Playing Ys for the first time
May 17, 2019 17:35:14 GMT -5
Post by Apollo Chungus on May 17, 2019 17:35:14 GMT -5
For whatever reason, I decided to finally check out the Ys games for the first time a couple of weeks ago, having heard good things about them over the years but not really knowing the specifics. I initially wanted to play the PCE-CD port of the first two games, but when I discovered that trying to emulate them was a bigger pain in the arse than I was expecting, I bought Ys I and II Chronicles+ on Steam instead (thanks for the recommendation, Kurt!). I've just gotten to very near the end of Ys I, and I thought I'd write various thoughts I had over the course of the game.
-I really like the bump combat system. It takes a little getting used to, but it works surprisingly well, and I feel like the fact that you don't need to worry about timing a button press actually makes this game a lot more accessible to people who have difficulty with that sort of thing. I remember reading some time ago that a lot of people in Japan loved the early Ys games for the bump combat, and I suspect that accessibility might be one reason why.
-I'm genuinely surprised how small the game is. Granted, I don't know how long the first game was in development, but there's only a couple of towns and a few dungeons. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of optional stuff as far as I could tell, but I might have missed a few things. It's not really a criticism; I was just expecting it to be longer.
-I wish the dungeon designs were a bit more interesting. The first one's quite basic, but that makes sense that it would be. But the others just rely on misdirection and maze-like designs to act as the challenge. Maybe implementing more complex puzzles would detract from its charm, but I think it could have added more variety in a more interesting way than "this one's more confusing than the previous one".
-Maybe I wasn't paying too much attention when I should have, but I feel like some things you have to do aren't particularly well-explained. There were items I didn't know I could use or had to use to make progress, or there were people I had to talk to after doing a random, arbitrary thing. (The Darm Tower is pretty bad in this regard)
-The final boss is cheap and dumb. This isn't because of actual challenge; I was playing this on the easiest difficulty, reached the level cap and had all the powerful equipment. No, this boss just spams you with what feels like everything in the universe while flying around - it's one of those parts in a game where the problem is that the design concept is so frustratingly awkward that even if the execution is perfectly done, it's still unbearable for me to sit through. I've tried fighting it 10+ times, and I just can't get past it. Really puts a damper on wanting to try the sequel, I gotta be honest.
-I know the Ys games are renowned for their music, but this game's soundtrack didn't leave much of an impact on me. It's fine, I suppose, but I can barely remember any of it after I turn the game off. For what it's worth, I was listening to the Ys Complete arrangements, so maybe those aren't particularly great versions.
And that's pretty much every observation I had on playing Ys I Chronicles. I might try out the sequel, but I'm gonna give it a short break while I work away at other things.
-I really like the bump combat system. It takes a little getting used to, but it works surprisingly well, and I feel like the fact that you don't need to worry about timing a button press actually makes this game a lot more accessible to people who have difficulty with that sort of thing. I remember reading some time ago that a lot of people in Japan loved the early Ys games for the bump combat, and I suspect that accessibility might be one reason why.
-I'm genuinely surprised how small the game is. Granted, I don't know how long the first game was in development, but there's only a couple of towns and a few dungeons. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of optional stuff as far as I could tell, but I might have missed a few things. It's not really a criticism; I was just expecting it to be longer.
-I wish the dungeon designs were a bit more interesting. The first one's quite basic, but that makes sense that it would be. But the others just rely on misdirection and maze-like designs to act as the challenge. Maybe implementing more complex puzzles would detract from its charm, but I think it could have added more variety in a more interesting way than "this one's more confusing than the previous one".
-Maybe I wasn't paying too much attention when I should have, but I feel like some things you have to do aren't particularly well-explained. There were items I didn't know I could use or had to use to make progress, or there were people I had to talk to after doing a random, arbitrary thing. (The Darm Tower is pretty bad in this regard)
-The final boss is cheap and dumb. This isn't because of actual challenge; I was playing this on the easiest difficulty, reached the level cap and had all the powerful equipment. No, this boss just spams you with what feels like everything in the universe while flying around - it's one of those parts in a game where the problem is that the design concept is so frustratingly awkward that even if the execution is perfectly done, it's still unbearable for me to sit through. I've tried fighting it 10+ times, and I just can't get past it. Really puts a damper on wanting to try the sequel, I gotta be honest.
-I know the Ys games are renowned for their music, but this game's soundtrack didn't leave much of an impact on me. It's fine, I suppose, but I can barely remember any of it after I turn the game off. For what it's worth, I was listening to the Ys Complete arrangements, so maybe those aren't particularly great versions.
And that's pretty much every observation I had on playing Ys I Chronicles. I might try out the sequel, but I'm gonna give it a short break while I work away at other things.