A look back at: Ys

This RPG took about three days, especially since I played the Famicom version, but do you think I'm gonna like something with a battle system similar to Hydlide? Obviously not.

It's amazing that Ys somehow became an RPG series, with a rather awful name and having this crummy battle mechanic. I guess later games end up being improvements, but I wouldn't know that until, you know, I get to them. Regardless, Ys is relatively short, but nasty hard, the guides practically prepare you for death when and if you come underprepared. I didn't even know how to equip weapons and armor at the start, thanks for NOT telling me how to do that. Ah, old games. I gotta admit though, finding a loophole in the battle mechanic and using it to gain free hits on an enemy is quite nice. All the normal enemies act the same anyways, they aimlessly wander, and if you hit them from the back, sides, or at an angle it's basically a free hit. The same for the player though. Unfortunate that the dungeons sometimes have corridors so thin that a hit could be unavoidable. Might as well stock up on the potions and better armor, oh, and they're quite expensive.

But after awhile, you don't need any more money or levels, since they cap off at 65535 XP and gold. Bleh. Anyways, the real reason I was annoyed should be obvious, the fetch quests and the easiness of getting lost. Those mines were a pain in the ass due to limited visibility, but they're nothing compared to Darm Tower. So much to do in that chapter, get to meet a few NPCs, oh wait, is that a trap where I lose my silver equipment? Yep, great. Thankfully I was able to equip the class under it for awhile, but having to find them back was kind of a hassle. There's also the teleporter maze with mirrors and the rest of the bosses. Needless to say there was a lot of frustration trying to figure out where I needed to go and what I needed to acquire. There's equipment better than the silver equipment? Cool, but I should be getting my silver equipment back first. Oh no, did you just tell me I needed to go back to that guy to get the Blue Amulet to reach the final bosses? There were no hints for that. Even worse, no hints that you have to equip all silver equipment just to hurt the final bosses (and yes there's two). Don't equip all of them and you're screwed. I'm okay with curveballs and hard difficulty, but only if I know about them, otherwise I just have WTF moments when I play things.