Neat plot and immersive design. Very different from Falcom's other recent games but not in a bad way.

Excellent game to just blast through or to grind to mastery; the perfect length to support as many playthroughs as you want. Absolutely legendary soundtrack

Excellent level and boss design, but I got really sick of playing the game by the end since you have go to through it three times for the true ending. Has the best version of Termination.

Sublime boss design, kind of bland otherwise. The plot is charming in an SNES JRPG sort of way.

Somewhat repetitive, but manages to do some interesting stuff despite the player character having a very limited set of verbs.

Feels more like an unpolished prototype of Ys8 than anything. Soundtrack isn't great either.

Ys2 is probably my favorite game from the 80s. Embrace the bump

Has a lot of the same problems as the Sen/Cold Steel series, but at least it actually wraps things up in the space of one game.

Contender for Falcom's best game. Some of their other titles do individual elements better, but this is the one that brings everything together with the most synergy and in the most complete package.

Sunshine fucking Coastline.

Feels nice to move around in, and the main city area is actually a lot of fun to explore. Game could have used more time in the oven, though; it definitely gets weaker as it goes on, especially story-wise. The ending is pretty satisfying, but I think Ys9 shows that Falcom's usual formula is getting a bit strained and that it's time to try something new and exciting again. The party system has really run its course after four iterations, too.

Basically just a worse version of Felghana and Origin in every way. The soundtrack isn't even good

Starts as just your standard JRPG plot with a weird setting, but eventually becomes something pretty special. Tsuchiya is a real visionary, one of the few designers who has consistently tried to use games to tell stories you can't tell elsewhere, and it all started here.

Really, just boot up the game and listen to Utau Oka. That was enough to capture my heart forever.

NISA's terrible translation of this game was the direct impetus for me to learn Japanese, so I guess I should thank them.

Oof

Pretty annoying (and expensive!) to actually play, but more proof of Tsuchiya's genius. He pretty much predicted modern soshage design with this game, lol.