A port of The Ancient Land of Ys
This is an action RPG released by Nihon Falcom in 1987. The landmark first game of an ongoing popular title. Master the 'half-character shift' and embark on an adventure in the land of Esteria! Players take on the role of Adol Christin, a red-haired adventurer, as he embarks on a journey to seek the six Books of Ys. At the time of its release, the PC gaming industry was saturated with challenging RPGs. However, Nihon Falcom took a different approach with this game, releasing it with the concept of ""Now, it's the era to bring kindness in RPGs,"" aiming to create an RPG that everyone could enjoy. The game features clever level-up settings that eliminate the hassle of grinding for experience points, the removal of unreasonable traps, and agile characters that move smoothly. With numerous thoughtful design choices, the game can be enjoyed comfortably, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is filled with ""kindness,"" as the tagline suggests.
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“First step towards Eggconsole”
Well it’s been a bit since the last Eggconsole release and we’re finally here with the newest entry. While some games on this service have been somewhat known by some sides of the gaming community, I think this one is probably the most well known of the bunch so far. Ys is a series I’ve wanted to get more into but have only played the remake of the first on Steam and the 3rd game on SNES. I remember not thinking much of that remake but I wanted to play this and see how that changed things.
Well the plot is something I can’t really tell you because well here’s one of the more disappointing things about this release, it’s not in English. The how to play section tells you the beginning part of the story but nothing else. You’ll have to play other versions of Ys to get a good idea of what’s going on here. I’m not surprised it doesn’t have a translation considering it’s not too story heavy but it is a shame. I hope this doesn’t stay this way for some releases like Hurry Fox or you’ll probably not see reviews on them just because I’d be doing you a disservice. You may ask why don’t I just watch an English playthrough of another version, well I’m just worried it’ll have different plot points and don’t wanna spread misinformation. (I’m also lazy).
Ys is an action rpg where you’ll be exploring the land that’s not too huge trying to get many items, weapons, and much more. The land of Ys is not too huge with only a few big landmarks to explore so you’ll probably not get lost trying to find where to go in this land. You play the role of Adol Christin. Wait, his last name is Christin? I always thought it was Christian. What the heck? Like Jim from Hydlide, Adol has no attack button for his sword as the game uses bump combat. Bump combat is similar to Hydlide where you don’t wanna just go headfirst into the enemy. You wanna hit them when only a half of your sprite is touching only a half of their sprite. You’ll gain EXP and gold by defeating enemies and you can go to shops in the first town to buy certain items, swords, armor, and shields. The how to play section even helps you know there’s an easy way to get money at the very beginning to help with the grind a little as 1,000 gold isn’t enough to get starting equipment.
There are only three different dungeons in Ys, a temple, a mine, and a tower. These dungeons will be the places you’ll be spending most of the game in and I’ll talk about the first two. You’ll be finding many things in both of these dungeons and they can be pretty hard to navigate at times but you’ll get used to it. The mine has a small source of light for vision so be wary of that. Enemies later down can kill you fast so try to retreat or save a lot if you decide to go further. I’d also make sure you have a wing with you so you don’t have to backtrack back to the first town. There’s something so cool about just getting an item in this game and hearing that jingle. If you do ever get confused where to go or need help finding an item, I’d recommend this walkthrough to help you out. Though there were times I got stuff earlier than the guide like the heal ring in the mine.
Now once you’ve gotten 3 books of Ys, you can go to Darm Tower. Oh boy, Darm Tower is a big dungeon. You’ll actually need to switch disks which you can do on the pause menu in this release. Darm Tower is almost half of the game’s playtime, sure the game is short but whenever you think you’re done in this tower, there’s like so many more things. So many of the same pillar hallways too. There’s multiple bosses, traps, and even new characters to interact with like Dogi who breaks down a wall and I find that very funny. I’ll be honest, I don’t hate this tower but it can drag and I’m not a fan of how you’re already fully leveled meaning fighting enemies won’t mean much as you also can’t use your gold anymore as leaving this tower is impossible.
Bosses in this game are probably going to be the part where you’ll die the most that isn’t being underleveled against enemies. It’s just hard for me to get hits on it while not getting hits myself. Not every boss is challenging, in fact there was one I was overleveled for and stomped it easily. Though don’t get discouraged when fighting them, just learn how the bosses attack and then learn the best strategies for offense. You’ll get healed at the end of every fight so don’t worry if you’re almost down for the count. Then we have the final boss who isn’t as bad as I remember. I thought he was the hardest but it only took me two tries this time which was shocking. While the fights can feel tough at times, just keep at it and you’ll feel proud of your victory.
Honestly I was just amazed at how the game is still fun, it kind of reminded me of Hydlide where I could understand why someone would say “hasn’t aged well” even if I don’t like using that phrase, Ys 1 is still a fun time. The only really dull moments was just sometimes the walking around felt a little slow along with some of the loading but speed up is available and can help along with rewind if you like using that. If you don’t like the one in-game save slot, Eggconsole releases usually have four save slots so you can use those. There is also a scene select but only for the beginning of each dungeon so don’t use this if you wanna skip to the final boss, you’ll be disappointed.
The game has some really nice graphics for the PC-88 even if it does have some choppy scrolling. I really like the environments here, the nice artwork for places like inside buildings and the nice backgrounds in places like the final boss area and credits. Maybe I just really like fast moving effects. I also like the colors even if it still has that limitation of not too many colors to use. The music by Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa is amazing stuff. Like I thought Silpheed had really good music and this is even better than that game’s music. It starts as early as the title screen with such a lovely piece of music. This release also has the last scene select to let you listen to the unused audio tracks since the steps to normally do it wouldn’t work on a controller. Seriously give the OST a listen and later versions would even improve these songs.
I was happy to see that Ys was better to me on this playthrough and being able to play the very first release of it was really fun to do. It’s always nice to just see a landmark title like this and while I wouldn’t say this is the first version you should play, I’d say it’s at least worth checking out. Even in 2024, Ys 1 is a fun game and it makes me hopeful that we will see the sequels added at some point. Like I’ve already said, be cautious about buying this release, it might be better to just play a different version first if you wanna read the story and such. Still regardless of the circumstances, this is so far my favorite game I’ve played of the four Eggconsole games I’ve done. With that, I’ll end the review here. I’ll see you next week for Hydlide 3!
Well it’s been a bit since the last Eggconsole release and we’re finally here with the newest entry. While some games on this service have been somewhat known by some sides of the gaming community, I think this one is probably the most well known of the bunch so far. Ys is a series I’ve wanted to get more into but have only played the remake of the first on Steam and the 3rd game on SNES. I remember not thinking much of that remake but I wanted to play this and see how that changed things.
Well the plot is something I can’t really tell you because well here’s one of the more disappointing things about this release, it’s not in English. The how to play section tells you the beginning part of the story but nothing else. You’ll have to play other versions of Ys to get a good idea of what’s going on here. I’m not surprised it doesn’t have a translation considering it’s not too story heavy but it is a shame. I hope this doesn’t stay this way for some releases like Hurry Fox or you’ll probably not see reviews on them just because I’d be doing you a disservice. You may ask why don’t I just watch an English playthrough of another version, well I’m just worried it’ll have different plot points and don’t wanna spread misinformation. (I’m also lazy).
Ys is an action rpg where you’ll be exploring the land that’s not too huge trying to get many items, weapons, and much more. The land of Ys is not too huge with only a few big landmarks to explore so you’ll probably not get lost trying to find where to go in this land. You play the role of Adol Christin. Wait, his last name is Christin? I always thought it was Christian. What the heck? Like Jim from Hydlide, Adol has no attack button for his sword as the game uses bump combat. Bump combat is similar to Hydlide where you don’t wanna just go headfirst into the enemy. You wanna hit them when only a half of your sprite is touching only a half of their sprite. You’ll gain EXP and gold by defeating enemies and you can go to shops in the first town to buy certain items, swords, armor, and shields. The how to play section even helps you know there’s an easy way to get money at the very beginning to help with the grind a little as 1,000 gold isn’t enough to get starting equipment.
There are only three different dungeons in Ys, a temple, a mine, and a tower. These dungeons will be the places you’ll be spending most of the game in and I’ll talk about the first two. You’ll be finding many things in both of these dungeons and they can be pretty hard to navigate at times but you’ll get used to it. The mine has a small source of light for vision so be wary of that. Enemies later down can kill you fast so try to retreat or save a lot if you decide to go further. I’d also make sure you have a wing with you so you don’t have to backtrack back to the first town. There’s something so cool about just getting an item in this game and hearing that jingle. If you do ever get confused where to go or need help finding an item, I’d recommend this walkthrough to help you out. Though there were times I got stuff earlier than the guide like the heal ring in the mine.
Now once you’ve gotten 3 books of Ys, you can go to Darm Tower. Oh boy, Darm Tower is a big dungeon. You’ll actually need to switch disks which you can do on the pause menu in this release. Darm Tower is almost half of the game’s playtime, sure the game is short but whenever you think you’re done in this tower, there’s like so many more things. So many of the same pillar hallways too. There’s multiple bosses, traps, and even new characters to interact with like Dogi who breaks down a wall and I find that very funny. I’ll be honest, I don’t hate this tower but it can drag and I’m not a fan of how you’re already fully leveled meaning fighting enemies won’t mean much as you also can’t use your gold anymore as leaving this tower is impossible.
Bosses in this game are probably going to be the part where you’ll die the most that isn’t being underleveled against enemies. It’s just hard for me to get hits on it while not getting hits myself. Not every boss is challenging, in fact there was one I was overleveled for and stomped it easily. Though don’t get discouraged when fighting them, just learn how the bosses attack and then learn the best strategies for offense. You’ll get healed at the end of every fight so don’t worry if you’re almost down for the count. Then we have the final boss who isn’t as bad as I remember. I thought he was the hardest but it only took me two tries this time which was shocking. While the fights can feel tough at times, just keep at it and you’ll feel proud of your victory.
Honestly I was just amazed at how the game is still fun, it kind of reminded me of Hydlide where I could understand why someone would say “hasn’t aged well” even if I don’t like using that phrase, Ys 1 is still a fun time. The only really dull moments was just sometimes the walking around felt a little slow along with some of the loading but speed up is available and can help along with rewind if you like using that. If you don’t like the one in-game save slot, Eggconsole releases usually have four save slots so you can use those. There is also a scene select but only for the beginning of each dungeon so don’t use this if you wanna skip to the final boss, you’ll be disappointed.
The game has some really nice graphics for the PC-88 even if it does have some choppy scrolling. I really like the environments here, the nice artwork for places like inside buildings and the nice backgrounds in places like the final boss area and credits. Maybe I just really like fast moving effects. I also like the colors even if it still has that limitation of not too many colors to use. The music by Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa is amazing stuff. Like I thought Silpheed had really good music and this is even better than that game’s music. It starts as early as the title screen with such a lovely piece of music. This release also has the last scene select to let you listen to the unused audio tracks since the steps to normally do it wouldn’t work on a controller. Seriously give the OST a listen and later versions would even improve these songs.
I was happy to see that Ys was better to me on this playthrough and being able to play the very first release of it was really fun to do. It’s always nice to just see a landmark title like this and while I wouldn’t say this is the first version you should play, I’d say it’s at least worth checking out. Even in 2024, Ys 1 is a fun game and it makes me hopeful that we will see the sequels added at some point. Like I’ve already said, be cautious about buying this release, it might be better to just play a different version first if you wanna read the story and such. Still regardless of the circumstances, this is so far my favorite game I’ve played of the four Eggconsole games I’ve done. With that, I’ll end the review here. I’ll see you next week for Hydlide 3!