Backlog Game Reviews 37: Ys 1: Ancient Ys Vanished

 

Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews.

 

        For part three of the retro game marathon let’s take a look at Ys 1 on the Famicom. Ys was first released on the PC-8801 in 1987. It was later ported over to other PCs such as the PC-9801, and the MSX 2. Ys 1 saw an English release on the Sega Master System, MS-DOS, the Apple IIGS, and TurboGrafx 16. There was even a port on the Sega Saturn that was exclusive to Japan. For this review, we’re going to focus on the Famicom port. So, let’s take a look and see if this version is worth playing.

 

 Walking around the first town in the game.

Ys 1 introduces us to the young swordsman Adol Christin. Adol is an aspiring adventure, that has traveled from his home town to the far-off city of Minea, located in the island nation of Esteria. He’s come here looking for adventure, and shortly after arriving in Minea, he's approached by a fortune teller named Sara. Sara tells Adol that she foresaw his arrival to Esteria and warns him of a powerful evil lurking in the country's shadows.

          

                         

 Talking to Sara the fortune teller.

     She then tells Adol about the Six books of Ys. These books tell of the history of Ys, an ancient country that is said to have once been a part of Esteria until one day it vanished off the face of the earth. The books of Ys are also said to contain information on how to stop the evil that is currently threatening Esteria. After telling him all this she askes Adol to find the books. Adol, not one to turn down a possible adventure agrees to help Sara and sets off on a quest to find the books of Ys.

 

 Fighting some monsters.

     The story is one of this game's strong points. It’s very well thought out and full of mystery. As the game progresses you learn more about the ancient country known as Ys and why it suddenly vanished without a trace. But by the end of the game, you're left with more questions than answers. The story ends on a climactic cliffhanger setting the stage for the second game. For a Famicom game, this is very impressive. This game probably has one of the best stories you’ll find on the Famicom.

 

 The second and last town in the game.

    So, the story is good, but how does the game play? Well, let's start with the battle system, Ys utilizes a bump system. You don't have an attack button and fight by ramming yourself into enemies. Attacking an enemy head-on will result in you taking damage if your level isn't high enough. The safest way to attack is by running into foes at an angle. It may sound strange and boring but it's actually pretty fun. Sadly, there is one thing holding it back.

 

 Level grinding in the mountains.

     That problem being Adol’s slow walking speed. He moves really slow in this game, which makes it a bit of a pain to travel from place to place and makes boss battles harder than they should be. Most bosses are defeated by attacking when you have an opening and running away before the boss starts a counter attack. But because you move as slow as you do this is much easier said than done. More often than not you end up being unable to reach the boss without getting attacked. Or you can't run away in time and end up taking damage.

 

 The first boss.

    Another problem with this game is how heavy it is on grinding. You’ll have to stop and level grind very often due to how the difficulty spikes with each new area. A good example of how the difficulty just suddenly increases is the third boss. You won’t be able to damage him unless you’re at level 22, even with the best possible equipment. This is a problem because the enemies leading up to this boss are not that strong, you can beat them with little effort at level 20 or 19. So when you make it to this boss, you’ll most likely be too weak to do anything and die.

 

 Equipping a shield.

    This game also has a pretty low-level cap, the max level being 24. Because you need to be at level 22 to beat the third boss, you’ll hit max level once you make it to the next dungeon. By this time in the game, gold becomes useless because you've reached the point of no return and can't go back to the shops, and now that you’re at max level you have no need for experience points. So, you have no reason to fight anything that's not a boss and just end up running past everyone turning enemies into obstacles to be avoided.  

 

 The first dungeon in the game.

    Moving on to this game’s next problem, it’s overly cryptic puzzles. It does give you some hints on how to solve them, but even then, they're pretty hard to figure out. To give you an example, in order to enter the second dungeon, the silver mines, you have to solve a very difficult puzzle. There are two mines, one you can enter and one is protected by a forcefield of some kind. When exploring the mine that you can enter, you’ll find a slab that says “Enter the decayed gate, then the protecting hand’s gate, and finally the attacking hand’s gate.” This makes absolutely no sense, and there aren't any gates in or close to the mine. So, you'll be left confused as to what to do.

 

 Standing still will replenish your HP.

    What you're supposed to do is go back to the town you started the game in. At the entrance, you'll find five doors that don't go anywhere and teleport you to one of the other five doors. These are the gates the slab was talking about, by looking at their handles and going through them in the correct order you’ll disable the force field that was protecting the second mine, allowing you to go in.

 

 You can also heal yourself at the hospital, but it takes too long and just faster to stand still outside and wait for your HP to fill up.

    I don’t think I need to go into detail about how unnecessarily cryptic that is. And that’s only one of the puzzles you’ll have to figure out. Ys 1 has a good number of puzzles like this that aren’t fun to solve and just slow the game down.

 

 Rescuing Fina from her cell in the first dungeon.

   I honestly don’t have anything positive to say about the gameplay other than the battle system is kind of fun. Ys 1 on the Famicom is not a game that I can recommend playing. You might have some fun with it here and there, but it's got way too many problems and just isn’t that good of a game. If you’re looking to get into the Ys series and want to start with the first game, then you should give this port a pass and try one of the many other Ys 1 ports and remakes. The only reason you should find yourself playing this version is if you’re already a Ys fan and want to see what this port is like.

 

 Throughout the game you'll find various rings. This one increases your defense.

    Moving on to the presentation, it’s a mixed bag. The graphics are nothing to write home about. Adol’s sprite and boss sprites look fine, but enemies are hard to make out and I often found myself wondering what they're supposed to be. NPC sprites are unappealing, to say the least, and the character portraits that are used when talking to someone indoors are just plain ugly.

 

 The character portraits are just plain ugly. The Famicom is capable of doing much better.

    The music on the other hand is awesome. Ys is a series that is known for always having great music and this game is no different. While I don’t recommend playing this version of the game, I do recommend checking out the soundtrack. It's honestly one of the best soundtracks on the Famicom.

  

   With all that said, Ys 1 on the Famicom is a game with a good story and an even better soundtrack. But falls flat on its face when it comes to the gameplay and graphics. And because of that, I would say that this game isn't worth your time. There are much better games out there to play, and much better versions Ys 1.

 

        Thanks for reading! Next time we’re continuing the retro game marathon and taking a look at another Famicom game. I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.