Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim PC Playthrough, Part 1 (Normal/Catastrophe)
1Right on the heels of finishing the PS2 version during Napishtimania 2025, I'm playing Ys VI again on PC in order to compare the XSEED localization. To spice things up a bit, I've chosen Catastrophe mode, which I've never completed before.
Catastrophe mode was added to the XSEED release as a way to change things up and make the game behave a bit more like The Oath in Felghana: most of the consumables that you could normally store and use later are gone, so there's no healing whatsoever during boss fights. Enemies that used to drop healing items still do, but they're used immediately upon picking them up, also akin to Oath.
In exchange, not only does Capla Water still exist, but you'll find more of them, as every chest that previously contained any other healing item now contains Capla Water (which makes for an amusingly awkward effect upon your first encounter with Agu). However, Capla Waters will end up more useful as barter material than for direct use, as the other thing that's changed is the item shop in Rimorge, which now sells all 3 types of seeds, allowing you to further buff your attack and defense in particular (as vitality seeds were always available from Kevin during late-game).
The other big functional change, which leads to this playthrough being significantly shorter (on top of my actually knowing where stuff is this time), is that XSEED added true fast travel, more along the lines of the other games on the Napishtim engine.
Getting back to the main reason I started another playthrough on this version, the XSEED localization feels much more naturally-worded overall, though it may lose out on a few particularly amusing decisions made in the Konami localization (e.g. referring to Adol as a bean pole).
Despite coming into this playthrough more well-informed and having fast travel, this playthrough still ended up going over YouTube's 12-hour limit, so this first part leaves off around the turning point of the game.