Oof, this took way too long. Don't worry, the next articles won't take as long. Please read the previous articles to catch up with my narrative.
After the outstanding success of both chapters, one could think that Nihon Falcom would be launched into the levels of Squaresoft or Enix, but nope. I don’t know how or why, but Falcom reached an impasse. Some key members behind the franchise left, leaving the Ys series in a bad spot. Ys III went through several changes before becoming what it is nowadays. Ys IV was not even made by Nihon Falcom and Ys V… well…
Let’s leave the games for now. After the release of Ys III, several developers realized that the company did not care about them, barely giving them credit for their work in the games and making them feel unappreciated (which is still a reality nowadays). This caused the two most important members of the series to leave the company: Masaya Hashimoto, the director and scenario writer, and Yuzo Koshiro, the main composer. Five years later, Yoshio Kiya, another important member, would leave after the release of Legend of Xanadu, although from what I know this one was because the company didn’t want to move to Windows, staying on console instead. Hashimoto and Koshiro eventually founded Quintet, who are known nowadays for participating in timeless classics such as ActRaiser, Terranigma and even Chrono Trigger! Koshiro, on the other hand, founded his own music company with the help of his family.
Meanwhile, Falcom had lost all of its creative blood. They wanted to keep squeezing the most out of Ys while it was still fresh, so they outsourced the creation of the fourth entry to Tonkin House, for the SNES. At the same time, they gave the rights to Hudson Software, because they were big boys back then, to make another Ys IV.
And that’s Falcom in the 90s. They shot themselves in the foot and suffered the consequences. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), they’d recover. But that will have to be for another day, because now we have to discuss the games from the series that spawned from these times.
PART 6: A BIT OF EXPERIMENTATION – YS III
Even if the game was different, they retained the HUD, which I appreciate.
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys had a complicated story. Originally, it was made to be a completely new IP. For some reason, that didn’t work out, so instead they decided to make it an Ys spin-off. And that… didn’t work out as well, so they decided to say, “fuck it” and made it a mainline. Whatever happened in the Falcom industries back then, they ended up releasing one of the most unique Ys games in the series. There are several versions of this game, and for research purposes I decided to go with the Turbografx version because it has the best music and graphics.
The game starts off, or at least the Turbografx version, with some backstory. We are told of an evil entity called Demanicus who laid waste upon the land a long time ago but was fortunately stopped by an unnamed hero and sealed into four statues. Chronologically, it happens after Ys IV, and it’s set in Dogi’s hometown. This is pretty cool, as it lets us delve a bit into his backstory. At least, in theory, because it’s not like we get much information about that. But I digress. Unfortunately, our boys can’t chill, because monsters start appearing from the Tigre Mine, the livelihood of the village. Whatever could this be? It’s time for Adol, once again, to solve a problem that doesn’t affect him directly. Kind of, it affects his best friend, though.
I’ve always heard that this game wasn’t very good, and while I understand why, I disagree completely. Now, it’s not an underrated masterpiece, just underrated. After playing a bit, you’ll notice that it’s suspiciously similar to Zelda II, WHICH IS TRUE, as the combat is literally the same. But that’s where the similarities end, because, for example, there’s no overworld. Instead, what you do is choose your desired location from a map, and you go there, no strings attached. You don’t need items or anything, just progress through the story and you’ll get access to everything. And nothing is lost! You can always go back to the dungeons if you want (although it’s not like there aren’t many reasons because it’s very easy to find all of the items). As a result, the game is very linear, probably the most linear in the series.
The dungeons themselves are fine, for the most part. They are not very interesting and slightly linear, with some diversions but without being compelling enough. I don’t have much to say about them, they do their job just fine. At least they are not horribly designed or are evil like in Zelda II. At the end of each dungeon (and, sometimes, in the middle of it) a boss awaits. And I have absolutely nothing to say about them, either, because they are all unremarkable: either they melt, like if Adol was the sun and they were butter, or they are annoying as hell. The final boss is the most memorable, but even then, it falls short of Dark Fact or its remake incarnation. In the Turbografx version, no boss is particularly difficult (except, the aforementioned final boss, and even then, they are not that hard). One thing that surprised me was how weak common enemies are, as they died in one hit throughout the whole game. This doesn’t mean I didn’t die or anything, but it’s worth pointing out.
Damn. Look at the boys, in all of their glory.
As for the story, unfortunately, it’s half baked. A lot of things happened suddenly and/or just because. Characters are very underdeveloped, most of them being unnamed NPCs, and the ones that aren’t either do nothing or do nothing but wear a cape of “I do something for one scene”. The exception to this is Adol who, for some reason, speaks consistently throughout the game, both with other characters as well as with himself (what’s commonly known as a monologue). Later on in the game there’s a particular scene where Adol doubts himself and his capabilities and while he gets over it soon enough, I think it’s pretty cute. He’s almost 20 in this game, after all. It’s normal to feel a bit lost and insecure, even when you’re a brave hero. In terms of story, the remake clears with its expanded storyline, but a boy misses Adol having thoughts and agency.
Overall, Wanderers from Ys is an odd duck in the middle of the franchise, far from being the worst in the series but mostly relegated to be a historical piece in the series. I think the remake is better at everything, especially considering how well translated the 2D to 3D is, but Wanderers from Ys is fine because it’s a good experience on its own. If you wish to play it, the Turbografx version is excellent, thanks to its presentation and music (be careful, though, the voice acting is really bad!), but you could also go for the Genesis version which has higher difficulty at the cost of worse music. Your choice! There’s also a remake for the PS2, but I don’t know anything about it. And avoid the SNES version; it has no redeeming qualities in comparison to the other ones.
PART 7: THE TRIPLE-ISH TRIAD – YS IV
Although the three games are different, all of them share certain things in common, such as the character shown here.
What if I told you that Ys IV is actually three games? I’ll only talk about two of them, as the third one will be a subject in a future article. So, for now, let’s dive into Mask of the Sun and Dawn of Ys, both of which weren’t actually made by Nihon Falcom. Mask of the Sun was made by Tonkin House, while Dawn of Ys was made by Hudson Software. Remember them? I do…
Mask of the Sun has Adol heading into the land of Celceta after finding a mysterious message in a bottle. He’s not alone, as this time he’s accompanied by Dr. Flair, an important character from Ys II. Dogi joins later on. Although there are many evils awaiting in the land of Celceta, duty is more important.
Mask of the Sun surprised me a lot. On Backloggd, it has an average rating of 2.5, so I was expecting a mediocre, if not outright bad game. I’m so glad that, once again, ratings mean nothing, because Mask of the Sun absolutely kicks ass, due to several reasons. After copying from Zelda II with Wanderers from Ys, Mask of the Sun went back to the old reliable bump combat, which I assume that, compared to the original releases of Ys I and II, is a huge improvement but unfortunately falls short in comparison with their remakes due to the lack of eight directions. Not a fair comparison, though. And just like in those games, a single level can mean the difference between victory and defeat, just how I like it. The music, for an SNES game, is really good! One of the most memorable soundtracks, definitely. The graphics are nice, very colorful and bright, with vibrant and varied scenarios. Speaking of which, the dungeons are pretty nice! Not too linear, not too confusing. It strikes a really good balance, although I’d appreciate it if there were more items to find. Just like in other Ys games, bosses are found at certain points of the dungeons. I thought they were, at worst, mediocre and unremarkable, but none of them were bad. The first one, in particular, was quite interesting and I'll probably remember it for years to come.
Hey... you can't be saying that... that's sexist...
The game is very well rounded, but it has two noticeable flaws. The first one is that, because of the dungeon design and the way enemies spawn, it’s very easy to get crushed by them in specific parts, which is very annoying. Fortunately, you can save whenever you want so it’s not that big of a deal. What IS a big deal is the final dungeon. Overall, the game is very linear, and it’s easy to know where to go by paying a bit of attention. Not the case with the final segment! It’s sprawling and confusing for no reason. It’s no Solomon Shrine, but it’s close enough. It’s also easy to be underleveled when you face the bosses, and if that’s the case, you’re not dealing damage and are left stumped thinking about what you have to do. And it’s very easy to be underleveled near the end, so you will have to grind. The game is also fairly easy and linear, although not as much as Wanderers. These laws, notwithstanding, didn’t sour my experience on this frankly easy game. If you vibe with it, you’ll find it one of the better Ys games.
Yooo this cut scenes are lit as fffffffine volcano.
As usual, let’s start with The Good:
- Great presentation: maybe because it was made for a more powerful console, but Dawn of Ys excels in the artistic department in comparison to Mask of the Sun. This is an objective truth and anyone who disagrees is outright lying. Not only does the music sound better than in Mask, but the graphics are better as well. The graphics themselves are pretty much the same, although sprites are better animated, in my opinion. The key difference lies in the portraits, which are very pleasant to look at and are animated, and the cut scenes, which are gorgeous but not very recurrent.
- Better controls: for the most part, movement and combat is identical, but you can move in 8 directions. This does WONDERS for the bump combat, let me tell you.
- More interesting dungeons: at first, at least. They are a bit mazey, but manageable nonetheless.
- More interesting bosses: a lot of bosses in Mask were very unremarkable save for a few, but here they are reminiscent of I and II. That doesn’t mean they are better, as some of them are stinkers.
- Adol doesn’t speak: it's not like it matters, because Adol only speaks in Wanderers and Mask, but it’s something to take into account if you care about it.
- Economy is broken: now, having always money for what you need is a good thing, but in this case it’s extreme. I’d always buy everything I could and STILL have enough money
- Partners: one really cool feature that's exclusive to this game is the appearance of non controllable partners. They fight alongisde you, and they are pretty strong, taking most enemies in one or two hits. The problem is that you gain no experience or gold through their kills, which makes grinding much more difficult.
I thought Wanderers looked good enough, but this takes it to the next level.
- Annoying dungeons: remember how I said before that this game had more interesting dungeons? I also said they are mazey, and after a certain point, the game doubles down on the maziness. By the end, I was getting so annoyed that I had to use a video to find out where I had to go.
- Finnicky combat: while moving in 8 directions is definitely a good thing, the bump combat feels worse. You may be at the perfect position and still take damage. Also, when the enemy is at the wall, you WILL clip through them, and you WILL take damage.
- The bosses: now, the bosses ARE more interesting than Mask, but I wouldn’t call them top tier. A lot of them had to be defeated with magic, which was suspiciously similar to Ys II. This leads me to my next point.
- This is just Ys II again: after a certain point, I couldn’t help but notice just how similar this game was to Ys II in terms of gameplay. From the overreliance on magic to defeat bosses, to the presence of almost the exact same type of magic and rings, the maze-like dungeons… I was getting huge, fetid vibes from Ys II, which is the last thing I want from a game. In fact, because of this, my opinion of Ys II immediately diminished.
- The story: it’s absurdly forgettable, mainly because sometimes things happen just because. There are some good bits, mind you, but a lot of them are shared with Mask of the Sun, and some of them are executed worse. This, combined with voice acting of dubious quality (sometimes, I couldn’t understand what the actors were saying) made me not care that much about the story.
PART 8: THE POOR MAN’S LEGEND OF ZELDA – YS V
For what it's worth, the game looks good
In this entry, Adol arrives at the continent of Afroca. There, he is contacted by a wealthy merchant named Dorman to hunt some crystals. Said crystals hold the key to unlock the lost kingdom of Kefin, which disappeared five hundred years ago. The knowledge of its citizens, who were said to have discovered alchemy, holds the key to saving the land.
Yes, I did copy this fragment from the wiki, because I don’t really remember anything from this game. Hard to blame me for that, because Ys V is merely an Ys in name. Anything that makes Ys unique is not present here. The combat is copy and paste of 2D Zelda games but somehow less exciting; the story is unremarkable, even by Ys standards; the characters are very “whatever”; the dungeons are boring with barely any secrets; the bosses aren’t exciting... Hell, even the music is boring! There are no unique qualities to this game, except perhaps the magic system, in which you combine elemental stones to make unique spells. This is probably the most interesting part of the game, and even then, it’s not interesting in the slightest, especially once you manage to find the good spells, to which I say: good luck because you have no way of knowing what spells you can make without a guide, lol.
If you want an actually good 2D Zelda, look no further than Link's Awakening DX.
Just like Mask of the Sun, this game features a remake on the PS2 developed by Taito, as well as a re-release on the SNES called Ys V Expert which is supposedly harder. I haven’t played them, nor am I interested. Just like the original, both weren’t released outside of Japan. Chronologically, Ys V happens between Ys III and Ys VIII, but if you skipped it, you wouldn’t miss out on much, except for a recurring character in Ys VI (which you probably won't recognize because of the difference in graphics) and an explicit mention in Ys IX (which happens near the end of the game and it's merely for context). Ys V is, by far, the worse game in the series, as well as the most skippable one (at least of the mainline ones) not only for its lack of identity, but because of how boring and mediocre it is. Even then, it’s far from bad, which is commendable. I can’t say the same for Dragon Quest!
And we’re done for the moment! In retrospect, calling this "The Dark Ages" isn't that unfair when 50% is good and 50% is "eh". Next time, which hopefully will be soon, we’ll see the next step on Nihon Falcom history. Ciao for now!
