Game absolutely rips as always with Ys, though I think I liked this one the least out of the three Ys VI era games.
The level design was great, with wonderful pacing and a surprisingly good sense of scale at times. It took inspiration from its roots as a remake of a sidescrolling game and had some parts where it switched to pseudo sidescrolling perspective as well (long before Nier did the same thing! neat), and the platforming is a big step up from how it felt in Ys VI. The music was fantastic as always, it slaps so hard that it really keeps the momentum going as you sprint through each dungeon. The portrayal of small communities is always a highlight in Ys games, and this one is no different, and while it only has the one town this time, it does a good job of giving each resident of Redmont their own little story arc. The combat mostly felt better than Ys VI's did, with tighter control and more interesting abilities that integrate into your combos more smoothly, but the boss fights were a bit rough (occasionally more than a bit rough, like the final boss). The story was pretty standard stuff, but the addition of extremely hammy anime dub-esque voice acting helps elevate it a bit.
So while it was a super well-paced game game with great, simple-but-deep combat mechanics and a banger ost, it felt less like it had its own identity compared to Ys VI and Ys Origin. It is simply a good "one of these." but since no other action RPGs have the same energetic enthusiasm, the same chutzpah Ys does, it's still a great time to play.
The level design was great, with wonderful pacing and a surprisingly good sense of scale at times. It took inspiration from its roots as a remake of a sidescrolling game and had some parts where it switched to pseudo sidescrolling perspective as well (long before Nier did the same thing! neat), and the platforming is a big step up from how it felt in Ys VI. The music was fantastic as always, it slaps so hard that it really keeps the momentum going as you sprint through each dungeon. The portrayal of small communities is always a highlight in Ys games, and this one is no different, and while it only has the one town this time, it does a good job of giving each resident of Redmont their own little story arc. The combat mostly felt better than Ys VI's did, with tighter control and more interesting abilities that integrate into your combos more smoothly, but the boss fights were a bit rough (occasionally more than a bit rough, like the final boss). The story was pretty standard stuff, but the addition of extremely hammy anime dub-esque voice acting helps elevate it a bit.
So while it was a super well-paced game game with great, simple-but-deep combat mechanics and a banger ost, it felt less like it had its own identity compared to Ys VI and Ys Origin. It is simply a good "one of these." but since no other action RPGs have the same energetic enthusiasm, the same chutzpah Ys does, it's still a great time to play.