Bump and Grind- Ys I&II Chronicles Reviews

SeanNOLA: I get email all the time, saying “Sean, I bought Ys: The Oath in Fhelghana and Ys Seven based on your glowing and expertly-penned recommendations, but now I want to play some older Ys games.  Where should I start?” Okay, I’ve never gotten an email like that, but while we’re playing make-believe, let’s pretend I also got a letter, via carrier pigeon, stating “I am a die-hard Ys fan, but have limited funds to spend on this addiction. Is the latest incarnation of Ys I&II worth my hard-earned Swiss Francs?” Well, my fictional correspondents would be in luck, because Ys Books I&II: Chronicles for the PSP applies a fresh coat of paint to the PC-88 Classics.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Ys: The Vanished Omens is an adventure game, originally published for the PC-88 in Japan that eventually crossed the Pacific as ports to the NES and Sega Master System.  It follows the adventures of Adol Christin, a red-headed swordsman that washed ashore on the isolated continent of Esteria.  The game was similar in presentation to The Legend of Zelda, but combat was changed considerably to emphasize strategy. Rather than using the B-Button to attack, the player rams into foes with a sword, and based on the opponents facing, Adol’s attack may or may not be successful.  It seems archaic now, but in a time when most controllers only had 2 buttons, it was very innovative.  Since the 90s, it is usually seen packaged together with its sequel, Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter, and the matched set is generally referred to as Ys: Books I&II.


This certainly isn’t the first time Ys: Books I&II have been compiled and remade.  In fact, the two seminal titles have been on store shelves over twenty times since 1987. So what makes this remake so special?  Chronicles is actually a remake of Ys I&II: Complete, which was released for Windows PCs back in 2001. It featured completely updated graphics and new cinematics, but never saw a release on American shores. In 2003, it was rereleased for the PS2 as Ys I&II: Eternal Story, but again, that never made it to the US. Now, a decade later, Western fans are finally able to see what they had been missing.

Even though it is based on a decade-old port, Ys I&II Chronicles looks great next to its PSP contemporaries. The backgrounds and sprites are colorful and detailed, and the cut scenes are eye-catching. PSP port includes new character art and music developed specifically for this release, but Ys historians have the option to switch between “Complete” and “Chronicles” editions to get the full experience.  The game also includes the original PC-88 soundtrack, which you can turn on at any point, if you feel like listening to some 24-year-old chip-tunes.

Chronicles was definitely compiled with the fanboys in mind. Unlike previous collections, time-attack and harder difficulty modes are available from the outset.  However, mysteriously absent is the ability to set an attack button.  Also, the game does very little to hold the players hand, so students of Gaming Nuevo might get frustrated by the seeming lack of direction the game gives, or the complete lack of a checkpoint system. Although Ys purists may champion Chronicles’ adherence to the traditions of the original game, newcomers that might have had their interests sparked by the more recent Ys games may find the difficulty curve and bump-to-attack mechanic a little off-putting.

Cliché as it sounds, I would say that Ys I&II: Chronicles is the definitive remake for fans of the original title – that is, until the next time Falcom decides to dust off the license.  If you’ve ever thought “I wonder if I can beat Ys II in less than 4 hours, without stopping,” then this game is for you – it’s the same game that you already love, just dressed up and celebrated. However, if you just finished Oath in Fhelghana and just want to know more about Adol Christin, Legacy of Ys: Books I&II for the DS might be more your speed. It may not look as nice, but it plays a little more like a traditional hack-n-slash adventure game, and might be easier to jump into.



About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

45 comments

  1. So there’s actually two different games? Can you start and play each separately?

  2. Nobody reviews like NOLA and Deagle. In a perfect world, they’d start a gaming magazine.

    (Hint, hint)

  3. Great job. You did the game right. Screw Metacritic and their 60% sites.

  4. Cool, whats the price of it, though?

  5. Question- do you guys factor the price of a game in when calculating the review score?

  6. Buttrock FTW!!!

    Heaven or Hell!

  7. “so students of Gaming Nuevo might get frustrated”

    Is that Digipen’s rival? 😛

  8. Thank god some sites get it. Great review.

  9. How many Ys games are there altogether? I could go for a Ys console compilation!

  10. Is there amnesia involved at all? Thats a turn off for me.

  11. Yep, it would at least as good if not better than Game Uninformer.

  12. I might have to get this one. Is it on UMD as well?

  13. Good review- When IGN writes thinks like “Only consider it if you know you’re in the mood for an intentionally obtuse, old-school journey that’ll have you searching for an online guide in the first five minutes” It makes me think they really need to get some freelancers who have played a game in the series.

  14. reviewers who knock the game for being 20 years old suck.

    Thanks NOLA- for giving the game the shake it deserves.

  15. I heard they redid the translation? Is so how is it?

  16. So it’s the Mexican Gamestop, duh!

  17. I’ll say it again- This is why the smaller sites need to be at E3.

  18. Yeah, makes you wonder what they did when the game came out and the internet wasn’t around for another decade.

  19. Why are some reviewers saying this originally came out on the TG-16 CD, not the PC-88?

  20. $25 bucks. I think $20 would have been a bit more reasonable.

  21. Yep, there’s two. No idea if you have to finish one to play the other, though.

  22. kissass 😉

  23. good review, SNOLA.

  24. It never came out on the PC-88 in the US (obviously) but it did come out on the Master System and the TG16…not sure which one came out first, but that might be what other reviewers are referring to.

  25. I wouldn’t go so far as to say two “different” games. Some of the art is different between the Complete and Chronicles versions, but the maps and whatnot are all the same.

  26. Exactly the same? That’s kind of cheap. They could mix it up just a bit.

  27. You’re right. I think some reviewers are talking about first in the US, not the world.

  28. LOL! Good point, man.

  29. great review.I’ve never played Ys I&II always wanted to and I need something to play on my psp till ffiv complete and this will be it :).

  30. Keep the JRPG reviews coming,please.

  31. I’ll be adding this to my Ys collection.

  32. Clarification: I misunderstood the question: Yes, there are 2 separate games, Ys1 and Ys2, and both are available from the outset. However, each game has a “Complete” and “Chronicles” edition, also both available out-of-the-box, that offer different character artwork.

  33. Sober up, NOLA! No Sunday drinking and writin’

    🙂

  34. Not including compilations, but including Japan-only titles, there are 10 unique titles…sorta. It gets kinda cloudy, because there are 2 versions of Ys4, which share a similar story, but aren’t technically the same game. Also, I’m including Ys:Strategy, which may or may not be canonical.
    It’s weird to think about the fact that the tenth game in the series is called “Ys:Seven”!

  35. yep- ff fudges on numbers as well. Blame X-2.

  36. NOLA, when you read other sites reviews and they’re very different, how do you feel?

    I mean on this one, some of them acted like they never played a Ys game before. Thats cool and all, because I know most gamers probably haven’t, but trashing the game because you don’t understand the heritage isn’t really cool.

  37. Yeah, NOLA reviewing Ys or Monster Hunter is pretty much the closest the english internet has to an expert.

    As for your comments on Stacking, we’ll leave that one alone 😉

  38. Ports and remakes are tough to review sometimes, because you really can’t review the original mechanics – someone has already decided that the original was good enough to warrant remaking, so it’s the job of the reviewer to discern whether or not the remake is worthwhile. In the end, you aren’t asking yourself “does this control well” so much as “does this feel enough like the original.” I’m sure if those same reviewers were tasked with reviewing Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii, they wouldn’t have complained about a 25-year-old Mario game, because it is something that everyone is immediately familiar with. I think the issue here is whether or not this game should have been assigned to a writer with no experience with the franchise.

  39. Since most people (unlike SMB) aren’t familiar with Ys- shouldn’t you have a reviewer who hasn’t played the games?

  40. That’s kinda like saying “Most people aren’t familiar with Mark Twain, so shouldn’t someone who’s never read Huckleberry Finn review a compilation of his works?” Whether you’ve read Huck Finn or not, by now you understand that it’s an American classic, and the reviewer’s opinion on the original work wouldn’t have an impact on that fact, however, a Mark Twain scholar critiquing the forward and overall composition of the collection would be a worth-while read to other Mark Twain fans. People who are just interested in knowing what this “Hucky Finn” hooplah is all about have ample resources for that information already – just google it, and you’ll find a wealth of scholarly articles and high-school book reports on the subject – you’ll even find free ebooks if you just want to form your own opinion.

    Ys is in the same wheelhouse. It’s over 20 years old – if you want to know whether or not bumping into dudes is fun, you have 20 years of other peoples’ opinions to sift through, or you can just pick up one of the 20 ports its seen over the years (if you don’t want to download a ROM illegally, I’m sure there is some way to play it for 99c somewhere). It’s then the reviewers job to say “given that core elements of this game are already considered ‘adequate,’ is this particular collection worthwhile, given the changes and content added.”

  41. I wish schools assigned Ys as required playing like they assign Huckleberry Finn.

  42. Fire When Ready

    fair enough. Does that mean when you guys review FFXIV, you’ll have to play through each FF game?

  43. No. It means 20 years from now, if FFXIV is considered prolific enough to be remade, I would have to play the original first.

    A better example would be when FFIV:Complete comes out for PSP, I should have to be familiar with the original work before tackling the review.

  44. This is on PSN? I couldn’t seem to find it.