Ys X First Playthrough: Chapter 4
0Here we are, in the first fully-post-demo chapter of Ys X, and it turns out that the game's still got more new mechanics to introduce.
It would appear we had not yet seen the true successor to Ys IX's tower defense bits, which come in the form of reclamation missions, consisting of a combination of sea and land battles. It's an interesting attempt to mix things up a bit, with your performance during the sea battles impacting how many stat bonuses you receive for the land portion; unfortunately, it does still seem a bit like busy-work. And perhaps most tragically, the barriers we destroy by performing these missions were actually really pretty and I feel bad for breaking them!
Fortunately, this chapter has done a decent job at breaking up the monotony of seafaring, as there's frequently something to go off and do on a particular island. This chapter also seems to add at least one optional marker on the map that you are fully incapable of visiting (as in, you literally can't even reach the area). This is something I seem to recall finding problematic even in IX - given that the games are chapter-based, I frequently worry about missing out on something I won't have the chance to return to later, but it's pretty obvious in this case that there's no other choice. It seems unnecessarily confusing to mark it on the map this early, even if I did technically open up the area...
This chapter also pleasantly surprised me with its final boss battle. At least Falcom has managed to pull through in one respect I was still holding out a bare minimum of hope for...