Source: Youtube Channel XSEEDgames
In the past few years, I keep hearing from friends, critics, and other gamers that "The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky" is the best RPG for the PSP. I never got around to it despite wanting to see what was so great about the game. Today, it was revealed that the PC version will be brought over to the West on Steam while the sequel will be worked on being brought over. The sequel will be translated by Carpe Fulgur (Recettear, Chantelise, Fortune Summoners) which will be their first big project. It's been a while since they've announced on working on anything. Although I'm happy that they're moving up to work on big projects, I had hoped they'd translate even more indie gems to bring over. The first game for PC will release this Winter while the sequel will release next year in the summer.
Source:
-Joystiq - Trails in the Sky coming to Steam, Carpe Fulgur translating sequel for PSP and PC
Showing posts with label Nihon Falcom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nihon Falcom. Show all posts
Friday, September 6, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
GameLight - Ys: Memories of Celceta
Official Site: http://www.xseedgames.com/
Source: Youtube Channel YotakaOfALoY
In 1993, two Ys IV games were released: "Mask of the Sun" for the Super Famicom and "The Dawn of Ys" for the PCE Super-CD Rom. Both never saw a western release, but there were fans of the series that translated the game. I tried the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) version and did not like it. Ys 3 had gone an entirely different route by going 2D-Action style combat while Ys 4 went back to the original bumper car mechanics. Thankfully the remake for Ys 4 will take what the remakes of the Ys series has done and add even more to it than ever before. Rather than a top-down view, Ys: Memories of Celceta will have a dynamic camera angle where it switches between top-down, behind the character, and so forth for a more involving experience. Aside from just taking the role of Adol Christin (the main protagonist in the series), the player will also get to use other characters within a party. The game has already released in Japan so there are gameplay videos up that can be watched. It looks like the player can actively block and dodge now! As excited as I am for this new installment in the Ys series, I lament the fact that I don't have a PS Vita. We can thank XSEED Games once again for bringing another awesome title from Japan over to the West.
The game will release exclusively for the Sony PS Vita on September 24, 2013.
Source: Youtube Channel YotakaOfALoY
In 1993, two Ys IV games were released: "Mask of the Sun" for the Super Famicom and "The Dawn of Ys" for the PCE Super-CD Rom. Both never saw a western release, but there were fans of the series that translated the game. I tried the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) version and did not like it. Ys 3 had gone an entirely different route by going 2D-Action style combat while Ys 4 went back to the original bumper car mechanics. Thankfully the remake for Ys 4 will take what the remakes of the Ys series has done and add even more to it than ever before. Rather than a top-down view, Ys: Memories of Celceta will have a dynamic camera angle where it switches between top-down, behind the character, and so forth for a more involving experience. Aside from just taking the role of Adol Christin (the main protagonist in the series), the player will also get to use other characters within a party. The game has already released in Japan so there are gameplay videos up that can be watched. It looks like the player can actively block and dodge now! As excited as I am for this new installment in the Ys series, I lament the fact that I don't have a PS Vita. We can thank XSEED Games once again for bringing another awesome title from Japan over to the West.
The game will release exclusively for the Sony PS Vita on September 24, 2013.
Monday, February 4, 2013
GameLight - Ys I & II Chronicles+
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/223810/
Source: Youtube Channel RPGamerdotcom
I was so happy with the localization of Ys Origins and Ys The Oath in Felghana released last year. I bought both games last summer but didn't have the time to play them. I still had other games to finish, but couldn't help it anymore and installed The Oath in Felghana and started playing it. Right afterwards, I saw Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ on the Steam special page. Once again, XSeed Games bring the Western market another Ys title. Ys 1 and 2 has been remade, re-released, and ported countless times ever since its original release in the 1980's. Ys 1&2 defined the Action-RPG genre when it was still in its infancy and is one of the most influential games of its kind. Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ takes the player back to the original games with recreated art, updated music, and a more familiar hack-n-slash control scheme instead of the bumper-car style gameplay the game was original known for. Of course, all the original art assets, music, and gameplay style is still selectable. I've played through the first Ys and thought it was okay. I never got far in Ys 2 because it was very confusing. The original Ys games were extremely grindy, and so I'm hoping the remakes won't be. I'm willing to give the two games another play and try with the release on PC. Ys I & II Chronicles+ will be available on Steam February 14th, 2013 for $12.74 pre-purchase and $14.99 when it reverts back to its original price.
Source: Youtube Channel RPGamerdotcom
I was so happy with the localization of Ys Origins and Ys The Oath in Felghana released last year. I bought both games last summer but didn't have the time to play them. I still had other games to finish, but couldn't help it anymore and installed The Oath in Felghana and started playing it. Right afterwards, I saw Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ on the Steam special page. Once again, XSeed Games bring the Western market another Ys title. Ys 1 and 2 has been remade, re-released, and ported countless times ever since its original release in the 1980's. Ys 1&2 defined the Action-RPG genre when it was still in its infancy and is one of the most influential games of its kind. Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ takes the player back to the original games with recreated art, updated music, and a more familiar hack-n-slash control scheme instead of the bumper-car style gameplay the game was original known for. Of course, all the original art assets, music, and gameplay style is still selectable. I've played through the first Ys and thought it was okay. I never got far in Ys 2 because it was very confusing. The original Ys games were extremely grindy, and so I'm hoping the remakes won't be. I'm willing to give the two games another play and try with the release on PC. Ys I & II Chronicles+ will be available on Steam February 14th, 2013 for $12.74 pre-purchase and $14.99 when it reverts back to its original price.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Retroview - Ys 3: Wanderers From Ys (and Ys 1-4)
Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys_III:_Wanderers_from_Ys
Source: Youtube Channel KamilDowonna
I remember as a kid, I wanted Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys for the Super Nintendo and begged my father to get it but never got it. I found it again much much later in my life but never got around to playing it. Just this past Steam Summer Sale, I bought Ys Origin and Ys: The Oath in Felghana (this one being a remake of Ys 3) and decided it's time for me to play the original so I have something to compare to the remake.
Let me tell you, it rocked and sucked hard both at the same exact time. I've always had an interest in Ys because of the colorful graphics, catchy tunes, and that flaming sword that you get at the very end of every Ys game. The Ys series is usually played as a top-down Action-RPG; however, Ys 3 is the first and only game out of the series to be played as a 2D Action-RPG. Doesn't this switch sound familiar? Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys was released on 8 different systems, not counting The Oath in Felghana for Windows XP/Vista/7. They were all essentially the same game aside for graphics and audio differences (except for the Playstation 2 version). I'll start out by saying that it's possibly the best Ys between Ys 1-5 in terms of gameplay. The Ys series has always had likable graphics, memorable tunes, and an on-going, cohesive story line that links all the games together; however, Ys 1, 2, and 4 used an odd combat mechanic where you run into the enemy. When you run into the enemy, it's Adol's (the main character) right hand that has to touch the enemy to attack or the player will take damage (sometime, it's a lot). So to have that much more control over your character in Ys 3 is a huge relief, BUT there were a lot of design flaws in the game.
First and foremost, the Ys series (at least from the first 4 games) is a freaking grind fest. It's not surprising to have this implemented back in the day to virtually extend the gameplay time. But for a 2D Action-RPG, can you imagine how boring it is standing in the entrance way of a dungeon and killing the same enemies for an hour? Luckily, I found a great grind spot in one of the dungeons (Ilvern Ruins) where I could just stand there and hold down the attack button which helped me max out my character level and farm enough gold to get all the essential equipment at an early part of the game. The combat mechanics, although significantly better than what was used in Ys 1/2/4, had some problems. When you hit an enemy, there's very little feedback. You don't hear a sound when you hit an enemy, but you do see them flash a little. They don't flinch when you hurt them, so they can easily hurt you. When you get hit, you hear a little "crackle" sound to indicate you got injured. It's not very noticeable, and so getting getting hit by lethal enemies that can 1-2 shot you won't really register in the player's mind unless they're intently looking at their life bar. The hit box is way off on a lot of the enemies. To put it simply, your character is not touching the enemy at all, but you're taking damage from them. A lot of the boss battles are require cheap and tedious tactics in order to defeat them (watch the video above). The game was hard in an odd way: no recovery animation and stuff that hits really hard, even if you didn't touch the sprite for it. It was also difficult to gauge the range of Adol's sword, and that's what usually gets the player so close to the enemy. The enemy doesn't really need to hit you or anything, they just run right into you and *BAM*, you get hurt. The last boss wasn't too bad, really. Compared to that second boss (as shown in the video), all the other bosses were fairly easy.
Probably the aspect I enjoyed the most out of Ys 3 was the music. I was really hoping to hear remixed/arranged versions of the original tracks in The Oath in Felghana and so looked it up. They did, and it's glorious:
Source: Youtube Channels Cellidor and zBiyte
Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys wasn't great, but I'm glad I played through it. Ys 4 was never officially released in the Western market, but I found an English patch and tried it and hated it (screw the bumper car mechanics!). Ys V (which I never got to play) was the first in the series to retain the top-down view and allow the player to control the attack of the sword like in The Legend of Zelda games. The remakes of Ys 1 and 2 also allows this (which got me to playing them). The remake of Ys 3, The Oath of Felghana, goes back to the top-down view Action-RPG with 3D graphics. Ys 6, 7, and Origins also uses this style of graphics for the game. The upcoming remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun called Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta will release on the PS Vita and have the camera behind the characters in a 3D environment (I really hope the bring it over to the Western market). Now all they have to do is remake Ys 5, localize it, and the whole series is set for the Western Market.
For the tl;dr version of this article:
-Ys 3 was a better game than Ys 1, 2 and 4 but still wasn't very solid
-The Oath in Felghana is the remake of Ys 3: Wanderers of Ys
-Ys 1, 2 and 4 used a bumper car combat mechanic, which sucked
-All the remakes have made the original games a lot better
-Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys: Origin is available on Steam
Source: Youtube Channel KamilDowonna
I remember as a kid, I wanted Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys for the Super Nintendo and begged my father to get it but never got it. I found it again much much later in my life but never got around to playing it. Just this past Steam Summer Sale, I bought Ys Origin and Ys: The Oath in Felghana (this one being a remake of Ys 3) and decided it's time for me to play the original so I have something to compare to the remake.
Let me tell you, it rocked and sucked hard both at the same exact time. I've always had an interest in Ys because of the colorful graphics, catchy tunes, and that flaming sword that you get at the very end of every Ys game. The Ys series is usually played as a top-down Action-RPG; however, Ys 3 is the first and only game out of the series to be played as a 2D Action-RPG. Doesn't this switch sound familiar? Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys was released on 8 different systems, not counting The Oath in Felghana for Windows XP/Vista/7. They were all essentially the same game aside for graphics and audio differences (except for the Playstation 2 version). I'll start out by saying that it's possibly the best Ys between Ys 1-5 in terms of gameplay. The Ys series has always had likable graphics, memorable tunes, and an on-going, cohesive story line that links all the games together; however, Ys 1, 2, and 4 used an odd combat mechanic where you run into the enemy. When you run into the enemy, it's Adol's (the main character) right hand that has to touch the enemy to attack or the player will take damage (sometime, it's a lot). So to have that much more control over your character in Ys 3 is a huge relief, BUT there were a lot of design flaws in the game.
First and foremost, the Ys series (at least from the first 4 games) is a freaking grind fest. It's not surprising to have this implemented back in the day to virtually extend the gameplay time. But for a 2D Action-RPG, can you imagine how boring it is standing in the entrance way of a dungeon and killing the same enemies for an hour? Luckily, I found a great grind spot in one of the dungeons (Ilvern Ruins) where I could just stand there and hold down the attack button which helped me max out my character level and farm enough gold to get all the essential equipment at an early part of the game. The combat mechanics, although significantly better than what was used in Ys 1/2/4, had some problems. When you hit an enemy, there's very little feedback. You don't hear a sound when you hit an enemy, but you do see them flash a little. They don't flinch when you hurt them, so they can easily hurt you. When you get hit, you hear a little "crackle" sound to indicate you got injured. It's not very noticeable, and so getting getting hit by lethal enemies that can 1-2 shot you won't really register in the player's mind unless they're intently looking at their life bar. The hit box is way off on a lot of the enemies. To put it simply, your character is not touching the enemy at all, but you're taking damage from them. A lot of the boss battles are require cheap and tedious tactics in order to defeat them (watch the video above). The game was hard in an odd way: no recovery animation and stuff that hits really hard, even if you didn't touch the sprite for it. It was also difficult to gauge the range of Adol's sword, and that's what usually gets the player so close to the enemy. The enemy doesn't really need to hit you or anything, they just run right into you and *BAM*, you get hurt. The last boss wasn't too bad, really. Compared to that second boss (as shown in the video), all the other bosses were fairly easy.
Probably the aspect I enjoyed the most out of Ys 3 was the music. I was really hoping to hear remixed/arranged versions of the original tracks in The Oath in Felghana and so looked it up. They did, and it's glorious:
Source: Youtube Channels Cellidor and zBiyte
Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys wasn't great, but I'm glad I played through it. Ys 4 was never officially released in the Western market, but I found an English patch and tried it and hated it (screw the bumper car mechanics!). Ys V (which I never got to play) was the first in the series to retain the top-down view and allow the player to control the attack of the sword like in The Legend of Zelda games. The remakes of Ys 1 and 2 also allows this (which got me to playing them). The remake of Ys 3, The Oath of Felghana, goes back to the top-down view Action-RPG with 3D graphics. Ys 6, 7, and Origins also uses this style of graphics for the game. The upcoming remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun called Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta will release on the PS Vita and have the camera behind the characters in a 3D environment (I really hope the bring it over to the Western market). Now all they have to do is remake Ys 5, localize it, and the whole series is set for the Western Market.
For the tl;dr version of this article:
-Ys 3 was a better game than Ys 1, 2 and 4 but still wasn't very solid
-The Oath in Felghana is the remake of Ys 3: Wanderers of Ys
-Ys 1, 2 and 4 used a bumper car combat mechanic, which sucked
-All the remakes have made the original games a lot better
-Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys: Origin is available on Steam
Thursday, May 31, 2012
GameLight - Ys Origins
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/207350/
Source: Youtube Channel RPGamerdotcom
I heard rumors about Ys Origins being localized, but I didn't think it'd release so quickly out of nowhere. I've been wanting to play this game for over 5 years now as it was only a Japanese release exclusive and so I couldn't get it. Ys Origin is a classic-style Action-RPG with Pseudo-3D graphics in a very fast-paced game environment (adventure and platforming). The Ys series has existed since 1987 and has since had 9 installments but has always been under the radar and satisfied niche players or fans of the series. The series can almost be seen as a hack-n-slash the way the combat works. Combat is fast-paced and movement can be a bit too fast for first time players, but it's a welcome mechanic to have the flow of the game push forward at high speed rather than crawl along. I'm not exactly sure if there has been any additional content added to the international release of Ys Origin, but there seems to be quite a bit the player could do. There are 3 playable characters with additional ones in other modes, 5 difficulty levels (the game can be quite challenging), Time Attack mode, Boss Rush mode, and an Arena mode for the most replay value it can offer. The game has been adjusted to support true wide-screen and high-resolution (remember that the game released back in 2006 and may not have supported those things) and it supports various gamepads. It's only a shame that I have so many games backlogged now compared to 5 years ago when I barely had any as I'll be now waiting a bit longer before playing this game. Ys Origins is now available on Steam for $19.99.
Source: Youtube Channel RPGamerdotcom
I heard rumors about Ys Origins being localized, but I didn't think it'd release so quickly out of nowhere. I've been wanting to play this game for over 5 years now as it was only a Japanese release exclusive and so I couldn't get it. Ys Origin is a classic-style Action-RPG with Pseudo-3D graphics in a very fast-paced game environment (adventure and platforming). The Ys series has existed since 1987 and has since had 9 installments but has always been under the radar and satisfied niche players or fans of the series. The series can almost be seen as a hack-n-slash the way the combat works. Combat is fast-paced and movement can be a bit too fast for first time players, but it's a welcome mechanic to have the flow of the game push forward at high speed rather than crawl along. I'm not exactly sure if there has been any additional content added to the international release of Ys Origin, but there seems to be quite a bit the player could do. There are 3 playable characters with additional ones in other modes, 5 difficulty levels (the game can be quite challenging), Time Attack mode, Boss Rush mode, and an Arena mode for the most replay value it can offer. The game has been adjusted to support true wide-screen and high-resolution (remember that the game released back in 2006 and may not have supported those things) and it supports various gamepads. It's only a shame that I have so many games backlogged now compared to 5 years ago when I barely had any as I'll be now waiting a bit longer before playing this game. Ys Origins is now available on Steam for $19.99.
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