Legacy of Ys: Books I & II (DS)

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II
Falcom, Dreams/Atlus

Review by Lauren

I recall being fascinated by Ys in my early gaming days. I'd see a picture of one of its anime cutscenes in my old gaming magazines and be amazed. I hadn't seen anything like it back then, and of course, I certainly didn't have a TurboGrafx to play it on. Since then, Ys has been re-released on several platforms, including the PC, PS2, Wii Virtual Console, and finally, the Nintendo DS. Now that Atlus has brought the first two chapters of the series to the DS, I finally get to see what I was missing.

There's no getting around the fact that Legacy of Ys is an old game at the core. With this in mind, I tried to overlook the many plot clichés, considering the 20 year-old game probably invented some of them. It's a fairly basic tale by today's standards, but I'm sure it was groundbreaking for its time. The characters are fairly interesting, though I do wish some of them had more development.

The in-game graphics are definitely dated even with the DS upgrades. If you don't mind 2-D sprites and fairly basic environments, then you're set. On the plus side, they did include gorgeous character art throughout the game, which pops up when you talk to important characters. Some areas also have very detailed and beautiful backgrounds. They're few and far between, but it's appreciated. And of course, the two introductory cutscenes for each chapter look great.

If I were to sum up Legacy of Ys in one word, it would have to be "fast." Not just in terms of overall gameplay, but pretty much every other aspect of the game as well. It's not necessarily a complaint, but it's definitely a speed I've never seen before in an RPG. You run fast, and walk pretty quickly too. Levelling is very fast - experience required for the next level rarely increases exponentially. Enemies move, attack, and can kill you very quickly. If you glance away from the DS for a few seconds and happen to bump into an enemy a couple of times, it's Game Over. This happened to me more than I'd like to admit. Bosses will generally either kill you or be killed by you very quickly. One boss fight was literally over in about 10 seconds, whether I won or lost by madly slashing away in the midst of a rain of projectiles.

Both chapters make it somewhat difficult to guess what you need to do next. Sometimes NPCs will drop massive hints, while at other times, I found myself wondering how anyone could have figured out how to get the next item or progress to the next area, because I found no information in the game about it. I suppose that developers expected people to spend a lot of time exploring and therefore increase the overall playtime, but alas, I've been spoiled by modern gaming and usually check a guide if I'm stuck for too long. It reminds me of Zelda: A Link to the Past in this sense.

There aren't many areas in either game - a few towns and a few dungeons, with a small world map. The game makes up for this lack of space with a lot of backtracking in order to complete necessary fetch quests for continuing the plot. Normally this would be very irritating, but the running speed is so fast that it's not really as much of a chore.

You won't find much equipment in these games, and your gold will become useless at about half to three-quarters through each chapter. There's simply nothing to spend it on except early equipment and a few herbs (to a max of three), and you'll find the best equipment in chests. That aspect felt a little wasteful.

Ys I is the shorter chapter, which takes you through a few towns and dungeons to reach the conclusion, which leads into the story of II. You'll be using your sword on every enemy in the first chapter. In Ys II, however, you learn magic very early on in the game. And honestly, you'll probably be using it for the rest of the game. Your simple fire spell projectile can take out enemies more easily than your sword can, since you don't have to get close and risk serious damage that way. I literally spent the whole game just throwing fire at everything, unless I wanted to conserve MP for some reason. You do acquire several other useful spells, including a teleportation spell that will return you to any village you choose. Very handy.

Ys II is longer, but not by much. I spent about five and a half hours on Book I and eight and a half hours on Book II, reaching max level and finding every item in both. Fourteen hours total is pretty iffy for an RPG today, especially when there's no bonus content or a reason to play it again. It's unfortunate, because I did have fun even just idly levelling and collecting gold, but doing so past a certain point won't help you in any way whatsoever.

I've heard a lot of positive things about the the music of Ys. I was excited to see that Atlus included the soundtrack along with the game. After giving it a listen and playing through the game, I can agree that the music is nice, but it wasn't as amazing as I'd expected. Again, it's probably an issue of time - I'm sure it sounded amazing back in the day. Its melodies throughout the game are still pretty, even if they're simplistic.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of Ys, but I wish it hadn't been over so quickly. I don't regret the purchase, though - I'm glad to have finally experienced this little piece of gaming history.