| Ys 6: The Ark of Napishtim review |
|
Ladies and Gentlemen. ADOL. CHRISTIN. IS. BACK.
"Who?" (Everyone goes back to playing Dragon Quest)
Let's bring everyone up to speed here. Since the mid-80s, Adol has been blazing a trail across the world and leaving a trail of dewey-eyed females and disembowelled monsters behind him. He's been at it for 20 years of games and six years worth of continuing plotline now, yet many have yet to encounter him due to the fact that hardly any Ys games ever made it to the west (apart from in somewhat mutilated form)
This is ironic considering the sheer weight of Falcom's influence on modern gaming. Back in the day, your holy trinity of RPG companies was Square, Enix and Falcom. In terms of plot it was Squaresoft who gave the world airships and evil empires, Enix who bestowed the Chosen Hero bumpf on us, and Falcom who originated all that stuff about red-haired heroes, floating countries and goddesses that need to be rescued because they're crap. In gameplay terms though, it was Falcom that gave the world the action RPG.
The weight of Falcom's influence is only matched by the volume of uninformed trash talked about them. Ys has been called derivative by people unaware it was the first of its kind. Its convoluted plot has been denounced as shallow by people who have clearly not played any distance into the series. Its style has been dismissed as a rip-off of Gamearts' Lunar series when the opposite is the case. Its music has been called naff and repetitive by reviewers judging it on horrible third party ports on the NES and Master System, rather than on the CD-based electric violin glory of the PC Engine version. True to form, the latest installment has come under fire for being too easy (from people who seem plainly unaware that the game has DIFFICULTY SETTINGS) and for having a plot that comes out of nowhere and makes no sense (it's the sixth game in a series!). We, however, are "scene" and "cred" and the retro-est in the world EVER, so let's take an informed look at the PS2 debut of 2003's Ys 6: The Ark of Napishtim.
The plot begins, in classic Ys fashion, with Adol washing up on a beach with a sword in his hand and being nursed back to health by doe-eyed girls in pretty dresses. When he wakes up he's pathetically weak and all his stuff has been lost in the storm, neatly explaining why he has to start from level 1 AGAIN. Adol, it seems, has run afoul of "The Great Vortex," an impassible barrier of stormyness, and been sucked into the eye of it where its miserable prisoners grudgingly eke out an existance in reluctant co-existance with the Rehdans (the cute doggy people who are the natives of the land within). Naturally the only hope of escape is to grab a blade and a set of red pyjamas, hit the dungeons and level up as if your life depended on it (which it does, by the by). More here is at stake than Adol's freedom, however - that vortex is there for a reason, and sinister plans are afoot to free whatever it's there to keep hidden from the rest of the world.
Well, folks, I guess you know what that means. More ancient technology, more descendants of priests and more pretty people with wings. Fans of the series have absolutely nothing to worry about regarding the Ys games staying true to their roots - everything on show here is absolutely steeped in the trappings of the originals.
Well... nearly everything.
The first thing likely to make people throw their hands up in horror is the animation. Konami, who have licensed this port of the PC version, have ripped out the anime sequences and replaced them with Final Fantasy X style CGI sequences produced at Konami Hawaii. Not that there's anything wrong with this per se as the anime sequences are ported straight from the PC disk and do look a little rough when the special effects start flying - or at least, there wouldn't be if they were any good. As it is, they look rushed and obviously crowbarred in in a shallow attempt to convince trendies that they're playing a Square game. Adol's best mate (and, some claim, bedfellow) Dogi sports a chin four parsecs wide, Ohla and Isha (the pretty dog girls around whom the story revolves) look like their ears are made of Plasticene and Adol himself practically has "I ESCAPED FROM SOUL CALIBUR" writ large across his forehead.
All is not lost, however! Ys 6 has what we can confidently report to be the best cheat mode since Goldeneye. A quick trot to Gamefaqs will arm you with codes which can not only restore the anime scenes from the PC version, but actually change the language as well. The PS2 version of Ys 6 can thus be played in anime sadcase mode or "Eh!? Iss not in free-dee! Wossa point 'a that?" mode with any combination of the English and Japanese text plus the Japanese or (gawd bless ya, Maaary Poppins) English voice acting. Combined with the free soundtrack CD and the Ys pocket watch that come with the Japanese version, this easily makes Ys 6 a contender for the most importable Japanese game of the year.
Speaking of 3D, yes, there's no getting round it, Ys has gone 3D. Mind you, what 3D. Normally when a game of this type retains its three quarter view style 2D gameplay but switches to polygons, a lot is sacrificed in terms of charm, animation and being able to see what the smeg is meant to be going on. Thankfully, this game has been at the back of Falcom's fridge sauteeing in the gorgeous design work that has made them the adored and comparitively wealthy girls that they are today. This is capped off with character animation so evocative that it's difficult to believe that you can see it on characters that appear so small on the screen. Ohla (we're not furries) even has a sexy swish to her tail (we're not furries) that happens as her hips swing from side to side when she walks (none of us are furries).
Of course, the real issue is how the shift to 3D affects the gameplay. The Ys Engine was pretty much unchanged up until Ys 4. It was a unique, breakneck-speed hybrid of stat based and action gameplay where the main character had to out-step the enemies until he was powerful enough to take them head on. We had none of this "Flashing and invulnerable for a few seconds after you get hit" malarkey back in our day, young fellow me lad. Falcome have tried to change the engine twice, to 2D platforming in Ys 3 and to traditional Zelda-clonery in Ys 5. Regardless of quality, the results have alwys horrified fans. For Ys 6, however, the designers have opted for the best of both worlds. Ys 6 is a tratitional action game, but it FEELS like an Ys game. The pace of the originals has been kept up (which can lead to some frustrating mistakes as you get cornered and die in about a second), but every bad situation can be reversed using difficult-to-master combat moves (such as the dash strike and the five hit cyclone slash). In this way, just as in the original games, your skill level can put you far above your experience level in terms of your destructive capabilities. The one flaw in the system is the frustrating ease with which Adol can fall off platforms; however, it's rarely necessary to do too much jumping (apart from in hidden sidequests) and the game never punishes you worse than sending you back a screeen.
So, given the act that Ys 6 has to follow, how does it stand up as an Ys game? Answer: in terms of solid gameplay and replay value, it's probably the best of the series. It's still designed to be a small game that can be speed-played for fun or skill value, but this time round there are a whole flotilla of features designed to make the game more satisfying. These include multiple sub quests, mini-bosses, secrets and challenges plus a boss time attack mode and an unlockable Nightmare Mode difficulty setting. The game has a large cast of characters who all have their own character portraits and voice actors, and even a Ruby Weapon-style secret boss who lurks in a secret room in one of the early dungeons and hands anyone who comes by their asses to wear as hats.
All in all, Ys 6 is a fully customisable experience which can be accessible or forbidding, anime-ish or Americanised, completely at the whim of your tastes. Add into the mix a superb musical score ranging from JDK Band-esque 80s keyboards to breathlessly beautiful movie-style fantasy, and garnish with moments of fanservice that range from throwaway lines ("I wish Luta was here... nothing's changed since Darm Tower!" -Dogi) to genuine attempts to tie the plot in with the originals and flesh out the mythos. There's even an unlockable extra scene with hot dog girl in a bikini (We. Are. Not. Furries.). Put simply, we have a winner. A triumphant return for a well loved series. Welcome back, Mister Christin.
Newcomer to the series, Marty Greenwell adds:
Ys is a well regarded RPG in Japan, but there will be a good number of people who won’t have heard of the game before, given Western translations have been thin on the ground. Perhaps this might give some a different perspective.
As a hack and slash RPG, Ys does very little wrong, but it also doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. In many ways it is limited in terms of combat and magic; it could almost be a beat-em-up. Maybe that's the allure; it's more about the story than the fighting. However, the progress is very slow going at times, moving in ebbs and flows, much of which is due the fluctuating level of difficulty. There are points in the game where one hits a brick wall, meaning you will die. A lot.
There are many weird and wonderful nasties in the world that can kill in one or two hits, requiring some dedicated levelling. Plenty of time will be spent hacking and slashing and bashing the square button to progress and it is likely to cause the casual player to terminate the title early. This would be a shame as it’s worth persevering with, even in the one area of the game likely to cause premature balding: jumping. It lacks precision in some areas where precision is required. A case in point is the Trails of Alma. Adol will fall off pillars and platforms despite pressing jump when he’s no where near the edge. It's also difficult to get him to jump in the right direction. It is very frustrating.
Despite this, Ys is certainly a game with much charm. Although on first glance the eye candy looks quite plain, once the world is examined more closely, little details begin to show themselves; shadows cast over the landscape from clouds, trees and plant life wallow in the wind. This applies to the characters as well; the animation of the sprites is wonderful. There are minute details on sword and cape movement, something which changes when equipping different things.
A fleeting look at Ys would show an average game, but what it actually provides is an enjoyable story with interesting characters; for those gamers who savour old school RPGs, and have enough dedication to hack it through the tough times, it won’t disappoint. For the rest, it might be worth looking elsewhere. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Role Playing Game
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: Konami
Players: 1
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Apr 2005
Writer: Simon Dominguez
|
Pros:
- Every version of the game on one disk!
- Fantastically solid game experience
- Equally appealing to newbies or old hands
|
Cons:
- Disclaimer: Not everyone will "get it"
- Gameplay occasionally a little fiddly
- No "Doggy Style" jokes
|
|
|
Ys 6: The Ark of Napishtim Video: 6.5MB
|
| |
|
|
|
