Ys X: Nordics

[Maryokutai]

Somehow I was convinced radiofloyd played this when it came out in Japan and made a topic. I played it for about five hours over the weekend, which is roughly the length of the tutorial/prologue. Origins and VIII are the only Ys games I've played, so I'm not an expert on the matter. Chronologically this seems to take place almost at the very beginning of Adol's adventures (after 1 & 2 to be exact), but in classic fashion it's not really necessary to be aware of those other games. Characters hint at certain things early on, but it's very much self-contained otherwise.

 

So in Nordics you end up in a very cartoonish, pop-culture version of northern Europe with Vikings Normans who have claimed the northern seas for their own. After some exposition and the game introducing major NPCs, stuff happens, magic happens, and you then sail around the archipelago with a young Norman princess, Karja, in tow. While the whole Norse/Viking theme has been a bit overdone in the west in recent years, it's nonetheless interesting and refreshing to see it through the anime/Japanese lens for a change. I'm definitely quite enjoying the setting, and Karja is a surprisingly likeable sidekick, a bit of a tsundere voiced in a very bratty tone, but with a reasonable side to her as well.

 

I remember some people, myself included, being a bit disappointed when they announced it would only feature a party of two, but after experiencing the battle system for a bit I can see that any more would easily have overwhelmed the player. There's a couple of ways in which you can fight: the basic one is just running around as either Adol or Karja, attacking by yourself and letting the AI take over the other character. I find this relatively useful when engaging groups of smaller enemies, in a 'divide and conquer' kind of way, as the AI draws some aggro, too. While playing like that, however, you can always change to the other character by pressing a button, which happens instantly and also works mid-combo. There's not much use for that early on, but I can see maybe casting special attacks with longer durations and then immediately switching to keep the pressure on as an option when unlocked.

 

There's a second Duo mode for combat which activates while holding the right trigger and it's here where it becomes a bit much to wrap your head around early on. In this mode, both characters are linked by a magic chain and can't move, but they can block and parry (with very forgiving timing) and attack in unison while also having access to a different set of special attacks fueled by their combined Mana pools (in a funny twist, you can also use these if one character can make up the cost with their mana bar in case the other doesn't have enough – no idea how the developers expect you to properly gauge all that mid fight while parrying and dodging).

But all this is only the very baseline as the game keeps giving you tools upon tools in rather quick succession. Early on you unlock a grappling hook for traversal, but it can also be attached to enemies, you unlock launchers for air combos or a unique move activated by holding the attack button which lets Adol cast a burst of fire and Karja a pillar of ice, affecting certain elements in the area (plants, water etc.). And that's just the feature handed to you in the first 5 hours. I find it a bit overwhelming at the moment, but it's cool to see so much depth and potential – I did really liked VIII, but combat in that game mostly revolved around last-minute dodges and not much more.

 

The other big part of the gameplay, outside the usual traversal and exploration, is naval combat, which I think is a first for the series. So far this feels like its weakest link, as the ship is rather unwieldy – but not in a physically realistic, but rather a 'that's an odd control scheme' kind of way. In the early game you have two options to attack, a long-range cannonball to slightly damage and stun ships, and a short-range barrage which does enormous amounts of damage. So you use A until you get close, use B to finish them off, rinse repeat. It does suggest a lot of upgrades to you ship which I'm hopeful will make these encounters more fun and engaging the further along you get, so I don't want to judge that aspect too harshly as of yet. It's not as immediately gripping as the ship combat in AC Black Flag for example though, just to set expectations.

 

I'm playing it on Switch, and compared to VIII, which suffered from severe aliasing or IX with its wonky framerate (at least going by its demo), this feels like a more polished product all-around, with clean visuals and an almost rock-solid 30fps with good frame-timing. The downside of this is that a lot of objects and NPCs pop in very close to the character, which I'm not too bothered about, but not everyone is as forgiving. I suspect the PS5, or I guess even the PS4 version, to have none of these issues, but in any case there's a demo on every platform to check for yourself.

 

As always, can't do screenshots on Switch anymore, so here's a Karja plushie:

[DANGERMAN]

I will pick this up at some point but I'd still like to finish the previous one. It was good, just long af

[Maryokutai]

Fought a really oddly designed boss yesterday. From its attack patterns it looks like you have to dodge one phase and then use the hoverboard during another to get away from him and only attack when you see an opening, but after barely doing any damage that way and dying two times, I just decided to use Duo Mode right next to him, through which you can block every single attack even if it looks like you shouldn't be able to, and I mashed him to death. Eh?

 

The game itself, after 8 hours or so, finally feels like I'm actually playing it. Up until very recently it was more a case of introducing ideas, plot points and systems which isn't unusual for a JRPG but can drag a bit. VIII had a similar issue though and only really became great after 10-ish hours, so maybe that's just their way of doing things.

 

I haven't fully grasped character development yet (gameplay wise). There's some sort of minimalist sphere grid which unlocks skills, but you can also set stones on every node, which in addition to boosting certain stats depending on their colour (red, blue and yellow for attack, defense and luck respectively) also add secondary effects, like making your basic attack slower but stronger. It's a bit of a weird system, but thankfully you can just freely remove and reapply, so at the moment I'm just putting a balanced mix in until I see the bigger picture.

[Maryokutai]

I'm around 25 hours so far. It's good, but unless there's a massive shift coming I can't see it surpassing VIII, which in hindsight might have been a bit of a lightning in a bottle situation for the series (especially considering it was built around the limitations of the PS Vita at the time). Also fair warning to everyone who disliked Wind Waker back in the day: this has just about as much sailing as that game. I actually like that part, especially as they do get into some proper seafaring aspects like using weaker currents to your advantage and avoiding stronger ones, or using strong fog as a natural barrier to block off areas. You can teleport to visited locations though, but I rarely use it because I feel like it defeats the idea of the concept. One cool thing is that the ship works a bit like the Normandy, in the sense that you keep recruiting people as is Ys tradition, but here the base of operations is also your means of travel, so you have your utilities always right at hand. 

 

I also take back what I said about the combat, because by the time I got used to the weird double-mapping of buttons I did start to think that it might be cool to have more playable characters. Particularly so because Adol and Karja ultimately are both short-ranged melee fighters, with the only difference being their special attacks (Adol's seem to favour wide arcs whereas Karja's do increased 'break' damage to weaken enemy armour). It's not a dealbreaker because for all intents and purposes Ys has always had that arcade-y JRPG feel to it, but I wouldn't have said no to a ranged fighter or a spellslinger. Considering the story revolves around only them being able to permanently kill certain enemies I do wonder what kind of chicken or egg situation this is.

 

[Maryokutai]

Completed this yesterday, turns out there was only the last dungeon and final boss left to tackle. Had I known that I probably would have played through it before my Dragon Age 'break'. The finale is somewhat odd for reasons that would be spoiler territory, but I did enjoy the overall game, even though I can't really add anything to my previous post, as it kind of reaches its maturity around that time and doesn't evolve further in the remaining 25 hours (took me about 50 in total). It's a very solid title that just lacks somewhat in memorable moments, interesting locations – you visit mostly rather same-ish looking islands – and refinements in combat. I did end up liking the characters quite a bit though. I mentioned her already but Karja was one of the better protagonists of this kind of JRPG I've seen in quite some time, and a significant portion of that is due to how well she's voiced.

 

Anyone interested in this should probably wait a bit at this point as Falcom announced at the end of last year that they'll be releasing an extended version. Not too fond of this to be honest, it sounds like the Atlus way of doing thing. I doubt it will be as substantial as the Persona upgrades, but just in case it's probably better to wait for that one if you were thinking about picking it up.