Ys: The Ark of Napishtim

"A good old ACT/RPG worn in a new jacket"

De YS-series are not well known when you are from Europe. De first two parts are dated out of the '80. So it certainly attract me when Konami decided to share part six with us.

Story: 7/10

Important to know is that you don't have to play the preceding Ys games to understand this game, because each game has his own story and world. But it seems that in every Ys game the red haired Adol is here to save the the day.

This time the adventurer find himself on a ship which suddenly ends up in a whirlpool and the adventurer washes on shore on a island called Canaan, but it seems that the island already is populated with other people who also were victim of this whirlpool and without enemies this would never happened would it. Adol is determined to solve the mystery around the island.

The story isn't Ys VI strongest point, but since it is not depending on it it's all about the combat.

Gameplay: 9/10

Just like I said a good old ACT/RPG with a hack and slash system. Armed with 3 elemental swords, armour and some accessories you must have a good timing in order to make a successfully combo attack and put enemies to rest. In term of fighting it has a lot of resemble to Alundra, but don't aspect brain crushing puzzles like Alundra. Mather of fact don't aspect any any puzzles. The dungeons are filled with monsters which you can attack by swinging your sword and occasionally with magic. Like in most ACT/RPG there are also giant bosses and some sub-bosses which are spread around the island. The bosses can be difficult and in order to defeat them you need to find out the pattern. Also you can easily die. Even if you play the game on normal the regular enemies can kill you with a couple of blows. This can result into some frustrating moments. Luckily you can level up by defeating enemies and you can also upgrade your swords in he village by collecting Emel.

The control scheme is basic.Adol can run, jump. You have no control over the camera since it's fixed. The inventory is easy accessible, but you can only equip one item by a quick-slot. During the boss fights you also don't have access to your inventory so if you equipped the wrong item it's gonna be quit difficult. One item that really is worthless to me is the map that is set as a piece of art. It's nearly impossible to gain information from it and I never used it once.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics made a huge step. It won't take a competition with Final Fantasy because the characters consist out of high-res sprites. The environments are 3D but the down perspective of the camera helps to keep the old look and feeling. I personally didn't felt bothered at all.

Sound/Music: 8/10

As you already probably heard the music from the original didn't make the leap, so fans of the original probably were disappointed. But rest assured the music is quit good. It won't win a award and also the music isn't memorable.

The dialogue is fully spoken but the voice-acting is pretty bad. I don't know why Konami even bothered to use this. Some of the voices are actually so bad that even your cat would scream.

Overall: 8/10

Sadly every ACT/RPG has an end so has YS VI. The game can beaten in 10-12 hours and that is pretty short for a ACT/RPG. You do have a optional dungeon and you also unlock something after the ending.

Final Conclusion:

All in all I was pretty satisfied with this game because it was a while ago that I played a good old fashioned ACT/RPG. Fans of the YS games can't go wrong with this game because Konami did make a good makeover. If you like ACT/RPG such as Alundra but hoping for a longer game I suggest you wait till the price drops since this game isn't so long or you can rent it for a weekend. Whatever you decide you can't go wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/05