The thing I really, really liked about it is the difficulty of the bosses, and how fair it is about it. If you die against a boss (in every Ys game that I can recall playing), you can immediately retry without delay. No loading times, no hauling your butt back to the boss room from the last checkpoint halfway through the dungeon. Mere seconds later and you're able to give it another go. It makes it more satisfying to slowly work out the pattern on your own, and it's less likely to frustrate the player. Games that force longer periods between retries are the ones I just get sick of, and resort to checking out a Let's Play to just get past the damn thing.

You're really going to enjoy the other games in the series.