Ys DS is a remake of just Book I, I saw Book II in the store, but I didn’t bother. A friend of mine actually bought Book I, so I was able to save myself the trouble, and just borrow the game from him. I really hoped the DS remake was in vain of Oath of Felgana. Oath of Felgana itself was actually a remake of the SNES Wanderer From Ys, so I thought Falcom would have learned a thing or two from that.
Let me set the record straight by saying I don’t hate Ys. I hate the crappy Ys games. I loved Oath of Felgana. That game had a decent combat engine, well designed dungeons and puzzles, exploration, good music, and a coherent plot. The game was made even cooler by providing a difficulty setting for players of all skills. The higher difficulty levels were for real hardcore gamers. Even the original SNES version wasn’t too bad of a game. I never played the Turbo version, though. After playing this, I once again set my sights on the remake of the original game.
The minute you turn on the game, you’re greeted by the wonderfully boring FMV from the PC version. I skipped that crap and went straight into the game. The remake itself contains a richer story and characters. In the original game, Adol just starts off at a village, and went on his merry way. You didn’t know about the problems plaguing the village, or that Adol’s got the boating skills of an overweight Sumo Wrestler. Trust me, Adol falls of the boat a lot!
Once you begin, you’re greeted with the most hideously ugly colors you can imagine. Everything looks saturated and muddy. The low resolution polygonal environments are embarrassing even for the DS. Or to put it another way: Harvest Moon looks better than this game. Harvest Moon isn’t exactly known for its graphics. Instead of a top down view, the angle is slightly adjusted to ¾ view causing huge ugly aliasing on the 3D objects. To think, the PC remake used beautiful 2D graphics. Hey now, graphics don’t mean jack squat when the gameplay’s good. I walk out of town, humped my first monster, and then turned the game off. I would have destroyed the game, but it wasn’t mine.
Wow, I must have been stupid to think this remake was going to be good. Yeah, I even played the PC Book I remake (turned it off the same place). I guess I’m expecting too much. I mean, the recent Ys games rocked, I figured they would do this right after the pitiful PC remakes. I guess I just kept clinging to the thoughts of Oath Of Felgana. What I experienced was an uglier version of a horrible remake of a steaming pile of crap. And to think, the combination of Book I&II aren’t even as long as Zelda on the NES, but now you’re paying for each game separately. Well, I’ve never beaten the remakes, so I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
Oh, and I wasn’t even paying attention to the music. The soundtrack was intact so it’s not all bad. I don’t think I’ll spend time on Book II, but you never know. I’m just a sucker for holding out for a good game. Don’t expect a review, either. I’ve already had enough bad Ys games for quite a while.
Here’s a couple of ugly screens I ripped off from Watch Impress. I didn’t get anywhere near as far, but it doesn’t look any better.
If you’re wondering why this preview is so hasty, check out my review section to see my review of the original game on the Turbo Duo and you’ll know why.
