Anime Ys series

[StaticSpine]

I completed Ys: Origins a couple of years ago and now will probably replay it since it has a pretty simplistic and catchy gameplay (in times when I'm not busy with Dragon's Dogma).

I also tried Ys I and II, didn't get the strange battle system.

Now I'm thinking of getting Oath of Felghana. I've read it's similar to Origins in terms of gameplay, is it true?

And also I want to buy Ys: Memories of Celceta for Vita, anyone tried it? There was a thread with few posts somewhere here, but there are no impressions there.

And overall what do you think of the series?

 

[ghostdog]

And overall what do you think of the series?

This:

pretty simplistic and catchy gameplay

These games are pretty simplistic overall but they have a certain charm. IIRC Oath of Felghana was good. Some years ago I played a fan translation of a multi-game PC bundle, it had remakes and OoF, IIRC. Frankly my memory is a big hazy about it.

The anime is in the same category, a bit generic but charming. I really like the ending theme :

 

[Siveon]

I really like the series as a whole, though I've played little of it, sadly.

I so far have beaten Ys: I and II, and tried out Oath of Felghana, Ark of Napishtim, and the recently released Ys: Memories of Celceta. I found that the whole series is brimming with polish and very enjoyable gameplay. While I haven't played Origins yet, I've seen some screenshots and they look like they should play the same. The only recent Ys games that play remarkably different imo was Ys IV and VII.

The games also tend to kick my ass when they want to, namely in bossfights.

Like I said, I haven't played much of Memories of Celceta but my impressions are as follows:

It's alright.

Yeah, sorry, but I played it for like 30 minutes and had to go do something else. I'll post something more detailed later on.

 

[pippin]

Been playing Origins, and it's quite fun. The action and the combat are pretty straight forward. Also, the male protagonist is a cishet scum pig

 

[Crooked Bee]

I haven't played all of these, but the common consensus is that Oath of Felghana and Origins are the best two, in that order.

 

[Malpercio]

The series has 3 different gameplay basically (well, 4, Lost Kefin is pretty classic-arpg), so opinions may vary...

1-2 are love-or-hate them due to the infamous Bump System. I'm pretty meh to 1 but I really love 2.

Felghana and Ark are the metroidvania games with platform elements. Felghana is ffffucking great, The Ark of Napishtim is often forgotten (non-steam release and PS2/PSP port) and while inferior to Felghana is a pretty gud game.

Not a fan of some of Origin routes, too much recycling and plot. More time passes, more I grow to dislike VII and its gameplay/story

Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand is a mediocre arpg, pretty forgettable.

Lore is pretty good by the way, it's similar to Zelda, but unlike Zelda it does make sense. The Ark of Napishtim does a pretty job tying all together. Although the story itself got worse and worse, Ys plots used to be pretty lite, while VII and Origin were riddle with cut-scenes (VII especially was awfuuuul), and the writing is... let's not talk about it.

I recommend also Xanadu NEXT if you want more Action RPG by Falcom.

 

[pippin]

They don't talk about more recent Ys games, but it's quite well documented.

 

[Valestein]

Oath in Felghana is definitely the best of the Naphistim engine/style games(the other two being Naphistim itself* and Origin) and arguably the best Ys game.

Memories in Celceta is a classic party based AJRPG-style game in the same vein as games like Secret of Mana and it's predecessor Ys VII**. So, if you liked VII or games of that nature.

The upcoming Ys VIII (that's coming out for both Vita and PS4) will have the same gameplay style of Celceta and VII.

*It's been hinted at in Xseed's forums that Naphistim will eventually be brought to Steam once they're done with some other things.

** The Chinese company behind the Chinese PC port of it is supposedly doing an english version but I haven't heard anything new about that in a while.

 

[Archibald]

Felghana is one of the best action games that I have played. Granted I'm not a big fan of the genre and haven't played that many of them.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

The bumping system may seem a little odd at first but you get used to it after playing it for a short time. Don't forget to save and buy your upgrades. Ys I and II are very short, and the bumping system is diferent at each version/port you get. Ys origins, VI, VII, the remakes of III (felghana) and IV (celceta) all uses the same engine, and attacks are triggered by pressing buttons. Each old game in this series (which is up to the fifth installment) has (or eventually will have) a remake or varied ports, and I'd recomend playing the modern ones, and try the PCEngine ports of ys I to IV. The old III is a side scroller. V has only a SNES version (and a bad remake for PS2), but probably will be remade by falcom for a portable system.

Ys has great catchy music, specially the first and the second games, even in the old systems where they were first released.

I have a soft spot for this series mostly because it was one of my first "RPG"s on my master system in the early nineties.

A good reading is this, but probably anyone who got any interest in this series already now about it:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ys/ys.htm

 

[Abu Antar]

Origins and Felghana are really fun. You could always get Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta even if I don't rate them as high. You play with a party of three instead of controlling only one character. The older Ys games are better in general (IMO).

 

[StaticSpine]

How do you control the party? or you control only the protagonist and the others are AI?

 

[80Maxwell08]

How do you control the party? or you control only the protagonist and the others are AI?

You switch between the primary member who you control. In Seven the other party members will attack and dodge enemies but in Celceta you have to choose between one or the other which annoys the hell out of me still.

 

[Valestein]

Also, the main reason why you switch between party members is because certain enemies are weaker to certain weapons(basically rock/paper/scissors). Though late in Ys Seven Adol can get a sword that's strong against all enemies, enabling you to take whoever you want with him(believe the same happens late in celceta but can't remember).

 

[LESS T_T]

Falcom announced that Ys Origin for Steam sold over 200K copies

https://twitter.com/nihonfalcom/status/554296298094870528

I wonder if they included bundle copies.

 

[MrRichard999]

Ys V finally got an English translation after so many years ----> http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2060/

 

[Valestein]

Looks like Ys VI: The Ark of Naphistim might be coming to Steam this year: http://nichegamer.net/2015/01/it-seems-like-ys-the-ark-of-napishtim-is-coming-to-pc-via-steam/

 

[4249]

Just finished Origin for the second time with Toal on hard, the final boss was pretty darn fun. Will probably still do a Nightmare run with Hugo, still having a bit of an itch for this kind of gameplay. Might burn out while doing it, just as I did when I started the Toal run after finishing the game for the first time with Yunica .

I'm kinda feeling like the shortness of the game is a real strength for it. Both of the runs took me about 10-11 hours, so they're long enough to keep me interested but end before the fairly simplistic gameplay starts to get dull. Although I hope there was a button to skip all the fluff.

Two questions popped into my head while playing the game:
- Are all the Ys games as linear as Origins?
- Do any of the Ys games have a more elaborate equipment or character progression systems?

And finally, the music for Silent Desert is fucking awesome:

 

[Luckra]

I only played Ys I and II in addition to Origins.

- Are all the Ys games as linear as Origins?

Ys I and II certainly are. And they're shorter.

- Do any of the Ys games have a more elaborate equipment or character progression systems?

Ys I and II are even more simplistic. In fact in the versions I played you hit the level cap around 2/3 of the games and you only have a handful of equipment. The PC versions might have a few more stuff but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Valestein]

Other Ys games tend to have a somewhat similar but not quite Zelda-like overworld, like Oath in Felghana, Naphistim Seven and Celceta. Not a straight line but not open ended either.

The bump system Ys games (1+2) and the Naphistim engine ones (Naphistim itself, Origin and Felghana) have simplistic equipment and progression systems but Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta have craftable equipment and various skills you can equip on Adol and his companions.

 

[pippin]

Have you played as Hugo? he thinks things go wrong because wymyn gonna wymyn... someone call kotaku

 

[Valestein]

Have you played as Hugo? he thinks things go wrong because wymyn gonna wymyn... someone call kotaku

Bro, if you think that's "bad", get a load of this, in Memories of Celceta, sex offender extraordinaire Adol Christin can joke about trying to date rape a female companion(this made me LOL when I played this).

 

[pippin]

aw Japan... please never change :rance:

 

[Valestein]

There's also this in Ys I, where Adol can grope a goddess in a dark corner of a dungeon for her measurements(and there's a chievo for it on steam, Lol!).

 

[Jack Dandy]

Mad fucking hype for Napishtim hitting Steam soon.

It was my first Ys game- I played the horrendous PSP port. The fact I managed to enjoy even that shows how great it is!