Due to a very good deal on PSN I decided to buy this game thinking the art and animation on the trailer there was pretty and was a JRPG.

When I started the game I confess I was disappointed by the graphics being very outdated and well being more like and action game than RPG. But well I'm 11h in, the game is pretty linear (with some backtracking) and limited in items, there is no voice over, very little Cutscene (and they are simple) and the story have been quite simple (can change on the last hour since I have two final bosses to dish out).

Still the battle is so fast paced and the bosses quirks cool and can be either punishing or rewarding.

I can say this game made a V on my appreciation, started with high expectations, dropped very low on disappointment due to the deception and expectation, but recovered and passed the initial expectations. I would recommend people playing it.

This game has been out on Steam for awhile now, it was built on the same engine as Oath in Felghana and plays similarly. I recently picked it up on the Switch when Best Buy had physical cartridge copies of it.  Yes, it is a good game.

When I checked out I saw it was released like 2012 for PC, but even though I heard about Ys some times on the past I didn't remember it to much. And after like 2 or 3 promotions on PSN I decided to bite.

Ys Origin first released on PC in 2006 in Japan then WW in 2012.

Yeah, it's a very old game, but a fun one. The characters all play differently enough to warrant playing through it three times too, which is pretty rare.

Ys Oath of Felghana is better but plays in that same style. I'm a big Ys fan even if the modern games I don't enjoy as much. Ark of Naphishtom is also in that style as Oath and Origin. These are modern ports of very old games tho. Early 2000s PC games made by Falcom who despite being the oldest JRPG developer around. Always been a small company. The first JRPGs like Dragon Slayer and Ys predate when JRPGs became turn-based.

I feel like a lot of these smaller JRPGs probably have a lot more to contribute and add to how you make a good JRPG game mechanically than a lot of bigger titles might. I still think Etrian Odyssey has one of the most engaging turn-based battle systems I've ever played, enough to carry the game for quite a long time and that's despite it having almost no story and me not being a huge JRPG fan. I can't imagine if gameplay like that was used in a bigger more experimental and ambitious production, could be one of the better games ever.

Then the graphics make a lot of sense.

"A nice surprise is almost always better than a kick in the balls" - Camille Paglia

I wanted to buy a Turbo Graphx CD to play Ys:Book 1 and 2 back in 1989, but it would have cost around $800. That's 1989 money too! Still planning on buying Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana on PS4 ( since my Vita copy will never be opened or played ). I'll keep this one in mind too, and will check it out on the store tonight to see what it costs.

The Dragon Slayer series lives on in the Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel series, too.