Ys X First Playthrough: Beginning the final chapter
0At some point in the previous 2 chapters, I began debating how many chapters the game could possibly have left. I wasn't immediately sure this would be the final one, but the game made it increasingly clear that it would be.
Suddenly we're hit with ample opportunities to max out character affinities and rush in a few final recapture missions - one of which had some of the most dubious platforming I've seen in the whole game. Meanwhile, in terms of plot, we get one of the most anticipated confrontations of the game... followed by possibly the most ridiculous plot development I've ever seen in the franchise, that is impossible to take seriously if you've seen Bionic Commando 2009. I'm actually too amused by this to be disappointed, and I guess if I'm being fair I can't necessarily fault them if they didn't see that comparison just begging to be made.
Oh right, in this segment I also stumbled across the game's superboss... which I shouldn't have been surprised by, given that it's not the first Ys game to have one, but I wasn't quite prepared for it as "early" as I got to it - I was far closer to the endgame at that point than I thought, but I definitely should've done a couple of other things first, ideally. Ultimately, though, I doubt anything would have made that fight particularly less egregious, as it highlights all of the ways in which the new battle system is not particularly enjoyable, and even a slog when break gauge refills get involved. Falcom even pulled the most jerk move in the game, by scripting a final break gauge refill when the boss reaches 1HP. Yes, I can confirm it is indeed scripted and was not a fluke, as the same thing happened to GhostKumo when I saw him fight this boss, and someone else in his chat additionally corroborated it.
I also ultimately realized that the primary reason my map completion percentage is so low is because of buried treasure, and a large part of what I missed would've involved backtracking to areas where I hadn't had the ability yet when I first visited them. On the one hand, holy crap this game actually includes a reason to backtrack! On the other hand, it's the most boring uncompelling reason imaginable (we're basically talking almost Super-Mario-Sunshine-blue-coins-tier), and there's no way in hell I'm bothering to do it. So congrats Falcom, you took what used to be a satisfying mechanic/stat and turned it into junk.
Anyway, things have fully shaped up for the endgame... and I'm very concerned that this is going to be far too predictable and straightforward compared to many of the other Ys games I've played. I've been wrong to hold out hope for anything else in this entire video game, so I'm already assuming I shouldn't hope for one final plot twist. We'll have to find out...
(I had to split the final chapter into 2 segments because Falcom finally crammed enough stuff into one chapter that it crossed the single-video time limit.)