Ys Origin

[h1] A must play if you have played / will play Ys I & II Chronicles. [/h1] If you haven't played Ys I & II yet, DO IT. It doesn't really matter whether you play Ys Origin before or after them, but I strongly recommend experiencing both games at some point. For my own journey, I played the series in this order: Ys I & II Chronicles → Ys: The Oath in Felghana → Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim → Ys Origin. I wanted to follow the evolution of the series while experiencing the story and lore as they developed. When I first started Ys Origin, I wasn't completely convinced. At the beginning, it didn't feel like it connected to the previous games as much as I expected. I was wondering where this story was going and why I was playing it. Then I finished all three character routes. And WOW. By the time I reached the end of Toal's route, I was completely blown away. This is one of those games where you really need to see everything before judging it. So much of the story and lore only truly comes together at the end, and suddenly everything you experienced in Ys I & II feels much more meaningful. The amount of love put into this game is incredible. I became completely attached to the story and the characters, and seeing the Silver Sword again genuinely gave me a feeling of nostalgia and sadness. If you've played more of the Ys series, you will understand exactly why that moment hits so hard. I played the entire game on Hard, and honestly, the balance is excellent. The difficulty feels challenging without becoming unfair. If you simply want to experience the story or rush through the game, Normal is probably more than enough, but Hard felt like the perfect difficulty for me. Mechanically, Ys Origin is a HUGE step forward. The graphical presentation received a massive upgrade, and the combination of 2D characters and 3D environments looks fantastic. The boss fights are especially impressive. The bosses are beautifully designed, with attacks and animations that make great use of both 2D and 3D elements. But the biggest improvement is the gameplay itself. Playing as Yunica, Hugo, and Toal feels completely different. Each character has their own abilities, movement, attacks, and overall approach to combat. Because of that, every route feels like a different experience rather than simply playing through the same game three times. The progression is also much deeper. You have more abilities, ability upgrades, equipment improvements, more items, and much more variety in how you approach combat. It's honestly incredible to look at Ys I and compare it to Origin and realize how much the series evolved mechanically. The puzzles were another thing I really appreciated. They are intuitive and logical without constantly forcing you to search for some ridiculous hidden location for hours. Exploration feels rewarding instead of tedious, and finding secrets actually feels like something you discovered yourself. One strange thing, though, is that the characters aren't voiced here, despite The Oath in Felghana having voice acting. After getting used to hearing the characters speak in Felghana, it felt a little weird going back to completely unvoiced dialogue. And I have one very important recommendation: DO NOT STOP AFTER ONE ROUTE. Yunica's route is good. Hugo's route is also good. But Toal's route is on another level. Seriously, finish all three. The game gains something like 150% more value once you experience Toal's story. So much of what initially seemed disconnected suddenly falls into place, and the ending completely changed how I viewed the entire game. Ys Origin ended up being one of the biggest surprises of my Ys journey so far. I started it unsure about where the story was going, and I finished it feeling incredibly happy that I played it. After going through Ys I & II, Felghana, and Ys VI, Origin feels like an incredibly satisfying culmination of everything I've experienced so far. Now I'm moving on to Ys Seven. As always, I'll see you in the next review. I'm continuing to review every Ys game I play as I make my way through the series.

非常牛逼的叙事，玩着没毛病 就是全成就有点难，肝度太大了，我用CE跳过了一些重复性的东西还是用了70h，纯手打估计要200h以上，因为至少要打6遍主线和12遍bossrush，还要刷主线sp和竞技场sp 我个人是打完1、2就接着玩O了，这样故事更连贯一些，真挺好奇伊苏亡国之后的伊苏系列要怎么写，不会纯挂个名吧hh，希望不会失望吧

super fun, fast-paced combat. nice lore and characters.

It's Ys at the best of the old style gameplay. Shredding music. It's good!

My First YS game, it was okey Its hard to get used to the keyboard controls at start unless you use a controller. Oh yea and you can't skip dialouges and cutscenes (this Is annoying if you die withouht a checkpoint or forget to save) If you like hard challenge, and action Rpg, and VERY but like VERY VERY hard boss fights, then its your game But It wasn't mine 5.5/10 (not finished/gave up)

I experienced almost instant regret on opening this game. It plays like a hard old-school game, in a simple tower dungeon level with ugly ass enemies. You are probably more likely to like this if you like old, hard retro games. Of course this can be an old easy retro game if you choose to play on an easy difficulty. I think like all the other Ys games are better than this one. I enjoyed Oath in Felghana but I don't like Origins at all. It's just one big level instead of a world you can explore.

Ys Origin was my first rodeo into the world of classic Ys titles. It wasn't my first time with the franchise overall, I'd previously completed Ys X: Proud Nordics and decided after some time that I wanted to check out more Ys games to see another side of Nihon Falcom, especially since I was all caught up with the Trails series. Since Ys Origin is, well, the "origin" of Ys itself, I figured it was worth a shot. Right off the bat, I have to admit that I didn't finish Ys I & II Chronicles because the bump combat system turned me off, so I at least watched someone else's playthrough. Moving on to Origin, I went in completely blind, and overall, I came away with a mix of positive and negative thoughts. Ys Origin takes place 700 years before Ys I & II Chronicles, introducing us to a bunch of characters, some of whom were already present in I and II. The game was fun. It reminded me a lot of Trails in the Sky the 3rd since it takes a pure dungeon crawler approach instead of the typical JRPG setup where heroes set out on a grand journey. I didn't mind that setup at all, considering Sky the 3rd is one of my all-time favorite Trails games. The dungeon floor layouts weren't the most jaw-dropping thing ever, but considering the game came out back in 2006, they got the job done. You play as three different characters: Yunica Tovah, Hugo Fact, and a secret third character known as "The Claw." While having three playable characters sounds great on paper, you'd think you'd also get three unique takes on their ascent up the tower. Apart from each character's combat style, though, that's not really the case. Yunica is your classic melee brawler, Hugo is a ranged spellcaster, and The Claw is another melee fighter. Both Yunica and Hugo share a near-identical story with only minor differences, whereas The Claw serves as the canon route with the actual true ending. The biggest offense, in my opinion, is that you're forced to beat the game as both Yunica and Hugo just to unlock The Claw which kind of sucks, given that the dungeon layouts don't change at all. Same floors, same structure, same pathing. The only real differences are the main protagonist, minor bosses, and the fact that The Claw actually holds the "meat" of the lore players actually care about. That design decision turned me off pretty quickly. After finishing Yunica's route, I started playing as Hugo, but his gameplay didn't interest me one bit. I was intrigued by his connections to certain characters, but with the copy-paste dungeon design and lack of real uniqueness on subsequent playthroughs, it just couldn't hold my attention. After dropping Hugo halfway through on my Switch 2, I ended up buying the game cheap on Steam just so I could mod a save file with The Claw already unlocked and play his route instead. I liked his story the most since it had the most lore which I was interested in, and, as I mentioned, it's the canon path. The combat itself was a blast. Exploration was heavily encouraged since the floors weren't overly large, and missing out on gear upgrades meant your damage output would suffer severely. The boss fights were super fun, and the OST was great, too. Overall, Ys Origin isn't necessarily anything to write home about. If you're a hardcore Ys fan, you'll probably power through and finish all three playthroughs. But if you're just getting into the series and struggle to stay invested, I'd say just look up the canon route online.

mi primer contacto con la saga, banger