If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It.

Ys 6 is far from broken. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Ys 6 works perfectly. It works perfectly by refusing to age. It took until the fifth game for the series to mature to 16-bit play mechanics. Ys 1 through Ys 4 were firmly rooted in 8-bit play mechanics. The original game didn't even have an attack animation. Your character had a sword which stuck out from his body. You didn't swing the sword. You merely ran into your enemies to attack. You had to align off center to score a hit. Attacking dead on would cause you to take damage. This system was dropped for the third title in the series. The first two games were 2D pseudo top down in perspective. Ys 3 switched to a 2D sidescrolling perspective. This facilitated the need for an attack animation, and a jump ability. Fans of the series in Japan clamored for the original style of the first two games. Falcom returned to that style for the fourth title in the series. For the fifth title in the series Falcom added the jump and sword swinging animation with actual control over the sword. You actually had to press the button to use the sword. Ys 6 is on a 128-bit system, and nothing has changed as far as play mechanics go from Ys 5. The most advanced feature of the game is the ability to rotate the field, and even that isn't in your control. The game will rotate the field for dramatic reveals every so often. How archaic! But considering that nothing ever obscures your view, maybe Falcom has the right idea. Rotation is technically a 16-bit concept, but is most associated with 32-bit systems. Another 16-bit concept is FMV. FMV has been in place since the series' original remakes of the first two games on the Turbo Duo. The battle system is a mix of 8 and 16-bit mechanics. Attack, jump, and magic. Ys 6 allows for the barest of combos in attacking. The character uses three swords that he can switch between on the fly. Each sword allows for a different magic type based on the element of the sword, and set combo unique to that sword. That's all you get. That's all you need. In bringing Ys 6 to the rest of the world outside Japan, Konami felt they had to add a few things. First off they replaced the 2D sprites for the character with 3D models. To help make the game more visually acceptable to the kids raised on the PlayStation. They also added voice. Every last NPC in the game is fully voiced. Falcom on the other hand fully believes in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I for one agree with them as far as Ys goes. I realize all things need to advance or they become stagnant and die. This can't work for every game. The industry needs to continually push forward. As painful as that might be. But for a handful of series, like Ys and Dragon Quest, I don't mind not moving forward.  For Ys, I'm content with more of the same. A couple of days ago, Falcom announced Ys 7. Please don't change anything. And Konami, please bring it here.

Next time, the wonderful storytelling of Ys.