks like a perfect, handsome being. That's it. Everything else about him is just downright creepy and horrible. I shouldn't need to see the gods imprisoned in the creepy Anima Ergastulum, especially with the base part that's obviously the twin goddesses.
I had the identity of the spirits spoiled to me beforehand. Kind of interesting to see Dark Fact there, but Zola was looking for powerful beings without regard on which side they're on. I'm disappointed to see there's very little in terms of extra contents. There's no gallery and no event viewer. I haven't tried it, but it seems that the character profiles cannot be transferred between playthroughs, despite that they can only be completed in the epilogue. So there's only a tiny time frame between talking to Belger at the gate and leaving Balduq through the gate where the complete profiles can be accessed. Brilliant. Other thoughtsVertical exploration is fun, but the game's camera really isn't made for that. I think this is the first time I have to actively fight against a 3D game's camera since Super Mario Sunshine (which remains the worst camera I've seen). There also no way to zoom. Character design is a lot of hit-and-miss. The monstrums look really great, so at least they got the most important part right. The 2D illustrations are worse than Ys VIII's (looks like a different artist), and the castaways in Ys VIII stand out more than the Dandelion members generally. I also wish Arche is given a "full" role as part of the Dandelion. If Alison's newborn son has a character profile page, then surely Arche can get at least that. In terms of the characters' action and story though, Ys IX wins. A major reason I like Ys IX over Ys VIII is that Ys IX has a much better-handled late-game story. The party members in Ys VIII are alone in their knowledge of the Lacrimosa, so they can't really even talk about it without being thought of being out of their mind. I can't think of anyone besides Dogi and maybe Thanatos buying their tales of fighting Primordials and resetting the world. Contrast Ys IX where the monstrums were able to reveal their natures to their families afterwards.
Ys VIII, by its nature, was one where Eternia would fail to fight against their mass extinction no matter what they try. Their silver lining was that the Lacrimosa won't happen the next time, and only Dana and Sarai would live to see that fulfilled. Ys IX has a bitter story too, but at least the current iteration of Aprilis and the heroes would finally get a closure. This is especially true for Rosvita and Anemona, who have full memories of the Hundred-Year War. The story theme of breaking away from the past, accepting reality and making the best out of a bad situation is a relevant one for real life. I don't know what to make of it, other than that it feels relatable in a way. My favourite character would be Doll, followed by White Cat. As usual, I like fast characters, and the monstrums all have very good design. Doll ended up being much more humorous than her appearance and claims would suggest, especially the part when she took back the saint statue and the various sidequests where she'd silently activate her power and give detailed revelations. I also like Chante, who'd be a single point of failure in terms of giving away the monstrums' identities but has managed to keep the Dandelion's nature a secret to the end, and Carla for making the whole operation possible in the first place. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Dec 6, 2021 17:35:36 GMT -5
It sounds like you've warmed up to the Ys series. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I like the sound of Adol's voice, too, albeit the English one. That particular scene really left an impression on me. ( Spoilers.) I hope Falcom continues to play around with incorporating it more in the future. I said before I liked all of the Monstrums except Credo, but maybe I'm being a little harsh. Credo essentially fills the role that Geis did in Ys VI and Seven, that of a rival for Adol. One reference you probably didn't catch is that Geis appears in the background of Credo's artwork during the credits. I like the thought that the two of them eventually met each other. (The artwork can be found on this wiki page.) As for the supporting cast, I also liked Chante. He was flamboyant and flirtatious, but also extremely reliable. I also liked Silhouette. She was cute both with and without her mask, I liked her story, and she was super helpful by basically being every store combined into one. I also really liked Xavier, with his playful personality and fancy dialog, and it was nice to see a Roo in an Ys game again. Group him with Silvia from Ys VIII as characters I wish were playable party members. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Dec 7, 2021 11:38:02 GMT -5
Adol's English voice is good too. I've seen a few gameplay clips in English, and they sound pretty good. Speaking of voice, I'm not as put off by the sometimes-absent voice acting this time, although on some occasions (like when giving Morbihan food) it goes as bad as alternating between having voice and not in the same dialog. Maybe it's because I don't expect full voice acting this time. Geis looks like a younger version of Tibarn from Fire Emblem. Dark hair, red headband, green clothes, and a rough appearance. Ys VI came out before FE9, though. I'm actually wondering if Credo has anything to do with the Clan of Darkness, given how his tendency to pick fights is depicted. Actually, one of my first thought when seeing him provoke Adol is that he feels like Kishgal. I went back to read your take on Ys IX, and you mentioned that there was an early-game sidestory that felt off. What was that about? |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Dec 8, 2021 10:05:59 GMT -5
I went back to read your take on Ys IX, and you mentioned that there was an early-game sidestory that felt off. What was that about? Basically, it was White Cat's entire side story about stealing money from Pendleton and giving it to the impoverished people in Shantytown. I get that the message is supposed to be that people should learn to help themselves (I think...), but the whole thing felt really tone deaf every step of the way. The review at Hardcore Gaming 101 complained about this, also. So, her alternative was to open up a flower shop in Shantytown? What would people who can barely afford food want with a flower shop? At first, I thought, "Oh, she's going to hire the people to work for her so they can earn the money themselves." But no. She only hires one person, and that person is from Pendleton, of all places. Later, we learn that one of the freeloaders got a job, but says he still isn't earning enough to live off of. He's basically shrugged off and told that the hard work is its own reward. Seriously? He still can't afford to live. Nothing improved. I don't understand what the point of all this was. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Dec 8, 2021 12:31:53 GMT -5
I partially agree that the writing isn't ideal, but I can't think of a better solution. The message I got from the plot is that poor people cannot be trusted with windfall, which unfortunately is very true for many lottery winners in real life. Also, give a man a fish…
A flower shop may not be the ideal thing to have, but I think it's not a bad solution given the constraints. Certainly better than stealing from the company and giving it to Shantytown residents without any kind of proper planning.
The HG101 review suggested to change the situation from within Pendleton, which I don't agree. Krysha just doesn't have that kind of bargaining power within the company.
She could have opened a different kind of shop, but if she sells necessities, she'd likely lose to the Pendleton company in price. (On second thought, she might be more helpful if she sells low-quality but cheap goods, which may be what Shantytown needs.) A flower shop means they aren't in direct competition.
And my impression is that she tried to attract outsiders who may bring an impact to the economy. Doing things slowly and steadily, just like the overall narrative of the story. I don't totally agree with the points the story raised, but I can see what they're going for.
As for the employees, (1) Sue is from the town, (2) Hannah offered herself to help. I guess Krysha could decline and tell her she'd rather hire locally, but that wouldn't be something she'd likely say.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Dec 16, 2021 10:12:56 GMT -5
Falcom has had its annual shareholder briefing, but they haven't revealed anything we didn't already know about. The Switch port of Legend of Nayuta is due out in Japan in Spring 2022, and will be enhanced over the original release, including running at 60 FPS. This could be a good sign that Falcom will do higher-quality ports than the devs they've been outsourcing to. And their next major release is Kuro no Kiseki II: Crimson Sin. Due out for PS4 and PS5 in Japan in Fall 2022. EDIT: Also, in response to a question at the briefing, Falcom wants to speed up the English localization of their titles, but they lay the blame for the delay entirely on NISA's shoulders. EDIT 2: Here's a bit more info from the briefing on the percentage of Falcom's sales outside Japan. 27 percent is actually a little higher than I might've thought for Western regions. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Jan 31, 2022 12:27:49 GMT -5
Here's a small comment on the next Ys from an interview with Toshihiro Kondo.
So, it sounds like the next Ys won't just be running on the new engine, but will have an entirely new gameplay system. Honestly, I think it's overdue. Ys IX took it about as far as it can go, and it already felt long in the tooth.
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Post by nocturnal YL on Feb 2, 2022 3:20:28 GMT -5
HAL Laboratory says hi. We have 13 Kirby games (2 Wii + 7 3DS + 4 Switch, so far) made in similar styles.
I never expected a new Ys game in 2022. Not when Ys IX still feels so fresh.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Feb 3, 2022 10:12:24 GMT -5
I guess what I was referring to was that the Ys series tends to have different eras. The previous era was the three games made using the Ark of Napishtim engine. The current era started with Ys Seven, which introduced the party system, and all subsequent games (Memories of Celceta, Lacrimosa of Dana, Monstrum Nox) have used a variation of that engine and game system. It's the longest that the Ys series has stuck with particular engine. While those are all distinctly different games (just as The Ark of Napishtim, The Oath in Felghana, and Origin are all distinctly different games), it just feels like it's time for a refresh.
It does make me wonder, though, if the next Ys will keep the party system. Personally, I like having a party (although I do kinda want it to be reworked a bit), but there are still a lot of Ys fans who want to it go back to being just solo Adol. (Falcom attempted to cater to them with the solo Dana segments in Ys VIII, and the solo prison segments in IX.) We'll have to wait and see, I guess.
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