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Ys I Complete Review
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| The original game "Ys" was a very old video game released back in the 1980's on most of the extremely old game systems. It was eventually remade on other systems, one of which was the PC. This game was released only in Japan, as well. I've been playing the PC version which I have downloaded (yes, downloaded... heh heh), along with a translation patch. It's pretty darn awesome... Story The story is okay. You are Adol, a red-headed warrior fated to save the world. You first wake up inside a hospital of sorts and are told that you crossed the "Storm Barrier", which is a barrier made up of thunderstorms that none have been able to pass, into the country of Esteria. Then you were attacked by a demon and found by someone in town. Get a bit further in the game and you learn you have to find the six Books of Ys (Ys is an ancient legendary city, and the game is based off of that). You also learn of an evil man in a black cape with the goal of ruling the world. One who reads all the Books of Ys somehow becomes all-powerful (I don't know how), etc. Basically, that's it. You're just going around, finding the Books and going off to stop Dark Fact, the man in the black cape. You'll learn of the Legend of Ys in the game, as well. Not a bad story, but fairly simple and predictable. Story Grade- 8/10 Controls I'm referring to the PC version here. It's possible to do everything with the mouse if you desire, but I prefer using keys. Arrow keys move you around (obviously) in eight directions, Esc takes to you a main menu, E is for your equipment menu, Enter is to use an item, Spacebar or Enter will allow you to proceed through dialogue or select something in a shop (etc.), I is the Item menu, and so on. The other menus can be accessed from the main Esc menu. However, most things in this game are accomplished by running into them. You hit enemies by running into them. You talk to people by running into them... and so on. I feel that the game should have used an attack button, but it actually works out fairly nice. Controls Grade- 9/10 Gameplay As I said before, most things are accomplished by running into stuff. This does sound boring, but it really isn't. There IS some strategy to running into enemies. Hitting them head-on is basically suicide. You'll get hurt along with them if you do that. Hitting them from the side or at an angle is what you should do. I found that I ended up getting hurt a lot anyway, though. Also, a thing to note is that there are only ten "levels". As in, you can only level up ten times. Each time you level up, you have to double your EXP count. It goes from 200 to 400 to 800, etc. It stops at 100001 for some reason (why not 99999, I don't know either). Also, you'll be getting a LOT more gold than you'll ever need. There are only three weapons, shields, and armors that you can actually buy. There are a few random items you can buy otherwise, but that's about it. This brings me to another point: The game is ridiculously short. One can beat it in six or seven hours. And it's an RPG. The final level, Darm Tower, is basically half the game. (Heck, three of the Books are found in it.) It's 25 floors of fun backtracking. I use the word "fun" sarcastically, of course. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable experience. Also, there are only three towns in the whole game, and three actual levels. Don't look into downloading this game if you want something long. There are a few other game options. You can play a Time Attack to see how fast you can beat bosses, or you can select one of four different difficulty modes and replay it. I personally haven't tried these, but I may eventually. That's basically the gameplay in a nutshell. Travel through the maze-ish levels, killing enemies, and fight the bosses. There's not a lot else you can do, but it's fun all the same. Gameplay Grade- 8/10 Music/Sound Effects Let me put this simply: The music is amazing. Every track in the game is good to some extent. Some are excellent, too. The field music is my own personal favorite. You can also copy the WAV files from the disc or your computer and save them for your own listening purposes if you want. It's all quite catchy and never annoying. The sound effects are fine as well. Most of what you'll hear are footsteps on rock or grass. You'll also hear a lot of sword slashing. They all sound good to me, and never get on my nerves. Music/Sound Effects Grade- 10/10 Graphics Well, this review is about the PC remake, so you'd expect the graphics to be good, right? Right. That, they are. Everything's pretty detailed, and the best part is the up-close pictures of the characters in a sort of event. (Shopping, speaking with key characters, etc.) Those look amazing, and close to those you see on animé TV shows. Yes, the character designs are animé styled, especially since the game only came out in Japan. The opening scene of the game is also quite amazing. The graphics are wonderful, simply put. Graphics Grade- 10/10 Challenge This really all depends on what difficulty mode you choose to play Ys I Complete on. Easy mode will of course be quite simple, but Nightmare mode is your worst enemy. It's really all in what you pick, so it can be hard or easy. For that, I give it a good grade since it's customizable in that way. Challenge Grade- 10/10 Fun Factor Despite its apparent simplicity, this is quite a fun game. It certainly kept me quite entertained for the time that I played it. The only thing not fun about it is the backtracking you will likely have to take in Darm Tower. That is the only thing annoying about this game. Fun Factor Grade- 9/10 Replayability/Extras This game is short enough to where you will probably want to play it again in a different difficulty mode. It's fun enough to where you won't just be like, "Yes, I've finally finished the game!" and then promptly put it away, never to be used again. There isn't really much extra in the game, however. There's a couple of items you can find to get other items and gold, but gold really only matters for just the first little bit of the game. Once you've bought the highest level of sword, shield, and armor (which won't take too long) that can be bought, you pretty much will never need it ever again. Time Attack mode could be considered an extra, I guess, but... There's little else in terms of extra stuff. Replayability/Extras Grade- 7/10 Pros and Cons Pros: -Fun -Awesome music -Wonderful graphics -You are able to choose your difficulty level -Simple controls Cons: -Very short -Little amount of extra things -Requires too much backtracking in Darm Tower -This game never made it to the United States Rent, Buy, or Leave it on the Shelf? As in the case of Rudora no Hihou, none of the above. Since this never came to the US, you'll need to download the files for it and the patch (almost a gigabyte, I might add), then burn a CD using a special CD burning program for the installer, and burn a second one for the game itself. If you know how to do all this, it's all good. But it is a bit complicated to install. I’d recommend trying it if you can find it, then asking someone (like me) who knows what they're doing to tell you how to get it up and running. There are also other online tutorials. It's worth a shot if you're not wanting a really long, complicated RPG. Overview of Scores Story- 8/10 Controls- 9/10 Gameplay- /10 Music- 10/10* Sound Effects- 9/10* Graphics- 10/10 Challenge- 10/10 Fun Factor- 10/10 Replayability- 9/10* Extras- 6/10* *: Separate categories in the Overview, but are listed in the same category in the actual review. When changed into two categories from one, they are subject to slight change in some cases. TOTAL SCORE- 89/100 (or 8.9/10, which I will round up to 9/10) |