And we finally come back to the Ys franchise, and to be blunt, it has been too long! From a flawed classic to a sequel that takes everything Ys did and perfects it, I have been waiting way too long for the dice to let another game in the series appear. It finally has and things just keep getting better and better.
Story: To tell this story, we must go back to the past, way back before Adol found himself in the ancient and legendary floating island of Ys, or even the tower of Darm. In fact, when this tale begins, Ys is firmly on the ground and the tower doesn't yet exist. 700 years before all Adol, when Y's was lead by it's twin goddesses Reah and Feena. Assisted by their six priests, the two of them used their magical influences to keep the land peaceful and prosperous, even granting the civilians the ability to use it at will via an artifact in their control known as the black pearl.
However, this was not a situation that would last, for demons one day set upon these lands, ravaging death and destruction where they went. The land of Ys were defended bravely by those who lived there, but it wasn't enough before the goddesses pulled out all the stops and used the pearl to literally lift the Solomon Shine (the very center of the people's home) out of the ground to become the floating island Adol would find one day. This would grant it's people some respite, but not for long as the demons responded in turn building the yet unnamed tower to reach the floating lands and continue the assault... but the people believed they could protect themselves and even win with the goddesses by their side... until they were not.
Without saying a word to their people, the two of them left the floating island. Since there was nowhere else to go, it was assumed they went to the surface and likely the tower, but why no one could say. What they could say is they needed their goddesses and so a search party was made with this mission in mind.
When you start this game, you will play as either Yunica or Hugo, members of the search party going down to the surface. And while this has a massive impact on play-style (one is a melee fighter while the other uses ranged attacks), it doesn't have as much effect on the story as you might hope. Details change, sure, but it's more of a "what if" scenario, as in what if whoever you pick gets to the tower before the rest of the search team does and some more personal details around their part of the general story. It is interesting, but it's really only just enough to warrant seeing both stories and little else.
And it's really a very linear and fairly simple story as you spearhead the exploration of this tower and rescue mission. But that does not mean it does not expand, because it certainly does. As you play the game will drip feed you details about what this tower is really for, why the goddesses came to it, and just what they hoped to achieve by doing so (and doing so without saying a word to even their six priests). It's a very solid story taking advantage of how directed it really is to control the pacing exceptionally well and a very complete package. Yes it ends with a "to be continued" but considering the game was designed to be a prequel to the original game, it probably wasn't needed.
7/10
Graphics: Ys has it's history as a classic RPG/Adventure series, but one that has adapted with the times, and this is no exception. You will find yourself exploring the tower before you in a 3D rendered world, The camera is fixed in each room, taking an angle within a single wall to display each one in the absolute best way possible, resulting in a rather beautiful panorama effect to create your carnage in, taking absolute advantage of the fixed view, be it bird's eye, side panel, or even a touch of rotary view when you are running around the external rungs. The result is a smooth and slick looking world that you almost don't notice the transition even between rooms they blend so well together.
Nor is that world you will play in a single boring tone that will just become background noise you will no longer care about by the end. Rather the tower is broken down into several biomes, each with their own feel and color palette. And on top of keeping the game from blending into itself, these sudden (and often drastic) changes confirm you are effectively at the next "level" of the game. And it does all this looking absolutely gorgeous in the process.
But with the exception of a few bosses (who are larger in design) you will not see 3D work in any of the characters and enemies populating this world with you. Rather this is all done in sprite work. It still looks great however, with armored minions and monsters running around the world, wonderfully contrasted to the area they are stationed in and in silky smooth animation., just completing the charm of the world itself.
You and your friends also look good, albeit in a chibi-esque art style fitting for a game that might have come out for the original PlayStation (though obviously higher resolution), add in an very nice looking anime-style art form the close-ups when characters are talking and a handful of absolutely gorgeous anime FMV cutscenes and the whole picture this game puts together just looks fantastic, if very retro.
8/10
Sound: And as good as the game looks, the sound department completely knocks it out of the part on the music alone! Seriously the range and quality for your ears here is something you will rarely hear in any game. Ranging from meloncoly to high paced metal with an orchestrated mix, this is one of those soundtracks with something for everyone and not one piece of is even remotely out of place. This is one of those games I wish had gotten a CD released here in the states because I would have grabbed it.
Sadly though, while this is a very strong point for the audio side to the game, it is the ONLY strong point it has. There is absolutely no voice work in the game at all outside of the French spoken during the opening cut-scene over the story text, so do not expect to have any voices to help draw the feeling of any cutscene. Nor are the sound effects anything special since they are the usual thuds, clanks, and blast sounds you might hear in any video game. It doesn't sound bad, but it just doesn't stand out in any way shape or form.
8/10
Gameplay: Ys Origin is often reported to be an RPG game, but I have to make an argue for more of an action adventure. True you have levels and stats, but when it comes down to it, this is a hack-and-slash adventure focused on an action experience. You will play the game from still camera positioned either from the wall or a birds eye view depending on the room you are in. This may sound old and without any dynamics, but it works exceptionally well as each room you are in was built so this gives you a clear view of the carnage you are about to cause.
And you will cause carnage! Ys' moment to moment gameplay is based on frantic battle as you beat the stuffing out of the enemies that populate the room, all the while figuring out some light platforming and puzzle work to figure out how to progress to the next room. And that combat is simple, intuitive, and absolutely fast and fluid. And yet there is are multiple styles that will be available to you.
When you start the game, you will be asked to pick a character to play as: Yunica the axe wielding knight who's entire game style is build on fast close-range melee combat or Hugo the magic-wielding protégé who will fight using ranged energy blasts. In both cases, you will battle your way with this choice of main weapon backed up by magical abilities that are similar enough between the characters to fill the same rolls, but different enough to compliment that character specifically. Still, that similarity is needed and that points out the real issue this game has: despite encouraging replayability with each character revealing different details of the story, the adventure you will play through is just about the same, give or take a few boss encounters. You will literally play the exact same maps with the exact same enemy placement and exact same platforming and item-puzzles whether you play as Yunica or Hugo and almost all the same bosses.
And that path itself is incredibly linear to boot. Sure there are some side-paths you will want to find your way to, either to find an optional treasure or necessary item, but these are never far off the path and outside of one specific part towards the end of the game, you will not need to even do any backtracking along this singular path the game will put you on. Now that is not to say this is a detriment to the game. On the contrary the whole package uses this as well as the story beats to keep the experience moving at a comfortable pace and keep the player interested in the events as well as each new area as they come across them. No the only issue that comes up here is how each character's "campaign" is level-for-level and just about boss-for-boss a clone of each other, so that replayability the game was striving for wears exceptionally thin.
8/10
Bugs: This is one of those games that had no issues at all for me while playing. At most it's age shows in a few quality of life features missing, but it ran perfectly. The only issue I had is a result of QoL missing from it for being 10 years old since I had to map the buttons on my Xbox-style controller to something reasonable before I could really begin. But the Steam forums for this game has a pretty good layout you can use, so this isn't so much a bug as a little bit of setup to do before you begin.
Overall: I have to say my first time playing a "modern" Ys game has left a pretty damn good impression. Fast, run, and action packed, I enjoyed the hell out of this game and if you are a fan of action adventure games, I can easily say check this one out. Just go understanding this is a linear game that cuts to just the moment to moment combat game and plays this exceptionally well instead of actually wandering around an open world. Also do not go in expecting to get anything out of the "replay" with the other character, because it's basically not there. What is here is great, just a bit more limited in scope then other games even in this series (that I have played so far).
Score:
System Requirements:
- 1 Ghz Pentium III
- 1 GB RAM
- Any GPU with 64 MB of VRAM or more
- Windows XP
- 2 GB hard drive space
- Ryzen 5 5600G running at 3.9 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 11
- PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)
Source: Steam
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