Originally posted on Facebook on 20 February 2023
"Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand" is another game that was never released outside of Japan.
The Ys fanbase has come to the rescue once again, and have created a fan-translated version of Ys V. Hooray!
So of course, I played this game on an emulator with the English translation patch applied.
So interestingly enough, they actually released this game twice. There's "Ys V", and then there's "Ys V Expert". I think there must have been complaints that the game was too easy, so they made it harder and released it again.
Kind of reminds me how Final Fantasy 4 was also released twice in Japan with the "Final Fantasy IV Easy Type" version.
...Was this really a thing back in the day? If you wanted to make a harder or easier version, you'd just release the whole game a second time and then tell your fans to go and buy it again? What ever happened to putting some difficulty modes inside the options menu like a normal game???
Uh... anyway.
It seems the fan-translation was only made for the initial easy version of Ys V, so that's the version I played.
From what I've been reading online, the fan translation for Ys V was a nightmare project, and it didn't even get finished until 2013, which feels pretty late for a game like this. Apparently the game's programming makes it extremely difficult to hack, and they had to write tons of custom code to get the game in a state where it could even display any English text at all - or something like that anyway... That's probably why they didn't want to do the huge amount of work all over again for the Expert version.... Gonna say it again - Thanks Ys fanbase for your efforts!
I may play the Expert version in Japanese at some point later.
Ys V is a Super Famicom game from 1995. ...Hmm, 1995? That's the same year that gave us Chrono Trigger, the extremely popular Squaresoft game that is still regarded as one of the best RPGs ever to this day!
I suppose at this point, the Ys series must have been feeling pretty antiquated compared to the big RPG hits that were releasing around this time.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Nihon Falcom was feeling the pressure from the comparisons too. Because Ys V feels like a sincere attempt to try and modernise the Ys gameplay systems. (Well, modern for 1995 anyhow).
...That being said, it's definitely not on Chrono Trigger's level - not by a longshot. While the bigger, more popular RPGs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger are getting all the praise and attention, Ys has always been kind of happily doing its own thing on the sidelines. And that's fine! Not everything has to be a massive epic adventure - there's definitely room for these smaller-scale RPGs too, especially when they're fun to play like Ys is.
Well, let's talk about it then.
First thing you'll notice is that - finally, the game view is actually fullscreen for the first time. I didn't mention it before, but all previous Ys games had the game take place within a bordered window, with the UI elements taking up an entire third (on TG-16) or quarter (on SNES) of the available screen space. It could feel a little claustrophobic at times, though once you are immersed, the small viewing window didn't matter so much. But now Ys V has decided to go for a regular fullscreen view of the game. It somehow makes it feel less like an old computer game, and more like a proper console RPG. Nice!
The interface has received a complete overhaul too. Previously we had basic menus and textboxes, but now we have some nice looking menu icons. NPC dialogue now always shows the speaker's name, which is something that most other contemporary RPGs hadn't even started doing yet.
The biggest interface overhaul is the inventory menu. Previously in Ys games, we always had a classic Zelda-style grid of items, where each item has its designated spot on the grid.
But now with Ys V, the inventory has transformed into a fully Final Fantasy-style item list (complete with some very FF-looking little icons for swords and armour made for the fan translation). You can hold multiple potions, sell your old armour, pick up miscellaneous items hidden around the world - Ys now has a fully-fledged RPG inventory, wow! The Zelda-style item grid is actually still there, but now it is used just for the key items.
So that's the interface nice and modernised, but how about the gameplay?
Well, the saving system has been redesigned, but it's done in a weird way... It just complicates things and makes things more inconvenient for no added benefit, as far as I can see.
Okay so, in previous Ys games, you could save anywhere and load anywhere. If you die, the game reloads your last save.
It was as simple as that, and it made sense for the kind of game Ys is.
But in Ys V, they now limit it so that you can only save at inns in town. That's fine if they want to change it - plenty of games limit the save points so that dungeoneering is more treacherous. However, that's not actually the case in Ys V, because there's an option in your pause menu called "Quick Save". At first it doesn't appear to do anything - if you select Quick Save and restart the SNES, you'll find that nothing was actually saved and your file is still at your previous inn save. ...So what does "Quick Save" actually do? Well, dying in this game still automatically loads your previous save, but if you used a Quick Save beforehand, then dying will instead start you from the point you last Quick Saved at. That's what it does.
So... okay. Let me think about this. Previously, saving in Ys had two functions - Firstly, it lets you save your progress so you can stop playing and continue where you left off next time you turn the game on. Secondly, it lets you set checkpoints for when the game reloads when you die.
In Ys V, it seems like they wanted to separate these two functions of saving. So you can still set up respawn checkpoints wherever you like in just the same way as before, but now it's less convenient for the player who needs to save because they need to turn off their SNES and stop playing. Because these respawn checkpoints don't actually save any data to the save file, you need to find an inn if you want to stop playing. ...and that's it. That's the only thing it changes. And all I'm thinking is.... why? Is adding a "save point system" something they felt like they needed to do to "modernise" Ys? It didn't actually change anything about the gameplay, it just made the game more annoying for no benefit. ...Game design is baffling to me sometimes.
...anyway.
The most notable gameplay change is that the "bump combat" system seen in Ys I&II and Ys IV is completely gone. Ramming yourself face-first into enemies doesn't get you anywhere. It doesn't even get you hurt - enemies will just sort of stop your movement like NPCs. (even the enemies that are just fireball monsters don't do contact damage)... Now you have to actually press the A button to use your sword! You can hold the Y button to hold out your shield, Game Boy Zelda style (though you can't walk and shield at the same time), and the B button is a jump button, which is fun - you can jump over enemies if you feel like it, and you can jump onto higher elevations of terrain.
Something unusual for this kind of old RPG, the different swords actually have different animations. There's a sideways slash, an overhead swing, and a forward thrust. Though to be honest, it doesn't make all that much of a difference.
The dungeon design has received an upgrade too - instead of dungeons purely being mazes where the main difficulty comes in navigating the layout and dealing with the enemies along the way, in Ys V we can now see a lot of Zelda influence coming to Ys. Dungeons occasionally have rooms where you need to kill all the enemies to continue, and in true Zelda-like style, there are mechanisms that you activate that have an effect in other parts of the dungeon, such as a floodgate switch that makes water flow, creating pathways elsewhere. I find this kind of interactivity in RPG dungeons to be quite fun, however the ones we have in Ys V are very basic and straightforward, especially when compared to actual Zelda games.
The game also introduces a bizarrely detailed magic system, however it is extreeeeeeeemely flawed.
I thought Terranigma was a game that had a flawed magic system, but Ys V makes Terranigma's magic look amazing in comparison.
The magic in Ys V is just plain badly-designed in every single aspect. And I'll go over it now:
In order to use a spell, you must first charge it by holding the R button. A number goes up from 0 to 100 in the corner of your screen the longer you hold R, and once the charge is at 100, then your sword button is replaced with a spell button, and pressing it will cast the spell. Additionally, magic costs some amount of MP with each cast.
This is already pretty awkward, but I suppose it's like this to prevent you from being able to easily alternate between sword and magic. But even if it was easy, it still wouldn't be worth it to cast any spells.
The majority of spells in this game have an extremely long animation, where you cannot control Adol at all. However, the enemies are still freely moving about, so they will very often just walk away from the line of fire before the animation can finish.
Not only is it difficult to land a hit, but the damage it does is maybe... double of what your sword can do, at best? You can slash pretty quickly in this game, so you can just whack 'em twice and get the same outcome.
Enemies can have elemental immunities where they absorb spell damage. It's not always evident which enemies are immune to which elements... but there are NO enemies immune to sword damage, so you don't need to worry about this at all if you ignore magic and just use your sword.
Not only this, but enemies will actually NOT DROP ANY MONEY if they are killed by magic. They will only drop money if you use your sword. So if you need to grind money for the next armour upgrade, magic will not help you in the slightest.
In order to get new spells, you need to find three elemental stones and bring them to an alchemist in town, who will combine them into a new spell for you to equip. These elemental stones are hidden all over the world, but are completely invisible. The only way to find them is to bump into every corner, every dead end, every bookcase, every fireplace, - anything that looks conspicuous enough that it might be where one of the elemental stones is hidden. Needless to say, you're probably going to miss some stones, so you may not be able to get all the different types of magic without a walkthrough.
During the spell tutorial, you are given a free spell to start with - a basic fireball. As far as I have seen, this basic fireball is the only spell in the entire game that doesn't have a huge windup animation. It just fires straight away, and isn't too bad.
This means that the most useful spell is the free one - and any effort spent trying to hunt down elemental stones for new spells is effort wasted, as any spell other than the basic fireball is a huge pain to actually try and make use of.
In this game, Adol actually has two EXP totals - one for sword damage, and one for spell damage. So the only way to strengthen your spells is to use them often, which is pretty annoying.
But... why do you even need to strengthen your spells in the first place? Because here's the worst problem of all:
You are forbidden from using magic during all boss fights.
...which makes this whole system completely meaningless. The regular enemies in this game are never threatening enough where a simple sword strike won't deal with them. Bosses are the one place where I could conceivably WANT to use some fancy magic. And I can't.
...
Okay, let's recap. Let's compare swords to spells in Ys V, shall we?
- Swords: Just press the attack button to swing your sword. You can buy new ones in shops which are easily accessed in towns. The newer ones you buy are stronger than the early ones. You can get money from enemies you kill with swords. Swords will work on all enemies pretty handily. Swords can be used to kill bosses.
- Spells: To get new spells, you need to find element stones that are hidden, with no indication to where they are. The basic fireball you get at the beginning is the most useful spell, so finding element stones isn't even helpful. You must Hold R for a long time to charge, spend some MP, and then watch as the spell misses because of its incredibly long animation that enemies can just walk away from. Some monsters are immune to some spells. Spells cannot get money from enemies. Spells also arbitrarily cannot be used in boss rooms.
...and you expect me to go out of my way to level up my magic EXP separately from my sword EXP? Are you insane? Why would I ever want to spend time doing that.
This... is game design, everyone. Ys V is an example of a videogame that contains... game design.
...
Okay, so if you play this game while completely ignoring the magic system and just using your sword for everything... is it still a fun, fulfilling RPG adventure?
Well... not really.
The problem is, the game is overall extremely threadbare. The amount of explorable world is disappointingly tiny, and the dungeons are very simple, despite the increased amount of gameplay mechanics they contain. I never really felt like I was navigating any kind of complex mazes in Ys V - I was kind of just following the path the whole time. The progression is simple and linear, and there is never a moment where you need to figure out what to do next, as the game is very eager to take you exactly where you need to go.
It's all well and good modernising your game and creating all sorts of new fancy menus and interfaces and new combat options - but if there's barely any actual game to use it on, it doesn't really amount to much in the end. Compared to other contemporary action-RPGs like Terranigma, Landstalker, Secret of Mana - and even the smaller games like Crusader of Centy and Beyond Oasis - Ys V just doesn't have enough "game" in it to feel like a full, satisfying adventure. The plot is decently interesting, but it escalates and gets resolved so quickly, it doesn't really have time to leave much of an impact. And there's absolutely no side-content and no hidden secrets to discover either. It feels like it's just the barebones structure of an RPG, and absolutely nothing else.
And the fans were right about the difficulty by the way - Ys V is laughably easy. I never felt threatened by anything in the game. Adol's sword is really strong, enemies move about really slowly, and there are plenty of opportunities to heal - especially since you can buy and carry lots of healing potions with you. But the game is so easy that I literally didn't need to buy any extra healing potions at all - the five or so you get in chests or whatever were enough for the whole game. I found the almighty Healing Ring in a chest lategame and never once put it on...
So yeah, that's Ys V. And that's also the last 16-bit Ys game! The following game, Ys VI, would release eight years later in 2003, on PlayStation 2. Seems like Ys skipped over PlayStation 1 entirely, which is extremely unusual for a big RPG series like this. When I was first looking into this series, I was certain there'd be an amazing classic PlayStation RPG hidden among them, but apparently not!
Well, since this is the last of the 16-bit Ys games, let's rank them all so far, shall we?
1st place: Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys
2nd place: Ys Book I & II: Ancient Ys Vanished
3rd place: Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand
4th place: Ys III: Wanderers from Ys
5th place: Ys IV: Mask of the Sun
Despite it being so lacking, Ys V still gets third place from me. It's not quite as lacking as Ys III was, and it didn't horribly upset me like Mask of the Sun did. So it still goes above them.
Hmmmm... maybe I'm starting to see why Ys kind of faded into irrelevancy compared to other games in the RPG space. The best game so far isn't even considered a proper Ys game by its parent company, and the second-best game is still the very first one from the 80s. ...
Well............
I'm going to play Ys VI next. I want to see what a PlayStation 2 can do to a series like this.
Originally posted on Facebook as a comment to this post on 20 April 2023
I said I might try out Ys 5 Expert, and... well, I actually did it today!
Since Ys V Expert was never given the fan translation treatment (only the standard version was fan translated), I decided to play on the actual SNES with the actual cartridge. :3
It's basically exactly the same as Ys 5 regular, terrible magic system and all, but it has a few adjustments made to it.
Most significantly, enemies now do a lot more damage. The difficulty is about on par with other Ys games now - it's no longer anomalously easy, however the change to the difficulty does highlight how imprecise and kinda bad the swordplay in this game is. To be completely honest, I kind of preferred the easy version - at least then, the janky combat wasn't asking much of you. But now in this version I actually gotta play properly, and yeah, it's not so great. At least you can still carry a bunch of potions and use them at any time.
They added a few more things too. There's a new hidden arena where you fight 20 floors of monsters in a row. Every room gives you one of the game's spells, and by the end of the arena, you're given every spell in the game, plus a ring that gives you infinite MP when worn.
...I don't know what to think about this area. It's rather hidden, so players probably won't find it... but if they do, then their reward is the complete nullification of the magic crafting system....which itself was already useless to begin with, so it kind of... doesn't affect anything?
There are a couple other extremely minor changes here and there - there's now a tree enemy in the forest who wasn't there before, and a puzzle in the last dungeon was adjusted slightly... But for the most part, the game is pretty much exactly the same as Ys 5 regular, except now you'll die a few times as you play, rather than never dying.
However, the most interesting addition comes after you beat the game. They added a new Boss Rush time attack mode! I was under the impression that Ys 6 was the first game in the series to introduce this mode, however it seems my knowledge was sorely lacking, because here it is in Ys 5.
...While it's cool to see it included here, the awkward sword combat in Ys 5 makes this mode not so fun to actually play. Maybe I'll try to beat it as a challenge one of these days. ...but not for the moment. 🙂 Glad I unlocked it for later though. 😃
No comments:
Post a Comment