Ys I & II Chronicles

Ys I & II Chronicles is a compilation of remakes of the first two installments of the Ys series - Japanese action RPGs, developed by Nihon Falcom. The production debuted on PlayStation Portable and later on PC; a few years after the original release, an improved version, titled Ys I & II Chronicles+ appeared on the latter platform.

Story

Action of the games included in the set begins in the fantasy land of Esteria, which has been attacked by hordes of monsters. During the game we play as Adol Christin, a brave warrior who decides to face the threat. To do this, the hero must not only climb to the top of the Devil's Tower, but also find six holy books that record the history of the mythical kingdom of Ys that existed seven hundred years ago. In the second part of the series Adol encounters a mysterious flying island, whose inhabitants struggle with the invasion of demons. As you can easily guess, it is up to him to discover its causes and find a way to stop it.

Mechanics

In both productions forming the Ys I & II Chronicles compilation we observe the action in isometric projection. At first glance, the fun does not differ from the genre formula - in the course of the adventure we travel through a vast land, talk to NPCs and perform tasks for them, as well as fight against adversaries. What distinguishes the title from other games of this type is the combat system - the battles take place in real time and we do not have a separate attack command at our disposal. For example, a frontal attack can end up worse for us than for the opponent, making it more effective to hit from behind or from the side. Moreover, in the second part of the series the devs introduced the possibility of casting spells, as well as transforming into a demon - in this form Adol can talk to adversaries and learn about their motivation.