Recent reviews by Dark Bahamut

This is the game, originally released for PC in 2003, which started the "modern" phase of the Ys series, with polygonal environments and a more complex gameplay, with the ability to jump and do attack combos. The original version was released only in Japan, but it got ports for PS2 and PSP which came to the West. I read bad things about the game's performance on the PSP. The PS2 version, on the other hand, has everything polygonal (in PC / PSP all but scenery and important bosses are sprites), which is nice, and voiceovers for the dialogues, which by the little I've heard is not at all nice... Now, over 10 years later, XSEED released a western localization of the PC version on Steam, with some improvements such as support for widescreen.

Compared to the other two games of the series in this generation which I played on Steam, Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys: Origins, Napishtim is the one that adopts the most traditional style for a JRPG. Many NPCs, many dialogues, many events, much coming and going, a broader sense of exploration, relatively large inventory with manual item usage, etc.

Felghana then simplified things. It was only one town that was pretty much just a hub between dungeons. Combat and exploration had systems that encouraged advancing quickly and not wasting time. Origins then completely focused on action and was practically a dungeon crawler interspersed with small cutscenes.

Returning to Napishtim, graphically it is exactly equal to Felghana and Origins. featuring polygonal environments which are simple, but clean, having a nice visual style and very well animated sprites for the protagonist, NPCs and enemies. In the dialogues, nice anime-like portraits with a visual style that I really enjoyed. As one might expect from a 2003 game made natively for PC and only slightly improved and updated, it runs smoothly in 4K@60fps in a modern card. The game has a bug in that eventually the sprites will glitch and turn into a lot of geometric shapes flashing on the screen. Fortunately ALT + TAB solves this.

The sound follows the series' tradition: Excellent. There are two or three songs in the game that really stood out for me, but all of them are at least good and nothing gets irritating.

The game's story is simple, much along the lines of the series. It has its twists, but nothing that is very impressive or makes you care too much. The central plot is self-contained, but both minor and major events have some connections and references to Ys I and 2 (and therefore Origins, although this was released later), so playing those games before can be helpful to make the most out of it, although this is not necessary. This is not a long journey, but it's noticeable that the staff had a certain dedication and attention to detail, such as the fact that all the dialogues of all NPCs change after every event that advances the main story.

The way the situations and events elapse and how they fit in the exploration reminded me a bit the first Ys. Except that unlike it where basically half of the game is the final stretch, here when the really important events begin to occur you discover that you are practically at the last boss' door. It's something I've noticed in some other games and is not the kind of pace that suits me.

It reminded me of the first game also for the fact that some levels are the difference between you being unable to scratch an enemy and it being unable to scratch you. The game controls your progress by gradually reducing the XP enemies give as you level up, but this doesn't mean grinding isn't important: Some situations and bosses are somewhat difficult and both levels as equipment upgrades, which cost a time-consuming to get resource, are important. But the difficulty is somewhat balanced by the fact that you have an inventory with a variety of healing items that stack in groups of up to 9.

I really liked the game and it is very high on my list of favorites in the series, I just don't know exaclty in what position.

A really nice action platformer with gorgeous 2D visuals depicting interesting and creative themes, solid controls and a gameplay that, while based on the first rayman from the PS1 era, is a lot more refined and fast paced, with great flow and bringing concepts from other modern games in the genre.

The painting-like maps and characters look like moving, playable concept art, with an enormous amount of layers, effects and animated elements. Some areas are more detailed than others, the first being one of the best, but even the simpler ones still give an amazing feel.

The music stands out with some really catchy tunes, but in a number of instances focuses a lot on childish sounds and themes that may become irritating to some people after a while.

The story, at least the part told directly in the form of cutscenes and dialogue during gameplay, is extremely simplistic, childish and minimalist, but hides lots of details and connections to earlier games in the franchise for whoever decides to look for extra material on the internet.

I felt a few pacing problems around the 60-80% mark, where the game was starting to feel longer than it should be, but after that it got me glued again until I finished it.

Highly recommended!

A simple, relaxing, short game with a very interesting concept.

The graphics are absurdly simplistic from up close. There aren't even textures! But that's the price for having no performance issues when showing scenery from basically ANY distance, with a day/night cycle with lighting affecting everything and having a good chunk of said scenery created dinamically with your influence. From far away everything looks really impressive.

The controls take a bit of time getting used to. The robot is very floaty and loose, and there are some frustrating situations, but nothing terrible. Once you get comfortable with it, though, traversing the landscapes and growing your plant is a blast.

With some nice Snes-like graphics and interesting mechanics, this is a game I can recommend, although it's not without flaws and aspects that simply didn't click with me.

Long version:

Graphically, I would say it is at an "advanced Snes" level of quality. The maps of the game vary in quality and inspiration, with some being very nice, like the jungle. The portraits of NPCs were not that great, but the sprites in combat looked pretty good, and all were properly animated.

The music is great, and was made by Hyperduck, known for their work in some indie titles (they did the soundtrack for Dust: An Elysean Tail for example), but I felt there were a few situations where the music did not match the environment, as was the case with the desert. But that does not change the fact that it is great to have music of such quality after the horrendous soundtrack of PA: RSPD 3.

One thing I like about Zeboyd games is how they pick some classic JRPG systems and enhance some features, leaving the boring bits... a lot less boring.

As for the combat system, it's a mix of Grandia and Pokemon:

The protagonists do not fight directly, but acquire a team of creatures throughout the game for use in combat and act as their trainers. Each creature has its own skills, expertise and equipment types it can use, and in addition each can "equip" a trainer, which determines the progression of status when leveling up and also gives access to skills from that trainer.

The Grandia part is how the the action order works, which, by the way, was also used in the recent Child of Light: There is a time bar and the icons of all those involved in combating above it. When an icon reaches a certain point of the bar, the character decides on a command. Then the "casting time" of the command begins while the icon travels the rest of the bar, and when it reaches the end the action is taken and the icon goes back to the beginning of the bar. The catch is that there are attacks and skills that cause interruptions, making a character go back on the bar, and if it happens between the command and execution the character is thrown far behind. This ends up having a strategic use in the tougher battles.

The "zeboyd" part of the system is, among other things, the fact that everything (including items) recovers at the end of a battle, making each combat the focus of the challenge, instead of resource management during exploration. Moreover all the monsters are visible on the map and do not respawn, making every fight somewhat unique. Thus, even battles with normal enemies are planned so you have to pay attention because your characters may die if they fight relying just on normal attacks. The downside is that it makes battles time-consuming and also takes away some of the impact from bosses, since they are not much harder than a fight against five strong enemies in the same dungeon, for example.

Because of the way the progression and narrative were structured, around halfway through the game I was finding it all a tad monotonous as it was following a very poorly disguised "go through that dungeon, upgrade your equipment in that city, rinse and repeat" mechanic. Alas, the towns had hardly anything interesting, all of which contained only NPCs giving "funny" remarks or some semi-relevant information (through funny remarks) on the current region. Eventually very short dialogues between characters would occur at the entrances and exits of dungeons, but nothing that could get me invested. By the time I got to late game things got better, mainly because of the battles becoming more interesting with the best skills of my monsters.

About the plot, written by Penny Arcade... It's a story that tries to have epic proportions while using a humor deeply rooted in sarcasm all the time. It's bizarre to see the characters of the strips (and others created for the game) alternating between making sarcastic jokes and taking things uncomfortably seriously in a plot that never suspends any disbelief. It felt extremely pretentious, and almost every character (except for Gabe) is extremely obnoxious and arrogant. Another problem is that narratives and descriptions were writen full of flowery and pretentious rubbish, which ends up killing the fun of the jokes it tries to tell, with just a few instances hitting home. I prefer the kind of humor written by Zeboyd themselves, such as what can be seen in Cthulhu Saves the World.

This game is rather short, clocking at about 3 hours. That said, those are worthy 3 hours.

VIsually this game is fantastic, with stylized and very atmospheric environments. The audio basically helps compose the atmosphere, and does a great job at that, but dind't seem to stand out by itself to me.

The gameplay, using each stick to control the respective brother was mind-screwing at first, but worked well once I got used to it. And with these controls you go through the areas solving a series of environment puzzles based on teamwork. None of them seemed difficult, but they kept me entertained.

The story, focusing on the titular brothers' journey to bring a cure for their father's illness, starts whimsical and humorous, but takes on far more sober and depressing undertones later. The narrative is presented without the use of (comprehensible) dialogue, but through the interactions with the environment and characters, the protagonists' personalities are presented and explored extremely well. I just found it a little silly that whenever characters "talk" to each other it looks like The Sims.

In the end, this one of those interactive experiencies, and one well worth it.

This game has nice, dream/painting-like graphics and interesting time manipulation puzzles. It's a bit on the short side, clocking at about 5 hours (unless you go after the secret and outrageously hard to get stars), but very well done. In the background is a philosophical and metaphorical story that sounded a bit too pretentious for my taste.

Anyway, highly recommended.

Probably the game I had the most fun playing in the series so far. Instead of focusing on Adol, this prequel has 3 different characters, and although their routes share many places and events there is enough variety to keep things fresh. As is expected from the series, the soundtack is top notch and controls are fluid and responsive. Totally recommended to any fans of great action rpgs.

This is the definitive version of the first couple Ys games. The classic unique gameplay is joined by beautiful updated 2D visuals and kickass music. In fact, the soundtrack for these games is among my favorites of all time. And if you are feeling nostalgic, you can switch to the original versions of the songs on the fly. Portraits can also be changed to another version, bringing the best of all worlds into this version. These games are little gems that should not be overlooked, and this compilation does them ultimate justice.

This game is absolutely gorgeous, has smooth and precise gameplay, excelent soundtrack, fully dubbed dialogues and perfect length. It was a joy to play from beginning to end and could easily have been released at a full $60 price tag and be worth every penny. Instead, you can find it dirty cheap. This is a gem no one who likes a good metroidvania should miss.

I have been playing this game long before it was released on steam, and I must tell anyone who sees this: BUY THIS RIGHT NOW. Tower defense + rpg DONE RIGHT with lots of extras and a lot of passion and respect from the producers. What's not to love?