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.
Ys: Origin is as JRPG as you can get.
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.
The graphics are a combination of 3D environments and nicely animated 2.5(?)D sprites. It looks very nice.
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.
The Sword goes to its rightful owner.
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.
