Ys I

also known as ''Ys: The Vanished Omens'', ''The Ancient Land of Ys'' or simply ''Ys'' (Japanese title: イース), is a 1987 action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom. It is the first installment in the ''Ys'' series. Initially developed for the PC-8800 series by Masaya Hashimoto (director, programmer, designer) and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki (scenario writer), the game was soon ported to the Sharp X1, PC-98, FM-7, and MSX2 Japanese computer systems.

Set in a land called Esteria, the story centers around the titular civilization called Ys, which had mysteriously vanished 700 years ago with only traces of its existence being kept within the game's six books. When it is prophesied that an impeding darkness would come to threaten Esteria, a young and adventurous warrior named Adol Christin is called forward to collect these six books to aid him in vanquishing the darkness.

''Ancient Ys Vanished'' saw many subsequent releases, such as an English-language version for the Master System and an enhanced remake for the TurboGrafx-CD system as part of a compilation called ''Ys I & II'', alongside its 1988 sequel '' Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter''. It was also adapted into an OVA series '' Ys''. DotEmu has released the game on Android with the following localizations: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Italian, German, and Portuguese. A Nintendo Switch port of the game, based on the original PC-8800 release, was released in February 2024, 37 years after the game's initial release.

Plot

''Ys'' was a precursor to role-playing games that emphasize storytelling. The hero of ''Ys'' is an adventurous young swordsman named Adol Christin. As the story begins, he has just arrived at the Town of Minea, in the land of Esteria. He is called upon by Sara, a fortune-teller, who tells him of a great evil that is sweeping the land.

Adol is informed that he must seek out the six Books of Ys. These books contain the history of the ancient land of Ys, and will give him the knowledge he needs to defeat the evil forces. Sara gives Adol a crystal for identification and instructs him to find her aunt in Zepik Village, who holds the key to retrieving one of the Books. With that, his quest begins.

Gameplay

The player controls Adol on a game field viewed from a top-down perspective. As he travels on the main field and explores dungeons, Adol encounters numerous roaming enemies, which he must battle in order to progress.

Combat in ''Ys'' is rather different from other RPGs of the era, which either had turn-based battles or a manually activated sword. ''Ys'' instead features a battle system where fighters automatically attack when walking into their enemies off-center. When one fighter comes into contact with an enemy, damage can be sustained on both sides if both combatants are facing each other. Attacking straight-on causes the attacker the most damage to himself, but clipping the edge of the defender causes the attacked fighter to take most or all of the damage. If one fighter contacts the enemy's side or back, only the attacked fighter will sustain damage. This combat system was created with accessibility in mind. This "bump attack" system has become one of the series' defining features. (cf. ) Falcom staff have compared this style of gameplay to the enjoyment of popping air bubble sheets, in the sense that it took the tedious task of level-grinding and turned it into something similar to a high-score-based arcade video game. According to '' Games^TM'' and John Szczepaniak of ''Retro Gamer'' and '' The Escapist'', "repetition of the act was pleasurable as you developed a psychological rhythm and, even in the event of backtracking, progress was always swift since the player never needed to stop moving". (cf. )

Another feature that has been used in nearly every ''Ys'' title since the original is the recharging health mechanism, which had previously been used in the '' Hydlide'' series. Recharging health has since become a common mechanism used in many video games today.

Ports

Aside from graphical differences, the game layout remains essentially the same across the many ports of ''Ys''; there are some versions where the details were changed. The Master System version, for example, saw some of the game's dungeon areas flipped horizontally (including some other minor differences).

The most distinctive of the early ports was the Famicom edition, which was published by Victor Musical Industries. This version was a vast departure from the original, featuring entirely new layouts for the towns, field, and dungeons, replacement of a number of the original musical tracks, and a new final battle sequence.

The version developed for the MSX2 contained a handful of new musical tracks which replaced part of the original game's soundtrack. Some of these tracks, along with a number of unused tracks first composed for the original, were later incorporated into the soundtrack of ''Ys Eternal'' and ''Ys Complete''.

The versions developed for the TurboGrafx-CD, released as ''Ys I & II'' in 1989, included additional cutscenes, such as an opening detailing Adol's arrival in the town of Minea. The Microsoft Windows-based remakes, ''Ys Eternal'' and ''Ys Complete'', expand further on this and many other story elements, through both cutscenes and additional gameplay.

The 1991 remake for the X68000 uses pre-rendered 3D graphics for the boss sprites, which was called "a bizarre contrast" with the game's mostly 2D graphics. (cf. )

In 1997, a port was released for Sega Saturn, included in the release of "Falcom Classics" for Japanese systems only.

In 2024, a Nintendo Switch port based on the PC-8801 version was released by D4 Enterprise as part of their EGGCONSOLE series.

Music

Composed by Yuzo Koshiro along with Mieko Ishikawa, the soundtrack is notable for its rich melodies, in an age when video game music was beginning to progress from monotonous bleeps. The ''Ys'' soundtrack is considered to have some of the best video game music ever composed, and is considered one of the finest and most influential role-playing video game scores of all time.

Several soundtrack albums dedicated to the music of ''Ys'' have been released by Falcom. This includes:
* ''Music from Ys'' (1987): Contains the soundtrack to the original PC-8801 edition, along with a number of unused tracks and the replacement tracks used in the MSX edition, many of which were later incorporated into the ''Ys Eternal'' soundtrack. Also included are five arranged tracks from Ryo Yonemitsu, who arranged the soundtrack to the TurboGrafx-CD version of ''Ys I & II'' (1989).
* ''Perfect Collection Ys'' (1990): A two-disc release, the first disc of which is a new arrangement of the ''Ys'' soundtrack by Ryo Yonemitsu. The second disc contains assorted arrangements of tracks from both ''Ys I'' and ''II''.
* ''Music from Ys Renewal'' (1995): The complete ''Ys'' soundtrack, including the bonus tracks, reproduced on upgraded synthesizer equipment.

Reception

The Master System version of ''Ys'' received positive reviews. It was reviewed in the March 1989 issue of ''Computer and Video Games'' magazine, stating that it has some of the best graphics on the system and that it "offers depth and playability" that "will keep you engrossed for weeks". ''The Games Machine'' compared the game to ''The Legend of Zelda'', stating that "in many respects, the character detail and all-round presentation make it the better game visually", and concludes that ''Ys'' is "one of the top-rank RPGs around". ''ACE'' magazine in 1989 listed ''Ys'' as the second best Master System game available at the time, praising the "huge scrolling" world, characters who "can be questioned" and "good deal of role-playing" depth.

Scorpia of ''Computer Gaming World'' in 1993 reviewed the Apple IIGS and IBM PC versions of ''Ys''. She stated that the game was "a fairly simple entry with a few puzzles to solve" along with "Nintendo-style combat and graphics" that was "a romp" and "interesting mainly for seeing what the Japanese do in terms of lightweight CRPGs".

Japanese gaming magazine ''Famitsu'' gave the Famicom (NES) version of the game a score of 30 out of 40. ''Famitsu'' also gave ''Ys I & II'' for the PC Engine CD-ROM (TurboGrafx-CD) a score of 35 out of 40.

See also

* ''Dragon Slayer'' (series)

References

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External links

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{{Ys series

1987 video games
Action role-playing video games
DOS games
FM-7 games
Master System games
MSX2 games
NEC PC-8801 games
NEC PC-9801 games
Nihon Falcom games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Nintendo Switch games
Sharp X1 games
X68000 games
Single-player video games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Yuzo Koshiro
Ys (series)
Dotemu games
Android (operating system) games
IOS games