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Ys I & II Chronicles+
PC (Steam)
Vanished Ys Should Have Stayed That Way
1.5/5 stars
The ‘Ys’ series is the long-running flagship franchise of Japanese developer Falcom. While it supposedly is quite popular in its homeland, ‘Ys’ has never really taken off in the rest of the world. Of course, it’s no surprise, considering the first ‘Ys’ game to leave Japan and find itself on a popular platform in the rest of the world was “Ys III: Wanderers from Ys” on the SNES, with its weird take on hybridizing action RPGs with clunky 2D platforming. I never got very far in “Ys III” before giving up and selling the cartridge. The first two ‘Ys’ games may as well have not existed outside of Japan, with “Ys I” seeing a release on the obscure Sega Master System and both games released on the even-more-obscure Turbo CD. It was only in Japan that “Ys I” and “Ys II,” the two games remade in “Ys I & II Chronicles+” (“Chronicles+”) ever saw release on the popular NES.
Yet the very name ‘Ys’ (pronounced like ‘ease’) invokes the same sense of mystery and adventure as other names of lost civilizations: Atlantis, Angkor Watt, Machu Picchu, Mu, Lemuria – these and Ys are all locations just begging to be re-imagined and explored via videogames. Thus with my young imagination piqued by the very name itself, I came to the conclusion that “Ys I” and “Ys II” must surely have been better than “Ys III,” and that the evil samurai on Falcom’s board of directors were purposefully preventing more Westerners from enjoying them by refusing to localize them (at the time, I didn’t know about the Sega Master System or Turbo CD, nor would I have begged my parents to buy them).
Since that time, I have come to two conclusions: 1) Japanese corporations don’t have samurai on their boards of directors, and 2) Most of the time when a Japanese game receives a half-assed localization effort (or no localization effort), it is because the game is not good enough to bother.
Presentation
“Chronicles+” is a ‘modern’ remake of the first two games in the ‘Ys’ franchise. And by ‘modern,’ I mean it makes the games look and sound like something from the PlayStation 1 era. Of course, not everything from the PS1 era was about blocky, jagged polygons and low-resolution textures. These two ancient games remain as 2D and sprite-based as they ever were, but with massive improvements in every way. “Chronicles+” features charming and well-animated 16-bit+ quality sprites and fully supports modern TV aspect ratios without stretching or distortion. A handful of anime style cutscenes have been added as intros and endings (though these aren’t quite as sharp as the rest of the game at high resolutions). Not everything is perfect about the new graphics, however. In “Ys I,” boss battles all take place in a different resolution that the rest of the game that looks extremely blurry. The smoothing options for the sprites are also somewhat lacking when compared to those provided by the modern emulators created by hackers.
The audio in “Chronicles+” is by far the high point in the entire ‘Ys’ series. Not only is the soundtrack a delightful mix of CD quality rock ballads, but the option is available to use a MIDI-era soundtrack from the Turbo CD remake or the chiptunes soundtrack from the original release. No voiceacting has been added to these old games, which is perfectly fine with me.
Story
The official title of “Chronicles+” is “Ancient Ys Vanished.” While the original intent was to release a single game, something happened that caused Falcom to divide their original grand idea into two parts. Thus “Ys I” was released as “Ancient Ys Vanished – Omen” and “Ys II” was released as “Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter.”
Together, “Ys I” and “Ys II” tell the story of a red-haired adventurer named Adol Cristin who, for unknown reasons has boarded a ship and sailed directly into the massive tornado wall that has surrounded a small island of Esteria. Adol’s ship is wrecked, naturally, and he finds himself washed ashore in the small village of Minea.
Adol soon finds himself roped into protecting the people of Esteria from demons that have begun ravaging the land. Along the way, a fortune teller advises Adol that he will only be able to stop the demons permanently and remove the stormwall by collecting the Six Books of Ancient Ys, a vanished civilization that once existed on Esteria, but disappeared hundreds of years ago, leaving behind nothing but a massive tower stretching toward the heavens.
Of course, Adol does manage to collect the Books of Ys, and confronts a dastardly villain in a black cape who has been commanding the demons and causing all sorts of trouble for the beleaguered inhabitants of Esteria…
…But then “Ys II” begins as Adol finds himself falling through the air only to awaken in Ancient Ys itself, which has begun its process of un-vanishing.
It turns out that the two goddesses of Ys initially hit the civilization away in order to protect all of humanity from demons, which were originally produced as an unfortunate side effect of the magic of Ys. Events in Esteria led to the resurgence of magic, and thus the resurgence of demon activity. Adol is given the mantle of Chosen One and must scour the entirety of Ys in order to put a stop to the demons at their source, once and for all.
While it is true that both “Ys I” and “Ys II” are incredibly old games (originally released in 1987 and 1988 respectively) from a time when game narratives were typically a secondary concern – if they were a concern at all – I can’t help but feel disappointed in the pacing and overall lack of character development. Adol remains a mostly-mute cardboard cutout for the entire duration of his adventures and we never learn where he is from or why he was going to Esteria in the first place. The pacing at which the mysteries of the disappearance of Ancient Ys are revealed seems unnecessarily clipped, resulting in two games that are only about 4-6 hours a piece. On the other hand, there are plenty of non-player characters to talk to, many of whom provide side quests and helpful information, which is impressive in a game with such an old pedigree.
In the end, though, I went in to “Chronicles+” expecting a bit or mystery and solid pacing. What I found was a neatly-assembled pile of clichés and a driving narrative of ‘demons are bad.’
Gameplay
I never liked “Ys III” due to the clunky platforming combat that made the game feel exceptionally difficult. “Ys I” and “Ys II” are not platformer hybrids, but top-down games reminiscent of titles like “The Legend of Zelda” or, more accurately, “Hydlide.” Whereas more advanced games at the time required button presses to interact with various aspects of the game world, the original ‘Ys’ games were intentionally designed to invoke a more arcade-like style of play, emphasizing simplicity and action. “Chronicles+” doesn’t change the original gameplay, but instead embraces it and gives it a name: ‘Bump Combat.’ In order to damage enemies, talk to NPCs, and pick-up items, the player must simply ram Adol into the target. Ramming enemies to damage them requires Adol to be slightly off-center in order to prevent the enemy from damaging him while he is damaging it.
“Chronicles+” also features a splash of RPG elements and action/adventure elements. In “Ys I,” Adol can gain experience to increase his level to a maximum of 10, while in “Ys II” the cap is much higher (I got to 50, but I don’t think that’s the actual cap). Likewise, Adol can find (and is required to find) a variety of upgraded gear and items over the course of his quest. Unfortunately, “Ys I” and “Ys II” don’t really connect as directly in their gameplay as they do in their narrative, as Adol is forced back to level 1 with no items at the start of “Ys II.”
There are a handful of stand-out mechanics in “Chronicles+,” both good and bad. The good part is that the dungeons and caves Adol must explore are fairly well designed. This good dungeon design is, of course, negated by a few 8-bit moments where there is absolutely no indication of how to proceed, mandating FAQ consultation.
Then there are the boss battles. Both games feature a variety of reasonably interesting bosses with a few that are absolutely, stupidly difficult and almost entirely luck-based. “Ys I” has perhaps the worst final boss in the history of games, rendered even more unbearable by the fact that “Ys I” prevents the player from using consumable items (like healing potions) during boss battles (a flaw which was mercifully fixed in “Ys II”). Fortunately, the “Chronicles+” version (I don’t know about the original versions) allows the player to save at pretty much any time, cutting down on a lot of tedious repetition and frustration.
Overall
“Ys I & II Chronicles+” didn’t do anything to improve my opinion of the entire ‘Ys’ franchise, though it also didn’t do anything to make my opinion worse. Finicky ‘Bump Combat,’ Bullet Hell bosses, and a few logical derailments in how to progress all render these old ‘Ys’ games unacceptable by today’s standards. If “Ancient Ys Vanished” was ever great, which I doubt, it has certainly aged out of that greatness, even with a beautiful new coat of paint and an amazing soundtrack.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 1/5
Overall (not an average): 1.5/5
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