Ys X: Nordics - Deluxe Edition

So this is game 10 in the series. I played game 1, when it was released back in the 90's, so I appreciate this series. I absolutely loved the game 9, Monstrum Nox. In that one, you roamed around a giant castle-city, and had the ability to run-up any and all walls. That was a fun concept. I went back to game 8, a giant island, with no wall running, and did not complete it. The story was boring and the gameplay was too simple. So what happens in game 10? Well, it's a giant ocean where each island is either a town or battle area. The boat is slow and there's no wall running. I did NOT like it at first, but about 3 hours in, it got real good. The Viking setting is interesting, the female character is interesting, the enemies make you want to understand what's going on, and very quickly your boat turns into a turbo-charged racer while the enemy boats remain the same slow speed. On land, you fight alone, switching between Adole or the girl, OR you hold the R2 to fight as one. Both characters have special moves, switching at the right time is a special move, and holding R2 have special moves. This all makes the on land action very interesting. In a gaming universe where things are boring, either because of poorly written stories, or gameplay we've seen a million times over, it's nice to find an action game where almost everything is interesting. If Falcom just added finding a tool on one island to use on another, making it an adventure game, it would have been perfect, but as is, when I finished the game, I was sad to send it back. Definitely one of the better games this year!

All in all, another solid entry into the Ys series. While I wasn't a huge fan of the mechanic of switching between two characters the entire game, it's at least clear the developers spent some time thinking about it and how it would fit into the gameplay, which is something I can respect. I also wasn't a big fan of the sailing around in a ship parts, but I can also respect that they're trying something new to keep the series from stagnating. At the end of the day, Ys represents what I wish the rest of the gaming industry would emulate. Putting gameplay as the top development priority and then worrying about graphics later. If you have a fun game, graphics don't matter as much, but if you have pretty graphics and a broken game, you may as well have just made it a CGI movie.

The game was a very fun action rpg that didnt drag on for too long. I did most of the side content and it ended up being around 40 hours. The ship combat reminded me of assassins creed black flag and the dual protagonist system they used was interesting throughout most the game. Admitedly the combat on ground can get a little repetitive and button mashy after a while but the ship combat mixes things up just enough to ignore the combats shortcomings. The best thing about this game was the english voice acting and the characters in the story. I was surprised how much voice acting there was and it was a welcome edition. All the characters had fun personalities and the game made you care for your crew on the Sandras(your ship). Overall it is worth a rent and maybe even a buy if you like action rpgs. It definitely made me want to check out the other games in the series. :)