Ys X Nordics

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a huge fan of Nihon Falcom and all the things they do. And that fandom is very well earned. Not only have they given me my favorite series of all time in Trails, they have been consistently delivering high-quality action RPGs in the form of the Ys series, as well. Now, I’m a relative newcomer to the Ys games. I only played them for the first time a few years ago, when I binged my way through the entire series leading up to the release of Ys IX. So, counting Ys Origin, I digested nine full Ys games in quick succession. (I’m not counting Ys V, since that’s never been available in North America.) And I’ll be 100% honest with you: While I enjoyed most of the games, it wasn’t until Ys VIII that I felt the series really stepped fully into its potential. That’s not to say the prior games weren’t good – I still hold Ys Origin as one of the best old school action RPGs out there – but the modern era of Ys that began with VIII is where the series found its footing and established its identity. Let me just say, I LOVED Ys VIII. I also really enjoyed Ys IX, though maybe a hair less than VIII. So I knew there was a strong chance I would love Ys X: Nordics. And hey, what do you know? I do love it.

Let me start with a negative. That’s right, I just got done heaping praise on the series, and I’m gonna begin with a negative. You think I’m gonna zig? No way, I’m gonna zag. It’s a real minor thing, but it’s pretty much the first thing you experience in the game, so I figure let’s get it out of the way right up front. Now, I’ve long disliked the silent protagonist thing. It doesn’t make sense to me, in any way, and ESPECIALLY in modern games with full voice acting. It’s a flow killer. One thing I at least have appreciated about the modern Ys games is that they frequently have you choose dialog options for Adol, the main character, so he at least feels like he’s part of the scene. But those lines are never VOICED, which seems like an easy problem to fix. Falcom, just… have those lines voiced. Make him feel more a part of the conversation. And here’s where they pulled a real bait and switch on me. At the very beginning of the game, you’re given a dialog choice, and when you choose Adol’s response… he DOES voice it! I was elated. Like, I may have fist-pumped. Okay, I did fist-pump. This was all I ever wanted. Well, like, world peace, a million dollars, and then this. So, pretty high up. But… that voicing doesn’t really continue. The dialog options you choose after that aren’t voiced. Why did they feel the need to tease me? This may seem like a petty complaint, but I’m putting it front and center to increase the odds of it being seen. This needs to change.

Anyway, if you’re familiar with Ys, you probably know that each game jumps around in the chronology of Adol’s life pretty wildly. Like, Ys VIII takes place right after Ys V, and just before Ys VI. So Ys VII is after Ys VIII. Don’t think about it too hard, it can cause brain cramps. This actually serves to make any game a great place to jump in, because while there is some continuity in the world and even with some recurring characters, there isn’t an incredibly tight story between games that you need context of to enjoy any individual game. Ys X launches itself right to spot number two in the timeline – well, three, if you count Ys Origins – so X takes place right after the conclusion of Ys 1 & 2. Adol, his companion Dogi, and Dr. Flair from the land of Ys are traveling to Celceta, but naturally, something goes awry. In this case, they get caught up in the complicated political situation of the Obelia Gulf. Their ship is seized by members of the Balta Seaforce, led by the Pirate Princess herself, Karja. After a bit of action and some drama, Adol, Dogi, and Dr. Flair find themselves in the port town of Carnac. They’re not going to be able to continue their journey right away, so they settle in and start looking for work. Of course, it could never be that simple. Adol soon finds himself bound by Mana to the Pirate Princess Karja. And by bound, I mean literally. They’re basically on a magical tether and they can’t move too far from each other. This sets up the plot, as well as Ys X’s new battle mechanics, which I’ll get to in a minute. Now, this is a spoiler-free review, so I won’t get into the inciting incident of the story, but suffice to say, THINGS HAPPEN, and Adol and Karja end up sailing the high seas together, putting together a crew, and fighting against the evil Griegrs, which are these monsters that normal people can’t kill – but that Adol and Karja can, with the power of Mana.

If you’ve played a lot of Ys games, particularly the earlier games pre-VIII, you might feel that the introduction to this game lasts for… quite a while. It might be close to two hours before the game really takes off and you’re hacking and slashing your way through the scenery. Fortunately, it’s all interesting stuff, so I wasn’t too antsy in the beginning, but you have to keep in mind that long gone are the days when Ys was a story-lite action experience. This is a fully modern Falcom JRPG, which means a ton of interesting characters and a story that doesn’t feel tacked-on out of necessity. Your patience in the early going is rewarded, because you’ll go into the meat of the story with a strong sense of the characters and their situations, and you’ll be able to appreciate the twists and turns the plot takes. The vocal work for the English dub is especially noteworthy, with Cherami Leigh taking on the role of Karja and delivering a ton of nuance and weight to the character. The rest of the cast is pretty phenomenal as well, so us dub lovers are well served here. The localization is very strong, as we’ve come to expect from NIS America, so no surprise there, but it’s good to see their excellent work on the series continuing. I’m always afraid that the next game in the series isn’t going to be able to capture the same feeling of camaraderie that I felt in the previous entries, but Ys is always putting my fears to rest. The entire crew of characters you meet along the way are charming and funny and interesting. There’s some fairly deep issues that get explored along the way, some good interpersonal conflicts, and all in all they just feel very well-rounded. Karja may be the focal point, but most of the secondary characters get plenty of time to shine.

Ys X brings back that grand feeling of exploration that was maybe a bit lacking in Ys IX, since the vast majority of that game took place in the walled city of Balduq. It definitely shares more in common with Ys VIII and its tropical island setting, though the environments here are not exactly what I’d call tropical. The exploratory sensation is really enhanced by the fact that you now have your own ship to sail wherever you want. It’s not a simple means of transportation, either; there are a ton of gameplay mechanics tied up in your ship, so you’ll want to get used to using it as quickly as possible. Personally, I love that the ship controls don’t feel overly “realistic.” But they’re not quite “arcade-y” either, if that makes sense. It’s a nice middle ground, where I never felt like I was hampered by the devs’ desire for realism, but it also didn’t feel too loose and goofy. You are of course bound by the wind, so you can’t cruise around at top speed all the time, but you are able to summon a Mana burst of a speed periodically, and there are trade winds that blow in regular paths that you can sail within to greatly decrease your travel time. Battles can break out on the open sea when you sail into these purple glowing areas, and these are surprisingly a ton of fun. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a big “pirate guy,” so I was worried about the ship-focused gameplay before I started, but my fears ended up being unfounded. Ship battles never take too long, and there’s a real sense of velocity and weight to the combat. You have a variety of options available, from cannons to guns to Mana powers, and you unlock more as the game progresses. At certain points, you can even wear down a ship’s shields and board it with Adol and Karja, fighting waves of enemies on foot. Outside of the standard battles, there are also base recaptures to take part in. These are multi-part missions where you first fight some sea battles to take down a base’s shields, then infiltrate it on foot to steal the base back. This not only gives you a bunch of great rewards, but gives you another fast travel location on your map, which comes in handy because, like I alluded to before, sea travel isn’t always as fast as I want it to be. And it also opens up new mysteries on your map for you to discover – if you see a question mark on your map, you’ll definitely want to sail to it as soon as you can. You might find a new crew member, or even an entire island to explore. Coming across raw materials allows you to upgrade your ship, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a painless experience. I say pleasantly surprised, because the last pirate-themed game I played, Assassin’s Creed 4, found me getting completely stuck because I hadn’t upgraded my ship enough. That was never a problem in Ys X. Finding new crew members scattered around the many islands of the gulf also increases your ship’s stats, so you’ll be consistently getting stronger as you play. All in all, I’m really happy with the way the ship systems turned out. It was honestly my biggest fear about the game, and they blew my expectations out of the water. If you’ll excuse the pun.

…Water, because of the ship. It sails in water. Does that make sense? I just… wanted to make sure you got it.

But this is an Ys game, so really, the ship mechanics are all just gravy. The real meat here is the on-foot combat, and it’s pretty different than in previous games. With Adol tethered to Karja, it opens up a ton of new possibilities, and getting used to the changes quickly will make your time in the early game a lot more enjoyable. To begin, you still have access to all the things you’d be used to if you’ve played previous Ys games. You can jump, dash, and use up to four different special attacks at a time assigned to one of the face buttons that you can access while holding down R1. This applies to both Adol and Karja, and you can switch between the two at any time, while the other is controlled with AI. However, the real changes come in the Cross Action system. Holding down R2 causes Adol and Karja to get close together and attack as a pair. That means double the attacks, which as you can imagine means you can stack damage pretty quickly. You’ll also learn a variety of special attacks that you can use in this Duo Mode, so combat is as varied and interesting here as it is when fighting separately. One thing to keep in mind is that, while in Duo Mode, you’ll move much more slowly, so it’s best to set yourself up for attacking prior to activating it. Bosses and even some normal enemies will have shields covering their health bars, and to break through you’ll need to wail on them quite a bit. To be honest, the shield mechanic isn’t my favorite. You’ll spend a decent amount of time breaking through a boss’s shield, then spend a couple minutes wearing down their HP, and they’ll inevitably do some kind of special move that regenerates their shield. It would be one thing if the shield would only fill up to their current max HP level, but it refills all the way, meaning you then have to spend even more time whittling them down before you can start doing damage again. A minor annoyance, but it’s one that sort of makes some fights drag out longer than they need to.

When it comes to Action RPGs, I’m a dodge-and-slash kinda guy. In Dark Souls games, I’m always wearing light armor to ensure I can roll. Dodging is just, you know, kinda my thing. So it definitely took some adjusting when I started playing Ys X. Dodging is extremely de-emphasized here in favor of blocking. Fortunately, blocking is pretty straightforward. When you’re holding down R2 and in Duo Mode, so long as you’re not attacking, you’re blocking. This means that knowing when to let go of the attack button is just as important as knowing when to push it. You’ll have to find the rhythm with every enemy you encounter to maximize damage to them while making sure you don’t leave any openings for yourself. And many enemies will use moves that begin with a red glow – these moves should definitely be blocked, because failing to do so means a massive hit. Blocking damage also fills up your Revenge Gauge, which adds a multiplier to your special moves. Blocking to fill up your Revenge Gauge and then unleashing a massively powerful special move is a solid strategy against a lot of bosses. Dodging isn’t completely gone, however. Some enemies use attacks that begin with a blue glow, and that means the move is one that needs to be dodged. You do this by holding down the dodge button while moving, and your controlled character will automatically dodge. This will also power up your weapon and make your next attack a superpowered one. One thing I noticed, however, is that “block-for-red, dash-for-blue” isn’t always 100% consistent. There are some moves that begin with a blue glow that actually AREN’T dodgeable, though it feels like they should be. I guess the TINT of blue is slightly different, but I wish that more had been done with this color system. As it is, there are far fewer enemy attacks that are dodgeable than blockable, and it makes things feel just a bit underbaked. Overall, while it took me a little while to get into it, I eventually grew to really enjoy the changes to the combat in Ys X. I don’t think it’s fully translated me into a blocking boy, I’ll be a dodger as long as I live, but I was able to adapt and have a good time with it.

Leveling up happens the way it does in most JRPGs, so do I need to go into that? Fight bad guy, gain experience, gain level. Nothing too strange there. The game does use something called the Release Line system to allow you to customize your character with various stat improvements. As you level up, you’ll gain deeper access to the Release Line, which will allow you to use points you acquire to open slots. Some slots will even unlock new special moves. As you unlock them, you can fill those slots with mana seeds of varying kinds, some that increase offense, some for defense, and even some that will give you significant stat boosts… with the caveat that they deeply cut into some other stat. I’ll be honest, these sorts of systems in games typically go over my head; or maybe that’s not quite accurate, I mean, I UNDERSTAND it, but it’s a bit more involved than I typically want to deal with. I’m a upgrade-my-weapons-and-armor kind of guy. Maybe an “unlock-stat-boosts-on-a-stat-tree” guy, too. Simple man, simple system, that’s my motto. But honestly, playing through the game on normal difficulty, my lack of deep attention paid to the Release Line didn’t have a negative impact. I just filled slots randomly and I was fine. It’s probably going to be useful for people playing on higher difficulty levels who want to maximize certain stats. That ain’t me.

Traversing the various islands feels as good as it ever has. Adol and Karja have access to Mana Powers, which do a good job of filling the role that the Monstrum powers played in the previous entry. You can cast out a Mana Line to swing across gaps, you can summon a Mana hoverboard basically that lets you zip around, you can slow down time – there are a lot of cool ways these various powers are implemented. Every time you gain a new Mana Power, you immediately are brought to… how do I want to put this? I’m trying to avoid spoilers. Let’s just say, when you acquire a new power, Adol gets summoned to a mini dungeon that lets you learn how to use it. This is great for speeding up the learning process, though this typically happens in the middle of significant story events, meaning it’s a bit of a drag on the pacing. It didn’t bother me too much, and anyway the story surrounding this… mini dungeon is intriguing on its own, so it’s all good. The Mana Powers make traversal a lot of fun, which is good, because I was worried that nothing could quite match the fun of tearing around the city in Ys IX. It’s maybe not QUITE as good as that, but it’s close.

Just one quick note on the music. Do I even need to mention it? By now, Ys is so well-known for having amazing music that it might only be noteworthy if a new entry in the series DIDN’T have good music. But like, the music here is so good, guys. I had to write this standing up. I literally can’t sit down because the Ys X soundtrack rocked my butt off. No more butt! Butt is gone. It’s very good, I don’t regret it. Anyway. Sorry for talking about my butt.

Do I have time for a few minor gripes? There’s always time for minor gripes, what am I saying? First gripe, I have always hated the default key bindings in the Ys series. They make no sense to me. So I always have to spend more time than I want to reassigning, and then as I progress in the game, I get some new power that OOPS! Is bound to the same button I just reassigned to something else, so now there’s a conflict, and I have to go in and reassign them again. I don’t really have a solution to this problem, and honestly it’s great that you have the level of freedom to customize your buttons that you do. So this might not bother you, but it does get under my skin.

The Puppet Griegrs get a little annoying. Puppet Griegrs are Griegr mini-bosses that you’ll fight quite a few times over the course of the game. They don’t really change, so every fight follows pretty much the same pattern. I would have loved to see some more variety there. They’re important from a story perspective, but the implementation on the gameplay front didn’t work super well for me.

I felt like there wasn’t quite enough in terms of varied environments. You’ll find a ton of optional islands to explore, but there’s very little to distinguish them apart from their enemies and treasures. I mean, Ys is committed to telling the story of a particular region of the world, so I’m not expecting an arctic island and a fire island and a, I don’t know, a magical… wizard island. Like, this takes place in Obelia Gulf, and like most regions in the world, the environment is very similar. But this is one area where I feel the previous two entries were a bit stronger.

Finally, on the story side, I’d really like some more relationship development between Adol and Dogi. I feel like the series pretty much asks us to take it as a given that these two dudes are great friends, but like, we hardly see anything resembling a deep interaction between them. This is in part, I’m sure, because Adol is the silent protagonist type, so there’s yet another reason to do away with the trope, but still. Also, the modern Ys games have never done a great job of fully utilizing Dogi. He’s this super strong dude who’s best known for punching down walls, but he ends up relegated to “community manager” all the time. Get that guy out there on the front lines! Let him punch some stuff! He’s good at it! (Okay, yes, he does get to punch some stuff here, but still. I want more of the Doge-ster.)

Okay, griping complete. As you probably gathered, the things I’ve complained about are VERY small, and for many of you, they probably won’t matter at all. Even if you’re similar to me, I can assure you that none of these things REALLY bothered me. They didn’t detract from my overall experience, which is just extremely positive. Ys is quickly becoming a favorite series of mine. It’s kind of like the opposite of the Trails series in some ways, particularly in that, rather than focusing on a big, overarching narrative, it gives us self-contained, super-focused stories in one place, with one group of people. This of course makes the Ys series super easy to jump into, and there’s never been a better game to start the series with than this one. But for those of us who have experienced all the previous games, it feels like reuniting with old friends. There’s quite a lot new here, but it still feels like it fits, and that’s about all you can ask from a long-running series – innovate, but don’t leave longtime fans completely in the dust. Ys X: Nordics is a spectacular experience, and if you’re at all intrigued by any of this, I really want to encourage you to check it out.