i completed Ys Book One aka the first act of the Turbografx version (my post about starting it if you even care Games you’ve played today: Fourteen by Kazuo Umezz - #1198 by sleepysmiles )
it’s so funny how abruptly the game is like “ok time to go to the final dungeon aka the second half of this game/point of no return. Are you ready? TOO BAD here we go” and you’re permanently cut off from the overworld you’ve been exploring and the rest of the game is about climbing a tall, tall tower. one of my favorite things to do in games!
i love the visual tricks Falcom did to convey winding your way up a rounded tower
these “balcony” sections where you walk left/right implicitly walking the outer circumference of the tower. (it even counts as “outside” for the purpose of your HP regen!) and this particular neat bit where you have to detour to a shrine connected via bridge, and get to see it from multiple angles. That’s such a classy touch, really good attention to detail and smart use of top-down perspective
it’s such a simple, condensed game to the point of being a little barebones. but i think that coupled with nice details like these and all around good, 80s OVA-like vibes (and sick music) made me really like it. it’s a lil jewel of game.
it’s fun when these little portraits pop up and there’s suddenly voice acting. (also the soundtrack jars back and forth between Yuzo Koshiro FM synth and redbook CD and it’s all great.) i missed two major items you need to fight this guy (your silver armor getting taken away totally flew over my dumb ass), and had to backtrack down the tower TWICE as a result, but it went really fast cuz this game is so so brisk. and i was so overleveled that i curb stomped him in like 45 seconds while facetanking all his attacks. Kinda undercut his villain boasting. i love that man’s name is Dark Fact that’s somehow both dorky and cool
I like that Ys II does already feel a bit different, even though this game oddly sutures them together. (i figured i would have my gold reset to 0 lol but it was pretty funny cuz with no shop for the second half of the game i was walking around at the 65535 gold cap, as you can see). i’m glad it introduces magic, cuz i dig the bump combat but it needed some variety
ive had an idea for a long time for a game that would escalate from an overworld, to climbing a massive game-spanning tower or tree, to being in a new overworld. just continually growing and changing in scope. So it’s rad to play a game that more or less did do that before i was even born
the cutscene bridging the two games is, like the intro cutscene, fuckin sick