Following their release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky last year, Nihon Falcom and XSEED have published the Ys series DRM-free on GOGcom.
While not as famous as Nintendo or Square, Nihon Falcom is among the most venerable Japanese game developers in history, and really, one of the 1st ever. Across the PC-88, TurboGrafx-16 CD, and MSX platforms, these games served as a precursor of many modern trends in games. The Ys games pushed the technological boundaries of these earlier platforms with beautiful and detailed graphics, and emphasis on an admittedly light story.
The games tell the adventures of Adol Christin, a red haired swordsman who travels across the land of Eresia to feed his wanderlust and appetite for adventure and heroism. Looming over these adventures are the Eldeen, an angelic race who created the world before dying out.
Ys I and II Chronicles were originally the only games in the series that actually explored the eponymous isles. Adol explores the land, meeting the two goddesses, and seeking to uncover its mysteries. In keeping with the game’s vintage, they retain the input free combat system, where instead of an attack button, you need only ram into an enemy to hit them.
Ys The Oath in Felgana retains the story of Ys III: The Wanderers from Ys, but pushes the game forward to 3D, as well as fitting the game closer to the original timeline. In this game, Adol visits Redmond, the home village of another series mainstay, Dogi, only to entangle with an evil boy named Chester, who is trying to revive the powers of an ancient evil.
Ys Origins is the most critically acclaimed game in the series. 700 years before Adol is even born, demons ravaged Ys, forcing the twin goddesses to bring their subjects to the clouds. The demons gave chase, compelling the goddesses to steal away into the Devil’s Tower. You join the quest to retrieve the goddesses, with choice of playable characters Hugo Fact and Yunico Tovah.
While this isn’t the entire series, it’s a respectable collection of the most immediately available and accessible games. After all, Ys IV has an astounding 4 different versions.
You can learn more about the release and buy the games from GOGcom here. The games are 25 % off for the first week.
