Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim

Originally posted on Facebook on 25 February 2023

Alrighty, now it's time to talk about Ys VI!

"Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim" was released in 2003 for Windows, initially in Japan only.

A few years later, they got Konami to do a localised version for PlayStation 2, which released worldwide in 2005.

During development of the PlayStation 2 version, Konami added a few things - most notably a bonus trial dungeon that was not present in the 2003 version. Konami also added full voiceover for the dialogue, for both the Japanese and English versions.

The most modern release of Ys VI is the Steam version, which was released in 2015. But because Konami had no involvement with the Steam version, it seems like Nihon Falcom were unable to use any of Konami's contributions. So the Steam version is completely unvoiced and does not have the trial dungeon. Additionally, the non-Japanese localised scripts are different between the two versions, as Nihon Falcom was also not allowed to use Konami's translations.

So the PlayStation 2 Konami version is the version I opted for. I got myself the proper PlayStation 2 disc and everything - no emulation this time! And thankfully, this is a PAL PS2 game that supports NTSC mode, which is always great - I don't particularly want an inferior 50hz version, so I'm glad I don't have to worry about that in this case. (if only this was true for all PS2 games...)

The Steam version supports 60fps, widescreen, and HD resolutions, however the lack of the bonus trial dungeon content on Steam made me want to go for PS2 anyway, just so I could see what it was all about.

ANYWAY. I played Ys VI. Letttt's talk about it!

So, going into the game, I wasn't so sure what to expect. Ys V previously was trying to deviate itself away from the old "classic Ys" style of gameplay, in an attempt to make itself feel more "modern" amidst all the much more popular RPGs that were releasing at the time... but by the time of Ys VI, that was 8 years ago. ...would an even more modern Ys game still try to follow that kind of trajectory? 

Well the answer is... not at all. Rather, Ys VI abandons basically everything that Ys V was going for.

To me, it feels like... they had a long hard look at the classic Ys games, and they really tried their best to figure out what made them fun, what made them unique, what made them stand out to other RPGs - and with this in mind, they tried to incorporate all of these elements, the 'essence of Ys', into a new, modern-feeling game.

And I'm actually quite astonished with how much of the classic Ys DNA I can feel while playing Ys VI.

I'll go over some aspects of Ys VI that felt particularly like "Classic Ys" to me:

- The game plays in a zoomed-out fixed camera style. Even if it is a 3D polygon PS2 world, the way the player views the action is similar to the classics.

- The overall world design is pretty small - Just two towns, four dungeons, and two overworld fields. Not too dissimilar to Ys 1, which had a similar scope. A small world size isn't a bad thing at all, by the way - it just needs to be interesting, and I feel like Ys VI succeeds at that. 

- The game is pretty short overall - somewhere between 10 and 20 hours or so of playtime for the main story (which is much longer than the pitifully lacking Ys III and Ys V).

- The progression design is not always straightforward - there are times in Ys VI where the next objective is not so obvious, and you have to talk to everyone in town and figure out where to go next. And the world is small enough so that you can keep all the possible locations in mind easily.

- The inventory design has gone back to the item grid style. No more "FF-style" RPG item list - who needs it? The item grid is back and it works really well for Ys - especially if you're the type to want to collect everything, since it's very easy to notice if you have a blank spot in the grid.

- The way enemies and EXP work feels very much like classic Ys. Enemies come at you frequently and in great numbers, yet they are dealt with very quickly too. You can get lots of EXP per enemy, so leveling up happens quite rapidly - and each level-up feels like a significant increase in power. 

At the beginning of the mountain dungeon, for example, I was dealing 7hp of damage per hit to the flying bug enemies - but by the end of the dungeon, I had leveled up a few times and was dealing 28hp damage to the same bugs. The fast growth really feels satisfying.

- If you encounter enemies that are too strong for your level, you will just deal 0hp of damage to them. This means that the need for grinding is back, and to be honest, I felt like the grinding problem in this game was even worse than any previous Ys game - quite frequently I came across a boss I just could not damage at all without first gaining a few levels.

...I'm quite surprised they kept this aspect, actually - as this felt to me like an "oldschool game" kind of design problem, yet they must have considered it an important enough part of Ys to make it the same way again... Who knows?

- You are not allowed to access your inventory mid-boss, but similar to Dawn of Ys, they let you equip one type of healing item beforehand. You can carry up to 9 of any item, so you do get to heal more than once during a fight, but you can't swap out to a different item if you run out. I think this really works well in this game - it allows you to heal during a tough fight, but not to the point of making things too easy.

- The maze-like dungeon design is back. And wouldn't you know it - one of the mazes was actually complex enough that I had trouble keeping the layout in my head. Yet at the same time, there were enough landmarks for me to be able to recognise which rooms I had already explored. And there are all sorts of optional goodies hidden away in these mazes, which makes you feel smart for finding them - especially when it's unique equipment that's actually useful to have. 

So... yeah! It really feels like Ys VI is a more modern take on the Ys I&II game style - which I wasn't expecting at all! 

And just about every change that Ys V made was reverted. ...This makes it so that Ys V really feels like an "odd one out" of sorts. ...I'm very curious to see if I will still feel this way after playing the entire series.

The only things from Ys V they kept and evolved was the new sword combat system - which is fair enough - the old "bump combat" from classic Ys is definitely its most "outdated"-feeling aspect, and it wouldn't really be taken seriously in a more modern game... especially in 2005.

So in Ys VI, You can swing Adol's sword with the Square button, and jump with X. The Circle button is used for magic.

Adol has basic 3-hit sword combo, and he can also do an upwards slash and a downwards stab. I do like how the upwards and downwards moves feel very uniquely useful for dealing with certain kinds of enemies - you can experiment and see which kinds of moves work best for each foe.

There are three different swords you can swap between with the R1 and L1 buttons - a medium-weight wind sword, a heavier fire sword, and a lighter thunder sword. For most of the game, the fire sword was my go-to weapon, however the other two do have their uses.

The swords can be upgraded in town by spending "Emel" stones that drop from enemies. Upgrading the swords unlocks an additional move, and one magic attack each. The reason I used the fire sword the most was because its additional move is a useful longer-ranged flame slash... the electric sword's dash move was very situational, and the wind sword's spinning slash move has an extremely tight input window that I can't do consistently enough to rely on.

Speaking about inconsistent inputs - the game also has a "Dash Jump" move with a reaaally awkward input. You sort of tap forwards the stick, then let go, and then half a second later, press Attack and Jump at the same time, with the Attack input being pressed just a tiny tiny bit before Jump. ... it's such a specific awkward input. The Dash Jump is a really long-ranged jump that is occasionally used to jump over large pits - especially to reach optional treasures. So getting used to it is necessary if you want to complete the game 100%.

I should mention that the saving and healing system has changed. For the first time ever, Ys no longer has regenerating health, and no longer lets you "save anywhere". Instead, we have a standard save point system. In order to heal, you need to find a save point. When you die, you are brought back to the previous time you saved. Simple as that - though the game is nice enough to put death checkpoints at bosses as well.

Thankfully you can carry quite a few healing items around with you, so the lack of regenerating health doesn't mean you're out of options for healing.

The two towns are nicely detailed in this game, in that characters will all update their dialogue after every story event. Every townsperson is unique, with their own character designs and names and personalities and relations to each other, etc - there isn't a generic NPC to be seen. I really enjoy it when RPGs do this. ...Games having so many "generic NPCs" is one of my least-favourite tropes of JRPG design, because it just feels plain lazy to me. So I'm always happy when a game lets everyone be a proper character.

The boss fight design in this game is... rather mixed I feel. Some of them are quite fun, while others have some verrry weird design.

 One boss in particular I'm thinking of is a big stone face embedded in a wall, on the other side of a gap you cannot cross. The only way to attack it is with the fire sword's magic attack, which is long-reaching.... but you have to hit it many times with this magic attack, and recharging the sword's magic takes WAY too long mid-fight, unless you previously upgraded your sword enough to unlock the "auto generate MP" upgrade, which is gotten at sword rank 8. .... It seems like such a specific requirement for beating a boss - I mean, what if I had decided to spend my Emel on the wind or lightning swords instead? Would I then need to go out and grind a TON more Emel in order to get my fire sword to rank 8, just for this one boss? ...This boss also had some really janky hitboxes too - its arms are normally safe to touch, but the moment it starts doing an attack animation, suddenly they can deal over a third of my HP of damage on contact, even before the attack actually happens.... it just felt like a very poorly-implemented boss.

Aside from this, there was one other thing which I felt was a significant design oversight - there exists a few locations in the game where it is possible to save in a place where you cannot leave until you beat the boss, but there also exist no enemies to grind on either. ... Since it is very much possible to deal 0hp of damage to the bosses if you are underleveled, it might be possible to completely trap yourself if you save here... - No way to leave, no way to damage the boss, no way to get more EXP. Stuck in purgatory. I would have appreciated if they just added a couple of basic enemies in these areas to grind on - it's not a hard problem to solve... Luckily I was never trapped like this, but I did notice the possibility.

One thing about the bosses that I really DO appreciate is the inclusion of a Boss Rush Mode! After you complete the game, you unlock a boss rush. And best of all, the game auto-sets your equips and EXP for each fight of the boss rush - it's completely independent from your save files. This is the first Ys game to include a separate bonus unlockable mode like this, and it's things like this that can make an RPG feel more rich and "fully featured", playable even beyond the confines of the save file. Good stuff!

Speaking of bonus things, regarding that Konami-exclusive Trial Dungeon... It's pretty fun. You get five mini-dungeons to explore, which get unlocked one at a time as you reach certain story progression points. The dungeons consist of corridors full of enemies which lead into larger puzzle rooms, mostly involving moving platforms. It's good stuff, and I do enjoy how it has some unique game mechanics that aren't present in the main game. At the end of each mini-dungeon you get to choose between earning a big boost of EXP, Gold or Emel. ...however, every time I tried to choose EXP, the game said "Nope, you're a good enough level already - why not choose something else?" which I thought was really odd. ... I don't feel like the Steam version is missing out TOO badly for not including this dungeon, but I'm very pleased I had the opportunity to play through it on PS2. 😃 

Overall, I really did enjoy my playthrough of Ys VI. I was pleased to see how the series has evolved in a direction that makes everything more appropriate for modern gaming, yet at the same time, it doesn't lose its sense of what it means to be an Ys game in the first place.

Even though it definitely has some classic gaming jank, and the grinding can get a bit too overbearing at times, I felt like Ys VI is a worthy successor, and a great return-to-form after the 8 year absence between 5 and 6.

Now, what's next? Ys Seven? Well... I'll get to that one later. I want to continue playing the series in release order, so next on the agenda is actually gonna be Ys: The Oath in Felghana. I'm not getting tired of Ys yet! In fact, I feel like I'm just getting into the good stuff now!