Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
Falcom's focus with the Ys series would return to the PC platform in 2003 with Ys VI. It initially came out as a Limited Edition which also came packed with emulated versions of Ys I – V making it an incredible treat for Ys fans...at least on the PC. After that sold out, a “Normal” version was released with additional enhancements such as new difficulty levels and a boss rush mode.
It was a Japan-only release until 2005 when Konami unexpectedly released a port for the PS2 to Western audiences with several enhancements such as CG movies, full voice acting, and additional gameplay in the form of optional action-based puzzles called Alma's Trials. Doing the Trials was a good thing, however, since they often rewarded the player with goodies. Goodies that were good for monster cutting upgrades.
It would come back on the PSP in 2006, again only for Japan, and see a re-release for Vista in 2007. Even though a PS2 release was on hand with an official translation from Konami, hardcore Ys fans weren't satisfied and had released an English patch for the 2003 PC version of the game, updating it for Vista when that came out. Now that's dedication.
Adol is about to score a few more XP (PC screenshot)
In this adventure, Adol joins up with Ladoc the Pirate and survives another near-drowning experience. He washes up in the heart of the Vortex of Canaan on one of three islands after surviving yet another shipwreck, courtesy of the Romun Empire's cannons.
He soon becomes wrapped up in an adventure to uncover an ancient power before the nefarious Romuns can lay their hands on it, but to succeed, he'll need to unravel Canaan's mysteries which will involve another bout of population decline among the monster community. There is a slight difference, however, with how it plays out between the PC and PS2 versions of the game (and between the PS2 and PSP versions where Alma's Trials were concerned), but Falcom had OK'd the change when Konami did their ports.
Ark took the gameplay mechanics of Ys V while adding in the quickness of III and polished the formula's flow to be much faster and more engaging with its action. Also gone was the "charging and fusion" magic system from Ys V with simple-to-use magic rings making a comeback. Saves, though, have to be made at specific points in the game as opposed to bringing up the menu and saving where you were which was a nice luxury to have in the earlier Ys titles.
Even the menus returned to their more traditional format with equipment laid out in categorical rows. Throw in the tough bosses that fans love and hate, and you've got an Ys title that does its best to try and get back to the basics.
Adol opens a can of electrified death, deep frying everything in his path (PC screenshot)
Without the limitations of a cartridge-based format and by returning to their roots on the PC, Falcom once again flexed their creativity with strong presentation values. 3D graphics were used to flesh out the environment, hi-res anime artwork was used for character portraits along with the story's cinematic cuts, and the music hit many of the right notes.
For the PS2 release, Konami decided to voice each character and while that was a big thing by itself, the actual quality was...not as good. Adol's on and off again acting sees him return to the series as a mute as the game summarizes what he actually explains along the lines of “Adol explains why he hates ships.” and then leaves it to the NPCs to tell the story. But since Adol is silent most of the time anyway, it's not that jarring.
The PC version also benefits from higher-res textures and details and the PS2 version, while decent, lacked much of that making some areas seem bland. 3D models were added into the PS2 version, a departure from the detailed sprites of the PC original and something of a downgrade in detail. As nice as it was to see Adol and most every other NPC rendered in polys, they didn't look that great.
More surprising were the CG cinematics. Before artists had managed to bridge the gap between anime and 3D, Ys VI had gone the other way with its cutscenes. In as much as bad cover art tried to fill in for the 8-bit characters' appearance, the cinematics in Ys VI tried doing the same thing for its anime-drawn characters with somewhat awful results.
It was like looking at the Westernized cover of the first Mega Man and wondering why you were suddenly playing as a stumpy, round headed guy with giant eyes, only going in the opposite direction. But Konami isn't wholly to blame for how those movies turned out as it was created for the game by an outside company, and it sounds like they simply included them despite not being entirely satisifed with how the models turned out. Perhaps in this case, it might have been better to leave these on the cutting room floor.
Size matters not. Fast reflexes do. (PS2 screenshot)
Ys also saw a re-release on the PSP thanks again to Konami and sported a few more changes. Gone is the voice acting (probably due to the smaller size of a UMD) and the sprites from the PC version were actually put back in. A few other additions were made such as a few more puzzle trials (replacing Alma's Trials from the PS2 version) and an in-game book detailing the characters and monsters in the game, similar to what would be included with the Ys III remake, The Oath in Felghana.
It's not the best Ys title that I've played because of the amount of backtracking done in the game as well as the somewhat unbalanced feel of the presentation between the music and the visuals. But the combat system is a lot more fun to play around with with its decent pacing and the difficulty is just right for newcomers and veterans to enjoy.
That, and its one of the very few Ys titles to come across from Japan make it an ideal, and widely available, launching point for players unfamiliar with the series to get their feet wet without drowning.
Additional links:
