QCF: Ys: Memories of Celceta

This Review was Frelanced by Johnathan Sawyer; you can find his other work here.

s: Memories of Celceta is a new version of Ys IV, replacing Ys IV: Mask of the Sun as the new canon. It is a complete reimagining of what takes place in the past Ys IV games, with some similarities and nods to those releases (characters, music, locations, etc.), but is otherwise a brand new game. This release is the fourth Ys IV game; the other three were developed by Hudson Soft (Dawn of Ys), Tonkinhouse (Mask of the Sun), and Taito (Mask of the Sun: A New Theory), whereas this one was developed by Falcom themselves. The story, the graphics, music, and gameplay were completely overhauled, matching and surpassing what was seen in Ys Seven. This entry gives more light onto when and why Adol Christin (a.k.a. Adol the Red) decided to become an adventurer. Despite being the canon for Ys IV, it takes place chronologically before Ys III / Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

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QCF: Ys Origin

 

The Ys Saga has never really gotten a lot of press in North America, especially with Squaresoft and Enix and later Square-Enix dominating the RPG world for nearly the entire time that Japanese RPGs were popular. In Japan though, Ys has been an extremely popular series on PCs since the first installment showed up on the PC-8801 in 1987. And it's no small wonder, given Ys' super-streamlined game play, enjoyable story with likeable characters and often-hardcore difficulty.

The Adventures of Adol Christian has been a long and cherished one, despite its decidedly niche status. Starting out in North America on the TurboGrafx-16, the series has yet to disappoint me. Fast forward to the present and wouldn't you know it, Ys is still going pretty strong, with Ys Origin, the very latest North American offering in this criminally under-appreciated series, released on Steam from XSEED games. But what's this? No Adol? No exotic vistas? No puzzling riddles or any of the iconic Books of Ys? Well to understand why, you have to understand exactly what Ys Origin is all about. Ys Origin is technically the seventh title in the series, originally released in 2006 on Windows PC in Japan as a prequel to the entire Ys mythos, set 700 years before the events of Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished.

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