Y's Origin: a great simplistic fantasy game

Fans of classic RPG games that blend in some metroidvania aspects and also have a great fantasy story will appreciate this game. As is customary with Y's games, it also has an awesome musical score.

For the most part, today's games don't interest me too much because they are too difficult to pick up and if you ever take a break for a few days you need a tutorial to remind you what the damn buttons do. In my world anyway, this normally means that if I do take a few days off I come back and have to start the entire game over again, which means I am probably never going to finish the game.

Y's Origin also have several difficulty settings from “very easy” to “nightmare.” In my mind these are both absurdities as it is nearly impossible to die in “very easy” and almost impossible to not die in “nightmare.” However, I suppose that was the intention.

While the graphics and gameplay aren't exactly groundbreaking the artwork is fantastic and if you enjoy fantasy stories and games, the story is pretty compelling.

the usual giant building on the side of a tower that doesn't make structural sense

For those of you familiar with the Y's stories from the 80's and 90's, Origin takes place hundreds of years before those sagas.

The gameplay is simple enough to get the hang of immediately and I suppose a lifetime to master. At most you are using 3 buttons on the controller and that appeals immensely to me. There are certain points of the game that if you haven't yet discovered a particular item from a chest, you can't possibly continue. This is true whether playing on very easy or nightmare setting. In that aspect the metroidvania elements are a welcome addition. There are puzzles and of course the ubiquitous platform jumping area from time to time.

Here's the official trailer

The only negative thing I can say about this game is the fact that there are sequences of very long (often useless) dialogue that you can not skip. This is particularly annoying when an extremely long diatribe takes place right before a big boss fight and even if you have heard it before (in my case many times before) you must listen to all again and again.

Overall I would say that this game is fantastic for kids of all ages, including kids over 40. It is also quite inexpensive as I picked it up on Steam (the other one) for $10 during a special. I give it an 8 out of 10.