That whole sequence of Darm Tower, beating Fact, then flying off to GOD KNOWS WHERE and going straight to part 2 is pretty awesome.
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That whole sequence of Darm Tower, beating Fact, then flying off to GOD KNOWS WHERE and going straight to part 2 is pretty awesome.
That's correct, PCE Duo/TurboDuo version. The music is pretty fucking awesome on it too. The only shitty part of that awesome transition into Book II is they took all my gear and money. I was fucking rich in the world of Ys before this.
Your posts made me look up the TG16 intro to Ys II and caused me to learn something today: they re-animated the opening cutscene to match the English voice acting. Very cool! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z28HtsWKsE8#t=4m48s
From what I read they really put a shit ton of money and effort into the US release of Book I + II. I guess it didn't meet expectations or they didn't make as much on it because I've read the US release of III was a much cheaper quicker affair. The voice work was pretty damn impressive for Book I + II for that age, hell it's still better than some of the shit we get now. I'm starting to get some time with Book II and obviously enjoying it. The addition of magic is a nice touch. It almost makes me feel like something was missing from Book I. It could just be me but even the graphics seem slightly better in Book II. We traveled this weekend and I had some down time during it where I got to play Memories of Celceta on the Vita. You can tell that it is most definitely a tuned up PSP engine, so while the visuals are nice, you know the Vita could be doing so much more. The changed combat gameplay works for me, I don't think running into enemies would be as satisfying or work as well in 3D, so the change here is appreciated. My only true complaint would be fucking missables. That kind of shit should have died a long time ago, specially missables that give no fucking hint or clue that they can be missed, or that they exist in the first place.
I finally got to play Book II again this weekend (it's been super crazy busy last few weeks for us). I really enjoyed book I but I have to say I now get why this series has such a cult following. I wish I could put my finger on it the specifics of it, but I am just enjoying the shit out of this game. I really only got maybe 1 1/2 - 2 hours into it this weekend, but I kept feeling like I accomplished something. Found a ton of items, healed Lillia (did I remember that right), returned all the books, made my way to the next town. I even spent a little bit of time in that one dudes basement earning some cash to buy some gear. I really miss this sense of always moving towards a goal from some modern games. It keeps kind of surprising me with how good the music, and voice acting are on such an early console cd title.
Yeah, I can't really put my finger on why Ys 1 and 2 are so good. It's pretty archaic and short, and no attack button? But it works and is to this day one of my favorite RPG experiences. I really like how 2 plays torwards the end when magic is fully integrated into your arsenal.
On a somewhat related note, there is an Ys clone called Aiza: New Generation on PC-98. This was developed by Lawins and published by Tierheit, who I hadn't heard of before.
ANG is strikingly similar to Ys II, but requires you to hit an attack button to swing the sword and has jumping (like Ys 5 onward). Ruth, the hero, has a passing resemblance to Adol. The soundtrack is very good and on par with JDK's music. Someone has been looking into translating it but there's not been much progress. MP in this one is called Psycho Power.
The "Hot Start" system autosaves when you enter a new room, similar to Trails in the Sky on PC.
This sure looks worth checking out if/when the translation is finished.
Gohan's inspiration made me do this. It's kind of the perfect way to keep the fan translation with the original.
The lightscribe image came out pretty damn good, not perfect but pretty nice.
As said in another tgread, I might be wrong but I think 1 and 2 influenced nier a lot.
Like the way it is broken into 2 chapters.
Being limited to a few locations.
The grimore(sp?) Books seem to be a combination of the ys books and magic items.
The boss patterns and combat.
Being able to talk to monsters and the resulting dialog.
Anyway, these games are pretty cool. They are very limited in areas or towns, but there is a lot of cool gameplay. It's pretty rad going from the 1st to the second and getting magic. There are all kinds of nice touches like the monster rush in the basement ir becoming a monster to sneak by other monsters. This would have been a holy shit moment in 89 or 90 when jrpgs pretty much gave you all the bells and witless in the first 2 or 3 hours.
What I wouldn't give to play that when it was new. I think the first time I ran through it was about ten years ago. The opening still gives me chills.