I beat Ys Seven today on the Normal difficulty and pumped about 23 or 24 hours into the game. I was gonna do a Nightmare difficulty run after I beat the game, but parts of that game were already so difficult, it seems like it would just be a luck based grind fest. My impressions of the game:
- The story was pretty cool. The whole five dragons thing combined with the reason the land was being destroyed was fantastic to go through. The game starts with little direction other than, here's a town, go explore it, but it picks up from there quickly. The story ended decisively with a good wrap up to explain what happened after. Overall, one of the more original stories I've had the pleasure of playing through. Like any story, it was plagued with cliches, but they certainly didn't take anything away.
- OH MAH GAWD ACTION RPG INCREDIBLENESS! The fighting is very well done. It is incredible amounts of fun to dodge just in the knick of time as you go running in to make a desperate charge slash realizing that you are in a battle that you won't win without spamming your ultimate attack. Although some bosses almost destroyed me (most notably the boss on Ruins Island and the extra caterpillar like titano in the desert), I still managed to pull through and win. The final boss forced me to employ every strategy I had with every character in order to win. The game forces you to use every character for a reason I won't delve into if you are playing/are going to play.
- Even characters that use the same kinds of attack play differently. The ranged fighters shoot at different rates, melee fighters swing at different speeds, etc.
- Side quests were kinda meh and unnecessary in the long run. Only actually used a couple of the things I got from them, and didn't bother with two or three of the quests for the end game. I did complete every single side quest that you could only get and complete before Ruins Island though, so I guess I have that.
Overall, the game was phenomenal. First game I've beaten in a long while.
Next up: Crisis Core
After: Ys 1 and 2
- The story was pretty cool. The whole five dragons thing combined with the reason the land was being destroyed was fantastic to go through. The game starts with little direction other than, here's a town, go explore it, but it picks up from there quickly. The story ended decisively with a good wrap up to explain what happened after. Overall, one of the more original stories I've had the pleasure of playing through. Like any story, it was plagued with cliches, but they certainly didn't take anything away.
- OH MAH GAWD ACTION RPG INCREDIBLENESS! The fighting is very well done. It is incredible amounts of fun to dodge just in the knick of time as you go running in to make a desperate charge slash realizing that you are in a battle that you won't win without spamming your ultimate attack. Although some bosses almost destroyed me (most notably the boss on Ruins Island and the extra caterpillar like titano in the desert), I still managed to pull through and win. The final boss forced me to employ every strategy I had with every character in order to win. The game forces you to use every character for a reason I won't delve into if you are playing/are going to play.
- Even characters that use the same kinds of attack play differently. The ranged fighters shoot at different rates, melee fighters swing at different speeds, etc.
- Side quests were kinda meh and unnecessary in the long run. Only actually used a couple of the things I got from them, and didn't bother with two or three of the quests for the end game. I did complete every single side quest that you could only get and complete before Ruins Island though, so I guess I have that.
Overall, the game was phenomenal. First game I've beaten in a long while.
Next up: Crisis Core
After: Ys 1 and 2
