2335: Goddesses

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I finished Ys Origin’s true route this evening, and if the first two games hadn’t already convinced me this is a series that will stay with me a long time, that ending would have certainly done it. The way it establishes the backstory of things that are just a matter of course in Ys I and II is beautiful, and it brings a whole new layer of meaning to the overarching storyline and mythology of the series. I’m looking forward to seeing how — if? — this mythology fits into the games I’m yet to play.

The thing that’s struck me most from these three games in the series that I’ve played so far is how beautifully the goddesses Reah and Feena are handled. It’s hard to tell whether this is the work of the original Japanese script or Xseed’s excellent localisation, but either way, they’re wonderfully depicted characters that act as an important centrepiece to these three episodes of the overall storyline.

The most striking thing about them is how overwhelmingly nice they are. And I don’t mean in a bland, uninteresting way; both Reah and Feena are convincingly friendly, approachable characters despite being divine beings, and there’s a decent amount of the backstory in Ys Origin in particular that deals with their loneliness and desire to have friends among the humans rather than being revered as the powerful beings they are. Indeed, even in Ys I where series protagonist Adol Christin encounters an apparently amnesiac Feena, she seems keen to cling on to him and develop a close personal relationship.

They’re a study in contrasts, too, despite being similar in appearance and bearing. Feena is kind and gentle — the sort of person it would probably be nice to have a hug from. Reah, meanwhile, is more willful and stubborn, but counterbalances this with a similarly graceful demeanour and a desire to always be hospitable to those who have the confidence to approach and address her. They make a good pair, and while we don’t see a huge amount of either of them in the first two Ys games, this is more than made up for in Ys Origin, where we get to spend quite a bit of time with both of them.

Perhaps the nicest thing about them is the feeling that the Ysian religion, based on following the teachings of the Six Priests and worshipping Feena and Reah, is both plausible as a belief system and comforting. It’s not infallible, by any means, either — indeed, Toal comments to the goddesses in Ys Origin that they are “barely even half perfect”, and it’s partly everything the goddesses and their helpers put in place that led to the apocalyptic situation that greets you from the outset of Ys Origin — but it’s obvious that the goddesses, both as people and as mythological figures, bring great comfort to the populace. In a world where JRPGs in particular often take rather ruthless aim at religion as part of their narratives, highlighting the negative aspects rather than the positives, the Ysian approach to belief systems is almost refreshing.

I think that sums up the tone of the series quite nicely, too. While there’s plenty of darkness, evil and unpleasantness going on — arguably more so in Ys Origin than in I and II — there’s an overall warm feeling to the series that brings to mind comforting childhood stories like fairy tales and fables. I anticipate that this feeling will become stronger as I spend more time with regular series protagonist Adol in the subsequent games, but the three distinct stories in Ys Origin unfolded in a compelling, interesting manner, too; they presented a convincing back story to what unfolds 700 years later in Ys I and II, and I’m left with an almost overwhelming desire to immediately go back and play I and II again having seen what Origins’ story had to offer.

I’ll save that for now, though; I’ve still got Oath in Felghana, Ys VI, Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta to get through. And I’m looking forward to all of them.

2330: Play It Again

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So many games these days are designed to be played once and then put aside — or, in some cases, played forever and ever and ever and ever — that it’s been quite a refreshing feeling playing through Ys Origin for a second time on a harder difficulty with a different playable character. It’s making me quite nostalgic for the PlayStation 1 era in particular, and is reminding me somewhat of one of the earliest games I recall taking this sort of approach: Resident Evil 2.

Resident Evil 2 was actually really neat when it came to its multiple playthroughs. You’d play it once as one of the two lead characters, then play it again as the other lead to see what they were doing while the first lead was doing their thing. Then you’d start a new game as the other lead character, then play it again as the first lead character to see what they were doing while the other lead was doing their thing. Naturally this was a nightmare for continuity and meant that there wasn’t really a “definitive” version of the story, but it didn’t really matter: it meant you could go through the game four times and have a somewhat (albeit marginally) different experience each time.

But Resident Evil 2 — and indeed Ys Origin — didn’t stop there. No, there were unlockable secrets, once the preserve of the mysterious tips pages in games magazines, but these days discovered by people with a lot of time on their hands in seemingly minutes flat. And they’re significant secrets, too: Resident Evil 2 allows you to play an entirely new scenario as a character called Hunk as well as, rather oddly, a large block of tofu, while Ys Origin unlocks a third playable character after your first playthrough, then unlocks Time Attack, Boss Rush and Arena Modes after that, meaning that — assuming you want to carry on — the game is far from over when you’ve beaten the final boss with all the characters and seen all the story. And then there’s the various difficulty modes and achievements to play with, too — it ultimately makes the whole game considerably better value than it might first appear, with its 6-10 hour playtime for a single runthrough.

I kind of miss this approach. There was a feeling of discovery and excitement as you worked to unlock secrets and extras in games, and you felt good when you achieved it, finally, because it was the result of actually achieving something in the game. These days, however, extra modes and stories are all too often the preserve of DLC, which just doesn’t have the same magic at all, largely because you have to 1) pay for it and 2) don’t have to earn it to unlock it.

I know not everyone likes having to unlock things to be able to enjoy it all, but it’s always been something I’ve liked, and a fundamental part of many gaming experiences. Ys Origin — and, I anticipate, the other Ys games I’m yet to work my way through — is proving to be a pleasantly enjoyable reminder of The Good Old Days in more ways than one, and just another reason I’m becoming increasingly enamoured with both the series and Falcom as a developer.

2329: Another Trip Up Darm Tower

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I finished my first playthrough of Ys Origin earlier. I chose to play through for the first time with Yunica Tovah, who apparently handles most like Adol in the subsequent 3D Ys games, but now I’m going through it again with Hugo Fact, who plays impressively differently.

One thing that struck me with Ys II in particular, and it appears to be a pattern that continues with Origin and its ilk, is how much shoot ’em up DNA is in this series. Numerous bosses have distinctly “bullet hell”-style attacks requiring intricate dodging and pattern recognition, for example, but this connection is most obvious when playing Origin as Hugo, since even his basic attack involves firing bullets. Hell, he even has two “options” (sorry, “The Eyes of Fact”) floating either side of him to fire additional bullets, which double in number when he uses Boost mode.

It’s interesting quite how different a feel this contrasting playstyle provides, since you’re otherwise going through pretty much the same levels and boss fights as in Yunica’s story, albeit with different cutscenes and a few minor changes here and there. Boss fights in particular are a very different affair when playing as Hugo, since rather than it being necessary to get in melee range as with Yunica, as Hugo you have to play a lot more defensively, attacking from range in suitable openings and taking great care to avoid attacks, since Hugo is considerably squishier than Yunica is. Not only that, but Hugo’s individual attacks do quite a bit less damage than Yunica’s axe and sword swings, though he makes up for this by being able to attack 1) from a distance and 2) much more rapidly than Yunica.

I’m also playing this second runthrough on Hard difficulty; I’m not quite brave enough for the series’ signature Nightmare difficulty yet, but I thought I’d step things up for Hugo, since I felt pretty confident with Yunica by the end of my first playthrough. It’s noticeably harder, particularly when it comes to boss fights. I’m not entirely sure if this is down to enemies’ boosted stats or simply the different way Hugo plays that I haven’t quite gotten used to yet, but I’m finding myself having to retry boss fights more times than I did on Normal with Yunica.

One of the things I like about Ys Origin so far is that although the boss fights are very difficult, I don’t think there’s been a single encounter in the game where I felt like I was beating my head against a wall. In other words, although I might fail a boss fight several times in succession, I’d make noticeable progress each time, chipping away a little further at the enemy life bar each time until I was eventually successful. It’s a matter of practice and skill rather than luck; in some ways, it reminds me quite a bit of Final Fantasy XIV raid bosses, where you need to know what’s going to happen in the fight before you can even think about being successful; flailing wildly isn’t going to work, at all.

Anyway. I’m keen to get through Ys Origin for a second time with Hugo, and then polish it off a third time with the “secret” third character, whose story is quite a bit different from Yunica and Hugo’s, from what I understand. By playing all three stories, you get the full narrative; this is an approach that some people find tiresome — particularly if they have to play through the same levels again with a different character, as you do here — but it’s something I always enjoy. I really enjoy seeing stories from multiple perspectives, and while Ys is fairly conventional fantasy in many ways, it’s well-written, well-localised and features some entertaining, endearing characters, so I’m more than happy to plough through it to see everything it has to offer.

Then after that, there’s Time Attack, Boss Rush and Arena Mode, of course, which I’m curious to at least try… so much for being a short game!

2327: Not the Boss of Me

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It seems to be a bit of an unfashionable opinion these days, unless you’re wanking over Dark Souls, but I really enjoy boss fights in video games. I have done ever since I encountered my first one: a big horrible tentacly thing that shot what looked like sperm at you at the end of the first level of Psyclapse’s Menace, a not-terrible horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up on the Atari ST. (Its quasi-sequel Blood Money was better, or at least I thought it was, since I could actually complete a level in it; I never did beat that boss in Menace.)

Specifically, I enjoy boss fights that revolve around learning a boss’s attack patterns, how to avoid or counter them and when are the openings you should use to launch your own attack. Conversely I tend to dislike boss fights where you’re just up against a bullet-sponge enemy and they’re either acting completely randomly or according to more unpredictable AI. I don’t want them to act like a human opponent, in other words; if I want to fight something like a human opponent, I can just play a multiplayer game and fight actual human opponents.

Thankfully, it seems a lot of game designers out there feel the same way as I do, or at least enjoy designing encounters of this type. Final Fantasy XIV, for example, is full of bosses where you need to learn the mechanics, where to stand and what to do at all points in the fight, particularly in high-level challenges that require you to be on top of your game. Your average bullet hell shoot ’em up, too, tends to have bosses with predictable patterns that are as much about avoiding veritable hailstorms of bullets as they are about dealing damage to your opponent.

What I’m discovering with my first foray into the Ys series is that Ys has fantastic bosses. I would perhaps exclude Ys I from that description, owing to the fact that its bosses — particularly its final boss — are a bit rubbish, but from Ys II onwards, Ys bosses are exactly the sort of thing I really enjoy.

I’m currently playing through Ys Origin, which seems to be one of the more well-regarded recent installments in the series. Tonight I fought a boss which took a good four or five attempts to master, and I really enjoyed it; I didn’t feel frustrated at any point, even when I failed, because I felt like I was learning something with each new attempt rather than just hoping my luck would be a little better.

The boss in question was “The Construct”, who is a big giant mechanical beastie that lives in a lava pit. In the first phase of your fight with him, he has a couple of different attacks: pulling back one of his fists to slam it down a moment later on the platform you’re standing on (which can be avoided by running away from the fist he pulls back), extending both his arms and spinning around (which can be avoided by a well-timed jump) and summoning a string of lasers from the ceiling (which can be avoided by moving out of the shining circle that appears on the ground a moment before the laser actually fires). The first phase essentially requires you to knock both of his hands off when he slams his fist down on the platform: avoid the slam itself, then dash back in and hit him in the mechanical wrist until his hand falls off.

Once you’ve done this, he then starts a different attack pattern: alternating between lurching forwards and biting the platform you’re on (which knocks you back into the lava if you don’t jump out of the way and avoid the shockwave this causes) and vomiting up an annoying little flamey creature which gets in your way and chips away at your health if you don’t deal with it quickly. In this phase, you actually get to cause some damage to the boss’s life bar by hitting him in the gem on his forehead when he bites the platform.

Following this, the process repeats, but harder; knock his hands off when he slams his fists down again, but this time there are bits of the platform missing you’ll have to jump over when avoiding his various attacks. Then smack his forehead around a bit. Then the final phase adds an entertaining attack where he sweeps his hand slowly around the platform, knocking its sections into the lava as he does so, requiring you to run for dear life around the platform until he tires of this particular activity and returns to trying to turn you into a nice pâté.

I enjoyed this boss fight because at no point did I feel like it was patronising me, but at the same time I was able to figure out what I was supposed to do without resorting to guides and walkthroughs. It was an excellent piece of solid, enjoyable game design, and a potent reminder that sometimes the most technologically advanced ways of doing things with artificial intelligence and the like aren’t necessarily the best.