Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

YS VIII: LACRIMOSA OF DANA

If it's not clear by now, I adore the Ys series. I love how purely fun these games are, I love the simple sense of adventure, and the sense of genuine mystique from uncovering the lore of ancient places of legend. I love the way Falcom humanizes their characters and really makes them feel 'real' in a way other studios' JRPGs struggle to match. And whatever I may have said about Celceta it still is a game that has a lot of that. ...

Tags: adol, dana, falcom, guide, retrospective

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YS: MEMORIES OF CELCETA (YS IV)

Time for a quick history lesson! Ys IV's history is a strange one indeed. Back around its initial release there were actually two games that were Ys IV, there was "Ys IV: Dawn of Ys" by Hudson Soft on the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) CD-ROM, and then there was "Ys IV: Mask of the Sun" by Tonkin House on the SNES. How did that happen? Well Falcom were in a bit of a situation at ...

Tags: adol, celceta, falcom, guide, retrospective

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YS SEVEN

Heading into the final era of Ys games and in the series' timeline the chronologically last of the localized games so far we have Ys Seven. Released for the PSP in late 2009 and ported to the PC years later, this game marks a heavy departure from earlier titles in the series in terms of graphics, gameplay and storytelling alike. The shift was met with mixed reception, but given all that came out of it, I couldn't be ...

Tags: adol, altago, falcom, guide, retrospective

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YS ORIGIN

Now for perhaps one of the best-known games in the series, Ys Origin has gained quite a bit of notoriety especially on Steam, probably mainly because its Steam trailer is super hype. Does it deserve it? Well, to put it very simply... hell yeah it does.

As mentioned already, in Ys Origin you do not play as Adol. That's because this game is a prequel to the Ys I & II duology, ...

Tags: adol, falcom, guide, origin, retrospective

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YS: THE OATH IN FELGHANA (YS III)

The third Ys game was known in the SNES era as "Wanderers of Ys", and was the game to introduce a lot of the western world to the series. Its reputation overall has been mixed, being a sort of "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" of the Ys series, ditching the overhead view for a sidescrolling adventure and as already implied not really being about the land of Ys at all anymore, ...

Tags: adol, falcom, felghana, guide, retrospective

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YS VI: THE ARK OF NAPISHTIM

Ys VI first came out in 2003 and marked a sort of revival for the series after an 8 year long hiatus following Ys V. It features an entirely new engine which was also used as the basis for the next two games on our list, as well as tying older games together lore-wise a lot.

The game begins as Adol finds himself stranded on ...

Tags: adol, falcom, guide, napishtim, retrospective

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Ys II Chronicles

As previously mentioned, Ys II resumes right where Ys I left us, with Adol being beamed up into the sky onto the floating island that is the old land of Ys. He wakes up outside of a small place called Lance Village without any of his equipment (how convenient) and without wasting any time gets roped into having to save the local doctor from a cave-in in a nearby monster-infested mine. At the same time the cave is intertwined with an old sanctuary ...

Updated 12-29-2019 at 11:13 AM by Karifean

Tags: adol, chronicles, falcom, guide, retrospective

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YS I CHRONICLES

Ys I is a game that has seen numerous releases and rereleases across many different platforms. But the most accessible modern day version is the "Ys I & II Chronicles" release for the PC. It's up on Steam, it's up on GOG, and it's pretty cheap nowadays.

The original Ys dates back to 1987, and the Chronicles version is less a full remake ...

Updated 12-29-2019 at 11:14 AM by Karifean

Tags: adol, chronicles, falcom, guide, retrospective

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There's something truly magical about Himawari that I didn't really realize back when I first read it but have come to appreciate about it more and more.

Himawari has an enforced reading order, something you don't see a lot in galge without a strong plot focus. However, like other visual novels such as Fate/Stay Night can use it to drive the plot and themes forward in parallel tales, so too does Himawari use it to give us ample ...

Tags: jyi=, ¿'¿"

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Video Games , Miscellaneous

Well, at last, it happened. It's been a long time coming, Umineko Chiru is finally available for purchase on Steam, and alternatively MangaGamer's own website.

Umineko Chiru - Steam Store Page

This is the second half of Umineko of course, so if you haven't read the first half yet, you can get it here.

I've stated how much Umineko means to me many a time before, ...

Tags: 1'", 1à§à¢, @@hknr0

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Video Games , Miscellaneous