Fantastic title with axcellent game loop
An action-platformer with light RPG elements, built around a tight gameplay loop and extremely precise controls. The game’s 25 tower stages are played across three character routes, each using the same core controls but introducing unique mechanics and revealing different story details.
Unfortunately, I encountered a controller quirk and solved it by using Xidi tool (by Samuel Grossman) after visiting a red-edit's page on "Ys Origin having issues with controllers".
This is a prequel to the entire series, playing the events that solified the rest of the series' overarching plot. It is a -mostly- action (beat-em-up) game with -some- platforing and -minor but strong- RPG elements.
The game is a professionaly made experience, with emphasis on its many little details. Localization is stellar (no censoring whatsoever) and I feel like it retains the japanese script's essence.
Graphics wise it has aged a bit but not where it matters : aesthetics are spot on and consistent throughout the game's 3 iterations and various details here and there will keep your interest. You know you are at an important junction when an animated cutscene displays.
Everything has a visual and audio impact. Audio is stellar. There is minimal voice acting but everything else has audio oomph. Music is excellent, though a biut repetitive, sets the mood properly and ties everything together.
You have 3 protagonists and going from top to bottom one, you view and act the same story from each character's perspective with small but important diffrences. However, the overall plot, setting, stages and Bosses are the exact same and each character delves deeper on different aspects and brings to light different plot's nunances, details and secrets.
The game is conviniently split into the various 25 levels of the Tower you are always exploring. Each level is its own stage, sporting various and different enemies and traversal hazards. Enemiy variance is medium - every stage has new enemies (some previous) and you will fight through all of them during all the characters' stories, albeit with different approach with each. Bosses are unique but more than half of them are the same for all protagonists.
Where the game shines brilliantly is its game loop and controls. Everything is *tight* and responsive to the millisecond, following the player's inputs precisely. It is very easy to blend instinct, skill and memory when traversing through the stages and beating up the enemies and bosses. Each character plays and feels differently and the enemies and bosses support that, with varying difficulty and nuance for each protagonist.
Again, the story, plot, script and dialogues, even the cinematography, is first rate and showcases the professionalism and passion of the Falcom's Ys team, as well as the respect towards their players.
The major plot revelation comes during the third character’s storyline and is absolutely worth the wait, even if slightly foreshadowed. Completing all routes leaves virtually no important thread unresolved.