How to Order Ys
There are several ways to get your Ys fix, but not every Ys title is easy to get a hold of. Unlike Ys' early history of multi-platform releases across a wide spectrum of hardware, the most recent games and remakes have been spread out in a much narrower field and not every Ys has been given a facelift.
For example, Ys IV and V, in particular, are missing from that marching order of remade releases on the PC. However, Taito's PS2 renditions of Ys III, IV, and V may be easier to find if not exactly prove to be the best versions in comparison to their original incarnations (or, in Ys III's case, to Falcom's own remake with The Oath in Felghana). Even if you get a hold of Taito's remakes, you'll need a Japanese PS2 or one that has been modded to play them.
As a more recent example, the newest Ys, Ys Seven, is available only on the PSP with no plans for it to appear on other platforms or as a translated game for the West at the time of this writing. It hasn't stopped a dedicated fanbase from translating the quests and providing walkthroughs for it, however, allowing players to enjoy its fast action, fabulous music, and the crisp visuals. The story, however, will benefit only those that can actually read kanji although fans have also written their own summaries as to what is actually going on if not offer a play-by-play accounting of every event as they occur.
But all is not lost. It is also thanks to the same fans that there is quite a bit of documentation available to help out, such as how to order directly from Falcom and support their efforts. Ancient Land of Ys has a walkthough on how to set up your order thanks to a helpful post.
My own experience differed a bit when it seemed that they didn't get back to me. A week or so later, I received an e-mail from Nihon Falcom that apologized for mistaking my e-mail for junk and then replied with the info I needed to order direct from them. Now that's service.
I started off with a simple question as to whether I could order The Oath of Felghana from them, and after a little email mix up, they asked for the following:
*Shipping
recipient name:
shipping address:
telephone number:
*Credit card information
credit card kind:[ JCB.UC.VISA.Master.AMEX.NICOS.DC ]
credit card owner's name:
credit card owner's address:[ if different from shipping address ]
credit card number(sixteens digits):
credit card term of validity(year/month):
If you are ok, we think we would like to accept your order.
We are waiting for your reply.
Thank you
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The information is pretty straightforward, although I didn't feel comfortable in sending my CC number in an unsecured e-mail. Fortunately, there are a few ways to get around this. What I did was to use a temporary CC number with a pre-set limit. It can be used only once and was somewhat easy to set up once I found the feature, so you might want to check to see if your credit card offers a similar service.
So I sent that after getting the total from them to know what I should roughly set the limit at.
After filling out the rest of the information and sending it back, Falcom sent me a confirmation email.
The game was sent via EMS but was well packaged and protected. It took about a week and a half to get to me and honestly, I thought it would have taken longer. But it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The link above to the method shown by Ancient Land of Ys should also work just as well and even guide you to getting anything else you might want direct from Falcom.
As for emulation, that might be the only way that certain titles can be experienced by today's audience since the actual hardware and, in Ys II Special's case, software may no longer be available commercially.
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