Ys Book I & II: Ancient Ys Vanished

Originally posted on Facebook on 5 February 2023

I've always been interested in giving the Ys games a go. The modern Ys games such as Ys 8 and Ys 9 on Nintendo Switch look pretty cool. ...but, you know me - I need to see what the older ones were like first!

So I played "Ys Book I & II". I played the TurboGrafx-16 CD version (released in 1990), which is thankfully included on the PC-Engine Mini. ...Looks like I'm still getting a lot of use out of all of those mini retro consoles! 😃

The story of "Ancient Ys Vanished" was originally released in two separate parts. Originally it was developed for old Japanese computers such as the NEC PC-8801, with part 1 releasing in 1987, and part 2 in 1988. Both games were then ported to a whole bunch of different platforms, most of which were Japan-only. Part 2 was not released outside of Japan, but part 1 did see a few English releases, though the only European release was on Sega Master System, under the name "The Vanished Omens".

When it was time to port the Ancient Ys Vanished duology to TurboGrafx-16 CD, they decided to combine both games into one game. 

And ever since this version, most future versions of Ancient Ys Vanished include both scenarios - they are generally not released separately any more.

The way it works is: after beating the final dungeon of "Book I", the game immediately starts "Book II", without any kind of Book 1 ending or Book 2 opening - there's just one connecting cutscene between them, and away you go. So basically, they turned what was originally two separate games into one double-length game, where you play both scenarios back to back. 

The TurboGrafx-16 CD version was the first of the "two-in-one" versions, however there also exist versions on PlayStation 2 (Japan-only), Nintendo DS, and PSP. The PSP version has the most added content, and was also released on Steam too, so it's probably the most popular one to play for modern players. I, however, decided I wanted to play the classic TurboGrafx-16 CD version. (Maybe I'll play the modern edition later though. 🙂 )

Enough about the different versions. let's talk about the game!

Ys I&II was truly a breath of fresh air after spending so much time with Trials of Mana recently. It's so fast-paced and breezy! It doesn't constantly interrupt the action, and it doesn't last three times as long as it needs to. It's a short and sweet little retro adventure. I really enjoyed it!

The game is an action-adventure game where you run around, collect items, solve mazes and defeat baddies. Typical stuff for sure.

The combat in this game is as simplistic as it gets. It truly embodies what it means to be an "old" RPG. You attack enemies by just... bumping into them. There's no sword button, you just walk and collide with the enemies, and it does damage. 

There is a bit of nuance to it - if you attack straight-on, you're more likely to get hit back, but if you sort of stagger yourself and attack off-center, the enemies are less likely to be able to retaliate. However, when you're just colliding face-first into enemies, you're bound to take some damage along the way anyway, so managing your HP by finding appropriate times to heal is also important.

Your HP will gradually refill itself if you are standing still while inside a "safe" area. The towns and the first half of the first dungeon are all considered safe, but all dungeons after that are not safe and will not allow you to easily refill HP. There does exist a magical artifact you can find that will allow you to regen HP anywhere, which is incredibly handy. I wouldn't recommend tackling the Book I final dungeon without it.

When you die, it immediately reloads the previous save. And that's all well and good because you can save anytime, anywhere. Enemies in this game have a high chance of depleting all of your HP immediately if you collide with them slightly wrong, as there is absolutely no post-hit invulnerability in this game. But if you take care to save frequently, you won't be having too many problems. Dying and reloading is a constant thing in this game... but it all happens so fast, it doesn't feel like a drag to always be dying and reloading. It's just part of the natural flow of the game. (as long as you remember to save often).

The boss fights in this game are very tricky - it's usually dodging a whole bunch of projectiles, while trying to find a safe path to the boss so you can walk into it and deal damage. The boss is normally teleporting or moving, so you have to keep dodging stuff to catch up. And they can be very tricky! I would say that the boss fights are definitely the big difficulty spikes in the game.

At first they seem impossible, but if you keep trying, you can figure out the patterns, learn where the openings are, and it becomes doable, though it's still very hard.

However, the bosses are never *true* skill roadblocks, since you always have the option of grinding for a bit to level up. A couple of extra stat points in attack and defense really makes a difference in this game.

I was struggling incredibly hard with the second-to-last boss of the game, as it seemed almost impossible to avoid taking damage. But all I needed to do was to grind for half an hour and level up twice, and suddenly the boss's almost-unavoidable fireballs were doing significantly less damage, allowing me to tank more hits and win the fight first try.

The one big complaint I have regarding the bosses is that you are unable to use your inventory during the fights. So you cannot use healing items. This makes the healing items feel rather useless, since I don't tend to feel like I need them when exploring the dungeons most of the time. It also means I can't swap my magical items mid-fight - whichever one I had equipped before stepping into the boss rooms is the one you have to use.

If we were able to use the inventory, then I feel like the fights would be more dynamic and interesting, with more possible strategies and options. Oh well. Maybe the more modern editions of YS I&II have this ability. I'll have to play them and find out.

Exploration in this game is fun and rewarding. The dungeons are mazes with lots of dead-ends, but if you are thorough with your exploration, you can find lots of treasure chests that contain some good stuff - normally either stronger armor or magical artifacts with special effects. Definitely stuff you want to have. Many of the important progression items are also hidden inside the dungeons too, so having a keen sense of direction is important to continuing the story. There is no in-game map, but I feel like the dungeons are well-designed enough with distinct layouts and landmarks where it is feasible to keep the general layout in your head.

The NPCs in town give lots of little hints and clues about where you might find certain treasures, or where you need to go next. I never felt the need to look up a walkthrough in this game, because even when the next destination was not always obvious, I always had enough hunches from the clues that would eventually lead me to the correct way just from following my own curiosity. 

This is something you don't really get any more in modern RPG design - nowadays RPG worlds are so huge, it wouldn't be reasonable to expect players to figure out where to go without guidance, so there's always a big destination marker pinpointing exactly where you need to go next. ...I really do appreciate these older, smaller games that expect you to pay attention and work out the progression for yourself. It makes me feel engaged in the adventure. 

Overall... while Ys I&II is a rather short game, it was absolutely a fun and fulfilling game to play! A lovely little palette-cleanser after the utter drudgery that was Trials of Mana. I'm certainly a fan of Ys now!

I want to play "Ys III: Wanderers from Ys" next, however they unfortunately decided not to include it in the PC-Engine Mini lineup.....which means I'm going to have to play it on an emulator instead. Time to figure out how to set up a TG16CD emulator I suppose!