10/10 music
0/10 gameplay
even though the game looks amazing and sounds perfect, the lack of maps and the dated gameplay mechanics made me very mad during the completion of this game, talking specifically about the last segments of ys II, shrine of solmon is probably the most confusing to navigate, all that without a map, even when I tried using the illustarted map on GAME FAQ it was waaay too convoluted and just not fun.
That being said, I am still listening to its BGM on spotify, its perfect, but the game itself isnt good, frustrating even.
Story is nothing special, defeat darkness to free all demons from the land.
Super excited to finally play the better games of the ys series, because this one aged terribly.
0/10 gameplay
even though the game looks amazing and sounds perfect, the lack of maps and the dated gameplay mechanics made me very mad during the completion of this game, talking specifically about the last segments of ys II, shrine of solmon is probably the most confusing to navigate, all that without a map, even when I tried using the illustarted map on GAME FAQ it was waaay too convoluted and just not fun.
That being said, I am still listening to its BGM on spotify, its perfect, but the game itself isnt good, frustrating even.
Story is nothing special, defeat darkness to free all demons from the land.
Super excited to finally play the better games of the ys series, because this one aged terribly.
Pretty aight 1 is probably better than 2 but both r backtrackatons with some dumb bosses where you just face tank or spam fireballs
Each game has shortcomings, and something each does better. For example I think 1's climax was better but 2 was more consistent. In the end though you have timeless classics that tell an somewhat sad yet still hopeful and inspiring story. Bump system isn't the best, it's pretty annoying for trash mobs but I think all of the bosses are fresh and unique. Music is baller too.
monster harassment simulator
Ys I and II Chronicles contains the first games of the Ys franchise with updated graphics and music. Originally, I was going to play Ys II after finishing Ys I, but after beating the first Ys, I do not feel like doing the second game. The first game is a passable, yet archaic RPG and the second game does not look like it has a lot of differences for me to consider playing it. Who knows? Maybe one day I will play the second Ys, but I will be focusing on the first one for this review.
Since Ys originally was released in the 1980s, it is incredibly basic. The story is basic and the gameplay is basic. For how basic the story is, I can see the seeds being planted for something grander in the franchise.
The game is an Action RPG and the gameplay has the protagonist Adol “bumping” into enemies. There is no attack button; Adol automatically attacks when you bump into an enemy in the front or the back. It is actually not mindless since attacking in front of the enemies is not the go to strategy most of the time. I do like how fast Adol moves, so the game has good pacing.
I love the sprites and the soundtrack. Adol’s spritelooks cute and seeing him mow down enemies is amusing. The soundtrack is phenomenal. I chose the newer option for the soundtrack and it sounds amazing. Why did it take me this long to listen to music from Nihom Falcom? I hope more of their games have great soundtracks.
Remember when I mentioned Ys I is a “passable, yet archaic RPG”? Well, this is a game where a guide is required if you want to beat it. There is no map system in this game and the game is rather vague on what you need to do. Huge shout-out to StrategyWiki for having a helpful walkthrough. Trust me, you need it for the Abandoned Mine and Darm Tower. Those two are nightmares to navigate.
Link to the walkthrough: https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ys:_Ancient_Ys_Vanished/Walkthrough
It is a shame that Ys I has some of the worst bosses I have ever encountered in a RPG. The first boss that really got me to almost rage quit was the bat creature, Vagullion. This boss is luck based. Vagullion will divide itself into multiple bats and chase after you. These bats drain your health like nothing else and they can be a pain to avoid. Once Vagullion becomes big again, you have a short window to attack. I swear it is random when it decides to become big again. I took so much damage trying to run away from those bats and the many game overs got my blood boiling. Vanguillion does not hold a candle to Dark Fact, the final boss.
I despise Dark Fact so much. This fight is unfair and bullshit. You have projectiles all over the screen draining your health (meaning you have a limited amount of time to defeat Dark Fact), he is constantly moving, and once you attack that motherfucker, a square disappears. You can fall and get a game over if the square you are standing disappears. Just like Vaguillion, I swear what square disappears is random. It is not fun; it is a clusterfuck. I died so many times that I almost gave up. After many attempts, the fucker is defeated and the game is over. I felt so relieved.
Ys I is an old school RPG that requires a guide to know what to do. Without it, you are screwed. Even with the great sprite work and soundtrack, the archaic design and bullshit fights with Vanguillion and Dark Fact soured my opinion on the game. I do look forward to trying out more Nihom Falcom games like the Trails series since I heard great things about those games.
Since Ys originally was released in the 1980s, it is incredibly basic. The story is basic and the gameplay is basic. For how basic the story is, I can see the seeds being planted for something grander in the franchise.
The game is an Action RPG and the gameplay has the protagonist Adol “bumping” into enemies. There is no attack button; Adol automatically attacks when you bump into an enemy in the front or the back. It is actually not mindless since attacking in front of the enemies is not the go to strategy most of the time. I do like how fast Adol moves, so the game has good pacing.
I love the sprites and the soundtrack. Adol’s spritelooks cute and seeing him mow down enemies is amusing. The soundtrack is phenomenal. I chose the newer option for the soundtrack and it sounds amazing. Why did it take me this long to listen to music from Nihom Falcom? I hope more of their games have great soundtracks.
Remember when I mentioned Ys I is a “passable, yet archaic RPG”? Well, this is a game where a guide is required if you want to beat it. There is no map system in this game and the game is rather vague on what you need to do. Huge shout-out to StrategyWiki for having a helpful walkthrough. Trust me, you need it for the Abandoned Mine and Darm Tower. Those two are nightmares to navigate.
Link to the walkthrough: https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ys:_Ancient_Ys_Vanished/Walkthrough
It is a shame that Ys I has some of the worst bosses I have ever encountered in a RPG. The first boss that really got me to almost rage quit was the bat creature, Vagullion. This boss is luck based. Vagullion will divide itself into multiple bats and chase after you. These bats drain your health like nothing else and they can be a pain to avoid. Once Vagullion becomes big again, you have a short window to attack. I swear it is random when it decides to become big again. I took so much damage trying to run away from those bats and the many game overs got my blood boiling. Vanguillion does not hold a candle to Dark Fact, the final boss.
I despise Dark Fact so much. This fight is unfair and bullshit. You have projectiles all over the screen draining your health (meaning you have a limited amount of time to defeat Dark Fact), he is constantly moving, and once you attack that motherfucker, a square disappears. You can fall and get a game over if the square you are standing disappears. Just like Vaguillion, I swear what square disappears is random. It is not fun; it is a clusterfuck. I died so many times that I almost gave up. After many attempts, the fucker is defeated and the game is over. I felt so relieved.
Ys I is an old school RPG that requires a guide to know what to do. Without it, you are screwed. Even with the great sprite work and soundtrack, the archaic design and bullshit fights with Vanguillion and Dark Fact soured my opinion on the game. I do look forward to trying out more Nihom Falcom games like the Trails series since I heard great things about those games.
There's a certain confidence to Ys Chronicles; it knows what it wants to do and what it wants to be. And it's no wonder, this a longstanding series, that's gone though many iterations, and you can tell that this version was made with a certain amount of reverence. Ys Chronicles looks good and sounds great, and its deliberate pacing plays well. Overall, this is a true classic that holds up amazingly well—especially on a portable device.
A fun game with an amazing soundtrack and a battle system, which you'll either find pretty weird or enjoy quite a bit.
The first game is the weirder of the two, having you reach max level before the final dungeon, which btw takes around half the game length.
The second game introduces magic, adding a cool new layer of gameplay. The leveling system is also readjusted.
Unfortunately the game doesn't give you a very good idea of where to go and what to do a lot of the time, making you kinda roam around until you figure it out.
The first game is the weirder of the two, having you reach max level before the final dungeon, which btw takes around half the game length.
The second game introduces magic, adding a cool new layer of gameplay. The leveling system is also readjusted.
Unfortunately the game doesn't give you a very good idea of where to go and what to do a lot of the time, making you kinda roam around until you figure it out.
Ys I [5/10]: It's a good enough game but perhaps does not hold up as well as its sequel; the "charmingly simple" combat is perhaps a little too simple and I often found myself wanting for options. Ironically my problems aren't with the bosses (the final boss in particular is actually excellent), but rather the dungeons, a lot of which tend to go out of their way to be more tedious to traverse than they should be. As someone who more or less adores Ys's gameplay across all titles, I found myself more focused on the destination in Ys 1, rather than enjoying the journey as I usually do.
Ys II [7/10]: Big improvement on the original with the addition of magic. A lot of the dungeons feel a lot cleaner and give the player a better sense of bearings as they navigate through them. The narrative introduced in I is built upon and resolved well. Final boss is a bit too easy when using all the final magic you unlock, however.
Ys II [7/10]: Big improvement on the original with the addition of magic. A lot of the dungeons feel a lot cleaner and give the player a better sense of bearings as they navigate through them. The narrative introduced in I is built upon and resolved well. Final boss is a bit too easy when using all the final magic you unlock, however.
Very challenging and frustrating when I was new to the genre, but the bump system was innovative and eventually became rewarding.
Pretty great old ARPGs
I loved the ost, bosses, and world. Not much of a fan of 2's dungeon design and magic focus but fun nonetheless
To my deep shame and regret I am a noted Trails Fan like deep like bad like got my hands on the Chinese PC Crossbell games and patched them into English BEFORE the good geofront translations were out bad (other Trails fans DEE ENN EYE) and yet I had never touched an Ys game, Falcom’s other big long franchise – much older and more respected than the modern incarnation of Legend of Heroes, even. This is largely because by the time I became interested I had developed my current brain ailment where putting games in the historical context of their series and their moment in time is deeply important to me and I had no way to access the whole franchise. HOWEVER I’ve recently done some work on my Playstation Vita and with some encouragement from your friend and mine kingbancho here (https://www.backloggd.com/u/wowgoodname/list/hit-me-with-a-game-and-ill-play-and-review-it/), the Ys train has left the station.
And it rocks it just fuckin rips ass dude! I’ll die for bump combat it’s so much fun to just zoom around the maps with Adol’s ludicrous run speed toggled to default and just fucking plow through hapless demons who were minding their business, racking up xp and gold that I will spend on nothing, killing only for the pure joy of the feeling of it. TRULY, This Is What Gaming Is All About. I was worried when I realized that, despite these games being packaged together and rightly so as they very much are the split halves of one story and one gameplay experience, Ys II made some tweaks to the game feel, making enemies more durable and less violent, but it became quickly apparent that nothing had truly changed. There are few joys in all of gaming that measure favorably to Bump Combat. Can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for so long.
There’s a lot of other joy to found here, though. Ys is a very standard late 80s/early 90s Fantasy Anime in setting and tone, and those just happen to be pretty fun to chill out in. It’s a game with a relaxed vibe, with yeah like mysterious evil towers slowly killing the land and demons making the local mine unworkable, but also giant ancient trees ponderously bequeathing swords and every dude over the age of 35 being identifiable as such by having a mustache. There is absolutely nothing unique on the table here but there is specificity to the character of this world, and the games do a lot to endear themselves to me despite their barebones trappings. Stuff like talking to major characters bringing up a whole separate screen with a lovingly rendered portrait and background to conduct the dialogue in; a notebook cataloguing all of the unique npcs in every town and their relationships with each other, of which there are many and of all whom have unique dialogue that often changes with the circumstances; the often well hidden sidequests and secret interactions that don’t give huge payouts mechanically but do give the guy at the bar or the merchant in one of the item shops a lot more verve that they would otherwise have the opportunity to have, and obviously more than anyone would ever care for them too – these things add up to a game that obviously cares a lot about its setting and wants you to care to, and I do. A thing doesn’t have to be unique or complex to be good or well-made. Sometimes it is enough to care.
And it’s obvious that a lot of care went into both of these worlds in both of these games, even though I don’t particularly enjoy exploring them. Darm Tower, the evil presence that makes up essentially the second half of the first game is a giant, tedious dungeon of simple puzzles padded by a LOT of walking up and down the same hallways. It’s not visually interesting or mechanically interesting, and the enemies aren’t any more challenging to approach than anything else in the game. By the time I was at the tower I had hit that game’s max level and had the best equipment available. There’s no real difficulty to speak of at that point outside of bosses. The combat is, again, and endless parade of blissful death, but trudging through endless identical stairwells and corridors back and forth for an hour and a half isn’t so much. But like everything in Ys, the FLAVOR of the tower is cool as hell, this bizarre place that sucks people into itself and never lets them out, where they are presumed to die but in reality, once you’re in there, you discover that there are a fair number of people eking out a frightened, exploratory living in this evil place, always hunted but carefully clinging to life. There’s nothing as egregiously boring or long in Ys 2 as Darm Tower, even as the maps quickly become more complex in the later game, but the little drips of flavor are always there, the game carefully meting them out over the short runtimes so you’re rarely JUST exploring a shitty cave.
That’s the thing about Ys I & II Chronicles – I remember being like, actively frustrated a lot of the time I was playing these, especially Ys I, but in hindsight, even just a few hours down the road, I am only really thinking of all the cool shit. That’s gotta mean it’s doing something right, yeah?
Also, every single game remake should give me the option to turn on Original PC-88 Music and also make sick PC-88 soundchip covers of their buttrock anime OPs this is Gold Standard Shit people. Gold Standard.
And it rocks it just fuckin rips ass dude! I’ll die for bump combat it’s so much fun to just zoom around the maps with Adol’s ludicrous run speed toggled to default and just fucking plow through hapless demons who were minding their business, racking up xp and gold that I will spend on nothing, killing only for the pure joy of the feeling of it. TRULY, This Is What Gaming Is All About. I was worried when I realized that, despite these games being packaged together and rightly so as they very much are the split halves of one story and one gameplay experience, Ys II made some tweaks to the game feel, making enemies more durable and less violent, but it became quickly apparent that nothing had truly changed. There are few joys in all of gaming that measure favorably to Bump Combat. Can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for so long.
There’s a lot of other joy to found here, though. Ys is a very standard late 80s/early 90s Fantasy Anime in setting and tone, and those just happen to be pretty fun to chill out in. It’s a game with a relaxed vibe, with yeah like mysterious evil towers slowly killing the land and demons making the local mine unworkable, but also giant ancient trees ponderously bequeathing swords and every dude over the age of 35 being identifiable as such by having a mustache. There is absolutely nothing unique on the table here but there is specificity to the character of this world, and the games do a lot to endear themselves to me despite their barebones trappings. Stuff like talking to major characters bringing up a whole separate screen with a lovingly rendered portrait and background to conduct the dialogue in; a notebook cataloguing all of the unique npcs in every town and their relationships with each other, of which there are many and of all whom have unique dialogue that often changes with the circumstances; the often well hidden sidequests and secret interactions that don’t give huge payouts mechanically but do give the guy at the bar or the merchant in one of the item shops a lot more verve that they would otherwise have the opportunity to have, and obviously more than anyone would ever care for them too – these things add up to a game that obviously cares a lot about its setting and wants you to care to, and I do. A thing doesn’t have to be unique or complex to be good or well-made. Sometimes it is enough to care.
And it’s obvious that a lot of care went into both of these worlds in both of these games, even though I don’t particularly enjoy exploring them. Darm Tower, the evil presence that makes up essentially the second half of the first game is a giant, tedious dungeon of simple puzzles padded by a LOT of walking up and down the same hallways. It’s not visually interesting or mechanically interesting, and the enemies aren’t any more challenging to approach than anything else in the game. By the time I was at the tower I had hit that game’s max level and had the best equipment available. There’s no real difficulty to speak of at that point outside of bosses. The combat is, again, and endless parade of blissful death, but trudging through endless identical stairwells and corridors back and forth for an hour and a half isn’t so much. But like everything in Ys, the FLAVOR of the tower is cool as hell, this bizarre place that sucks people into itself and never lets them out, where they are presumed to die but in reality, once you’re in there, you discover that there are a fair number of people eking out a frightened, exploratory living in this evil place, always hunted but carefully clinging to life. There’s nothing as egregiously boring or long in Ys 2 as Darm Tower, even as the maps quickly become more complex in the later game, but the little drips of flavor are always there, the game carefully meting them out over the short runtimes so you’re rarely JUST exploring a shitty cave.
That’s the thing about Ys I & II Chronicles – I remember being like, actively frustrated a lot of the time I was playing these, especially Ys I, but in hindsight, even just a few hours down the road, I am only really thinking of all the cool shit. That’s gotta mean it’s doing something right, yeah?
Also, every single game remake should give me the option to turn on Original PC-88 Music and also make sick PC-88 soundchip covers of their buttrock anime OPs this is Gold Standard Shit people. Gold Standard.
La mejor forma de jugar a estas dos entregas. Tremendament divertidos, musicote genial y bastante desafiantes
Bring back bump combat you cowards
bump combat is awful but i do enjoy the plot and lore so it does have stuff going for it
Ys I started promising with a unique combat system and excellent writing, but I eventually did need to look up a guide to proceed. The steps outlined in the guide were so convoluted and unpredictable that I just couldn't convince myself to continue. This game is clearly meant to be played with a ton of backtracking and wandering around figuring out what to do, and I really don't think that type of design has aged well. The music is absolutely fantastic, and the graphics are reasonably well done considering the source material. I'm glad I tried it for its historical significance, but I hated these types of games even when they were on the cutting edge.
Ys1: The best things about this game are: its pacing, its music and its general art direction. The action-RPG combat I can take or leave. Now, I hate to disparage the "Bump" system, especially as it Tries Something New (TM), but I just have to ask: WHY? I completely appreciate the need to tackle foes from the sides and weird angles; it adds a small level of tactics to an otherwise breezy combat experience, just like 'A Link to the Past', where certain armoured enemies needed to be struck from the sides, lest the PLINK of defeat ring in thine ears...Would Ys1 be better with a dedicated sword button? Maybe...The biggest problem with "Bumping" is the lack of complete character control and there are some bosses where it felt like a race to the bottom of the HP barrel. Thankfully, you can save almost anywhere, meaning a judicious RPG-liker shouldn't be losing too much progress to a poorly designed boss.
There are, in my view, two such bosses, which were probably "designed" in the same way my local council "designs" roundabouts: badly, and with way too many bats. Ys1 likers will no doubt feel a shiver down their spine at the mere mention of "Bat Boss" and I can only gasp these words of advice having finally bested this beast of absolute dubious provenance: Please Don't Play This Game On Hard or Nightmare Mode!!!! Maybe Hard mode is possible, maybe; if you believe in the Heart of the Cards enough you might be able to prevail where I stumbled. But, ye gods! Never try Nightmare mode. Never!! Have you ever read those H.P Lovecraft stories that always begin with the protagonist already at the brink of sanity (but always find time to "set down" their experiences in extremely florid and pageful prose before jumping out a window or some such...) after a horrifying eldritch encounter? That's what playing Nightmare mode is like! In fact, Lovecraft himself would blush at the sheer Hell induced by this abominable mode!!
You should give it a try!
Nightmare mode aside, the game is breezy, I tell you, like a gust of wind gently pushing you along. The pacing is really well done for an RPG, a genre historically plagued by games that take a somewhat whimsical approach to the audience's time. Ys1 pivots from plot point to plot point at speed, introducing new macguffins and world-saving crystals conveniently tucked into old women's shawls at an alarmingly refreshing pace. Until we get to the final dungeon, where the developers seemed to completely panic and started to pad, pad, pad the time away with backtracking...Not a dealbreaker, and it only happens once or twice, although by this time your patience and serenity towards the game may be waning.
You know what doesn't wane, though? This kick-ass music! Mostly electric guitar based with some awesome synthy touches (think Castlevania: Symphony of the Night boss battle type music and you're in the same ballpark) it really helps to make you feel like a true hero as you skip through these dungeons, Bumping(TM) into your enemies. Very cool. I don't really remember the melodies very well, but highlights would include: the Plains music, Darm Tower and most boss battles (yes, even the horrible BAT boss is almost saved by the strength of those chugging guitar lines).
And I definitely want to check out some more Ys titles after this to see where the series goes. Like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, I need to pick on later games to get more of a feel for what this series is really supposed to be, or what it later became.
There are, in my view, two such bosses, which were probably "designed" in the same way my local council "designs" roundabouts: badly, and with way too many bats. Ys1 likers will no doubt feel a shiver down their spine at the mere mention of "Bat Boss" and I can only gasp these words of advice having finally bested this beast of absolute dubious provenance: Please Don't Play This Game On Hard or Nightmare Mode!!!! Maybe Hard mode is possible, maybe; if you believe in the Heart of the Cards enough you might be able to prevail where I stumbled. But, ye gods! Never try Nightmare mode. Never!! Have you ever read those H.P Lovecraft stories that always begin with the protagonist already at the brink of sanity (but always find time to "set down" their experiences in extremely florid and pageful prose before jumping out a window or some such...) after a horrifying eldritch encounter? That's what playing Nightmare mode is like! In fact, Lovecraft himself would blush at the sheer Hell induced by this abominable mode!!
You should give it a try!
Nightmare mode aside, the game is breezy, I tell you, like a gust of wind gently pushing you along. The pacing is really well done for an RPG, a genre historically plagued by games that take a somewhat whimsical approach to the audience's time. Ys1 pivots from plot point to plot point at speed, introducing new macguffins and world-saving crystals conveniently tucked into old women's shawls at an alarmingly refreshing pace. Until we get to the final dungeon, where the developers seemed to completely panic and started to pad, pad, pad the time away with backtracking...Not a dealbreaker, and it only happens once or twice, although by this time your patience and serenity towards the game may be waning.
You know what doesn't wane, though? This kick-ass music! Mostly electric guitar based with some awesome synthy touches (think Castlevania: Symphony of the Night boss battle type music and you're in the same ballpark) it really helps to make you feel like a true hero as you skip through these dungeons, Bumping(TM) into your enemies. Very cool. I don't really remember the melodies very well, but highlights would include: the Plains music, Darm Tower and most boss battles (yes, even the horrible BAT boss is almost saved by the strength of those chugging guitar lines).
And I definitely want to check out some more Ys titles after this to see where the series goes. Like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, I need to pick on later games to get more of a feel for what this series is really supposed to be, or what it later became.
AZY TOI REMET MOI DES GLACONS
ys i i'd give 3 stars, ys ii i'd give 4, for an average of 3.5. i really like the ys series, simple enjoyable combat. the stories are never anything to write home about, but you're not playing this game for that reason, are you?
I rate this so high because it's a really great remake of the original compilation. The games feel a bit zoomed in in my opinion, but the games to my knowledge are very faithfully recreated. I will say though that a minimap might have been nice.
I generally had a blast playing these games even though their not perfect and show their age especially with the bump combat, it's a short but sweet playthough, this remake especially has some kick ass remixes so that helps, good entry point for Ys imo
Third GOTM finished for September 2022. Gorgeous PSP remake of a classic game. The bump combat was super fun, and it felt great to just bounce into things to kill them. The music was great, and the boss battles were really fun and memorable (sometimes hauntingly so). Marred a bit by lots of backtracking in both games, less so in the second with the help of some magic. The entire last tower in Book I felt poorly balanced from a character development standpoint (maxed out going in, so no stat growth the WHOLE time). Story was pretty generic, but serviceable. Backtracking aside, I enjoyed my time with this one!
The bump combat is great, but my issue of the game is the dungeon mazes. They're quite expansive and without a mini map or anything it's quite the feat to master them. Even with an online guide I could not find my way through. If you don't have a horrid sense of direction like me and like bump combat you'll probably dig this game.
ARPGs que no han envejecido muy bien. De historia tienen dos diálogos y el gameplay se me hizo insufrible. Eso sí, tienen temazos.
I love the bump system and as of writing this the story (if wrote at our current time) is the best story out of the Ys games I played. I love Feena and I would love a remake of this game where they can tell out the story more
The final boss from Ys 1 was so damn hard that he was able to kill me even when i was using infinite life cheats.
Ys I: 3/5, decent overall, has a pretty good if somewhat generic story that felt really good coming from Ys Origin, the soundtrack is goku-tier, and the game controls great. The problems I had are really a case of "yep this sure is the first ys game", the boss fights ranged from hilariously underwhelming to absolutely terrible and with all that old RPG cryptic design a guide was required which slowed things down a lot because I had to stop every 10 seconds to know which way to go. Wouldn't not recommend but I'm probably not going back to it anytime soon.
Ys II: 4/5, holy crap that was so much better. The bosses were actually tolerable and designed alright, the expanded world had a lot more variety, the soundtrack was goku-tier yet again, and magic added a fair bit to the gameplay including talking to every enemy in the game which is the coolest thing ever. It still has a lot of the flaws that come with an older RPG like this, such as much more grinding and the aforementioned cryptic design, and the pacing kinda drags near the end since the entire final third of the game takes place in the same dungeon, but the story wrapped up pretty well and I absolutely recommend the game.
Ys II: 4/5, holy crap that was so much better. The bosses were actually tolerable and designed alright, the expanded world had a lot more variety, the soundtrack was goku-tier yet again, and magic added a fair bit to the gameplay including talking to every enemy in the game which is the coolest thing ever. It still has a lot of the flaws that come with an older RPG like this, such as much more grinding and the aforementioned cryptic design, and the pacing kinda drags near the end since the entire final third of the game takes place in the same dungeon, but the story wrapped up pretty well and I absolutely recommend the game.
SCORE FOR YS I (WILL BE UPDATED FOR II)
Ys I - Despite being based in a relatively primitive PC-88 RPG from the late 80's this game is still pretty fun in 2021. I actually found the bump combat to be quite enjoyable and the relatively short length is perfect for it. Though my gripes are that a lot of the items seemingly are only good for one thing and are never used again, and the Abandoned Mines boss is fucking bullshit.
Ys I - Despite being based in a relatively primitive PC-88 RPG from the late 80's this game is still pretty fun in 2021. I actually found the bump combat to be quite enjoyable and the relatively short length is perfect for it. Though my gripes are that a lot of the items seemingly are only good for one thing and are never used again, and the Abandoned Mines boss is fucking bullshit.
bump bump bump
bump combat needs to make a comeback already