Game Review : Ys Chronicles I & II

michaelcj (64)in #gaming • 7 years ago (edited)

Hey fans, it's your Blockchain Entertainer here with another review.
Today we’re looking at Ys Chronicles I & II. Originally the games came out as a bundle for the original PlayStation Portable, which were later added to Steam also in a bundle. Both are cheap and if you’re a fan of the Ys series I recommend you check them out. I haven’t played the PSP version mind you, so I don’t know any differences between the games other than the designs of the select screens.

Ys Chronicles I & II
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Story

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Adol Christin the great adventurer sails to a new land hearing its tales of monsters. Adol meets with a fortune teller telling him of his destiny to save the land. Adol goes off in search of the six books ok Ys that tell of a mysterious land that lifted up into the heavens.
The second game has Adol return the books to Ys. I can’t really say anymore without spoiling the story but the story is well done and I enjoyed everything about the game.

Gameplay

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Most of the old Ys games or at least the one’s that I’ve played are a little different from your typical action adventure game.
For starters you start out with no weapons or armor though you can still attack.

You defeat enemies by walking into them. It you attack them head on you will also be hurt by their attacks, however if you attack diagonally then you’re pretty much invincible most Ys players will attack enemies this way in order to defeat them. Yes, defeating enemies will level you up and give you money, which you can then use to buy armor. In the first Ys game, all the armor you’re able to purchase comes from one town, sense there aren’t that many towns in the game to begin with and conveniently it’s the easiest one to find, it’s not that big of a deal.

Anyway, the rest of your armor and weapons you have to find in dungeons and by doing a small side quest.

The second game plays out in almost the same way, aside from being able to buy more armor and weapons in other towns.

Also bosses are different in both games. While you have to rely on the “walking into enemies” tactic to fight the bosses in the first game, all bosses are weak to fire magic in the second game and can only be defeated with it.
Since fire magic is projectile one could say it makes bosses easier to fight but they also take longer. Also magic recharges in the first game however it doesn’t in the second game.
Also in the Ys games you stand still your character will start to heal slowly when you aren’t underwater or in dungeons or caves. However, there’s always an item you can find that allows you to heal inside dungeons later.

For you to even know where to go this game requires a lot of communication, unless you want to look it up online you’ll have to talk to people in towns to figure out what to do next.
These game are short and won’t take more than a few days to beat if you play a lot every day.

Rating

This game was rated T for Teens though I don’t know exactly why because I don’t have the game box and ratings themselves are hard to find online.

Anyway, these games do have their fair share of violence and death. These games however aren’t so violent that children couldn’t play it though I do think the games may be a bit confusing for younger gamers.

Ys Chronicles 1 is one giant maze though the game and world are both pretty short it’s easy to get lost in the games.

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Ys Chronicles 2 is a little better but the world is bigger and the dungeons get more and more confusing as you go along.

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Likes
The ending credits to the first has a really catchy song, even though it’s in Japanese it’s still good. No cheating and looking it up online, it’s a well-deserved ending to the first game and you have to play it to earn your right to listen to it.

Also if you’re still with me at this point in the review they’ve also made and finished anime for both of the games.

This has been done with several games, however, these anime follow the games down to the last detail, from Adol meeting every single character vital to the storyline, to him obtaining new weapons and armor. If that ins’t a reason to watch an anime then I don’t know what is.

Dislikes

Besides the “Fact” that the last boss of the first game is super hard, (You’ll get the joke when you play the game) there’s not a lot of bad things about the games.
Like I mentioned earlier the games are like giant mazes and you’ll have to do some major memorizing to beat this game. Also, you can do a side quest in the first game that gets you golden armor and a sword, however they don’t work on the final boss, equip the set before them, before trying to take on the boss.