Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana (Switch)

 

Wait... which Oath was it we took in Felghana?

Been a while as of writing. The usual winter slump so I haven't finished a game since december and as of writing we are one week from March in 2025. It's also due to playing a game I really had a big dislike for, which was Fantasian Neo Dimension. I got half way through and just didn't have any fun with it and after spending 1 hour fighting a boss to get killed I just gave up. Maybe I will come back to it, but I just don't feel like it.

So instead I went with Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana which I gathered is a remaster of a game from 2005 that was a remake of Ys III: Wanderers of Ys. It uses the same type of gameplay as Ys Origin and was a much better time. Much shorter as well with something like 12-15 hours of gameplay on Normal from start to finish. So Adol Christin and Dogi has arrived at Dogi's homeland, but monsters are running around so Adol gets to rescue Dogi's childhood friend Elana Stroddard. More trouble brews when the corrupt lord of Felghana, Lord McGuire tries to gather the 4 holy statues in order to take control of an ancient god. Helping the lord is Dogi's childhood friend Chester Stoddard and Elana's brother.

Fight monsters, level up, get money and Ravel ore to buy and upgrade your equipment and then of course you have to defeat the evil god yourself. There's revenge, betrayals, heartache, tears, laughter and Dogi crushing a wall. It felt amazing. And somehow Adol loses all the equipment I fought for, the sword I get since it's story reason, but the shield and armor? And level 1 again? I maxed him out both in Ys I & II as well as Ys X that take place before this. 

Overall, just what I needed. An relative easy and short experience. Dogi is the same voice actor and it was fun to discover that the voice actress for Elana is the voice actress for Colette in Tales of Symphonia. And the game ends with Dogi staying and Elana standing and waving Adol of as she cries... man, Adol ends every game with a beautiful woman crying over him. Makes me think of the Quest for Glory-series and makes me wondering if they like that series will end with a final series and the possibilities to meet people from all the games. Before that I still have Ys IV-VII to play. 

Ys X: Nordics (Switch)

Invaders!

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.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

 

Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law!

So back in 2019 I got to play through Ys VIII during my summer break, and it was a perfect summer vacation game with people stranded on an island with some mysteries thrown in as they try to escape. And then Ys IX was announced and finally in 2021 came to Switch. And perfectly for my summer vacation that year so it was another perfect match. So it starts with Adol escaping from the prison in the city of Balduq, but while escaping he is stopped by this mysterious woman with artificial limbs that shots him with a gun that curses him into becoming the Crimson King, a Monstrum cursed to fight the embodiment of negative called the Lumes to cleanse the city so that not even more monsters are created. After using his new powers to end up in a waterway we flash back to 10 days before as Adol and Dogi "the Wallcrusher" arrives at Balduq and Adol promptly is arrested by the Romun soldiers and Hieroglyphic Knights for his previous adventures that have set the Romun Empire to investigate him. So at the prison Adol helps this old man against another prisoner and as thanks he gives you a fork that allows you to escape the prison after being investigated by the female inquisitor and who wants to move you to Romn, so that sparks the need to escape, and now we are back in the present with Adol back in the town. 

So you find this abandoned house and find Dogi that been laying low while Adol was in prison. Apparently Balduq was the capital of Gllia (which should be Gaul, which makes Balduq Paris or Lutetia if my knowledge of Asterix comics doesn't betray me) that was conquered by the Romun empire 8 years ago. Now, 6 months ago 5 monstrums appeared that started causing havoc, with one being the White cat that started stealing from the rich and giving to the poor Robin Hood style while the Feral Hawk picked fights with soldiers or strong people overall. This causes the people to fear them and the Romun Garrison and Hieroglyphic Knights to try to arrest them. So now Adol joins them and starts to unravel who they really are, cause apparently none of the others tried to even learn who the others where during these 6 months. First up is white cat that apparently is the adoptive daughter of the Pendleton family that are the richest family in Gllia that was one of the first to start trading with the Romuns, which make the Gllians hate them for betraying the country pretty much. Which the patriarch of the family don't care about. The company before all else and all potential competition is bought up... I get the sense it's some critique of the monopoly situation in an unregulated capitalistic market, especially when the White Cat after getting caught by Adol renounced her stealing ways and leave the family and start her own florist shop in the poor district. Meanwhile the older sister as thanks and seeing through the whole Monstrum facade gives you enough capital to establish a tavern in the abandoned house as a base of operations for Adol and Dogi.

The gameplay rounds is find a Monstrum, use its abilities to get into the prison and release some prisoners. The curse limits you to certain areas until you gathered enough crystals to open a portal to the Grimwald Nox that summons all Monstrums to one of two different fights, either a siege stage like the one in VIII or to destroy all crystals. Doing so open a new area and get you an entrance to the prison. First rescue is Park, the old man that helped you escape and he helps you out with information and rescue other prisoners. And after clearing that we jump back into the prison and... Adol??? Yes, apparently Adol is still in the prison where he goes around doing tasks for the corrupt soldiers that take missions from outside people, like the Monstrums. Helping you is Marius and Xavier, Xavier being a talking Roo at that. You don't level up and have to survive the traps in the prison to try to escape and find out whats going on. Prison Adol learns that the female inquisitor is actually a high ranking officer in the paranormal division that have been looking into Adol's activities, and later in the game he and Marius observe as the knight commander arrests the Romun commander for questioning his arrest of innocent people.

So that is the big mystery of the game, which is the true Adol and what happened here? Well, you find out that all the other Monstrums are adoptive children and that the leader of the Hieroglyphic knights are in league with an alchemist that have been alive for 500 years creating Homunculi's (lucky I had watched both Fullmetal Alchemist-series on Netflix to get the gist of that) of his comrades in the 100 years war between Britai and Gllia (meaning the 100 year war between England and France), Saint Rosvita and her champions. Saint Rosvita is pretty much Joan D'Arc. Apparently the war was a battle between the Nors gods Loki and Grimnir (Odin the Allfather pretty much) and the battle is Ragnarok that killed off all the gods and demigods that used to fight the Lemures in the Grimwald Nox. To compensate this loss the Alchemist made Homunculi's of his friends to fight in the Nox to avoid the destruction of the world. So that has been going on for 500 years, but some 15 years he disappeared which forced Apprilis, the clone of Rosvita, to give away the latest batch of Homunculi since she couldn't take care of them as well as fight the Lemures. So what has he been doing for these 15 years? He was busy creating the greatest homunculi to serve in the Nox and with that release the others from the curse of the Grimwald Nox. A homunculi based on Adol, the greatest adventurer of them all. So the Crimson King Adol is the homunculi and as he finds out and finds the imprisoned Adol that was betrayed by Marius that also was a homunculi (of the current Romun emperor no less) that was controlled by the knight's leader. Crimson King and the knight fight, and surprise, the knight is also a homunculi since he died in the invasion 8 years ago. He didn't know this and fought on to restore Gllia's independence and was in on the plan to create an homunculi army to match the legions of Romn. But the Crimson King malfunctions as well due to being insta-created so the Monstrum transfers his soul and powers into the real Adol so that they could fight angel Adol that have gone extermination mode on humanity since he correctly deduces that if the lemures is created by humans hate, greed, fear and what not, you gotta destroy the source, the whole city of Balduq and probably the whole world. And he killed the alchemist who tried to self-destruct him when he realised it was going out of hand. You defeat him and Adol is in a dream space where souls from Adols past arrives t help him destroy the Nox forever and release the Monstrum from their curse, but maybe doom the world int he future, but since we can't accept status quo Adol destroys the Nox and then leaves Balduq. With Romun legions chasing after you. 

So... it was a fun game. It was rather fun running around the city, managing the tavern and all that. But I would say VIII is actually better. Tighter group of people, more fun locals since it got rather boring looking at the same catacombs of the prison and the music was a bit better since it at least had some more songs that I remember. It could also be that this game calls back to the other games in the series a bit more without explaining who they are, and the emotional scene of the souls coming to aid Adol is a bit missed when you don't know who they are. I mean, VIII had the death of the captain. The closest was the death of Aprilis, but she shows up later as the clones are revealed. It was fine for what it was, but I would love Ys 3-7 so I can get the deal. Or Ys X.

Ys Origin (Switch) Part 3

Devil's Walk Beside You

So entered the tower for a third time, this time with the Claw, or better known as Demon Toal... or just Toal Fact. Described as a berserker with high attack, but low health. So he's the worst to play through actually. I've died more times than the others combined... and maybe it has to do that I've played it on Hard. Otherwise plays as much as the others, but some significant changes. For example Toal doesn't get the mask so he won't be able to see the hidden bridges or the secret room that Gemma hides in. In return he gets better equipment that enhances stats. He also doesn't get an auto-revive like the others in the endgame, but the goddess ring that boost strength and defence with +5 and have some plot importance, but that's it. 

Storywise it's a bit more interesting. After staying behind with Commander Tovah to cover the ascent of Solomon Shrine his cleria sword was broken and the darklings took him in and granted him some demonic essence. As the darklings started to search the tower for the goddesses Toal began from the first floor and climbed upward. The interesting thing with this is that you gotta fight members of the search party. Also, apparently he was in love with the older of the goddesses and they tell him that there is a traitor who gave the darklings the power to build the tower and control the demons. Now we getting somewhere. So the rest goes as usual up to the point when you defeat Dalles. From the sky a trident piercis him and kills and Cain Fact appears, Toal and Hugo's father, the mightiest of the six priest of Ys. He apparently orchestrated the whole thing to gain ultimate power to free humanity from the goddesses he sees as suppressing the human race. How and why I don't get, but Toal is given back his sword that have been restored by Gemma and fight the the transformed Cain that have taken the shape of Darm, the final boss of Ys II. And who named the tower I've been running up and down in. Take two tries to get the pattern down, but he is defeated, the goddesses goes to sleep and the ending wraps up. Both Roy and Epona survived, the silver sword that Adol gets from the Roda tree is the same sword that Toal used and hid there. It's also Toal that started the creation of the six books of Ys, named after the six priests. He also took over the role as high priest off the Fact family after his father and returned to Ys while Hugo stayed on the surface. 

Overall a fun game, a bit repetitive, the three characters doesn't differ that much. Unlocked a couple of extra mode like a Battle Arena and boss fights. The arena was interesting in that battling enough you could afford to unlock Adol, but only for the arena and boss mode. Which is kinda disappointing since a story-less mode of just running up the tower and defeating bosses to learn how Adol worked would be welcome. Still, I won and another game is completed. 

Ys Origin (Switch) Part 2

The Names Fact... Hugo Fact

Played it again as Hugo Fact, sorcerer supreme. Instead of the hack and slash of Yunica it turned into a shooter since Hugo predominantly attacked with the eyes of Fact that orbits around him. The beginning a bit harder since he is extremely vulnerable to close encounters and the first boss was rather hard, but the higer level made it easier since you can avoid the telegraphs and just hammer the enemies and bosses. It turned a bit interesting when the different play-style made me save up SP for some different blessings. For example, since close encounters was best avoided Hugo didn't really need resistance and shorter time on the bad status effects since if he got poisoned he was to close the enemy anyway.

Storywise it mimics part of Yunica's, but with some exceptions. First of, the Claw that really didn't appear that much in Yunica's run is actually Toal Fact, Hugo's older brother that turned away from the Fact's sorcerer line and instead become a holy knight, staying behind together with Saul Tovah, Yunica's father to buy time for the people of Ys to escape with Salomon Shrine. And he joined with the demons and Hugo was given the special mission to kill his brother for turning against the goddesses. And then we have Epona, one of the darklings that harassed Yunbica that seems to have fallen in love with Hugo and helps him during the game. The story also focuses on Hugo and the shadow his older brother cast over him and since Toal was shunned by their father for joining the knight and made Hugo the successor, a role he didn't really want. He also grapples with the fact that he wants power and that it corrupts him enough that he accepts Dalles offer for demonic power, which Epona has to beat him out of, but in turn she is turned to stone and killed by Dalles. Turns out that the man Yunica killed in her story was Eponas big brother, but he lived in this story, and so does Roy that stays with Yunica on the surface instead of returning to Ys... well, in Yunica's story he died so he doesn't get back to Ys either way.

Beating it unlocks Toal Fact as a playable character so that's where I'm heading next.

Ys Origin (Switch)

Go All the Way To The Tower!

 So, in wait for Ys IX they apparently just released Ys Origin, a game from 2006, taking place 700 years before the first games in the series... or pretty much any of the games in the series (well, besides parts of VIII that takes place millennia before the games). So it doesn't have Adol Christin as a main character, but instead you gotta choose between a Hugo Facts and Yunica Tovah... The naming scheme is really all over the place here. If you don't know both are from the land of Ys so why one has normal western name like Hugo and the other is named Yunica (which I assume is something Japanese or Asian overall) is a bit hard to understand, and it shows up in other names as well making it a bit of a mismatch.

So I choose Yunica, since she had a big axe and went for the easy difficulty. So the game starts in french describing how the land of Ys was lifted up into the sky due to the attacks of the demons and then an anime cutscenes play which tells the intro, without words so at first it's a bit hard to get, but basically the two goddesses of Ys have vanished together with the Black Pearl so a 12 man rescue team is assembled and descend upon the land, but an unknown force blasts from the tower that the demons built (and is the tower Adol climbed in the first game) and shatters the party upon arrival. Yunica awakens near the Roda Tree and it explains that it saw the goddesses head for the tower. She follows and rescue the priest and acolytes that handled the transportation magic. Yunica heads in on recon and finds out that the demons are summoned by humans that controls them. One of them even killed Yunica's father, the commander of the Holy Knights. She herself joined the Holy Knights in order to be close to the goddesses. 

The other knights and sorcerers arrive at the tower, and one of them is the knight Roy that is a clear love interest. Climbing the tower you fight demons and solve some platforming puzzles with the equipment you get. Finding one of the goddesses ends up with her being captured and Yunica fighting against the man who killed her father, and loses, but she is saved by the goddesses giving herself up without resistance. She is taken back to the entrance by the other knights and she lost all hope, until Roy tells her of her father's sword laying on an alter in the tower. She finds it and get to speak with her father's ghost as well as getting fire powers to light torches with, as well as a decent sword. 

You continue to climb, find the imprisoned goddess, but since you can't do anything a couple of the sorceress stand guard. You continue and find Dalles, the man behind it all and one of the bosses of the original game. The other knights join, but they are turned to stone. So you have to help them to get the medallion to enter the next boss battle. You do that and continue and faces off against Dalles again, but this time he trapped Yunica and as it looks grim Roy appears and releases her, but not without getting mortally wounded. And he pretty much confesses that he loves her without saying. Yunica kills her fathers murderer and ends up at the summit of the tower where she faces off with Dalles again, together with all from the search party that still lives. You defeat Dalles and the goddess restores the black pearl... that somehow caused this. I think I recall that from the first game with both the cleria ore and the black pearl summoning demons. But know the goddess goes to sleep in the ground and the search party returns to Ys, but Yunica Hugo and two more stays behind to set up that those people descendants where on the ground at the start of the first game. 

It was a fun short game, only took 20 hours to get to the end and a high enough level to beat Dalles. I also grabbed all power-ups and most upgrades (think I only left the last upgrade since it needed 500 000 SP). The game is kinda fun in that you can see the call-backs to the first game. Not only is most artefacts in both games, but the tower itself is the same, but since the much better graphical power it isn't 1 on 1, but rather close approximations. Most obvious is the mirror hall at the end. Originally from 2006 and released for computers. Gonna run through with Hugo next to see the differences.

Ys Book I and II (PC Engine Core Grafx mini)

So played this game again as the news of Ys IX coming to the west so getting a bit of a reminder of the series. It's also been 6 years so thought it was a good amount of time in between. I recall liking it and reading about it confirms that I did. Although, replaying it showed some strange things. How did I finish it last time? It's hard at times and I easily got lost in the different mazes strewn around the game. The ending area I don't wanna talk about. Would have been nice with a map other than from the internet. It has been remade a couple of times, even for the DS, but sadly ain't that easy to get a hold off. 

Still great music and graphics. Sound effects were interesting since the getting item sounds a bit like the same sound from Metroid. Also, the audio mixing is not the best, but this time I actually cranked up the sound for the final battle so I at least heard what he said. Speaking of the final battle... who the hell thought that putting the necessary level to beat the final boss was the maximun 62? I was level 60 and got trounced every time, but level grinding for a couple of hours made it a cake walk. That's one of the most frustrating parts about the games. Sure, you can use certain items and strategies for some, but mostly there is a hidden level cap that is recommended to have to get past it. People talked about the end of Book 1, but that was never a problem.

And another thing... it's noticeable that there is 2 games stuck together since the mechanics change after entering the next one. Rings went to the inventory instead of the equipment which is a shame since you gotta equip the Goddess ring in the end, making you unable you to use any healing item at the final battle (hadn't I used the golden drop during the battle of Dalles it might not have been that much of a problem). And I hate the fact you can't change items or equipment during boss battles. 

Now, it sounds like I'm bashing the game, and I do. but there is still moments in the game that makes it a joy to play. I like the story. The gameplay is fun and the exploration is great, still sad about several point of no returns. 

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

Adol Christin is back!

While writing this I just started my vacation and if you are reading it at release I unfortunatly been working for 2 months, but what better way to spend your summer vacation with video games? And a game set on a deserted island, it screams of summer morning adventures. The latest game in the Ys-series, and I've only played Ys 1 & 2 as described here. It starts out at sea on the cruiser Lombardia captained by Barbarosa and you, Adol Christin, and Dogi work as sailors for passage over the Greekian sea. During the night the ship is attacked by what people would call a kraken and the ship is sunk. Adol ends up on one side of the island and later stumbles upon Laxia von Roswell... as she is taking a bath in the nude. Now, I won't deny that as a heterosexual man, it tries to cater to me and I don't mind that in particular, but... is the first thing you do as you washed ashore on a deserted island with several beasts on it, to take a bath? Admittedly, she had her rapier close at hand and was able to swipe at Adol as he approached... leading to her dropping her towel (where did she get that?) and exposing herself. What nagged me about this is that Adol got blamed for snooping by her, and she wouldn't let it go for the first part of the game. Which feels kinda unfair to me, I wouldn't know, but I at least wouldn't take a bath after being washed up on an island especially not alone. I've seen enough horror movies and others to know that isn't a good idea.

Besides that, you find the captain and start to look for other survivors to be able to build a camp and trying to find a way out of the island. You find some obnoxious nobleman, a doctor, Dogi, some kid and more. Meanwhile Adol, Laxia and the fisherman Sahad explores the island in search of materials and a way off the island. During the night Adol have dreams of a woman named Dana that was the Maiden of the Great Tree, a prophet of the lost empire of Eternia that ruled the island. Apparently evolved from saurian (dinosaurs) so basically reptile people. Eternia was destroyed in a Lacrimosa, a reaccuring natural catastrophe that resets the world by destroying the dominant species and you can pretty much guess that humans are next. So far it's pretty much the Lost World or other Jules Vernes work. And then it turns to Jack the Ripper. One survivor is a Romun officer in charge of apprehending the Ripper, a serial killer that was last noted aboard the Lombardia. And then the captain is attacked, then the nobleman and you have to find him... since the captain can identify that it was a man that called out to him. So the males of the camp is a suspect. There's Adol, the captain, the doctor, the nobleman, Sahad, Hummel (another playable character), the romun officer and the last person you found, a sailor with medical experience... it's the doctor isn't it? I got it 20 minutes before the game spelled it out. You fight the doctor, but he is able to fatally injure the captain, the nobleman i killed by the kraken as he tries to escape with a rowboat and the doctor is then killed himself by a freaking dinosaur. AMAZING GAME!

After that Adol tries to reach the north side of the island where the dreams of Dana takes place. The dreams become more real as you now get to play Dana as she lives through the end of Eternia with more saurian attacks, random weather phenomenas and as she gets visions of the future tries to guide Adol from the past by planting saplings that will keep ruins stable across the millenia or other "change the past" deals like moving a rock and so on. You also can do a special dungeon that tells the history of the kingdom. In the end Dana arrives in the future and it is revealed that the kingdom flourished with the help of the Great Tree that gave the eternians the power of essence, that is basically magic. That is part of the Great Tree's plan in causing evolution and rejection. It brings forth a dominant species and when it rules the world, destroys them and take one champion to continue warding the evolution. Four times before the age of man it have caused the Lacrimosa and reset the world. You enter the tree to release the caught spirits in the tree to power up your sword and after that beat up the tree. Adol wakes up and the castaways are preparing to leave. Dana is nowhere to be seen and everyone else have forgotten her. Adol travels to where the tree is supposed to be and finds a new smaller tree, with Gaia, the goddess of Earth explaining that she set up the tree to foster the evolution of all living things. And then tells them that they can meet Dana again by traveling through another dimension where they fight some creature and this for some reason brings back Dana as goddess fo Evolution and the bringer of the Lacrimosa if humans gets out of control and then they leave.

It was a fun game. While Tales of Vesperia dragged on in the end, this was fun from start to finish. It was fun gameplay with quick fights and grinding to get materials to get new weapons, armours or brew potions and other things. It had mystery about what happened to the eternians, the castaway rescue mission felt important and the characters gave me the feelings I was supposed to get. Sadly I gathered that if I had played Ys III-VII would have enhanced the game more since they constantly referenced events from other games and the only one I knew was Dogi the Wallcrusher since he appeared in the second game. Music great at times, the sad theme really got me in the end, and I think the captains death really hammered it in. Didn't help that all he talked about was his kid daughter he would see when he got home. *sniff*.

Ys Book 1 & 2

Another game I got my hand on was Ys book 1 & 2 for the TurboGrafx-16, an action RPG were the basic form of attack is... running into enemies. An odd form of attack I believe was used in earlier games since there wasn't enough graphic power to show the sword attack or so. With a bit of imagination your character, Adol, either fences around the enemy to deliver the deadly strike with his blade or he rams the enemy head on caring nothing for his well-being to save... whoever needs saving. The story is fairly simple, you arrive at this new continent were there once stood a powerful civilization named Ys (pronounced ease or something like that) were dark forces gathers so you must stop this darkness and find the clues for what happened. Fairly standard atlantian story-telling, sadly the game suffers a bit for being two games in one. This separates places and characters making it feel very restricted in terms of exploring as well as having problem creating characters that are memorable past their special scene. It still worked as a story, just feeling disjointed after clearing the first half.

Graphically and musically the game have very nice anime cut-scenes and sprites as well as a decent orchestrated score as well as voice acting. Sad part is that in some places the voices hard to hear and there is no text so you must listen really hard to know who spoke and whatever happened to the plot. All in all a decent game that has an interesting mythos, sadly the other parts wasn't released on the Virtual Console so hopefully they get released this time around, although with the different releases and such I have a hard time seeing it. The fun thing is that with this game and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood I really start to see the TG-16 in a very good light, although that could just be I'm only touching the best of the consoles library.