Pictured above is my stunning defeat of the villainous Dark Fact, a final boss whose name is as silly as his attacks are deadly, and whose end signifies the end of Book 1 of this legendary Japanese action RPG series. Originally released in 1987 for some obscure Japanese computer I've never heard of, this epic remake arrived in 1990 for the Turbografx 16 CD with both Book 1 and Book 2 (Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter).
Man, I wanted to play it back then. But even a bachelor's budget can only go so far and there was a lot of hardware to get in the early 1990s. I passed on the very expensive CD Rom drive for the Turbografx 16, as there were not many titles beyond Ys for it that I wanted to try. Hey, I had a TurboExpress though, and that was money well spent.
It's a strange early entry into the action RPG field where a lot of the norms get twisted a little. You're not allowed to use any items such as a healing potion during a boss fight, for example. Most unique and at first just bizarre is the combat where you simply bump into monsters to do damage. Just equip your best gear and run right into them, no button presses required. There is some nuance involved, as making your collision with the enemy head on can be less effective than hitting it at a corner or from an angle. It's hard to define in words and it definitely takes a minute to get used to but once the player gets the feel for it, it's like if Robotron didn't have guns and instead you chest bumped the robots. And you're in a dungeon.
Also weird is that instead of the standard 8 or so dungeons of equal proportion, Ys Book 1 has a small outdoor area with two towns, and three dungeons total, the last one being 25 levels tall. Also, there is very little warning that once you go into that 25 level final dungeon, you cannot go back to the villages again.
There are a few items and better gear to get, and the dungeons present labyrinthine layouts and puzzles to move forward. In my playthrough I hit a dead end after beating the penultimate boss fight and had to backtrack way down the tower to find an item to move forward.. Take the whole package together with the beautiful CD soundtrack and cutscenes, and the fact that this came out in 1990, and Ys Book 1 makes for a rewarding and exciting videogame experience even in 2020.
I have to wonder what other undiscovered treasures are hidden in the vast unknown library of 1980s Japanese computer software. As Apple, Atari, Commodore and others battled in the North America and European markets, it appears as if a number of computer models in Japan were getting software like this while I was playing Sword of Kadash on my Commodore 64.
Ys Book 1 ends and a gorgeous CD cutscene drops the player right into Book 2. With all levels intact, but no gear nor items it seems. Just the six books I gathered throughout Book 1. Onward I go.
