I’ve never been moved to write about a game or game series, but Ys Seven (and the Ys series) has struck such a chord for me out of nowhere that I’ve decided to briefly chronicle my impressions of my playthrough of various Ys games throughout the spring and summer. This is Part 1.

2018 has been a pretty slow year so far in terms of appealing new releases in my opinion (Alex and others have brought this up as well). In late March I was looking for a decent action-RPG or action-adventure game to sink my teeth into. I’ve played Diablo III to death and have at least dabbled in every major Diablo clone on Steam. I think I’ve really burned out on the ‘Grimdark” aesthetic of Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, etc. and was looking for a game with the same sensibilities but with a bright, cheery vibe. I also wanted to stay away from turn-based RPGs - they’ve never connected with me and I have never finished a big turn-based JRPG etc. because they random battles just make them drag on forever.

Then I came across Ys. I know this action-RPG series has been around for over 30 years, but back in the day I always assumed these games were B-grade versions of Final Fantasy, Wild Arms, etc. I’d hear about releases on the periphery but since they were a little more niche (and more recently only released on the PSP) I wouldn’t pay them any attention.

However, the release and widespread critical praise for Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is what really got my attention. With the overwhelming positive reviews and imminent Steam release I decided to start with Ys Seven.

Here’s the rundown of the game from one Giantbomb.com, a website about video games:

“Ys Seven is the seventh numbered entry in the storied action RPG series developed by Nihon Falcom. The game follows Adol Christin and his group of fellow adventurers who travel through the land of Altago to learn more about the local gods: the Five Great Dragons. Falcom released Ys Seven on the PlayStation Portable in Japan on September 17, 2009 and was localized into English by XSEED in 2010. A PC port was also created by XSEED that was released years later on Steam and GOG on August 30, 2017.”

What I like about Ys Seven:

• For some reason I’ve become a fan of the look of uprezzed PSP games -the textures can look a little muddy at times, but polygonal models are bright, colorful, and look really sharp at 1080p. And runs just fine on pretty much any PC nowadays.

• The gameplay really moves - there’s really not a lot of downtime between fights, looting, etc.

• There’s an interesting difficulty mechanic in this game - the enemies out in the world are pretty easy to handle but the bosses are trickier - not hard per se, but you have to start thinking about approaching them differently. Also there is a surprising amount of strategy involved with combat - there are 3 different enemy “types” (Slash, Strike, and Pierce) and you have to switch between your 3 party members to effectively dispatch each type

• The leveling and loot mechanics are straightforward and clear (as opposed to the goddamn FFX sphere grid or Path of Exile’s grid of nonsense)

What May Turn People Off:

• Since Ys Seven originated as a PSP game, the design of all the mechanics, level design, loot, etc. might seem a little TOO light for some people in 2018

• The story was pretty good (and the translation is actually really good) but it could have been trimmed down a bit

So that’s it for now. Since Ys Seven has really struck a chord with me, my plan is to play through at least Ys VIII and Ys Origin in the near future. I may continue playing other Ys games If I’m not completely sick of Ys after 3 games or other games come out over the spring/summer that steals my attention away. Ys: Memories of Celceta apparently comes to Steam this summer, so we’ll see how that goes.

Seven was also my first Ys game, and I was pretty smitten with it upon playing it. Seems like a lot of older fans of the series don't care for it, though I couldn't really tell you why.

Good write-up! I am intrigued. I'm also a fan of the chunky, low-poly models.

As a long time Ys fan I can shed some light on why Seven is usually not considered one of the best. There are probably many minor quibbles like: the PSP being the target meant lower res textures and a less technically impressive game, it is the first game to go all polygons for character and enemy models and the old sprite work was great, it being handheld only (for a long time) being a big shift. But really the major reason Seven is considered a lesser Ys game is that it was the first game in the series to do a dodge button (instead of jump) and the first one to have multiple characters with switching and the slash/blunt/pierce dynamic. Now that is not a bad change it just replaces something that had been refined over the course of the previous 3 games and as a result you get a more unrefined experience that isnt as tightly tuned. The next game made (Celcetta) for Vita improved and refined the system and Ys 8 refined it further and are better games because of iteration on the concept. So it isnt that Seven is bad its that its the most unrefined of its combat engine, people have similar feelings about Ys 6 because it was the first with its combat engine too.

So I would recommend that 6 or seven be peoples first game in their respective engines (6, Felghana, Origins are the same engine Seven/Celcetta/8 are the same engine) because then you get to see the combat improve along with playing through them, going backwards might be more difficultt.

edit: Also welcome to the Ys series! There isn't a bad game in the bunch and they are all an old-school joy to play. No dev currently working understands what people liked about jrpgs in the 80s/90s more than falcom (i guess because they were making them then too!) and they are keeping the classic spirit alive.

Just stumbled across this post, which is funny because I just finished Ys Seven on PC! I've been interested in the Ys series since a friend showed me Ys Book I & II for the Turbografx-CD back in 1991, but I didn't play Ys III which was made available on several 16-bit consoles a few years later. The series had left a definite impression, though, so I was happy when more games in the series were being brought to the US a few years ago. Prior to Ys Seven, I had played Ys Book I & II, The Oath in Felghana, and Origins on PC as well as The Ark of Napishtim on PS2.

Ys Seven was the first game in the series to have party-based combat. Prior to this game, you only ever controlled Adol and he was always alone (with the exception being Origins, which uses different main characters). I thought it was neat at first, but eventually I found that I missed the simplicity of only having to worry about one character's gear. And then there's dealing with each character's skills, which they learn from specific weapons and can be leveled up only through using them. That got to be a bit too much for me and I ended up taking a break from the game back in September after putting about 25 hours into it.

I finally loaded the game back up about a week ago and worked on finishing it. I've decided that it's a good game, but the party system really hindered my enjoyment. I'm hoping that Ys: Memories of Celceta feels more enjoyable to play; I have it for the Vita digitally, but I only own a PS TV and that version of the game requires touchscreen stuff for camera control which was a bit too wonky for me after a few hours, so I'm awaiting for the PC release. And Ys VIII looks really nice, but it sounds like the PC port is a disaster so far. Hopefully they can fix it up!

It'd be interesting to hear what someone who played Ys Seven first thinks of the earlier games. The first two games don't even have an attack button! You just bump into enemies and if you hit them at the right angle, they take damage. It's weird and different and I could certainly understand someone not liking it. They took a break from that style of gameplay with Ys III and made it a sidescrolling RPG/action hybrid. They went back to the bump combat with both versions of Ys IV, which never got localized into English. Ys V apparently was the first overhead-style game in the series to have an attack button, but it was also not localized. Ark of Napishtim, The Oath in Felghana (a complete remake of Ys III), and Origins are a lot closer to Ys Seven with the hack 'n slash combat, and that was probably my favorite of the Ys eras.

@thewildcard: The first Ys game I really got into was Oath of Felghana on the PSP and Ys Seven felt like a pretty big step down after experiencing that. The removal of the ability to jump kind made every location into a big flat dinner plate with almost no level design. Plus the party system in Seven was more annoying than anything else since the other party members don't shake up your play-style that much and you have to switch between them all the time to break enemies' weaknesses. The story is also really dull with incredibly tedious dialogue that feels like the characters are just restating the same thing over and over in every cut-scene. Ys VIII was a real return to form for the franchise in my opinion and did everything Seven tried to do but better in every way.

@kid_gloves: I would honestly just recommend people play the most polished games in the series (which I think are Ys VIII and Oath of Felghana) then if they are interested they can check out the other games in the franchise. Recommending people play the least polished games in a series first feels a little backwards to me. But to each their own.

@lentfilms: I only do so if they know they "like" the series. If you plan on playing them all or at least the modern ones then going back to less refined ones may not be the best idea.

I will agree with your choices for the best ones though, I think I may like Celcetta better than VIII just a bit.

@kid_gloves: Okay, sorry if I misread your comment. I only played a bit of Celceta from a borrowed copy on the Vita and wasn't super hot on it but I want to give it another try. Think I'll wait for the PC version to come out and give it a second chance.

@lentfilms: I tried starting Oath of Felghana as the next part of this write-up series but I've found that the bosses (like, the first & second ones you come across) are crazy hard compared to Ys Seven. Either that or the older titles require a lot more grinding than I was prepared for. I actually finished The Ark of Napishtim yesterday so I think I'll do Part 2 on that this week.

Yes the bosses are harder in games earlier than Ys Seven, but not greatly though. Grinding is a minor thing in these games and doing so can change a boss from seemingly impossible to not that hard (depending on the boss, and patterns). The game pre and post Ys seven are less about trading blows and more about not getting hit and memorizing patterns, if you made it though 6 Felghana shouldn't be too much of an issue.... but I remember the first couple of bosses being harder than normal. Just grind a couple of levels and you should be good to go, thankfully since the games combat is so fast paced grinding a couple of levels shouldnt take more than 15-20 minutes.... something I really love about the series.

I own most on Steam and got pretty far in Ys Seven. My retro shelf has the YS on TG16 and the original on my second fav system of all time, the Sega Master System.

Thanks for all the comments and feedback! By the way, Part 2 of my Ys series roundup is up now (I actually finished Ys Origin before Ys VI).