Ys Origin

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG

Players: 1

.

Review:

Ys Origin is a Top-Down Action-RPG in the long-running Ys series, with this game taking place 700 years before the adventures of series protagonist Adol and instead focusing on a member of a search party formed by the besieged remnants of humanity to seek out the missing goddesses that may be their only hope to fend off an assault by demonic monsters. Originally released on PC all the way back in 2006 in Japan and eventually 2012 elsewhere, this game would gradually be ported to other platforms, finally reaching the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

I’m going to do something a bit unusual at the start here and level with you guys – I am having a difficult time appreciating Ys Origin, and to some extent it’s not entirely the game’s fault. The problem here is that this game has been released at the worst possible time. While it’s a game that’s 14 years old, it’s coming to the Switch two years after its latest successor, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, released on the Switch, and the decade between the two games really shows, not just in it being a more modern game, but a far more ambitious game as well.

However, to make things worse, Ys Origin also hits the Switch just a mere few weeks after it received the absolutely brilliant Hades, a game that is also similarly combat-focused with RPG elements, but that absolutely outclasses it in just about every way. If I hadn’t played Ys VIII and had higher expectations for Ys Origin, I may have thought better of Origin. Likewise, if I was not still thoroughly enjoying Hades, I might have had an easier time appreciating Origin’s charms. I’m going to try to be even-handed here, but just know going forward that those two games will be buzzing in the back of my mind as I talk about this one.

Visually, Ys Origin will seem like something of a throwback to many players, looking mostly like an upscaled PlayStation 2-era game. The environments are fairly low-poly and simple, characters are sprite-based and look like typical old-school JRPG-styled characters, and overall there’s very little here that will visually impress on any level. The water looks nice at least. At the very least I can say this game’s typical JRPG-style soundtrack is very good and backs the game’s action well.

As for that action, I have to say that after playing Ys VIII, I was surprised at how much of a smaller game this one was. The gameplay here takes almost entirely within the demon tower the goddesses are apparently captured within, so don’t expect any exploration. The plot, while not bad, isn’t especially engaging, either. Character progression is limited, with major upgrades to your character largely tied to finding items in the dungeon and leveling up by fighting enemies rarely feels like making significant progress. Even the dungeons themselves are fairly repetitive and bland, an issue exacerbated by this game’s lack of a map.

If this game does one thing really well to engage the player, it’s having pretty good combat, with players comboing enemies with a nicely fluid combat system. Although… damn it, yeah, here’s where I can’t help but come back to how much I prefer the combat in Hades, which is oddly similar, but more fluid, flexible, and varied. Comparisons to that other game aside, I’ll just say that the combat in Ys Origin is fun and engaging, but it can get a bit repetitive, and the small size of your character and zoomed -out view robs the combat of some degree of nuance.

I know this review has been just a lot of complaining, but please understand, Ys Origin is a good game. If it were released six months ago or especially if it were released three years ago, I’d likely be singing its praises as a combat-focused Action-RPG. But it’s not three years ago, and it’s not six months ago. If I want to play an Ys game, Ys VIII just offers me so much more to explore, so much better character progression and fun gameplay systems to play around with. And if I want to fight hordes of monsters in dungeons, there’s no question in my mind that I’d rather do it in Hades. As it is, Ys Origin is a game that I like, but that I just have no real desire to keep playing, because everything about it that I like, I like better in those other games.

tl;dr – Ys Origin is a Top-Down Action-RPG that’s much smaller in scope than Ys VIII, instead being focused largely on combat in dungeons. It’s not bad, but it’s also probably not what fans of Ys VIII are hoping for, and those looking for a top-down combat-focused game will find a much better one in the recently-released Hades. As a result, Ys Origin is a decent game that seems like it’s outdone in every area by other, better games.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}