Ys: The Vanished Omens

"The classic beginng of Ancient Ys Vanished..."

There aren't too many Master System games I can remember very well today. There was Phantasy Star... and then there was my favorite game for the system, Ancient Ys Vanished Omen. This is the Falcom game that hooked me and why I am a rabid fan of them even today when most of their games are PC exclusives. Looking back, Ys is extremely dated and simple in terms of gameplay... but there is something about it that makes it remain one of my favorite action-rpgs of all time (and it is still worlds better than Ys III. Ha!)

Although there are six games in the Ys series (not including the new remade Ys I.II Complete for PC), the first two games in the series were more like two parts of the same story. They chronicled Adol's adventures in the land of Esterior. In the beginning, you are plopped down into the town of Minea and are recruited by the local seer to search for the ancient books of Ys to stop a mysterious man who is stealing the country's silver supply (?!). There isn't much in the way of story or character interaction, although you will meet many interesting characters in this game who will appear again in Ys II (and a few will even appear again in later games in the Ys series).

What you will notice first off (or as soon as you go out into the field). There is no attack button! Nope. All the game in the Ys series (excluding III and V) had a very ''unique'' battle system that involved simply smashing into the enemies to cause damage to them. Of course running into them head on will get you killed so it's best to flank them or catch them at an angle. It's an interesting system and it actually works very well most of the time. Unfortunately, it's all you'll be doing for the entire game, aside from running errands for the villagers and using items... There is no magic for you to employ here. All the battles boil down to Adol slamming himself into the enemy. Another thing you'll notice occasionally during boss encounters is that Adol can actually run *through* the bosses which is the only way to damage them... if you're not at a high enough level, though, you'll end up taking more damage! That is a fairly big flaw, because you'll pretty much have to be at the maximum level (10) to get to the end. Because there are only 10 levels to gain, raising levels takes a long time and when Adol does level up, the difference is strength is almost ridiculous. The gameplay may sound horribly redundant, but it's actually pretty absorbing, even today... once you get past the leveling up part, that is. ^_^

The graphics are much more colorful than the Famicom version, but I still can't tell what many of the enemies are supposed to be! For it's time, Ys had very splendid graphics. If you've heard of Ys, you should know that it's music is legendary and although it is just bleeps and bloops on the 8-bit Master System, the tunes themselves are unforgettable.

Even if the gameplay in Ys can get a little repetitive at times... it is short (Ys II makes up for it's predecessor in both length and complexity) and it is a fun ride while it lasts. It is also pretty hard! The only thing that really bugged me was Adol's slow walking speed. If you can, I recommend you get yourself a copy of Ys Book I&II for the TurboDuo because it fixes the leveling up and speed problems present here. Plus it's 16-bit enhanced... and it's got voice acting and ''cinemas''! ^_^ Hey, or even better yet, get yourself the new totally remade Ys I.II Complete for PC. The master system version of the first book is still a classic (and I still recommend it if you have no other options...), but with newer versions of the game out - you might as well experience the game the way it was meant to be.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/01, Updated 03/28/02