"This was my first experince of the Ys series and I think it stands alone as a unique experince."

Let me start off by saying I have never ever played any of the Ys games before. I am in no way familiar with the series and have no prior bearing to the story and so on. But recently I decided to figure out what game it was thirteen years I watched my brother play on his Sega Genesis that was damn near impossible to even really beginning the quest.

Finally, by luck, I managed to randomly download the rom for this and was re-acquainted with this classic title. Before getting in the game, I decided to read a bit about first hand. What I mainly discovered that this title was ported to the Genesis and the SNES from the Turbo CD. And claimed by another review, this is the best/hardest version. Oh yeah it was a harsh game alright. But it was made the right kind of harsh.

Moving on, the game kicks off with an intro that explains how Adol (the main character) has saved the world of Ys from evil three years ago and how he wanders through various countries with his companion Dogi. Evidently enough, they hear of a disturbing rumor regarding Dogi's region of birth, Kenai. The rumors depicted how the lands were turning barren and during nightfall people were being attacked by monsters. On the way back to his home town, Sarina, Adol and Dogi meet some gypsies. One of them reads Dogi's fortune and gets very dark and demonic reaction in the reading. They returned the money paid for the fortune and as they were speaking in their own language, a name, Demanicus pops up. A very dark and echo-ey feeling comes down the two traveling men. But they continue the trip home. Adol has a feeling there is something very big waiting for him just around the corner.

So the plot is fairly simple, nothing to complex but has few surprises. Again, I have no idea what has really happened before in the first title games. My only major complaint regarding the plot though, is how crummy the script can get at times, mainly during character dialogue. It does not help when you don't see the name displayed of who is talking but rather see different colored text for certain characters.

What I'm really trying to cover here though is the game play, graphics and sound.

First off, this game came out in 1991. The Genesis was still a new console at the time so I will bear lenience in my judgement of the graphics. The game is featured in a 2-D side-scrolling adventure. There were moderate details in the backgrounds and dungeons but nothing to explicit. I did find a good few of the backgrounds to be pretty cool though. Actually, they managed to pull off what was practically a 3-D spiraling staircase and that was a pretty neat feat for me. I have no complaints of the areas and backgrounds. However, I just the character sprites had better detail, especially attention to their faces. Monsters and bosses were decent, not bad, but nothing excellent. And finally, players got anime eye candy for both the intro and ending sequences. Overall, I'd say the graphical design on this game was good. I'm definitely content.

Now, game play. I had a ton of fun playing through the game. To be honest, I didn't give a damn about the plot, it was just a filler for me. I love the dungeon crawling, platforming, 2-D side-scrolling RPG this game is. You start out with absolutely no equipment (which was bogus) but have 1000 gold to start. Its exactly enough money to buy a short sword, a leather armor, a wooden shield and one herb (which which either misspelled or just called 'harb'). Your first task is to go save the mayor of the town in the mines. So after buying your armaments, you head off to Tigre Mines. Notice how fast Adol moves across the screen and how rapidly he slashes at enemies when attacking? Guess what? You can die faster than you breathe if you don't get used to how fast this game moves. And to add to it, you NEED to gains levels AND save money at the very beginning of your quest! Not only does the game force you into submission to start but it knocks you around for awhile until you get to around level 6-8 (which sadly are high levels). And when you do get to the max level 12 and get all your best gear, you still get jerked around in the last two areas. And once you've think you suffered enough, the final boss laughs at your pathetic attempts to conclude your journey. I know by now I may have discouraged some of you readers but fear not, the difficulty only adds to the addiction of the games challenge.

Though very linear and not very deep (simplistic fun is usually awesome as it is here!), the game is in fact solid in the game play department.

Sound; I love the Genesis sound chip, even though it is inferior to SNES. It still produces its own kind of sound which I have always felt cannot be replicated on the SNES. I love every single catchy tune this game has to over. However, sound effects are lacking simply due to the fact there were not too many. There is no sound effect when you jump! Oh well, the music is what makes the sound of this game awesome.

Can't forget about controls: thanks to being able to configure them, I loved em. Very tight, simple and responsive functions that won't have you scratching your head figuring out why you can't get any done.

So, why did I write this review? I just wanted to try and give an opinion on this game as if it were stand alone from the series. And I did want to comment on its awesome slap you around difficulty. But what can I say? I'll definitely admit to having had a great time playing this game and I sure as hell recommend most people give it a try. And as always, fellow collectors; its a smart investment.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/06