Ys: The Ark of Napishtim

"The triumphant return of the Ys series to North American shores"

The Ys series paved the way for role-playing games of the future and is certainly critically acclaimed and a top seller in the Japanese market. However, in North America the series is only relegated to a cult following among hardcore RPG fans. Part of the reason could be attributed to the name, which by the way is pronounced "ees." This is an unfortunate thing because the games have all been quite stellar and long lived, with it dating back as early as 1987 on the Japanese PC-88 and subsequently moving to such systems as the Sega Master System, the Turbo Duo, and even on popular machines as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. American gamers are probably most familiar with Ys III: Wanderers from Ys that was released for the Genesis, SNES, and the Turbo CD here in the US. Also the stellar Ys Books 1 & 2 was also released for the Turbo CD and is probably the shining jewel in the Ys series's magnificent crown. However, since Ys III there hasn't been a single Ys game released onto North American shores. There had been numerous attempts to localize many of the games here, but they have failed. In a swing of good fortune, the giant Japanese publisher Konami decided they would port the recently released on the Japanese PC, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim to Sony's Playstation 2 console and also surprisingly release the port to American shores. This certainly was good news. However there would be a catch. You see, when Konami finally decided to port another Ys title to the US, they seemed to have thought that they needed to "Americanize" the game by dumbing it down. The HP numbers would be a lot simpler and less immense as the Japanese PC version. They would also remove the Anime sequences at the beginning and replace it with a more consumer friendly CG intro. Not only that, but they would remove the well-drawn animated sprites of the characters and enemies that were to adorn the Japanese release, and replace them with more generic polygonal figures in hopes of making the game seem less "dated." Note to Konami: crappy polygons look more dated than nicely drawn sprites. However, the biggest thorn in the side would be the removal of the outstanding musical score and replace it with a "newly orchestrated score." Ys music has always been hailed as some of the greatest, and now they have the balls to remove it? Shame on Konami.

Fortunately almost all went well in the world of Konami. They still kept the HP and MP numbers dumbed down, which really isn't such a bad thing because its still the same rations just with slightly less numbers. They kept the CG intro and yes, it is extremely beastly to watch. However, Konami kept the original Anime mode locked away in a code for people who were interested in the original sequence, and it is certainly better than the horrid CG opening. Unfortunately Konami left their 3D polygonal figures in. But the biggest news was the fact that Konami went and decided to leave in the original soundtrack to the game. It turns out Konami just wasn't leaving it out for no reason. Falcom had a separate license for the music and Konami didn't pick it up at first. It seems Konami actually did purchase the license at the last minute and it is certainly a plus for videogame purists out there. Also, Konami removed the "VI" from the game's title to hopefully attract new people to the game without them knowing that this is a series. The major drawback of Konami's port is the fact that they decided to release it in such small numbers and with little fanfare. Apparently there was only a small number of copies released because nearly every store hasn't had a copy. The store I purchased the game from only had one and that was because I preordered the game. Sadly it seems this won't be the big breakthrough onto Western shores for the Ys series.

Ys: The Ark of Napishtim continues the story of Adol Christin from the previous games. After the events of Ys V, Adol and his pal Dogi were talking about venturing into the vortex of Canaan in a bar, but they were interrupted by soldiers who wished to take them away. Fortunately they were able to escape with the help of a noble pirate and his daughter Terra, whom Adol had met when she was only a girl. Terra has now "grown up into a beautiful woman," and on the ship Adol and her talk about past adventures. Meanwhile her father was talking about traveling to the vortex of Canaan with Adol and Dogi, but they were ambushed by pirates of the Romun Empire and everyone fell off the ship. Adol was later found on the shores by two sister priestesses of the Rehda Tribe, Isha and Olha. The Rehda tribe is quite an agrarian society and they have been living off the land in their village for quite some years. They had grown weary of their human neighbors who made a living out of destroying the land for their own good. All of these humans came from other places such as the Romun Empire and they all washed up through the vortex. They call these humans who wash up Eresians and they have a natural disposition against them, Adol included. Adol must show some good impressions for the head of the village, Chief Ord. The story goes into depth with things such as ancient goddesses and the like, but nothing entirely groundbreaking. There are certainly many returning characters from the previous games which is nice for series fans. Still, the story while lighthearted and somewhat simple, provides a nice backdrop to the rest of the game.

What totally fleshes out this storyline is the fact that all of the characters including the random townspeople are fully voiced. It adds to their personalities and makes you know them as individuals. The Ys series has always been triumphant of the CD format so in the past they certainly had fully voiced games. The voices in this game are nice and it seems like the townspeople always have something new to say. Falcom certainly did a great job with the NPC interaction element of the game. Granted, this isn't perfect because a lot of the voices get really annoying after a while (most notably Isha and Olha, two key people in the game). Plus some of the samples aren't of the greatest quality possible. Also some of the voice actors don't really have the greatest voices, and they are so bad its laughable. The voice actor for the character Lloyd would probably be the most pathetically funny. Still, it's great that they have a fleshed out voice acting element in the game even if it has its flaws.

The Ys series has come a long way in the way of gameplay since its inception. Up until the fifth iteration, the series did away with button presses, hacking, and slashing and instead had Adol charging into enemies with his sword. Yeah, it was quite bizarre but interesting. Anyway when Ys V came along it changed it to make the game more of a hack and slash gameplay method. This sixth iteration continues with what Ys V brought to the series and expanded upon it with greater depth and combos. Adol can also jump now. While there admittedly aren't many different types of combos, they still beat out running into an enemy and there's certainly more combos here than a game like Soul Blazer. Its very, very quick and is fun for anyone to play, what more could you ask for? Well maybe some better control for some of the finer aspects of the gameplay. Most notably would have to be the platforming portions of the game. There are many times when Adol must have to make some jumping moves to reach different parts of the map, and well to put it plainly the jumping just isn't as tightly controlled as people would want it to be. It will take many tries to reach tough areas and while these things certainly make you require skill, after a while it just becomes a bore and repetitive. Granted, a lot of these frustrating areas aren't necessary to go to and if you were to actually reach them via jumping the rewards aren't anything too great. What's even worse about the jumping is the so-called Dash Jump which is a necessary evil in the game. It is apparently done by dashing and jumping, but have the time it doesn't even work. Fortunately the sluggish jumping portions are only small dent to the pretty nice armor in Ys's gameplay. Other things worth noting would be the awesome, massive bosses that you will fight throughout the game. They're fun to play in the vein of classic RPG bosses. Also the game prevents you from getting too far ahead of yourself by making you unable to attack enemies that are too strong for you.

Like almost all RPGs, Adol can get a decent amount of armor and accessories to equip himself with. There are several armor types that Adol can equip and are fairly straightforward on which is the better than next (they all pretty much increase Adol's defense). There is also an accessory system that allows Adol to equip certain items that give him different benefits like protection from poison or more offensive and defensive skills. There are some accessories that are required to get you to different places; one example being a certain one that allows you to breathe underwater. You only start the game with one available accessory slot, but certain chests you open will allow you have more and more. You can also equip an item which you can use quickly by pressing the triangle button. This is especially handy in boss fights because you cannot move to the item menu during them.

Another thing this game has going for it is the sword system. There are only three available swords and you get them all fairly early on, however the swords can be upgraded several levels through a swordsmith in one of the towns. She will upgrade them if you find enough "Emel" to upgrade them. Emel is a blue substance that comes from fallen monsters. So when you have enough for the next upgrade you can level up your sword and it becomes basically sharper. The sharper your sword is, the stronger the enemies it can defeat. Plus it changes the amount of damage you do. Basically you can think of it as a similar thing to upgrading your weapons like in the game Secret of Mana, but not as complex and your weapons don't actually physically change into new ones. They're still the same weapons, only sharper and stronger. It's a nice addition to the game and allows you to become even more powerful as you progress through the game. In all, the gameplay in Ys: The Ark of Napishtim is like what you would see in other action-RPGs of the console mentality (eg. Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia). There are plenty of diversions throughout and that's what makes this game have pretty good gameplay even with some shortcomings.

Now, as I said before, when Konami decided to port over this game to the Playstation 2 here in North America, they decided to remove the awesomely drawn sprite characters and replace them with generic polygonal figures. This makes the game look somewhat generic, albeit the game still looks pretty nice. The backgrounds are colorful when the need to be like in the forest and beach levels. They also look dark and ominous in the cave levels. There are also some places that leave a mystical aura and I can see that they were aiming for the look and they hit the nail on the head. One problem I had with the game is that it seems like the game camera is way too far behind the action that it is sometimes hard to look at some of the details and the action going on. It also sometimes makes Adol, enemies, or other characters blend in with the backgrounds and that can be quite annoying at times. Couple that with the fact that the graphics are all kind of small makes this a little problematic. The bosses are excellently done though. They're all pretty much gigantic and they take up almost the whole screen. They're well animated and give off a great presence and make you feel like the boss is about to kick your scrawny ass.

The soundtrack for the game is quite excellent. Then again, the Ys series was always praised for its magnificent soundtracks. This game is no exception. The game's soundtrack ranges from soothing melodies, to bombastic sweeping epics, to harsh menacing songs that give off a great feel of action and adventure. This is easily one of the best games musically from 2005 to date. My personal favorite would be the boss theme which is basically a hyperactive rock song with a great fast guitar riff mixed with some other instruments and synthesizers to add subtle enhancements for the songs. Combine that with the absolute awesomeness of fighting the bosses and yeah, it's a good time. Another bonus to the soundtrack is that it is all presented in Dolby Pro Logic II for those so equipped. Hearing this soundtrack in that high quality surround is certainly aural bliss. The soundtrack is easily one of the greatest parts of the game. The sound effects are pretty typical. You have your slashing noises and the like. Everything expected.

Unfortunately a downfall for the game would be the fact that the whole thing lasts less than 20 hours. It's sad because you'll have so much fun throughout the game and then it ends so quick. Fortunately because of the fact that there's a lot of stuff to unlock and its fun just to level up, there is some decent replay available in this game. While its not a huge and nonlinear game like Morrowind, it allows you some sidequests and you can easily have some fun completing them. Konami added some new elements to the game which fit in nicely for those who have played the PC version. So while it is a short game, it has replay and you'll probably want to come back the game a few times.

In conclusion, Ys: The Ark of Napishtim is quite an excellent action-RPG. It totally reminds me of the great old action-RPGs. If you want to hearken back to the days when the games were measured by their cart sizes, and when 2D ruled king, look no further than this game. This has all of the elements of those games and then some. While the game has some shortcomings, most notably the length of the game, the jumping controls, and the faraway graphics, they're all quite mild in the grand theme of things. When you look at all the rehashes in the market and people trying to compete for the most innovative game, but always fall short, you can play this game and reminisce the grand old days of yore. This game is certainly a great addition to any fan of action-RPGs, the Ys series, or just good games in general. Make haste though, because this game is a limited release.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/05