My last session was long, and I wrote what I did from memory, so it wasn’t one of my best posts. This time, I’m writing along as I play, so it should be better.

I loaded the game up at the end of the fire level of the tower. The very next room was called the Devil’s Corridor and it was a tough one. As soon as I entered, I started losing health. At first, I tried to run through it, but it didn’t work. I ran back to the save point and was told by Yunica I needed to go consult someone. I returned to the bottom floor and talked to everyone.

No one seemed to offer any good advice apart from one of the students saying I should befriend some small cute furry demon creatures I’ve already met before. I thought this was just general advice, but after looking all over, I returned to the Devil’s Corridor and tried to make it to one of the adjacent rooms. One of the creatures was there so I gave him some fruit. As thanks, it taught me a melody I could play on my flute to disperse the miasma causing me damage in the Corridor.

I continued exploring the next fire area and quickly found a chest I needed to open in order to get the key to the next boss. In order to do this, I needed to relight four torches located at different locations on the level. The first two were ease, but the second pair gave me trouble. I didn’t realize I could jump up to the platform above one of the rope bridges. It wasn’t very visible, but both sides of the platform had areas with the fence removed, so I could use my Whirlwind to jump up there. With the last two torches lit, the chest opened and I got the key.

The boss looked impressive and difficult, but was surprisingly easy once I figured out his pattern. All I needed to do was to run in circles, hit both of his arms until they wall off and then hit his head. On several occasions, the boss would destroy the floor, causing me to take some damage, but it was low enough that I didn’t even have to avoid it. With the monster out of the way, I went to the next area, this time with a desert theme, saved my game and completed this session.

Side note: I won’t be able to write as I play unless I use real pen and paper or play windowed. It seems the game crashes if I try to alt-tab out of it. Oh well, shorter sessions should be enough to remember most of what I did.

Thanks to a friendly and generous person from /v/, this is another game I got for free during this sale. You see, I had enough money to get the other Ys game on steam, but I couldn’t afford this one, so someone hooked me up.It’s been a while since I played a proper JRPG on the big screen, and I knew I would enjoy this one from the start. I played a lengthy session yesterday and I’m actually delaying today’s session by writing this, so I’ll try to keep it short.

Ys: Origin is a prequel, taking place several centuries before the first game of the series. For a long time, the land of Ys was prospering. People worshipped the benevolent twin goddesses Reah and Feena. With their six high priests, the goddesses showered the land with happiness. They also created a powerful artefact, the black pearl, which allowed everyone in Ys to use magic.

The happiness lasted for a long time, but eventually, something horrible happened. Suddenly, out of nowhere, demons invaded Ys. The land fell almost instantly due to sheer numbers of the invading creatures. As a last resort, the remaining survivors gathered at the shrine where the artefact was kept and, using it’s magic, they rose the shrine and the surrounding area to the sky. However, it was soon obvious that this was just a brief delay, as the demons began building a tower to reach the shrine. At this time, the twin goddesses disappeared, together with the artefact. A search party was sent to the surface, in hopes of finding and rescuing them.

As the first character I’ll finish the game with, I picked Yunica. She’s the granddaughter of one of the 6 high priests and the only known person in Ys that’s unable to use magic at all. The game described her as a melee fighter using a heavy axe, so I assumed she would be tough enough for someone new to the game like me.

I woke up next to a huge talking tree. It told me it can sense the goddesses, as well as most of the search party in the area of the demon tower. Sadly, it also said Yunica’s father is probably dead, defeated in the battle during the ascension of the shrine. Yunica pretty much expected this, so she wasn’t very shocked. She decided to get to the tower as soon as possible. I got there soon and immediately encountered a priest with two students being attacked by some demons. After saving them, the priest said we should wait for everyone else to regroup, but upon my request, he sent me to do some reconnaissance around the base of the tower.

I started exploring the rooms on the first level and soon found an artefact which taught me how to use a special attack called Whirlwind. It’s a wind based attack and as close to magic as Yunica could get. With some more exploring, I’ve found a couple of strange people – a young bratty girl and a large muscular man. They turned out to be hostile and summoned a large demon to attack me. After defeating the demon, I did some more exploring and found an injured party member. He gave me his family heirloom, which allowed me to get past a trap set by the group I encountered.

Once I passed the trap, I fought another huge demon. This one was a bit harder, but I managed to beat it after a couple of tries. I explored several floors, disposed of another couple of demons, acquiring another attack skill, all the while learning more about the mysterious couple I encountered. They weren’t from Ys at all, but from some other land. The girl introduced herself as Epona at one point, right before she attacked me. I managed to beat her quite easily, but she escaped.

After exploring for a while longer, I managed to find one of the goddesses, Lady Reah Feena, but she was hesitant to go back with me. While trying to talk her into going back, the enemy party tracked us down and revealed their intentions. They want to capture the goddesses as well as the black pearl they had with them. The muscular man revealed himself as the person who killed Yunica’s father. She attacked him in a fit of rage, but the man defeated me easily and the enemy party was gone with Reah in their captivity.

Luckily, Yunica was saved by the rest of the search party and brought back to the tower entrance. After regrouping, I was told by Yunica’s childhood friend he has seen her fathers sword close to there she met the goddess. I went there to take the sword, which taught me a third attack skill. While the second one was lighting based, the element of this one was fire. I used my new skill to gain access to the next floor and decided to stop my session here.