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Ys and You

Posted by Bob Mackey

Monday saw the release of Ys Book I & II for the Wii's Virtual Console, making it the first time since mid-May I was remotely interested in anything on the service. Standard VC bitchery: Nintendo, I am willing to buy digital versions of games I already own. The save battery on my Earthbound cart still worked in 2005, but in the horrible year of 2008, who knows?

If you weren't too aware of gaming in the early 90s, Ys Book I & II was basically the Halo of the ill-fated TurboGrafx-CD--not in how it was treasured by millions of gamers, but by what a showpiece it was for the hardware. In 1990, CD-ROM technology was still astoundingly new, and NEC knew it could impress the pants off of prospective console buyers; hence, the showing of promotional videos featuring footage of Ys in gaming stores across the country (and I should know, because for some reason NEC also sent a handful of copies to my house).

The intro is pretty primitive and just as "animated" as a cutscene from one of the Sega CD Lunar games, but put yourself in the shoes of someone from 1990 (I'm guessing they would be British Knights) and dare to not find it impressive:

As for the game, it's a little dated--even by action-RPG standards. Ys came out a little too close to The Legend of Zelda to be considered a ripoff--it's certainly no Neutopia or Golden Axe Warrior--but stealing the whole "attack button" concept would have made the game a little less awkward. Combat in Ys involves ramming your character into enemies and hoping that you chip away at their health faster than they chip away at yours. It's unique, but takes some getting used to; and you'd be surprised how fast Adol can plow through enemies once he becomes the Refrigerator Perry of RPG heroes.

The Ys series still remains cherished in Japan, even though Falcom does a lot of rehashing and is one of those old Japanese developers who never really figured out 3D--it's hard to believe they're still around. Needless to say, Ys is mostly unknown in the States, despite a handful of releases on multiple platforms over the past few decades. If you feel that not living in Japan has robbed you of vital Ys knowledge, head on over to Hardcore Gaming 101's article on the franchise to find out what you've been missing.

Oh yeah, and buy Ys Book I & II on the Virtual Console; it's only eight bucks. You don't want all of those unfortunate TurboGrafx-CD owners to start rolling in their graves (they were murdered in the Great Console Wars of '93).

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Posted Aug 26 2008, 12:00 PM

Filed under: wii, rpg, bob mackey, ys, virtual console

Comments

Demaar said:

I'll probably pick it up, I've been playing a not quite legitimate version of the remakes on PC with unofficial translation patches, and they've been pretty cool. I'll probably never PLAY them on virtual console mind you, I'd be mostly just paying for something I've already played.

August 26, 2008 10:54 PM

John H. said:

The great thing about Ys, besides the music of course, is that it's actually a mystery, not a whodunnit, but in the tradition of pulp fantasy. You're told there was this ancient city that mysteriously vanished in one night, and no one knows why. Go forth and discover the reason!

Game stories no longer have the courage to do something like that.

September 4, 2008 5:16 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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