Ys Origin is an action RPG (not turned based) which is pretty good! Its all about exploring and climbing the omnious tower, which was brought forth by demons! Or is there more at play...? The gameplay is rather simple (a bit like top-down Zelda games) which isnt bad in of itself. The main appeal though, are the BOSS fights, the artworks, the STORY - This game does those well. :) Ive heard at length about FALCOM games, and Ys Origin was my first. I did enjoy it!


PROS:
- 5 DIFFICULTY settings. Default (normal) was the one I went with for my first playthrough (as HUGO). For your first game, I reccommend playing at NORMAL. Then, for your 2nd playthrough (3 playable characters with their own story twists in the tower) lower it down a notch so you dont burn out and lower the grind needed. After all, if you finished once, you earned a break, right?
- Music is good! (My favorite is "Water Prison")
- 3D models transformed into sprites. This makes some monsters feel a bit "GoldenSun" uncanny with how some monsters are animated. But you know what? I liked that. Obviously, its not put into sprites with pixelated edges. Its clean! Characters and demons both look great (my favorite type's the dark skeleton mages at the end game).
- When attacking, theres a slight element of autoaiming when, lets say, you kill an enemy and one is behind your back. So you dont whiff constantly.
- Really good story. I really like Hugo, for one.
- The professionally made artworks during cutscenes are GORGEOUS!
- 3 playable characters with varied weaponry.
- UI (in your stats/gear menu) is PURE eye-candy. I love it. It fits the settings. Every/most items have flavourful descriptions and an ultra high quality 3D render picture of it. Nice!


CONS:
- The NEW GAME intro cutscene is UNSKIPPABLE (like 10min+) until you finish the game once.
- You can find gear in chests (you cant buy any). You can find ORE to upgrade your weapon. Missing any of these (theres not that many) means your fight against the next boss will be painfully long (on NORMAL MODE). Like its the diff between taking 18min to 2 min (prob worse on harder diff.) Its a weird system. There isnt many chests you can skip (maybe like 5 of them?) meaning you cant afford NOT to explore everything. LEVELING can alleviate difficulty to some extent, at least. While I list this as a negative, its not too bad. As all and all, the tower floors arent GIGANTIC and fairly easy to naviguate and remember where you've been and what not.
- Desert Area midboss (ring-related)


CONCLUSION:
My first game (NORMAL, HUGO) took me about 28h. My second one (EASY, ??? (unlockable character)) about 20h or so. I enjoyed myself on both! Even on Easy, you CAN and prob will still die a few times if you end up listening to a podcast while farming and losing yourself a bit (haha). The hidden final boss was worth it! If youre on the fence, I definitely recommend that game. Guess this means Ill try all the other FALCOM games now... xD