J'ai tardé à écrire au sujet des Ys I & II car je ne sais jamais trop quoi en dire...si ce n'est que les années passent et le que charme qu'exerce ces deux jeux ne cessent d'opérer. Le plaisir est intact. Ils figurent toujours parmi mes jeux préférés. J'en apprécie jusqu'aux moindres menus défauts. La série a connu de nombreux épisodes par la suite, dont certains qui ont fait date. Cette collection est parfaite pour remonter à la source. Et quelle source ! Je pourrais écrire sur ces deux jeux une belle tartine qui serait vite rédhibitoire : gameplay addictif, musiques exceptionnelles, très bonne histoire, superbe design, excellente rejouabilité, du challenge, etc. Mais quand on a soif, parler d'eau ne désaltère pas. Alors inutile de disserter en regardant l'eau s'écouler quand il suffit de se pencher...

This title is a classic that holds its ground very well, and this may be the best (and most accessible) version out there to experience it, with the option to switch between the old or new versions of both soundtrack and character art. The old character sprites and art are so full of charm and personality that I feel really add to the experience (in comparison, the new anime-moe ones may be more 'modern' but aren't nearly as good in my opinion). The characters themselves are quite charming and do their job well, easily inmersing you in their world, their village, their worries and happenings, all through their dialogue, relationships and interactions. If I had to point out a downside to this, it'd be that all three main heroines are quite endearing and I can't bring myself to choose which one is my favourite lol.
The soundtrack isn't the best thing I've ever heard in a videogame, but it definitely has some solid good tunes that made me want to stay in the areas they played just to listen to them even if only for a bit longer. This is certainly more the case with 'chill' tracks such as village/field themes and so on, but some of the more action-suited ones were really to my liking too.
The rest of the game isn't without its problems, namely the dungeon layout design, but it can be easily solved with an outside-sourced map and/or a guide, which I don't mind at all.
Even having been familiar with Ys Origin first and basically having completely spoiled myself of all the important events and lore of this story, and being someone who can't be bothered to sit through something I already know the 'twists' of, I still got a very good experience and found myself very much enjoying these two truly great games regardless.

The bump combat system won't be for everyone, but it is pretty satisfying once it clicks. Ys I is a very short and sweet adventure. I found Ys II to be a lot more frustrating. I liked the addition of magic to spice up the gameplay but the game is far more linear in its progression, and the dungeons are way too big and labyrinthine to be easy to navigate. The final dungeon is the worst case of this being essentially half of Ys II. Bosses in both games can be hit or miss. Sometimes they have fun patterns, other times you can run in a circle and kill the boss before it kills you. The final boss of Ys I is notably bugged when playing at 60 fps making it very difficult. If you are a fan of old school adventure games, you'll probably like this.

In a genre drowning in 60-120 hour epics that can absolutely devour a working man's entire year, Ys I & II are a breath of fresh air. Each of these is a solid 2 session game -- 1 if you have a full day to commit to it -- finishable in 10 hours tops.

These were originally designed in the late 80s, so a guide is probably a must if you don't want to get lost because you didn't find the evil skull hidden behind a secret wall because the game doesn't completely convey what light magic does...

I appreciate how each game is divided into two arcs: arc 1 is a land-trotting adventure to gather information and tools to prepare you for arc 2, a dive into a massive, labyrinthian dungeon ripe with rooms, artifacts, and story. The final dungeons of each game are massive and half of the game. Darm Tower is so cool it got a full spin-off.

Ys II is probably a technical improvement on Ys I in nearly every way, and the review page reinforces that opinion, but I enjoyed Ys I more. These games are fun for the same reason the original Dragon Quest is fun: they predate the fusion of superfluous mechanics into a fatty genre. Ys I & II are lean, but Ys I more so. You bump into stuff and you win. That's the selling point. Ys II's introduction of a magic system conflicts with the bump system.

And while inventory, grinding, level design, and bosses are all technically an improvement, Ys I's dynamic locales, small-scale sense of adventure, and general aesthetic are more compelling. And that is, after all, an RPG's biggest selling point, no?

But as my introduction to the Ys series, these are fun. I look forward to how the series progresses.

Kind of a weird case because when you separate Ys 1 and Ys 2, they're both mid tier games, but when you combine them it becomes one of the best games in the series. Funny how that works

A classic which aged surprisingly well for a 1987 RPG. Sure, its age can be seen in some parts (bosses in Ys 1, dungeons in Ys 2), but if you can look past that, then you get an absolute gem. Be warned though, the combat system is quite divisive (you either love it or hate it, no in-between), so I can't recommend it to just about anyone, but I still really like it

I prefer the TurboGrafx CD Version of Ys I but this was still great. Save for Dark Fact on Nightmare. Unlike the remake of Ys 1, I think Nightmare difficulty actually improves Ys II from a gameplay standpoint. I enjoyed bosses in the TurboGrafx-CD version of Ys 1, meanwhile I steamrolled in Ys II. The higher difficulty options in this version make a lot of fights in the first game far more frustrating than they need to be whereas in the second they actually provide a fun challenge. Would recommend anyone who wasn't too hot on an older version/lower difficulty of Ys II to give Nightmare a shot.

This review is all feelings-based with no actually good argumentation for my score. But YS 1 and 2 (The 2013 remasters to be specific) are some of my favorite games ever. I could list many, many reasons why they should not have a score higher than about 3/5. But i still rate YS 1 4.5 and YS 2 a perfect 5.

I was not young when I played these games the first time. There is 0 nostalgia here. I was not playing video games during the era of the originals either. But the first time I played Ys 1 and 2 I basically played for 3 days non stop. You know that feeling that you chase when looking for new video games? The one games gave you when you were a kid. There was a magic to your favorite games that feels like it doesn't exist as an adult.

Ys Chronicles gave me that feeling.

Ys I chronicles was my first run-in with the Ys series. Tried it at the behest of a couple of friends of mine. I chose a digital version from steam. Which performance wise was great! Weird making a lot of the resolution settings have its own executable, but it works. I can say with ease this game was a good time. Not without some short comings though. First off, the art and soundtrack here are amazing and being able to switch between old school and modern renditions of the soundtrack is a bonus. Even the art can be switched in the settings to change character interaction scenes both of which are great. Some serious waifu bait here. The game has mostly a serious tone with some comedy mixed in that landed pretty well for me. The games runtime was about 18 hours for me. Which is a breath of fresh air in a sea of long winded 100 plus hour rpgs. Ys has a strange approach to combat in the same vein as Hydlide (which was not good). Here though I think the developers did a serviceable job. You fight by running into enemies, (Charmingly called the BUMP SYSTEM) which is counter intuitive to most gamers when running into an enemy sprite normally hurts you. Here it can but if you attack an enemy off center or from behind it only damages the enemy. Feels strange at first but becomes second nature after an hour or two. I was really interested that all npcs in this game have their own name and diary entry giving good context to each townspeople's motivations and personality. Dialogue didn't come off as cheesy to me but I'm a weeb so it was fun for me. Ys does an okay job guiding you and giving well translated hints on what to do. Only downside here is you may need a guide. In every review I do for a standard run not 100% or anything. If I need a guide its one star knocked off no matter what. There is decent number of cryptic directions for where to go at times and needing to find specific items in a dungeon to bring to a npc that you haven't talked to in like 5 hours is annoying especially when they move. Dungeon design here is I think this games weakest point. While not to hard till the final mega dungeon. Most dungeon design here is very winding and maze like you will be wandering a lot looking for a specific Items you need to progress. Most dungeons having very little in the way landmarks and feel samey to the dungeons theme throughout. So will get lost a lot without a guided map of some sort. Grinding here is not terrible but bosses and certain enemies do have pretty hard progression thresholds that need to be meant. If you're lacking really any pieces of equipment and are slightly under leveled for bosses, you're going to have a bad time. Some bosses being outright impossible without certain gear and level requirements. So, you guessed it if you miss stuff more wandering around. Finally and what made me drop another star here is the boss design. Biggest gripe being the final boss fight. These fights feel more luck based than skill not to say there is nooooo strategy here just that I felt bosses you attacks feel like luck to avoid. So, I just throw myself at them and hope for the best while trying to avoid damage. Final boss was where I almost wanted to quit and shelf this game. He is such a prick and a testament to bad boss design I wouldn't blame anybody for quitting. For one you really need to pay attention dont use the best gear in the game one tier down or would will do no damage. As you hit him the arena falls apart roughly where you hit him. So you will die over and over again to falling through a tile. or him justing spamming you to death. which again dodging attacks unless your the one is just luck based. Took me well over an hour to beat this guy on NORMAL. Despite that this game has a ton of charm and I would suggest everybody that is a fan of rpgs and anime to get into this one.