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Ys Origin
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Graphics & Sound:
Get ready for a blast from the JRPG past with Ys Origin, now available in English for the first time via Steam download. The game is a prequel to the long-running Ys series in Japan, the seventh title so far. It also came out in Japan six years ago, but the pixel-sprite graphics and gameplay feel much older, like stepping back to the SNES days of JRPGs. If you are familiar with the series, perhaps by playing Oath of Felghana on PSP, you'll recognize many sites and references such as the Darm Tower where the game takes place, the Twin Goddesses the main characters have been sent to rescue, and some of the other facets of the game's story and layout.
Despite the 16-bit reference above, Ys Origin does look rather nice thanks to painted sprites and smart 3D work. The spell effects are appropriately flashy-yet-heavily-detailed, and visually, the boss battles were always a treat to look forward to. One major boss early in the game crawls along a central pillar while you drop mines to destroy its carapace: it also occasionally wraps itself into a wheel and goes tearing around the pillar, sending you scrambling for cover while late-90's anime guitar riffs blare in the background. The soundtrack is another flashback moment if you've played the previous Ys titles, and I found them rather catchy: it helped me forgive the lack of any voice-acting. The entire package runs very smoothly, and the requirements are forgiving enough it'll run on almost anything. |
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Gameplay:
You play through the main story of Ys Origin as one of three characters: a female knight-in-training named Yunica Tovah, a male wizard's son named Hugo Fact, and a mysterious stranger named Claw who turns out to be related to Hugo and a well-known former hero in the land of Ys. You can also control Adol Christin, a major character from previous installments in the Ys Series, in the Time Attack and Arena Mode portions of the game. During the main story, the three other characters make their way floor-by-floor up the demon-filled Darm Tower as they search for the missing Twin Goddesses, fighting monsters and learning more about the terrible secret that caused the Goddesses to leave their posts in the floating city of Ys and come down to the demon-infested world where Darm Tower is located.
As Ys Origin players climb the maze-like tower, they earn levels and items to increase their power. Besides armor and accessories, players also find powerful artifacts from heroes who fell fighting the demon invasion that give them other powerful abilities, as well as magic gems to increase those powers. Monsters also occasionally drop temporary power-ups, giving you short-term boosts to health, magic, XP or other abilities, rewarding you for keeping the momentum going instead of taking it slowly. They also drop SP, currency which can be spent at save points to strengthen armor or give additional permanent boosts, such as a higher item drop rate or speed boost. |
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Difficulty:
Ys Origins has a range of difficulties, from Very Easy to Nightmare. As difficulty increases, access to upgrades is diminished and enemies become tougher, especially boss fights. What was a fun and engaging use of platforming on lower difficulties can be painfully rough on higher levels. The bosses each have a pattern, so learning them is the key to victory.
One thing to note is that enemies respawn each time you leave a room, meaning there's no way to really "clear out" a level of the tower: there will always be another group of baddies waiting for you. Shortly into the game, you gain the ability to teleport between save points, a handy feature if you don't want to slog through rooms again and again. However, getting too teleport-happy keeps you from grinding up a few levels or few thousand SP for an upgrade, and you might find yourself falling behind in the power curve. The game's platforming nature can also be both curse and blessing in disguise here: during the fourth set of levels, I just kept missing a jump needed to move forward in the tower, which meant running back through three different rooms over and over again to set up the jump. By the time I finally made it to the next area, I'd gained a level and enough SP to buy some high-cost upgrades I sorely wanted.
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Game Mechanics:
Unlike other old-school JRPGs, Ys Origin definitely earns the "action" descriptor. Instead of standing still for turn-based battles, your solo character charges around 3D dungeon floors while constantly lashing out with rapid attacks against enemies. Yunica and Claw are both melee-based characters while Hugo works best at range, firing off magic blasts his wand and two floating orbs called the Eyes of Fact. The different abilities granted by the artifacts found throughout the tower also help solve puzzles or grant access to special areas, such as a shield that also allows players to float while falling, or mines that destroy armored enemies and blast through walls. You also build a boost meter, which gives you access to a big attack power-up after slowly building up over time. While the temptation is to save the boost for big boss battles, I found it better suited to mowing through rooms of medium-to-strong enemies at a fast clip.
First-time players to the series might have trouble with Ys Origin's controls. The mouse controls direction and movement, while four keys (default Z, X, C and V) control your ability to attack and perform other special moves. It's a weird reversal from WASD games, and took a little while for my hands to get used to. There were several times I wasted my boost meter because I forgot which game I was playing and hit the wrong key to jump.
If you long for the nostalgic feel of the SNES RPG days, or like fast-paced dungeon-blasting with an anime story, give Ys Origin a try. Just be ready for the other old-school JRPG qualities: the occasional grind to keep up with the power curve, heavy-handed angsty dialogue from wide-eyed heroes, and some devilishly-demanding boss fights. |
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-Dark Lantern, GameVortex Communications AKA Russell Jones |
Minimum System Requirements:
OS:XP, Processor:Pentium III / 1 GHz, Memory:1 GB RAM, Graphics:64 MB VRAM, 3D accelerator compatible w/ DirectX 9.0c, DirectX®:9.0c, Hard Drive:2 GB HD space, Sound:Compatible with DirectX 9.0c |
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Test System:
OS: Windows 7, Processor: AMD FX(1)-4100 Quad Core / 3.61 Ghz, Memory: 8 GB RAM, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7700 series, DirectX: 11, Sound: Integrated |
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