I couldn’t stay away. I’ve been thinking about starting Ys from the beginning since finishing Oath in Felghana last night. A few days ago I booted up my thin client and popped Ys 1 for DOS onto it and tested the waters. If the music was better I might have stuck with it, but since I wanted that full FM synth sound and updated voice acting, I’m opting to play the TurboGrafx 16 version.

Right away I’m enjoying the graphics and story. The first town I was dropped off in, Minea, is bustling! Lots of people walking around ready to give you a quick bit of information or drop some gossip in your lap. In true Ys fashion, these asides are hints of things to come. If you stumble into the fortune teller’s house (Sara) she’ll give you a task - outfit yourself as a swordsman - buy a sword, shield and armor. With the gold you start with you’ll only have enough for two of the three, so out to the field to practice, grind and save. The bump combat took a minute to get used to - after all we’re conditioned to DODGE enemies, especially if we cannot attack. I’ve found that it’s also not as simple as moving into the same space as an enemy. If you come from behind you will always hit and not take damage. if you turn tail and run at the wrong moment you will certainly take damage, assuming you aren’t heavily over leveled. There are some audio cues at work as well - if you take damage or block, if the enemy takes damage or block, it helps make this system actually satisfying to engage with! Once I had my gold and a few levels I made my way back towards town … and promptly died. Some enemies are stronger than others and I wasn’t paying attention at what I was bumping into - let that be a lesson! Keep an eye on your enemies! It didn’t take me long to push myself back up three levels and get my gold again. THIS TIME I saved and got back to town.

There are three stores in Minea, a hospital that sells supplies, a weapons dealer and an armor dealer. There is also a bar where you can have a drink with these hot studs:

After the gear is acquired, be sure to equip it and go talk to Sara the Fortune Teller. She’ll inform you to go see someone in the next town, her aunt Jeba. If you’ve been talking to people in town they’ll point to the gravel road out of town - follow this and you’ll find the village of Zepik. I like how many resources this game spends on making sure there is just enough information so it doesn’t feel obtuse. Zeba informs you that you need to find the 6 books of Ys to stave off something terrible from happening and the first is in the shrine to the north. Excitedly, I head north, find the shrine - things are really starting to cook now. We’ve got a dungeon!

The dungeon is broken up into screens and areas connected by hallways and warping statues. You can walk around a screen going between doorways and rooms and hallways seeing treasure chests or doors but it’s a puzzle to figure out how to get there. There are plenty of enemies moving around the dungeon, as well. Interestingly the enemies spawn at random so unlike a Zelda game, you can never clear out a room - there will always be enemies in it. After moving through a floor of the dungeon and being rejected by a number of locked chests I found the first boss! I’ve been very interested in how the boss battles were going to work with bump combat. In later Ys games magic projectiles play a big roll in fighting the bosses so I wanted to see the sprouts of those battles. The first boss is a wizard that appears and disappears throughout a room that is being blasted randomly by beams of fire. Dodge the fire, bump the wizard - easy, right? It should have been! But the fire is pretty random and I could only get hit a few times. It didn’t take too long but I had to restart a few times. Luckily you can save almost anywhere and when you die instead of going through a game over / main menu, the game puts you right back to the last save point. Its very respectful of your time in that way.

Your reward for taking care of this is a shrine key which lets you unlock a few cells - inside one is a prisoner - a girl! She’s extremely worried about all the goons in the world, something other girls have expressed concern over too! What’s with all the gooning?!

This was the first hour or so of this game. And it really hooked me in! There were a few story beats after this (Feena goes to hang out with Zeba while she tries to regain her memories). I’ve pushed back into the shrine and went down another floor - I found a key which unlocks the treasure chests! This was good motivation to go back through the few floors to make sure I’ve gotten all the chests, they all contained some equipment - one of which is a mask you need to equip in order to reveal a hidden doorway which helps you get to the next boss! It’s little touches like this that help keep this world feeling alive and mysterious. The final boss of the shrine was this centipede looking thing that took me a minute to beat. When I first got to it I had 15HP left - in order to kill this thing you have to bump it anywhere that isn’t it’s gnashing maw! No projectiles flying the room this time - the only thing you have to dodge is the face but it’s tough! This thing moves extremely erratically.

It’s an enjoyable game loop so far. I beat the boss, went back to town - things have changed! Sara is missing! I have to talk to a poet! Zeba has a roommate now! I bought new armor and set out to the next location. This next section takes place in an abandoned mine and I think I know where it is. I’ve got some choice equipment and a bit of gold so I’m feeling confident I’m ready to move on. Tomorrow? WE EXPLORE THE MINES!