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Post by Xeogred on May 25, 2024 14:29:36 GMT -5
That's a wrap on Ys III. Took about 3h30m or so. Did have to make a few return trips from the last dungeons to refill on the Herb/Magic, etc. I guess the last boss was accurately depicted on the cover. Still, wonder who the other guy is?
So I jumped into the Genesis version for a second. Herb is apparently "Harb" now huh? What a typo. The lack of awkward voice acting could be a plus in the other versions. Funny enough this one seems a bit harder, because it's so much smoother. I died in the mines from the blue goblins actually. Probably should have stayed a screen back to level up once or so haha. Reminds me of how other old 16bit era shmups can get way harder without the slowdown. Not that PCE-CD Ys III had that, but it was definitely "chunky" in a way.
All the bosses were pretty cool and just like Ys II, the final stretch feels pretty epic even for such a short journey. I liked how involved Dogi was on this one.
No more usable magic/projectiles so it's just back to swinging your sword. Well I guess you can actually do that now instead of just bumping into things. The jump attacks were awkward. But the down stab always felt nice. Combat isn't very deep but the enemy variety keeps it interesting enough. The level design and vibe of the game almost felt European in some way at times. Kind of odd.
The brevity of the game is maybe a pro and a con. They double the length of this game with more mechanics, maybe another town or so, actual overworld combat areas with that kick ass theme, and maybe this would have been a cooler game. But sometimes keeping it simple is best too and the length for what this is feels pretty good. It's just like another Zelda II case. A "what if" they tried another shot at this formula and threw in a few more mechanics.
I'll go with a 7/10 overall. Definitely liked Ys II way more. But it's cool how different this one was and that's why I'm having an easy time plowing through these right now, it's not too samey. Now to see how IV PCE-CD is! Looks like it'll be the longest one up to this point, this version at least.
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Post by Ex on May 25, 2024 22:34:24 GMT -5
I'll go with a 7/10 overall. That's about what I gave Ys3 TGCD, fair enough. Glad to see you are enjoying these earlier entries, proper scholarly endeavors. >Now to see how IV PCE-CD is If you're of the general consensus, you'll love Ys4 PCE-CD and dislike Ys5 SFC. It'll be interesting to see how those two next ones go for you. (Unless you also choose to play Ys4 SFC, good luck.) |
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Post by Xeogred on May 30, 2024 22:10:45 GMT -5
Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys
~11h40m, level 50, some side stuff/exploration done
+ For the most part Ys IV is bigger and better, an epic take on the formula that Ys1-2 started. In ways I'd say Ys IV almost flows a bit more like an older Zelda, or something Square might have cooked up in the ARPG vein (Secret of Mana comes to mind). Compared to Ys1-2, there's more towns and characters you'll stumble upon and an overall bigger story being told here. With a huge land of cool vistas to explore. + Absolutely S+ tier OST and will rank as one of the best I hear this year. I've linked a dozen tracks in other posts. This OST will stick with me forever.
+ Richly detailed and awesome anime styled "cutscenes" for its time. + The new fandub is rather solid. Some laughable performances in spots but that's par for the course with 90's anime/Japanese gaming dubs in general for the most part. I think had I played this undubbed and needing to read a script on the side, that wouldn't have been as fun. The dub did a good job and made this feel like a true localized release. + Graphics are pretty awesome for 1993 and varied. It fits the colorful vibe of Ys and all pretty well. Going from the Chronicles remakes of Ys1-2 to this, didn't feel like much of an adjustment. This is 16bit gaming comfort food right here. + Boss battles were freaking awesome and felt fairly challenging, usually took more than one attempt to knock them out or learn some patterns. But the last three bosses (final included) were weirdly easy. Maybe I was just over powered hitting level 50.
~ The fireball spell returns, along with an item you get eventually that locks onto enemies. Very fun. But then you get an ice spell and it's basically the fireball spell, with a freezing effect that lets you one shot/kill some enemies. Aside from bumpin' monsters in the face though, this is about it for the combat. I think it would have been nice if there were a few more attack spells you learned and some newer stuff. ~ First half of the game, the dungeons felt more linear and less mazey. That's some funny whiplash coming out of Ys1-2, but I didn't mind it because I knew Ys IV was just going to be a "bigger" game in scope, so I knew I'd be running through tons of dungeons and locations here. It checks all the boxes with cool temples, forests, caves, icey caverns, volcanic mountains, etc. Later on, the dungeons start getting more mazey again and I didn't really mind it at all. But my nitpick here is that fully exploring them wasn't as rewarding as it felt in Ys1-2. There was generally just one key item in a dungeon and maybe a herb somewhere, that was about it for your "rewards". Then there were even a few cool new items you get that felt like last minute random additions only used for a room or two for some puzzles and stuff. Some of this stuff could have been thrown in earlier.
- The final 20% of the game feels a little rushed and messy. Some of the backtracking is weird here and all the warping around is tedious. Typical JRPG stuff sometimes. Gone is the awesome sense of adventure, the progression of gaining new equipment/items to keep things interesting and tug you along, etc. That's not always an issue in say the Dragon Quest games or something. But Ys IV evolving into that kind of formula near the end started to feel a little flat. And I didn't like how broken up the last set of dungeons were. As I mentioned elsewhere, it's nowhere near as cool as the Ys2 final area. So once the quality slipped, the game did start to feel a little long and I was ready to wrap it up.
Overall, this game was amazing and I'm glad I played it. I'll go with 8/10. Possibly tied with Ys2 as my second favorite after Ys8 for now. If it stayed a little stronger near the end it would have been slam dunk over Ys2, but I'd say 2 was a little more consistent from start to end for me. The majority of Ys IV Dawn was blissful fun though.
Looking forward to the next journey with Adol!
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Post by bonesnapdeez on May 31, 2024 6:06:58 GMT -5
That was a good review Xeogred but the 2002 GameFAQs review simply can't be topped  |
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Post by Xeogred on May 31, 2024 9:28:27 GMT -5
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Post by Ex on May 31, 2024 9:46:36 GMT -5
Well you enjoyed Ys4 PCE-CD more than I did, but apparently I'm the odd man out on this one. I think it does have nice graphics and above average OST. I don't care for much of its dungeon design, and it's wayyy too grindy for my tastes. That's what I remember anyway. I've not played Ys4 PCE-CD in well over ten years, maybe I'd like it more these days. >Looking forward to the next journey with Adol! I'd be flabbergasted if you enjoyed Ys4 SFC. For Ys5 the only English version available is the fan translated SFC one. Here's what I thought of it: I think it's worth playing, but a lot of Ys vets shit all over it to this day. 🤷♂️ After that you get into the Napishtim/Felghana/Origin era, which are all great games (especially Origin). I recommend the PC versions for those three. |
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Post by toei on May 31, 2024 10:03:29 GMT -5
Ex In old-school Ys when your level gets high for an area, enemies start giving less and less exp., to the point they only give like 1 or 2 points. The only way I can imagine someone finding Ys IV as grindy as you swear it is is if they miss that and just keep level-grinding in areas they're already strong enough for. Because it goes really fast in reality, much faster than a ton of RPGs you've beaten, and that criticism never made sense to me. Xeogred I liked Mask of the Sun, I found it to be breezy fun. But I wouldn't rush into after playing 1, 2 and 4 PCE-CD, that's a recipe for burning out. I know you said you were planning something else next anyway.
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Post by Xeogred on May 31, 2024 10:25:09 GMT -5
I grinded in a few spots in Ys IV. It was mainly in later sections when I'd be in a hallway with faster enemies and could just run back and forth repeatedly as they spawn. With the jamming music, it didn't bug me too much and went fast.
I grinded less in Ys2 and it didn't seem to have a level cap. But it was fun to do a bit of that near the end of the game and max out my money. The Elixer item in that one was super pricey, like 60,000. In Ys IV it was only 30,000. Seemed kind of easy to max out money in Ys IV even without trying.
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Post by toei on May 31, 2024 10:54:34 GMT -5
Exactly, you just run up and down that corridor and you've killed 10 monsters in 5 seconds. Ys is the precursor to Half-Minute Hero.
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Post by Xeogred on Jun 1, 2024 21:20:19 GMT -5
(if only the game were as cool as this cover art)
Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand ~ 6h35m
+ Great graphics, serviceable OST, combat feels punchy enough swinging various swords and hitting stuff. Some bosses were cool. + First few hours are pretty fun, traditional comfort food ARPG stuff. Go from town to town, basic adventuring 101. + NPC's and towns are very lively. It was fun to talk to all the NPC's and learn about the situation or some area, etc. Can't say that for every JRPG out there. This was more like Dragon Quest level stuff in a good way here. Maybe a kudos to a good translation script too, though I bet some of the extra cursing was a stretch.
~ What starts off as an interesting premise with some mysterious lost desert city from another timeline, eventually spirals out of control in the last third of the game. This was one of the longest SNES endings I've seen (got boring) and it was kind of wild how much story/characters were suddenly jam packed into the final stretch, like this game got cut in half during development. So maybe it's disappointing how short it is? But maybe not, since you don't have to spend much more time with this average SNES ARPG. There's hardly anything bad here. But for 1995, devs were killing it on the SNES by this point. For crazy people like me who like to devour an entire franchise here and there it might be worth a look, or for people who ONLY play retro games and or want to beat every 16bit game out there. But for anyone else there's a very high chance you've played or have superior options with anything from Square, Enix/Quintet, etc by 1995 here on the SNES. I can only assume Falcom or whoever handles this just weren't really keen to making stuff on the SNES. If this were a first game by them, that's cool. But 1995 was far too late to impress with something of this subpar in a field of SNES madness and legendary games we still talk about today.
~ I beat the last boss using 1 of 10 Herbs stocked and I had the Ys Elixer item (full revive). Game is a cakewalk and you're practically invincible after awhile. Barely felt any sense of upgrades along the way too with equipment. Then suddenly in the final town you can easily get all the strongest gear in some chests. That was like 30 minutes after I bought some other stuff prior?
- Magic system was so half baked. Might even be worse than Secret of Evermore's, which I don't like much either. I wonder if the manual at least had pictures or explanations of what you could fuse and create here. "Flameblast Pillar" and elemental words thrown together doesn't really say much until you spend and potentially waste your elemental crystals making something. But does it matter? Not really, because all I used for the entire game was the default fireball spell you get from the fusing tutorial. I made two other spells, but never used them much. What was also stupid was how it felt like in some combat areas, boss arenas even, you couldn't even use magic anyways. You have to hold R to charge it up. But even if you're at max MP, you just can't use them in some areas. Also the way you find these "Elements" to mix for an alchemist were pretty weird too. They're just randomly in some corners or walls. Kind of gets easier to find them after a point, but it was weird. I don't like that. Give me a pot, barrel, bookshelf to scan or something instead.
Clearly, the filler arc of Adol's journey for me so far. I'll go with a 6/10, my lowest ranked Ys. But it's about what I expected and had heard with this one. A decent SNES ARPG, nothing bad, nor great.
Ys 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 ~ 33h30m YsVIII = 52h Can still maybe beat another Ys or two within that YsVIII timeframe...  |
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