Anime Ys series

[Arthandas]

Basically, Falcom likes to make sprouced up versions of their OSTs and sell 'em seperately. It sometimes isn't that much of an upgrade, but in Origin's case it definitely is IMHO.

Less synthy, more guitar. Sounds more like Oath in Felghana's soundtrack.

Nice, I'll give it a try when I'll get to Origin.

I just managed to beat Napishtim on nightmare catastrophe without using any seeds or water and I must say Ernst took more tries than Dark Fucked. Also, right after beating the ark my game crashed :/
I skipped Majunun since I was hitting him for 1 and I don't feel like grinding 5 levels just to kill this little fucker.

Overall the game was awesome though much was lost from Chronicles. In Chronicles, NPCs had fun things to say and often would share helpful tips while Napishtim's NPCs could be ignored for the most part. Chronicles was full of various little secrets and easter eggs and Napishtim has none. I was particularly disappointed I couldn't grope Olha during the escort, is it even Ys?! Also, Chronicles had all those weird items you had to collect and use in various places to progress, which gave it a little adventure game vibe. Objectively Napishtim has superior gameplay but I would put both games on the same pedestal (miles above Wanderers from Shit which I couldn't tolerate long enough to finish).

 

[Jack Dandy]

Great work so far.
What's next on the list for ya?

 

[Arthandas]

I'm going by release dates so Felghana.

I had to skip V because there's no English translation for Expert and I don't want to play the super easy initial release.

 

[Jack Dandy]

You really did your research when it comes to this series! Kudos.
Have fun with Felghana - still think Nightmare should be the way to go for you (and just about anybody), but... Do your best!

I hope we'll both have lots of fun once Ys 8 hits!

 

[Arthandas]

You really did your research when it comes to this series! Kudos.

I did, I wouldn't commit to the whole series without a proper research

Have fun with Felghana - still think Nightmare should be the way to go for you (and just about anybody), but... Do your best!

Well, inferno is not available at the start so nightmare it is.

I hope we'll both have lots of fun once Ys 8 hits!

To be honest I'm a little skeptical about the whole party base system. Did you play 7? Does it still play like Ys?

 

[Jack Dandy]

I did play 7, and I can safely say I didn't like it a whole lot.
The party system wasn't the only reason, tho- it was also due to:

1. Switching from focus on skillful dodging into a constant Royal Guard fest, if you're hoping to do any damage to bosses. (If you royal guard the bosses, it quadruples your damage output for a few seconds, so you end up using it a lot). Not much fun imho.
2. Too many cliche JRPG elements - backtracking, bigger focus on story, fuckin'... alchemy and crafing? Constant item upgrades.. Didn't like it.

That is to say, it wasn't BAD- just not as good as Felghana.

Still, Ys 8 bring back jumping to the series, which I enjoyed. So, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[spekkio]

Also, right after beating the ark my game crashed :/

Welcome to the club, it was the same for me. Grorious nippon coding.

 

[Arthandas]

Also, right after beating the ark my game crashed :/

Welcome to the club, it was the same for me. Grorious nippon coding.

Well, I disabled ReShade, beat it again, and this time it didn't crash. It seems like a common issue judging from the Steam forum so maybe I was just lucky and it has nothing to do with ReShade.

 

[Arthandas]

I've created another Ys thread, just for you: secrets and easter eggs.
I think it deserves a separate thread.

Out of curiosity, are there any similar games on Steam/GOG? What do you think of CrossCode or Hyper Light Drifter as compared to Ys?

 

[Jack Dandy]

Crosscode looks neat but I'm staying away until it gets outta Early Access.
HLD - at release it was locked at 30FPS, so I stayed away for a good while. They fixed it though, so I will try it sometime.

From what I've seen, Furi looks a lot like the Napishtim engine titles- I really want to try it out.

There's also another game, called Radio The Universe. It's been kickstarted ages ago, and I have no clue if it will ever come out, but you should look it up.

Ah - there were also two Touhou knockoffs: Scarlet Curiosity and .. another one that I forgot. I think they got fan translations. Look em up.

 

[Arthandas]

Actually you CAN start Felghana in Inferno. Just add GameClearFlag=3 under [game] in the ini file.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Don't dooo iiiiiit...

 

[Arthandas]

 

[spekkio]

Yeah, Adolf Christian for lyfe!

 

[Arthandas]

I must say Felghana's boss fights are starting to piss me off. I don't have the patience to figure out the one exact thing you're supposed to do to damage the boss.
First three bosses (Dularn, statue and Chester) were pretty straightforward - dodge their moves and attack whenever you're able. Just how I like it.
But then came the fire serpent. You either figure out you're supposed to charge the whirlwind and use it to jump higher to dodge him when he's coming out of lava and the fight is pretty easy OR you'll get raped.
Now I'm fighting that flying something which flips the tiles and I had to die like 20 times to figure out what I'm supposed to use, when to use it and where to stand. Only now I can actually fight it.
I prefer DMC's design of "do whatever you want as long as you're able to dodge the attacks and find the openings".

 

[Jack Dandy]

That one you're on right now is the most assholiest of bosses, he's the one I raved about earlier. Afterwards, the bosses are all great.

 

[Arthandas]

That one you're on right now is the most assholiest of bosses, he's the one I raved about earlier. Afterwards, the bosses are all great.

Good to hear.

The problem with this kind of fights is they're not really skill based. You either know the pattern and what you're supposed to do and kill the boss or you don't and die.
That's why I really liked Ernst battle in Napishtim. No tricks or patterns - 100% skill based.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Ernst? Really? Man, dude was spammy as fuck. I liked the Chester battle(s) better. Man, you're gonna enjoy the second battle against him.

Such a nice game.

 

[Arthandas]

Ernst? Really? Man, dude was spammy as fuck.

Exactly, no patterns.

I liked the Chester battle(s) better.

But it's very easy even on inferno. It's basically dodge the daggers -> jump over his charge attack and punish -> repeat until he's at 30% and even then the tactic doesn't change much, he just spams more daggers and begins dashing.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Ah, now I see what you meant with the DMC comparison before.

 

[Emmanuel2]

I've created another Ys thread, just for you: secrets and easter eggs.
I think it deserves a separate thread.

Out of curiosity, are there any similar games on Steam/GOG? What do you think of CrossCode or Hyper Light Drifter as compared to Ys?

Crosscode is good but not YS levels good in terms of combat. Both of their main draws are exploration whereas YS IMHO is quality combat so if you liked exploring in YS, I guarantee you'd like it in both. I'd recommend Furi over them but only if you really liked the boss rush segments of the newer YS games since that is all what it is.

 

[Archibald]

So could you say that it is a bit similar to YS2 as far as exploration goes?

 

[Arthandas]

Ugh, abandoned mines and another shitty boss. I'm losing interest in this game... The mines themselves are also pretty boring and linear.
Come to think of it, all stages very pretty boring and linear. Exploration is basically gone, just some additional one-screen room here and there. Level design in terms of complexity and exploration is actually insulting compared to Ys II or Napishtim.
Quarry is completely linear and so are the ruins. Zone of lava is actually ok though it's very small and the mines once again are completely linear... So far everything is worse than Napishtim which supposedly is the roughest part of trilogy.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Another possible explanation is that you're going thru an Ys overdose. It's only natural if you play 'em all in a row!

But yeah, I do agree exploration was more fun in Napishtim.

 

[Arthandas]

But I'm not bored yet. If Felghana keeps annoying me I'll just skip to Origin.
I'm losing interest only because so far it's a decline compared to previous games.
Literally everything's worse. Even the town reeks of genericness.