Ys 4: Mask of the Sun
Oct. 3rd, 2010 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroGiven my new emulator rig setup makes such things easy, I played through Ys 4: Mask of the Sun, one of several games in the series produced for the Super Famicom and never officially brought to the US.
I played the DS remakes of Ys 1 and 2 lasy year, which apparently improved both games from the original versions. After Ys 3 switched to side-scrolling and an unrelated plot, this game brings back the control scheme of the first two games (the "ram enemies off-center to hurt them" model without the option of an attack button that the remakes provided) and ties the plot into them.
Overall, I was underwhelmed, honestly. The graphics are lousy, early-SNES era stuff that is only marginaly better than what the NES could handle. Worse, in many regards, than Ys 3, which implies they could have done better. The music was particularly repetitive, especially given the amount of time you need to spend grinding. And there needs to be grinding--the game is punishingly hard, and there are enemies you can't actually damage unless you're of high enough level. The magic system is badly-designed and mostly useless--which spell you can cast is tied into which sword you have equiped, but switching between them takes a trip through several menus, and the spells aren't actually significantly more effective than the fighting system. (There are a few single-character-wide halls where they're handy to knock the enemy out of the way, but you're still better of killing it normally once you've got the space.) And there are very few puzzles, just mazes that are designed to be less confusing and more annoying. Parts of the final dungeon are "dark", so you can only see a small area around Adol, which means you waste time and run into more enemies because you have to check every corner of the screen.
The story starts vaguely in medias res, but given translation differences, the stuff you're supposed to remember from the previous three games can easily get lost. This is not, however, the fault of Aeon Genesis, who did a rather marvellous job translating and patching the game. I blame this more on Falcom, who couldn't keep track of either their romanizations or their continuity particularly well. (Seriously, visit the Tvtropes page at some point and try to figure out which games are currently in-continuity and which aren't. There are two significantly-different games called "Ys 4" and which one is actually part of the continuity is still occasionally unclear.) I do particularly like the fact that Adol isn't a heroic mime--he speaks enough that you actually get a sense of his character--and that they make good use of the recurring supporting cast, especially Dogi the Wall-Crusher. But with only about six hours of game, and most of that being grinding and dungeon-crawling, there isn't enough to balance.
As a random side note, this was the first game I found that SNES9X didn't run properly--none of the text was visible in the text boxes--but ran great on Z-SNES. Usually it's the other way around.
Overall, this was a rehash of the first two games after the changes to the third one apparently weren't well-recieved. It's only worth it if you liked the original control scheme, style and difficulty level of those games.
Aeon Genesis is working on a translation of Ys 5, which apparently added an attack button, a jump button, and significantly better graphics. I'm not sure why--apparently I have too much series loyalty for my own good--but I suspect I'll play that when it's available, too.
I played the DS remakes of Ys 1 and 2 lasy year, which apparently improved both games from the original versions. After Ys 3 switched to side-scrolling and an unrelated plot, this game brings back the control scheme of the first two games (the "ram enemies off-center to hurt them" model without the option of an attack button that the remakes provided) and ties the plot into them.
Overall, I was underwhelmed, honestly. The graphics are lousy, early-SNES era stuff that is only marginaly better than what the NES could handle. Worse, in many regards, than Ys 3, which implies they could have done better. The music was particularly repetitive, especially given the amount of time you need to spend grinding. And there needs to be grinding--the game is punishingly hard, and there are enemies you can't actually damage unless you're of high enough level. The magic system is badly-designed and mostly useless--which spell you can cast is tied into which sword you have equiped, but switching between them takes a trip through several menus, and the spells aren't actually significantly more effective than the fighting system. (There are a few single-character-wide halls where they're handy to knock the enemy out of the way, but you're still better of killing it normally once you've got the space.) And there are very few puzzles, just mazes that are designed to be less confusing and more annoying. Parts of the final dungeon are "dark", so you can only see a small area around Adol, which means you waste time and run into more enemies because you have to check every corner of the screen.
The story starts vaguely in medias res, but given translation differences, the stuff you're supposed to remember from the previous three games can easily get lost. This is not, however, the fault of Aeon Genesis, who did a rather marvellous job translating and patching the game. I blame this more on Falcom, who couldn't keep track of either their romanizations or their continuity particularly well. (Seriously, visit the Tvtropes page at some point and try to figure out which games are currently in-continuity and which aren't. There are two significantly-different games called "Ys 4" and which one is actually part of the continuity is still occasionally unclear.) I do particularly like the fact that Adol isn't a heroic mime--he speaks enough that you actually get a sense of his character--and that they make good use of the recurring supporting cast, especially Dogi the Wall-Crusher. But with only about six hours of game, and most of that being grinding and dungeon-crawling, there isn't enough to balance.
As a random side note, this was the first game I found that SNES9X didn't run properly--none of the text was visible in the text boxes--but ran great on Z-SNES. Usually it's the other way around.
Overall, this was a rehash of the first two games after the changes to the third one apparently weren't well-recieved. It's only worth it if you liked the original control scheme, style and difficulty level of those games.
Aeon Genesis is working on a translation of Ys 5, which apparently added an attack button, a jump button, and significantly better graphics. I'm not sure why--apparently I have too much series loyalty for my own good--but I suspect I'll play that when it's available, too.
