Alright, finished this a day ago, I'll try to put my thoughts in order.

A masterpiece... I don't have too many words.

Okay, but seriously, this game was an amazing experience all around me. It felt like everything I disliked about previous entries had been noticed, fixed, and then added upon. What Falcom created here is the best Ys game yet.

To start off, we obviously have to talk about the gameplay. First of all—the combat is just ridiculously fun. With Ys X, we see two types of combat: Solo Mode, where we play as Adol or Karja and can switch to the other, and Combo Mode, where we control both characters. With the vast skill set both Adol and Karja have, as well as the Combo skills, the result allows for an abundant amount of combos you can pull off, all satisfying to do. While it would appear that simply using the combo mode at all times is the most effective and should be used all the time (and, ergo, the game could get insanely repetitive), I noticed the opposite. Switching between both Solo and Combo is most effective, and smooth at that, which never gets tiring. And with the game getting rid of Flash mechanics, which were easy to take advantage of and lowered my experience with previous installments, the game is added with an extra layer of challenge. You could argue that the shield parry is similar, but I disagree. Shield parrying is most effective when parrying a red attack; most enemies do not have red attacks, and even when they do, as the game progresses, it is no longer as effective as it once was since you grow your revenge multiplier, and red attacks won't immediately fill it up now. Even when parrying normal attacks, they obviously won't be as strong as red attacks and the revenge multiplier isn't at its best. In contrast, the flash guard was simpler: you dodge the attack at the right time, you slow time down and spam the enemy. It was always used effectively. To me, the most improved aspect of Ys X was the bosses. Jesus man. Don’t know why it took them this long for the bosses to become consistently good, but now that they have reached this point, I can only hope they keep up with this. Regardless, yeah, amazing bosses. Some people will tell you that they have a stupid amount of health, I disagree with that as well, since the bosses all had fun attack patterns and were very mobile. This time around there were plenty of plural boss fights, which make you much more attentive as to what’s happening, fully immersing you in. It takes strategy this time folks, strategy!

To move on to area design, level design, traversal, whatever you say. Traveling in the ship, while at first was mediocre, became funner as the game went on and you upgrade the ship. Obviously not the best aspect of the game, as it could be massively improved on, but I didn’t particularly mind most of the time in the ship. Although, the occasional island raid (don’t know what they’re called lol) where you fight a handful of ships and take down pillars, before heading onto the island and go through rooms defeating enemies is actually fun. Always looked forward to those. The islands themselves, while usually being small, made up with just general design. Exploring has never been more fun, especially with the addition of the Mana String and Mana Board, adding lots to the experience.

Now as for the story, yeah, could see why they call these latest games Trails-Ys, lol. This game is super story heavy, and was immediately noticeable as the prologue and chapter 1 were mostly filled with cutscenes rather than gameplay. I can definitely see how this might turn people away, and even for me I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. However, soon enough, I was fully engaged into this game's narrative. The game's core theme really resonated with me—humanity, even with the limitations we put on ourselves, has infinite potential for growth. It was especially well shown through the games main heroine, Karja Balta. She was without a doubt one of the best aspects of the game, and in all honesty, becoming my favorite heroine. While her arc may not have been as “strong” (for a lack of an immediate, better word) as someone like Dana’s, it was just as hard hitting for me. (Writing this review at night, so perhaps sometime later I’ll comment on my own review and properly explain why I like Karja so much, with a small analysis.) Where Karja falls short, the main cast makes up for it. I love them. They were all so energetic and charming. Rafe, and his whole arc with his family, was a huge surprise for me. Did not expect to like him as much as I do now. It’s also very nice to see Falcom trying to make something of Adol’s character, as well. I’m sure they realized the game’s theme would work well with him, an adventurer who seeks the wonders of the world; someone who would know all about limitations but also the endless possibilities we people carry.

As for the soundtrack, I'll be upfront about it, Ys soundtracks have never really resonated with me. However, just like ever other entry, this there are a few tracks that standout. the two that I can name off the top of my head. "Hello, Those Who Can't Die" is just pure chaos and an amazing battle track, unfortunately used only a couple of times ; and obviously, the starting screen music, "For Whom Is That Kindness"...just wow. To me, just one of my personal favorite Falcom tracks.

To end this off, I will simply name some pet peeves off the top of my head:

Some of the bird enemies, or any enemy that can float, were annoyances to fight.
Inconsistent loading times, I pirated the game, so it could just be a problem with that.
The gravity of the situation wasn’t emphasized enough. This isn’t a big problem whatsoever, as in the end the game still strived with atmosphere.

Anyways, Play X! KARJA GOAT BETTER THAN DANA PEAK GOAT KINO.

"I don't think this price is too steep. After all, that's how many sins I carry."

Super fun new combat system, banger music that gets you going, graphics are stylized and look simply amazing, and story... wait, I don't speak Japanese...

I accidentally sold almost all of my level up items on accident thinking I was buying more! I really don't speak Japanese, dammit!!!

Overall, loved the game though! It was refreshing to see them finally take on a new direction with the combat system. Plus, I love min-maxing orbments in the Trails series, so I was happy to see that they brought that! Ship control was janky at first, but I got used to it and the upgrades make things much better.

The ratio of gameplay to story is much better than the previous entry as well. It feels like there's a ton of side content to do, from quests, to optional islands, to the awesome raids, it really is a full-on adventure!

But in the end, neither my score or my review is final, as I couldn't fully grasp the story, nor had the patience to use DeepL enough to understand each piece of equipment. Even though I beat it 100% on Inferno difficulty, I will do it again when the localized version comes and give my final veredict!

(Also, this is my 300th backloggd game. Yay :D)

as usual, another great ys game! i enjoyed it a lot, although it still is nowhere close to ys 8 (but really i doubt falcom will ever make a better ys game than 8, it set the bar so damn high).
story was great all the way through, basically no complaints there. gameplay was also great and engaging, though while I liked the new combat I don't think it was as fun as the previous combat system. It also felt like half the mechanics weren't explained at all so it took until pretty late in the game for me to fully grasp how everything worked. i also actually kinda liked the ship combat in the end which i wasn't expecting as i really didn't like it at first - the upgrades def made it much more enjoyable. really my biggest gripe with this game though is the simple lack of variety - and this was a problem with 9 to an extent as well - most of the islands blended together and only a small handful have any real identity. in ys 8 discovering a new area was always exciting, whereas discovering a new island in 10 was moreso just hoping for something new. the enemy variety definitely exacerbates the issue as well; it really feels like there are only 20 unique enemies in the game and so when most of the islands are not only visually similar but littered with a majority of the same enemies or basic reskins of them, it becomes really hard for them to stand out. that all said though, it was all still a lot of fun to play and explore, and i still came out of it having had a fantastic experience. hoping whatever's next is even greater! 9/10

tl;dr: If you've played and enjoyed a Ys game, you'll probably like this one too. If you haven't, try out VIII first. If you liked VIII but disliked IX, this one is much closer to VIII than it is to IX.

Playtime: 70h 5m, did everything.

Plot: Fine, better than IX. Not a fan of the pacing, felt like it took a while for me to get into it but I enjoyed how everything panned out. Not the biggest fan of the main crew but I like Karja and most of the side characters.

Gameplay: X contains the debut of the "Cross Action" system, a change from the Seven system that was used in 7/8/9. Rather than controlling a full party, it's just Adol and Karja. You can either control them individually or switch into the Combined mode which changes your moveset and lets you guard most moves. Weaving between solo and combination modes was fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop it in the next game.

They also added a system like orbments from the Kiseki series but it doesn't really affect too much, would like to see them develop this more.

Music: Didn't love any of the battle themes but a lot of the zone and town themes are great. Doesn't have the overall quality of VIII and previous OSTs but it's better than IX for sure.

Exploration: I'm biased towards islands and coastal environments so I was a fan (anything is better than Balduq). Some of the zones are a too large and feel emptier as a result. Also, buried treasures are AWFUL. John Falcom, if you're reading this, never do that again. Controlling the boat during ocean exploration is painful, which leads to...

Naval Battles and Maneuvering: The worst part of the game. Controlling the boat is very clunky and simply not enjoyable. Thankfully I was able to S-rank all of them first try because having to redo any of them would be MISERABLE.

Overall, while it took a bit longer than usual to get into it, once the game hit its stride I had a pretty good time and am looking forward to XI.

So I finally finished Ys X this weekend and there's so much to say.
Is it a great game or a mediocre game?
Hard to say, Compared to VIII and IX, Nordics has made a lot of good changes, but there are also many downgrades for me. Still I enjoy this game like VIII and IX and I highly recommend it if you also like Falcom game.
Now let's begin the review.

It is difficult not to compare X with VIII and IX in the review, because they basically belong to the same template.
Cut scenes and dialogues, land exploration, dungeon and boss fights, side quests and collecting missions, and garbage time scramble fights. These elements are present in each game, with different forms of expression but the essence is the same. People call it trails-ys, which means there are more story and RPG elements while less combat. Ys X is another Trails-Ys, it's obvious.

Combat

The best part of the game and the real fresh stuff that carries the whole game. I never thought the combat system of Ys would be complex, it's just rubbing the attack button and dodging or jumping at the appropriate time. But I did spend some time learning Ys X's combat system.

Unlike VIII and IX, in X, you can only use two characters: Adol and Karja. For me, this is a good change. Multiple but homogeneous characters in action games are meaningless. Falcom finally realizes it. Now breakdown every parts.

Combine mode
Actually guard mode. When pressing R2, a protective cover will be generated. It's very similar to the Royal Guard. If the timing is perfect, you can avoid attacks completely and gain a certain amount of revenge rate, the higher your risk rate the more damage your combine skill can cause. Even if it's half a beat slower, you won't get hurt most time. And when you perfectly block a red attack, it can stun the enemy, trigger a powerful counterattack or counter QTE, and fully recover the revenge rate. Combine guard can resist any attack (even roaring) except for the blue attack. So using combine mode all the time is the safest way to play. Few bosses can break your defenses and combine skill at a high revenge rate is extremely powerful.

Solo mode
I mentioned that the combine mode is the safest, but it is not the most effectivetive. In fact, the solo mode of Adol and Karja is the most powerful character you can use in the ys series. First, we need to retrospect the skill system. It first appeared in Ys seven, but at that time the SP obtain speed was slow and the normal attacks are still mainstream. The acquisition of SP in Ys IX is much faster, but you still cannot use high-damage skills casually. While in ys x, the SP of the two characters are separate, and when using one character, the SP recovery speed of another character is very high. So constantly switching between two characters can achieve sp freedom. In addition, using different skills can increase the chain number, and the higher the chain number, the lower the SP consumption. But this is not the most ridiculous yet, During the animation of releasing skills, you will receive significant damage reduction buffs, almost eliminating 90% of damage. That means you're virtually invincible during the uninterrupted release of skills.

Skills
Back to the skill itself. Thanks to the reduced number of characters, this time the number and quality of skills for both characters are great (Adol 29 skills, Karja 30 skills). The animations and effects for every skill are very cool and dynamic. And falcom has given real distinction to the skills. Some skills blow enemies away, some are downward smashes, some are upward picks, and some allow the character to shift. This enhances player-enemy interaction and allows for some crazy combos.

Mana Seed and Liberate Road
Very close to the orb system of trails series but much simpler. Different types of Mana Seeds provide different types of enhancements to characters. And the way they are connected affects the results. It certainly won't have as much impact as it did in the Trails series but it's the first time you can truly build a character in Ys series.

Enemy design
Some of the bosses are pretty well designed but some are annoying. What puzzles me is that there are a lot of plural boss fights this time. The experience is really bad because it's hard to watch the movements of two enemies at the same time.

Combat is not without its issues. Blue attacks are hard to dodge in melee and don't reward as much as blocking. Normal attacks and dodges feel much heavier than before. Mana outbreak is useless in combat.

Level design
I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. After playing Ys IX I'm actually looking forward to the further evolution of Ys level design. But Ys X is more of a step back, it's like Ys VIII cut into dozens of pieces. Each island is short to explore and full of invisible walls. Levels are mainly based on platform gameplay with Mana String and Mana Boards. It's ok but undoubtedly not as fun as the Monstrum ability. There are plenty of buried treasures but finding them is boring because Ys X's levels are nowhere near as three-dimensional as Ys IX's. Also, the overall number and size of dungeons are not as good as in the previous game. That said I think the level design is generally good, especially if you prefer linear levels. Some parts that remind me of Castlevania PoR, which is good.

Ship combat
It was really bad in the beginning. The ship was very clumsy and lacked firepower. Although upgrades can change all this the ship combats are still rough and stupid. Don't expect it and treat it as a mini-game then it's actually playable.

Story and character
I think the story is much more complete than IX, and Karja is portrayed quite well. The narrative is more traditional without much of a reversal. The writing is Falcom standard you know what I mean if you've played their games. If I had to rank them, I'd say VIII>X>IX.

It's complaining time. Falcom really needs more artists and modelers. Ys X has the same problem as IX. Every island and town looks exactly the same. The variety of textures and decorations is pitifully small and of poor quality. The scene at sea is even more horrible. It's really hard to attract more players. The OST is by far the worst Ys music I've ever heard outside of Ys V.

My final ranking is VIII>IX>X. But I still recommend everyone to try it and I also think X is a great entry point.