"Spoiler-Free Review"
Reviewer: Hansuke
Total Playtime: 46 Hours, 24 minutes and 28 seconds.
Platform being reviewed upon: PS5
"Thank you Nihon Falcom and Clouded Leopard Entertainment for the opportunity while looking forward to what the future will bring."
The Ys series that is celebrating its 36th year of its founding which suppose to be last year of its 35th Anniversary, Nihon Falcom's latest title to Ys series showcase in terms of its scale and newer updated gameplay that is clearly noticable when comparing past titles on PC to its latest entry on current generation consoles.
Thanks to Clouded Leopard Entertainment and Nihon Falcom at Tokyo Game Show 2023 for the review copy of Ys X: Nordics after conducting a independent unofficial in-person two part interview, with one of them being as a "fan-lore" interview between both the President of Nihon Falcom with the CEO of CLE and yours truly.
I'll now be introducing you to the features of this game from a reviewer perspective.
Starting with the timeline of the series, this game takes place after Ys I and II and before Ys IV: Memories of Celceta in chronological order with its protagonist Adol and his party are on their way to the Sea of Creation in order to help out Lila.
The whole structure of the game allows the player to enjoy a new storyline in the Ys timeline and gives the opportunity to catch up on some details between the older installments.
The main protagonist, Adol Christin, has been one of the most talked about in the series especially in this new entry with his different illustration from its first reveal till now, and this time around, he has been portrayed by the renowned illustrator toi8.
Regarding the size of the game in terms of hours to complete depending on the person, the main plot of the game takes about 25-30 hours to complete, and to platinum it will be about 45-50 hours. For the frame rate aspect, the PS4 version runs at 30 fps, PS5 version at 60 fps, and the Switch ver. being at a inconsistent 15-30 fps. Despite of those issues, it feels more polished running on the new shader with the new engine compare to past Ys titles.
Note: Tested them individually with different reviewers copy and experience them. Experiences may vary from person to person.
Ys is one of those beloved series that is continually to gain new players and the support of its older players over the years, with different variety of new attempts of bringing new ideas one way or another, which there is no lack of some ambitious ideas.
For example, this title is a unique change for its gameplay for the series which we see past entries using the Attack Attributes(Slash,” “Strike,” and “Shoot) that have been established in recent years, which we have a number of controllable companions and so forth, but this latest entry it went back to its old roots and mainly focused on Adol as the character or being the "origin" in a dual-character gameplay design.
The game is played in as duos for about 95% of the time, and the player is free to switch between both of the characters (Adol and Karja) with the selected character you controlled of its action, while the secondary character's action will be left to being controlled by the AI.
Some players may wonder if the reduced number of companions will indirectly cause the game to be less volume in size of variety of skills than ever before.
The answer is no. Even when comparing the number of skills of the characters of the past, this game is unique, with the total number of skills for two people, including duo skills, reaching as many up to 70.
Many will say, wouldn't it be just as easy to design multiple companions and let players pick two of them according to their own preferences?
Yes, it may be possible, however applying it to the setting of this game will appear as a major flaw and what it portrays in the story, this specific part can't be easily explained since it involves spoilers especially regarding to the mana part, so it is not the right time to talked about it at the moment.
The combination-mode is the centerpiece of this game's combat. Compared to most single-player techniques, combination techniques are characterized by its higher power and providing a wider hit range, and although it will consume more SP, it's shared between the two characters.
The skills in this game come with a damage reduction by casting, which ensures that you won't get killed by a strong move even on higher difficulties.
On the right end of the screen, this is known as the Revenge Gauge and has an initial multiplier of 1.0, which is gradually increased by defending against enemy attacks, thus increasing the amount of damage we can do to the enemy when we cast those combination skills.
The Perfect Guard is very powerful, and when you succeeded it, not only it recovers extra SP, but also causes the monster (including the bosses) to go into a freeze time state, giving the player plenty of time to launch a counterattack or adjust their stance before the time ends.
Note: Personally, I used a lot of this style in my whole playthrough which this defensive stance helped me in multiple situations that reconfigured my sharpness with precise accuracy with eyeing the timing of the enemies attack patterns.
In addition, when you activate the perfect guard against an enemy's specific move, a QTE will appear in the middle of the screen with a circle button, which can do one-time massive damage to the enemy.
One of the newest additions to the game is a system that acts similar to of the Trails series, where these different slots can activate various passive skills, putting the player in a more favorable position in battle.
In this game, these slots are called Release Line.
The next section will be unlocked according to level. These are divided into red, blue, yellow, black, and the other colors, and these colors increase all attribute values except black.
Different attribute values can be leveled up to lv10 depending on the maximum number of slots that can be paired with its current level.
The collecting elements in this game are largely the same as before, and by fully collecting those items takes a certain amount of time and effort. Especially for those who wanted to 100% platinum the game.
Next up, we have the Recapture the Island Battles and the Seafaring segment.
The ship that will be using in this game is not just a simple means of transportation on the sea map, but at the same time it's a system that integrated along with main plots of the story and its gameplay, exploration and being the key part within the game.
It is the main mean of transportation and combat, as the flow of the game continues to progress, more characters be onboard as support, can be upgraded to make more space, and the overall strengthening of the ship.
It is recommended that in the allocation of resources, in order for the game to proceed more smoothly, please do not skip on materials if you want to actively strengthen it consistently.
The usual movement, the red icon are your ordinary enemy ships, for instant combat, fight can be, collect part of the important materials and money as resources;
While the purple column is where it sets up as a shipboarding battle, which is basically getting up close to the enemy main ship to trigger the boarding mechanism, and for treasure chest it will be randomly get a different color which leads to various chest rewards, according to the game's area of the fleet level is different.
Recapture the Island is divided into land and sea battles which is a way to replace the previous defense war from Ys VIII/IX, which the the highest performance rank that can be achieved will be S, which the total score is based on from accumulate scores from both sides.
For the seafaring part, I will say that it is a worthy addtion and potentially for something they can look into upon for future projects in the Ys series to explore many areas not by boat but through other means, there are many islands that players need to explore on their own, of course, the vast majority will look up or make a guide for the game to help the community pinpoint where they are and what to look for, but also requires the player to be more thoughtful how they approach those unique scenarios independently.
This is the review of Ys X: Nordics, which the game will be released on the 28th of this month, I hope it expresses the vision that it seeks to the audience and fully understand what its full meaning behind this latest entry.
One more thing for Ys fans regarding this title, Adol will be express more in important moments more often in this entry especially in one particularly scene.
Ciao!
Final Review Score: 9/10
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