Ys and the Nordic Lands: A Review of an Unforgettable Journey

Despite not being as popular as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, the Ys series has every right to be considered as one of the most important Japanese role-playing game series ever made. Since the first entry in the series released back in 1987, developer Falcom has been providing engaging ARPG experiences enriched by engaging narratives and rocking soundtracks that have made each entry in the series memorable. The Japanese developer hasn’t been averse to innovation, either, as the Ys series changed a lot over the years, going from the simple “bump” combat system, which required the red-haired adventurer Adol Christin to bump into enemies to damage them, to the more complex party system introduced in Ys SEVEN, which granted players the ability to control multiple characters. This party system has powered every entry in the series since 2009, so a change was long overdue, despite this system leading to the creation of some of the best entries in the series, such as Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. This overdue change has come with Ys X Nordics, an excellent ARPG that can stand head-to-head with the best entries in the series and even surpass them in some cases.

Like Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, Ys X Nordics takes players back in time. The new adventure of the famed red-haired adventurer is set a month after the events of the second entry in the series, a month after Adol has unraveled the secrets of Ys and saved Esteria from evil. Together with Dogi and Dr. Flair Rall, the adventurer is on his way to Celceta when the ship they are on is assaulted by a band of pirates. After an intense fight against this group, which includes a woman capable of using a mysterious power, Adol is transported together with his travel companions to the town of Carnac, located on one of the many islands in the Obelia Gulf, where the Normans’ Balta Seaforce operate. These Normans, however, aren’t the real threat in the gulf, as another mysterious group of individuals that can only be killed by Mana wielders called Griegrs is plaguing the land and threatening the lives of everyone. Unable to resist the call to adventure, Adol ends up joining the Normans, developing a close relationship with Karja Balta, the daughter of the leader of the Balta Seaforce, to provide his invaluable help to end the Griegrs once and for all, all the while learning more about the Obelia Gulf and the mysteries it hides between its waves and on its many islands.

Since the seventh entry in the series, Falcom focused more on the story of the Ys games, making them feel closer in this regard to the developer’s other series, the Trails series. The line between the two franchises started blurring more since Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, which essentially featured two main characters and an ensemble narrative. Ys X Nordics follows suit in this regard, as many are the characters that get their time to shine during the adventure, making it quite compelling even with its not particularly original setup. The relationship between Adol and Karja is at the center of the show, and it’s a believable, well-developed relationship that gives the story something more that makes it even more compelling. Even at the end of the adventure, after around 30 hours, I didn’t have enough of these characters, a testament to the quality of their characterization and development. Some tropes are in full force here, to be true, but it is hardly grating, especially for those who are into the sort of adventure-focused, anime-inspired stories the series has always offered.

While the story and its presentation are based on what the series has offered in the past few entries, it’s in the gameplay that Ys X Nordics feels mostly different. At its heart, the game still offers the same fast-paced action RPG experience of the previous games but with some twists that set it apart from everything Falcom did in the past. The party and Damage Types systems introduced in Ys SEVEN, which powered every entry in the series since, are now gone, replaced by the Cross Action system. Thanks to this system, players can control either Adol and Karja in Solo Mode, or control both of them at the same time in Duo Mode. In the latter mode, basic attacks are slower but more powerful, and any Skill consumes the SP of both characters. On the other hand, by guarding enemy attacks, it is possible to increase the Revenge Gauge value, which increases the power of the next Skill by up to 5 times once the Revenge Gauge has been upgraded using manuals scattered all over the Obelia Gulf.

The Cross Action system heavily influences the flow of combat, even not considering the damage that Duo Mode can unleash with proper preparation (and guarding). The character not actively controlled, for example, can recover HP without items, and their SP recovers quickly. The latter is made especially important by the Chain mechanics, which reduce SP consumption of skills the more skills are chained together. By switching between characters as needed, it is possible to keep the Chain going and unleash the most powerful skills with a fraction of their base required SP, upping the intensity of the offense in such a way that players who master this system can make short work of the most powerful bosses at the highest difficulty available, Inferno. Even at lower difficulties, however, Ys X Nordics can be somewhat challenging if the player doesn’t pay attention to enemies, as they are usually rather aggressive and tend to attack quite often. With the renewed focus on guarding and Perfect Guarding, which is performed by pressing the guard button right before an enemy attack connects, allows for a quick counter-attack and grants increased critical rate briefly and massive SP restoration, evading has kind of lost the value it had in the previous game, as Perfect Evading has been turned into a slightly different mechanic limited to certain types of attacks indicated by a bright glow.

The character progression system also saw a major overhaul in Ys X Nordics with the introduction of the Release Line system. This system features some interconnected nodes that can be unlocked by using a special type of resource and by leveling up, allowing players to unlock new Skills, customize Adol and Karja’s stats, and unlock some useful passive abilities like increased HP, attack and critical rate, extended chain time window, decreased SP consumption for skills and so on. While this system takes away some of the simplicity of the typical Ys experience, I have found the system to be well-integrated with the rest of the experience and not an annoyance at all.

While all of these mechanics sound needlessly complex on paper, they flow rather well together. The game also goes out of its way to provide players with tutorials and plenty of time to get used to one of these mechanics before introducing the next. Maybe a little too much time, as it takes around 5 hours for the training wheels to come off. These 5 hours are by no means boring, as there’s plenty of story to experience in them, but the difference is really felt once Adol and his crew aboard the Sandras are finally given the chance to roam the Obelia Gulf more and see what it has to offer.

With the introduction of a maritime setting with the Normandy-inspired Obelia Gulf, Adolf and Karja explore the game’s world mostly aboard the Sandras. Besides exploring a variety of islands of different sizes, the two Mana users and their crew can navigate the seas, interact with merchant ships, and discover sea life and even fish. The crew will also have to fight the Griegr’s Undying Fleet in simple naval battles using a variety of weapons that are unlocked as the adventure progresses. In some instances, Adol and Karja can act like true pirates and board the enemy’s main ship and fight the Griegrs on it in some intense ground battles. Naval and ground combat come together in the Island Recapturing missions which require the crew to first destroy some protective pillars before being able to land on an island to release it from the grip of the Griegr. Depending on the morale level achieved during the naval segment of these missions, Adol and Karja will receive a variety of bonuses that will make the fights on the islands easier. These missions also come with a scoring system that grants different grades and different rewards, depending on the player’s performance, adding a tiny bit of replay value for those who fail to achieve S rank on their first run-through of a mission. As the Sandras can be upgraded using gold and material, as can Adol and Karja’s weapons, armor, and accessories, doing so will be much easier if the missions are replayed further along the adventure.

Among those who played the Japanese version of Ys X Nordics, the ship-powered exploration and combat is divisive, but I personally did not find it too bad. It does feel a little limiting if compared to the exploration possibilities Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana offered almost from the get-go, but it goes together extremely well with the setting, and it feels fun to activate the Mana Sail ability or catch some wind currents to speed up towards the crew’s next destination. Besides, a solid location design is still shown throughout the game, as the game’s main dungeons are quite well-designed, with some optional locations and treasures being only accessible by using Mana Actions properly, special traversal abilities with multiple applications unlocked during the adventure. With great enemy design and the usual epic bosses the series is known for, I feel the naval gameplay doesn’t really detract from the experience in any capacity.

Also releasing on the underpowered Nintendo Switch, Ys X Nordics doesn’t exactly push cutting-edge visuals. Still, the game looks quite good, with colorful environments, detailed character models that bring out each character’s personality, and some impressive visual effects for special attacks. These visuals truly shine in some of the cutscenes that play during and after boss battles, which also show great direction and pump the player up quite a bit in conjunction with the usual amazing rocking soundtrack the series is known for. Due to the setting, however, the explorable islands’ looks are a little homogenized and become repetitive very quickly. Hopefully, it doesn’t become a trend for the series, as Ys IX: Monstrum Nox had a similar issue.

Since the visuals don’t push boundaries in any way, it’s no surprise Ys X Nordics runs well on PlayStation 5. On the Sony console, the game features a single display mode that targets 60 FPS gameplay, 4K resolution, something that we don’t see on the system unless with very simple games, and very fast loading, compared to the Switch version. The PC version, however, puts the already excellent PS5 version to shame, with an amazing wealth of visual settings and an up to 360 FPS cap that allow users to scale visuals and performance way beyond the console versions, and even an experimental co-op mode that works surprisingly well, despite some of the game’s mechanics working against it.

The PC version of Ys X Nordics also runs incredibly well, despite not supporting any upscaler or frame generation tech. In a benchmarking session featuring some sea exploration and combat as well as the entirety of Termina Island, at 4K resolution, max settings, and 2xMSAA, the game ran at an average of 102 FPS, 73 FPS, 1% low on my system (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM). With no MSAA, which makes only a small difference in visual quality, and the settings in the screenshots below, in the same benchmarking scenario, the game ran at an average of 236 FPS, 142 FPS 1% low. In both cases, there was no stuttering at all, resulting in a very smooth experience. Having been developed by Durante’s PH3 Games, there was no doubt that the PC port would have turned out great, and the team once again delivered.

While some of the changes made to the formula the series employed for 15 years may not sound too exciting on paper, they come together really well in Ys X Nordics, making it the first proper step forward for the franchise in quite a while. The increased focus on the narrative may put some long-time fans of the series off, as may the slight increase in complexity of its system, but if they manage to look past these non-issues, they will find an extremely solid ARPG and a worthy continuation of the long-running series by Falcom.

PC and PS5 versions tested. Review codes provided by the publisher.

Ys X Nordics

Ys X Nordics stands as one of the best entries in the series, second only to the excellent YS VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. With a cast of charming characters, an engaging story, and fast-paced action gameplay powered by some interesting mechanics that force players to balance offense and defense, the franchise by Falcom has taken a decisive step forward, delivering a highly polished and satisfying experience