#Ancient Ys Vanished | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

demonfox38 · 3 days

Text

Completed - Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter

Do we need to do the GDQ Orb chant?

Jumping into "Ys II" after finishing "Ys I" may have been a touch masochistic on my part. Not that I didn't get through the game in a decent amount of time or didn't occasionally enjoy myself. But, that final boss…woof! What a goodwill shredder! Having said that, I still have my goal of 12 games to beat this year in front of me (with 9 being from my Steam library.) "Ys II" was right there, packaged right in with its predecessor. I figured if I was going to tackle it, now would be better than later. At least I would be going in prepped for the full abuse that the "Ys" series could throw at me with the memory of the Push System fresh in my fingertips.

I went in, prepared to take grenades to the face.

"Ys II" opted for tomatoes instead.

"Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter" is the second in line of the "Ys" games. Notably, nowhere near the last. (I guess "final" here is about as final as the finals in "Final Fantasy!") Produced a year after "Ys I," it has since followed its counterpart in several ports across multiple PC platforms, providing an extended story arc for its predecessor. Is it a story conclusion? A contradictory twist? Continuing the twin theming from the previous game? Well, it's at least a couple of those things. Ya know. Things coming in twos and all.

Having defeated the wicked mage Dark Fact (yeah, I know; snicker snicker) and reunited all six tomes of Ys' sages from the first game, hero Adol goes from being gently bathed in light and surrounded by goddesses to being punted headfirst into a floating island. So much for his dignity and inventory! Oddly enough, this would happen to be the titular country of Ys that has been missing for over 700 years. Having been recovered once again by the locals, Adol takes their advice and journeys out to Solomon Shrine, where the two goddesses of Ys are said to—

Wait, I thought I was there last game. How is this shrine up here, too? Did I go into the past or a parallel dimension? No? Then how did nobody notice this floating island before? Does that have something to do with the storm wall in the first game? Translator, help? Did I misunderstand something from the last game? Why are you busy making "The Room" jokes?

Did "Ys II" need a sequel? Fiscally, sure! Plotwise? I thought we had solved enough problems last time. I guess not. Not that I mind killing demons, but going back-to-back with the previous game, it does feel a little bit unstable in terms of its plot's foundation. Most of the pieces I found interesting had to do with side elements, like the drama with Sada's failed rescue of his fiancée, as well as whatever hell the human-friendly demon Keith was going through. Even the main quest and its resolution is…fine. Good enough. I think I just got sick of everyone trying to hook up Adol with this game's lead girl.

Look, man. I'm just not into moe. I kind of need something more than a girl being cute and sweet going on to form an attachment. Especially when said character keeps getting in trouble every 30 seconds.

So, the plot's whatever. It happens. What I am surprised with is how well tuned up the gameplay is from the previous game. It's still got the base Push System for dealing with enemies. However, it felt way better to me this time around. I don't know if it had to do with wider hitboxes/environment design, or if I was doing better at paying attention to my attacks, or what changed. Something clicked, this time. I didn't feel so much like I was walking into a meat grinder as I was the meat grinder.

Additionally, the game grants you access to a variety of spells. This allows for ranged combat, which in turn greatly improved the boss design of "Ys II" over its predecessor. Last time around, it was all about fiddly movement. This time? The bosses felt more like something out of a bullet hell game, requiring you to respond in kind with your own fireballs. Like, actual boss design. "Gradius"-style boss design! And, hell! I can handle that! I was trained on those kinds of boss battles! Even in later battles, where your sword strikes were required, the game was not nearly as cruel as it was last time around. Like, it even pitches you extra healing items and a revive item, if you need it! Way more approachable!

The overall progression in game felt more logical as well. While you get more sets of armor and weaponry, it all flows upwards (not requiring the user to downgrade their weaponry to fight the final boss, like in the previous game.) The auto-health regeneration item also shows up way earlier, which I appreciated! There are more levels to be gained, but the statistic caps are the same (255), so it doesn’t feel too different there. A greater variety in environment design also helped. It wasn't just village/cave/shrine/tower, this time. Fire and ice environments in particular helped to break up some of the exploration monotony. The same labyrinthine looping is still happening, but it doesn't feel quite as snarled as before. Some places can feel huge or confusing, but not to the extent I felt with the previous game.

About the only other twist with "Ys II" is the implementation of a rudimentary affection system. If you equip a regenerative item (think food, flowers) and bump into a townsperson, you can offer them said item. Giving certain characters multiple items might get you little mascot charms of them, as well as bonus items. Me? I was about getting extra food. Not that I needed it much, but hey. I'm not throwing out a cheap steak.

My feelings on this game are weird. Very confusing. See, there's really not all that much difference between "Ys I" and "Ys II." There's still maze exploration, shoving monsters around, a difficult economy, and an occasional escort mission (complete with weird and/or creepy achievements.) Having a ranged option and some tuned up boss designs just made that much of a difference, I guess. Shit. Is this what "Mega Man 2" fanatics feel like?

Getting "Ys II" on Steam does necessitate getting "Ys I" as well, so I guess I would wait for a sale, if the sequel did sound appealing to you. Like, 50% off? 0.5 is just an inversion of 2, right? Makes it thematically appropriate. Somehow. I guess.

I mean, you don't have to play everything you buy. But, I certainly don't want to burden you with something extra. Then again, if we finally hit that triple A gaming crash that we're due for, maybe you'll finally have time to tackle your backlog! Maybe then, this won't feel like a burden to add.

#Ys II #post game evaluation

5 notes · View notes

demonfox38 · 15 days

Text

Completed: Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished

Place your bets on how many times I mention the words "Zelda" and "salmon" in this evaluation.

One term may be self-explanatory. The other…you'll find out.

I think I've been exposed to a fair amount of video games. If I've beaten hundreds of games, it's only because I've played thousands. What's limited my ability to fully experience as many video games as possible? Well, time and money are obvious restrictions. I'd put my nationality as a strong third contender. Which, yes, you're allowed to call bullshit on that, what with my nationality being American and all. I didn't have to go through half of the shit that someone from Brazil, Poland, or Russia had to just to play a damn video game. But, my tastes are Japanese, tainted Nintendo-red from the recovery of the home console market in the 1980s. Even with as much cultural and fiscal exchange that goes on between Japan and the United States, there are still going to be keystones and touchpoints that I am going to miss. Influences, spectral as they are, that I want to discover.

The "Ys" series is one such case.

I don't have sales figures for "Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished." I can't definitively say that this series has influenced dozens of video games that I have enjoyed. What I can do is point at certain scenes within the game and go, "Shit, Nintendo ripped this part off in "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past."" The amounts of ports this title has received over the years may also be a good indicator that "Ys I" was a darling of the 1980s Japanese home computer market. The PC-88 seemed like a good home for the title, but it damn well didn't stay there. Hopping to the MSX2, MS-DOS, X68000, TurboGrafix-16, Sega Master System, Nintendo Famicom, PlayStation Portable, and the gosh darn Steam market is testament to just how far this game has gone over the years. Hell, that's not even half of the consoles and computers this game has turned up on. It's a Blanche Devereaux of video games—old, present in more places you think, and enjoyed by a surprising amount of people.

"Ys I" (and the series at large) stars Adol Christin, a man driven by a salmon-like instinct to dive face-first into danger the first chance he gets. Such reckless behavior leaves him shipwrecked on an island after managing to plow through a wall of storms that has killed everyone else that has dared to cross it. (You are free to check off "Link's Awakening" from your "Potential Zelda Games Ys Influenced" bingo card.) After recovering from his little escapade, Adol plunges head-first again into the troubles of the island, seeking the goddesses that seemingly have left the island abandoned, as well as six tomes containing the great knowledge and destruction of the mighty civilization Ys that fell long ago. Who else seeks these tomes? Where are all of these demons coming from? Why does this island have so many blue-haired chicks, and why does Steam want to give me three achievements for harassing one of them?

Look, I don't think the original game was designed by delinquent perverts. Whoever made the achievement list might have been, though.

As you may suspect, a lot of how I understand "Ys I"'s design is through my understanding of "The Legend of Zelda" and its subsequent games. Is that a fair comparison to make? Well, they are roughly the same age, one being published in 1986 and the other in 1987. Different systems, sure. Same environment. It's not like "The Legend of Zelda" is the be-all, end-all of top-down fantasy action games. But, more games of this build are likely to emulate "Zelda" than "Ys," even when I talk about "Ys" being an influential younger sibling plot-wise to the former's later titles. If we want to be a bit more diverse, we can throw "Hydlide" into the mix. But, there's always a danger with having an American talk about "Hydlide." Especially, if they don't put that game's age into context!

Look, it's way fairer to compare games from 1986 and 1987 than games from 1984 and 1987. Three years of difference then is like decades of difference now. People and technology evolved that fast. The Japanese economy and Moore's law were amazing like that.

Because I am familiar with the "Zelda" game style, "Ys I" was initially difficult for me. (Okay, it was extremely difficult at two specific points later in the game, but let's just start with the initial play style.) See, one important design detail about "The Legend of Zelda" is that its main hero is left-handed. This helps a player center their shots, often putting them square with their foes. Adol, as you may have guessed, is not Link. Adol is a "Dungeons and Dragons" rogue in a weapon and armor set that should be way too heavy for him. His modus operandi is to crash into an enemy's back or sides, slamming in that flanking bonus for all its worth. He is not a salmon jumping into a bear's mouth (although, I suppose he is that narratively.) He is a salmon plinking off the side of a bear until it inexplicably explodes.

This style of fighting can feel messy to a "Zelda" veteran. It's not something that can't be overcome, but it does require some study. However, it does feel more natural than the "hold A to go offensive / release A to defend yourself" situation that "Hydlide" had going on. At least, a person is way more likely to figure out "Ys I" naturally than they would "Hydlide." I guess playing "Ys I" after "The Legend of Zelda" is a bit like learning how to drive a car with a manual stick, then being given an automatic car. Like, sure, the automatic is simpler. But, if you're used to taking control, you'll feel uncomfortable having that control removed from you. At least, a bit on ice.

I don't know how "Hydlide" fits into that analogy. Maybe it's like going from a manual car to a car that operates on "Red Light Green Light" rules, but you don't figure that out before crashing it into an electrical pole.

Don't expect much in terms of combat evolution with "Ys I." The tools that Adol gets are meant more for hocking or trespassing than any changes in how you attack. There's no bow or boomerang to give him some range. If you get a weapon, it's just another sword with more power. Nothing much outside of a little numerical boost. (Okay, a power bonus, and actually allowing damage on two bosses, but we'll…we'll get to those damn bosses.)

Everything comes down to you hauling ass into combat, then tearing Adol's ass back out. The poor boy has almost no invincibility frames to speak of, so it's very easy to make silver sashimi out of him if you aren't careful. While he does have some automatic health recovery, it requires him to be still and either in an open area or using a particular ring that you get later in the game. Sure, you can pop a healing potion from time to time. Just maybe not when you'd need it, like in a damn boss fight!

Seriously, man. What's up with that? Do you need to set out the fine china before you can take a sippy, Adol? That's very un-salmon-like behavior of you.

Because so much of the combat revolves around this hit-and-run style of swordplay, a lot of the boss design and tactics will devolve into "run at that guy the first chance you get" and "run in circles until you can stab that guy." About the only major curveball the game throws at you with this is requiring silver equipment for precisely two bosses. These bosses are also infuriating in the "Ys I" variant I played. Like, I easily spent 20-30 minutes killing a boss that only takes a minute to kill when done correctly. It's never a good sign when you open up an FAQ only for it to go "LOL, good luck." It got to the point where I had to mute the game just so that I would stop getting distracted by the awesome music. That's what these bosses did to me. They drove me into committing audio felonies.

Now, this boss issue is something I lay at the feet of the designers for the "Ys I" variant I played (the Chronicles+ Steam port.) See, when I look at PC-88 footage for these bosses, I don't see the particle hell that I had to endure. Even other ports aren't as aggressive as the Chronicles+ version. I don't know if someone had bullet hell brain rot or wanted to throw as many projectiles on screen as possible just for a computational flex, but man, was it aggravating.

If everything about "Ys I" was as frustrating and repulsive as those bosses, the game wouldn't have survived past its inaugural entry. Lucky for it, the game has a lot of things going for it aesthetically. The game puts a great deal of effort into its character portraits and sprite work, blending top-down action with full portraits like something out of a visual novel. It can be a remarkably peaceful game to look at. Like, I did end up taking breaks while digging through an abandoned mine or a massive tower's annex just to admire what little sunlight came down upon gently swaying bridges. The Chronicles+ version is at least pretty. I'll give it that! Even the original release has its charms with its sprite work. Frankly, I think the main screen and final boss portraits look better in the PC-88 version, if for nothing else than for the feelings of imaginary nostalgia and subtle chills I get looking at them.

While "Ys I" doesn't have the most complex plot in the world, it was certainly leaps and bounds ahead of most games from the 1980s. The game puts a great amount of effort into its NPCs, giving several their own portrait artwork and side quests. Hell, in the Chronicles+ version, you even get an achievement for talking to everybody. While never being fully conclusive on the exact nitty-gritty of Ys' fall, it's clear to understand what has happened to this place, as well as its goddesses. There are a lot of games that run Shintoism through European trappings, sure. Multitudes of goddesses, talking to sacred trees, sometimes getting swords out of them—I can think of at least two "Zelda"s and two "Tales" RPGs that work with the same tropes. However, this was one of the first games to do this, and it did it very well. There were at least two twists that I didn't see coming, one of which was quite shocking. Half of it was me not assuming that all brunets are related, sure. The other half? Well, let's just say I got more of a response out of it than when a certain "Final Fantasy" character got notoriously shafted.

The best quality of "Ys I", by far, is its soundtrack. I'm not kidding when I say this is how I was originally exposed to the game. A lot of what I listen to while working is video game soundtracks from the 1980s and 1990s. When this came up in my recommendations, I definitely took note of it. When it's not being eerie and mystical, it's driving with that sort of intensity rarely seen outside of late 80s/early 90s Japanese rock. If you are a synth fan, you owe it to yourself to listen to it. At least, give it three and a half minutes.

Hell, if you need a professional recommendation: former Capcom sound designer and current music professor / bird aficionado Hideaki Utsumi owns at least two variants of this game. I would imagine he would be much better at articulating how awesome this soundtrack and its programming is than I would.

As an additional note—one of the original composers for this game (Yuzo Koshiro) went on to make his own audio company, as well as contributed to a crapton of additional video games. (Not that Mieko Ishikawa is a slouch! She's holding the "Ys" series and other Nihon Falcom titles down just fine.) The particular interest I have with Mr. Koshiro is his contributions to "Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin." Like, yeah, the "Kid Icarus Uprising" stuff is mildly interesting, and anyone who is anyone in the Japanese video game music industry has ended up in a "Super Smash Bros." soundtrack at some point. But, ya know. I might like "Castlevania" a little bit. I could easily see his work slotting right into that series. (Or, hear, I guess.) Frankly, I'm surprised he wasn't called in to do more.

And, hey—if you're looking for more soundtracks that the pair worked on, check out "Sorcerian." Really confuse your YouTube recommendations. (Unless you're already on whatever pulse wave I'm already surfing, I guess! Then, I'm certain it's easy for us to shoot soundtracks we've both already heard to each other.)

I am curious about the limited amount of animation used by the Chronicles+ version of "Ys I." Originally, the animated intro was what made me think this game was based on a re-release set on the first PlayStation console. (I suppose it could have been a PlayStation 2 re-release as well.) It's a lovely intro! I dig it. I just don't know why the ending didn't have that quality to match it. I mean, I guess a still image was all the original "Ys I" had as well. It just feels weird to not have that same effort extended to the ending—especially, after all the effort I put into getting to it.

Maybe the "Ys II" ending has a bit more going on with it.

I may have one or two ways to find that out…

I'm left in a weird place with "Ys I." It was mostly a good experience, but when it was bad, it was godawful. I can't imagine most modern gamers would have the patience or undead ego it requires to beat either of the bastard bosses I mentioned before. It's only 9 hours if you're going in raw, but man, will you come out raw in at least one of those hours. If you need a test of your ability to overcome absolute bullshit, then I guess you can give the Steam version a try. Honestly? I'm more prone to recommend an older version, even without my having played the older versions. The PC-88 version at least looks like something an average human could have beaten. At least, something that would have become a mind worm to the general development of games that followed in its wake. The Chronicles+ version…man, I don't know. At least don't pay full price for that. Especially not when my recommended solution would be…let's just say, not using any silver. Running black flags to ruin magical black capes.

Honestly, Adol should have just jacked that cape like Dorothy Gale and the Ruby and/or Silver Slippers. Clearly, its previous owner isn't getting any more use out of it. Might have been a pain in the ass to wash out and mend after the stupid sword fight, though.

#post game evaluation #ys 1

2 notes · View notes