Ys X: Nordics - Part 16/16 - PS4 - イースX ノーディクス ~ The Truth Revealed
0Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjd3BsQQrwANXf2tb1P1yym9EhuCqdyRX
As of writing (end of 2023), Ys X still hasn't been released in English. Ys X brings us into Nordic mythology, and takes place between Ys II and Ys IV. And just like every Ys game released since Ys Seven, it uses a party system. This time, however, the party shrinks to only two members for the entire duration of the game. Adol and Karja will be our two protagonists this time around. It plays pretty much exactly the same way other party-system Ys games play. Of course, slight differences are introduced, such as the "skill tree", which basically has the player insert orbs in a tree to give Adol and Karja extra abilities and buff their stats. Honestly, you can pretty much just do that randomly and still be good. Adol and Karja also always level up at the same time.
A notable change is that for the first time in the franchise, the game features ship battles. You get to play naval battles by firing your cannon or other far-fetched weapons at the enemy ships. It's pretty simple overall. You can also crash your ship into theirs to do considerable damage. Just like our heroes, the boat can also be upgraded. Sometimes, you'll be able to board other ships and fight enemies on the deck. Remember the village raids from Ys VIII or the Grimwald Nox battles from Ys IX? This game has its own version of that. First, you fight in the water with your ship around a protected island. Then, you land on the island and you've got to clear four or five rooms of its enemies as fast as possible. You'll get a ranking from C to S, with some items for each rank. Getting an S rank nets you all items at once. If you get something lower than that, you can just retry at any time.
Story-wise, the game features a few twists and turns, as is usually the case with recent Falcom games. The characters are interesting and the voice acting is good, and generally speaking I've enjoyed the story. The final boss is a total surprise, too, not at all usual for an Ys game. I'm sure some will find it disappointing, but I thought it was a breath of fresh air. The music, while generally strong, is not my favorite in the franchise. It's, as usual, very solid, but it's far from being the best soundtrack in the series IMO. The main antagonists were all pretty cool and well designed, I enjoyed fighting them. Some of the side characters, too, were pretty awesome, such as Phylleia or Grimson, Karja's father.
On the disappointing side of things, number one has got to be the environments. For a game about visiting a bunch of islands on different seas, why do they practically all look the same? Even Ys IX, which practically took place in a single gigantic city for the entire game, had more varied environments the few times you wandered out of it! Ys X's islands were extremely disappointing to visit. Where were the forests? The snow mountains? The volcanoes? Otherwise, the game runs really well, even on the PS4 like I'm doing here. The game also lacked more than a few equippable costumes for the characters, but it's typical for Falcom to hide those behind a paywall as DLC, unfortunately. I played the game on Normal difficulty, and it was easy enough.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Ys X: Nordics. Is it possible not to enjoy an Ys game anyway? It may not be the strongest game in the franchise, but it's still a blast to play and a mighty fine game.
== LIVE STREAMS ON YOUTUBE & TWITCH EVERY WEEKDAY!
Mondays & Thursdays @ ~7:15 PM EST -- SUPER MARIO MAKER 2
Every Weekday on Twitch @ ~1:15 PM EST -- Mostly JRPGs
== TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/retro_zen
== DISCORD: https://discord.gg/gQwxPzcTCW
== X: https://twitter.com/retro_zen
== SUPPORT: Thank you for watching, liking, commenting, and subscribing! =)
***
#ysx #イース #イースX
Other Videos By Retro Zen
Other Statistics
Ys X: Nordics Statistics For Retro Zen
There are 833 views in 16 videos for Ys X: Nordics. The game makes up over 2 days of published video on his channel, or 4.90% of the total watchable video for Ys X: Nordics on Retro Zen's YouTube channel.