Finished yet another Ys game, the latest released and it take place... between II and IV? Well, that screws over the timelines overall, but apparently a remaster of III is coming next year (that is 2025 I might add as of writing, not 2026 at the posting of this... post). So Adol and Dogi is traveling with a cruise ship on the Balta sea (which I assume is the Baltic... but since there is a volcano here I would guess we are somewhere in the north Atlantic with Iceland maybe being Balta Island). Suddenly the ship is attacked by Norman vikings belonging to the Balta Seaforce lead by Princess Karja Balta. And after the battle Karja decapitates the captain as he hasn't paid the dues and this is his second warning. The Normans take them to Carnac, an island under the Seaforce protection. The citizens and the Normans have an uneasy alliance and while Adol and his friends wait for another ship to continue their journey he walks around the shore and finds a seashell. The seashell belongs to a water spirit named Lila that grants him the power of Mana, meanwhile Karja shows up and wants to spar with Adol again. Both uses Mana and suddenly Karja and Adol is shackled together by a Mana link so they can't leave each others side.
But the bad luck begins piling up. Griegrs attack the town, undying monsters that can only be killed with Mana. After trying to save the townsfolk the whole town is raided and Karja and Adol escape with a ship and Grenn, the mayors son and friendly militia guard who leads the Youth Brigade. As they are followed by the Griegrs the Seaforce finds them and destroys the Griegrs. They are brought to Balta Island and joins the Thing led by Jarl Grimson, Karja's father. They draw up a battle plan to fight this supernatural threat. Adol must take a test to become Karja's Shield brother so that they can set up and patrol the seas. They also encounters a puppet griegr which turns out to be Dogi, cursed by one of the generals leading the Griegr. So you basically travel the sea, looking for griegrs to fight and save the townsfolk you can find. So a bit like VIII and the rescuing of the shipwreck survivors.
Meanwhile, after picking up certain artefacts or a just before death experience Adol seems to be sent to some limbo realm, Viewpoint Island, where you meet this old man who has lost his memory. Since we are in Scandinavia I thought it was maybe one of the gods, like Odin (or Harr as he is known in this game), except he haven't lost an eye or maybe Thor. He usually helps you unlock more abilities from your artefacts and then you return to use them to avoid certain death or progress the game. On the seas you also find runestones bearing the tale of Rollo of the Bloody Sea, a Norman Viking that sailed the seas 100 years ago that spread fear across the world, until he mellowed out, built the Duchy of Novgorod and then disappeared in the Great Calamity that seems to have drenched the whole world or something.
So the plot is that the Trident, the three generals that is, is looking for a vessel for their liege, an offspring of Rollo. Turns out that it's the Balta family and since Karja is the only living member (since her father married into the family) she is the target. Killing the generals makes her absorb them and awaken a bloodlust and berserker mode hinting on Rollo's return. In the end you find Lila who is the one that made Rollo turn nice by purging the malice in him which created the Trident that she then sealed away. They somehow caused the Great Cataclysm and then was sealed of again, until they were able to escape by trapping Lila in the same prison. And that was something like 6 months ago that kicks off the plot. Rescuing Lila you are called to look for Viewpoint Island and it turns out the old man is Rollo and he survived 100 years ago and ended up on Viewpoint Island where he prepared for the day to be defeated to stop the Tridents to repent for all the bloodshed he caused.
Adol and Karja kills him, a viking funeral later, Adol, Dogi and Dr. Flair (another traveler with them from the second game) is taken to Spain or France according to the map by Karja and the game is over. Plays mostly the same as earlier games I've played in the series. Naval combat is new and a bit of fun distraction. Played it on Normal and the game isn't that hard. Hardest boss was the worm you fight directly after the demo ends and that is due to the low resources you have. In the end you have so much bottles and lunchboxes it is hard to kill the main characters. I even succeed putting on an item that blocked experience and turned them into gold. Did it at level 70 and realised it before the fight with the super boss. I still beat him and got 4 levels right out of the gate. I then used the level and EXP boosters so that I could bridge the gap I've missed out. Still feels VIII is better, but the more colourful world places it over IX for me. Speaking of IX, in that game there was also viking gods and such... but they have changed the name for some reason. Grimnir is now Harr (which is Odin the Allfather) and I just don't get it? Why? Was it to close to Griegr or something like that? Well, gotta wait for III and then see if there will be a XI.
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