I love Falcom, I love the Ys series, and I love action RPGs, but this is my first time experiencing it all on a PC. The recent PSP releases have all been fantastic, but Sony's portable is on its last leg, and while I'd love to dive into a Ys game on the Vita, it's a bit too early for that.

Ys Origin was released for PC in Japan in 2006, making its North American debut only now, thanks to the folks at XSEED Games. As a Steam release for PC, this game now has the potential of reaching a wider audience, and as a series fan, I think that's great.

I was a bit worried that a six-year-old game might have lost its shine and would be a tough sell, but now that I've played it, I have no worries at all. If you like RPGs, this should be your next Steam purchase.

Ys Origin (PC)
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: XSEED Games
Release Date: May 31
MSRP: $19.99 (Steam)

The land of Ys had been peaceful for ages, but a demon invasion began suddenly, throwing the world into chaos. This attack forced the twin goddesses to use all of their magic to send their palace into the sky away from harm. But the demons were serious about taking the whole kingdom out, so they built a tower tall enough to climb up to continue their attack. At about the same time this tower was built, the two goddesses went missing.  

In Ys Origin, as Yunica or Hugo, you'll set off to find and rescue the goddesses. The entire game takes place in Darm Tower, which might seem like a long time to be in one building, though things stay interesting enough that you'll never feel stuck. In classic Ys style, you'll learn abilities and moves that let you access new areas of the tower, meeting bigger and badder bosses along the way as you make your way toward the top. 

No disrespect to series hero Adol Christin, but Ys Origin is like a breath of fresh air for those that have played other series games, mostly because you'll get to play as someone else, and they'll actually speak. This game works as a sort of background story to the world of Ys, taking place hundreds of years before Adol's first adventure kick off.

Players take control of either a young female axe wielder, Yunica, or a magician, Hugo; the game's story and path change depending on which character you choose. Their stories, while not exactly deep or involved, seem to give these characters more motivation than Adol's simple sense of duty. I wouldn't go as far as to call Origin's story compelling, but at least you'll continue to be engaged as it progresses.

I played as Yunica, a young girl that comes from a long line of Ys most respected magic-using knights. It's too bad that she sucks at magic. To make up for that, she has built up her strength through self-training, and is quite handy with her axe blade. As a personal friend of the goddesses, Yunica has a personal interest in finding them, so she sets off into Darm Tower full of determination, though perhaps lacking a bit in battle experience. 

The gameplay in Origins with Yunica gives you all of the hacking and slashing you'd ever want, with a focus on fast, fun, close-range combat. You'll rip through strings of monsters of steadily ramping challenge as you progress through Darm's many rooms and corridors, mopping up the loot and increasing your abilities all the while. And as in other Ys games, you'll eventually learn abilities that add more powerful elemental moves to your standard slashes and jumps, helping you take on the stronger enemies. Some of these moves also have a platforming benefit, helping you access new areas of the tower. There are plenty of traps, secret passages and doors, and puzzles to figure as you make your way through zones of floor blocks, and at the end of each awaits big, nasty bosses.

The boss battles in Ys Origin are quite challenging, but are also highly rewarding when finally completed. What I'm trying to say is that you should be ready to die and retry. These are your classic trapped-in-a-room fights against a screen-filling baddie, and you're always in way over your head at first encounter. They'll all have you running around like mad, trying to avoid attacks and projectiles while trying to spot a weakness, and then going in to attack that weakness without dying. Even set on normal I fought though some pretty tough battles, but I now consider these to be high points of the game.

I wasn't expecting much in the visual department from a six-year-old PC game, especially considering that it's a top-down action RPG. I'm pleased to say that Ys Origin exceeded expectations in this department. It looks great at standard settings, but if you've got the hardware, crank it up and be rewarded. Origin looked great at max settings, with everything on and up as far as it would go, running at 1920 x 1080. It shined with nice textures and clean, sharp-looking environments. If you've got a halfway respectable rig, you should easily be able to run this game at high resolution and high framerate, so no worries there. With these settings Origin holds up well against any recently released top-down RPG.

Something I did have high exceptions for was the music, as Falcom rarely disappoints when it comes to their game soundtracks. Origin is packed with strong melodies and driving beats spread across everything from tense battle themes to emotional interludes. The soundtrack is moving when it needs to be, but appropriately moves to rocking when things ramp up. For this game music fan, the musical score alone is worth the price of entry.

Ys Origin is open to either mouse/keyboard or gamepad play, but I had a much better experience with the latter. While the mouse control and movement is smart and certainly sufficient, platforming sections were better served with the gamepad, which lets you handle things like timed jumps and button combinations a bit easier. For my money, the frantic button mashing that the combat requires felt better using the Xbox 360 controller. 

Speaking of money, Ys Origin is a nice bit of game for the price. $20 gets you a thoroughly enjoyable PC RPG that both looks and sounds great, despite its age. You'll get about 10 hours of entertaining gameplay, really strong narrative (for a Ys game), and a great localization to go with it. Beyond all of this, you'll also get an unlockable third character and new Steam achievements. Outside of hating action RPGs or not having $20, I can't think of another reason to pass on this game. 

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

TurboKill

Music to my eyes.

MattEdWithCheese

It's pronounced “EEESS” for the uninitiated…

bluemeep

I have to give a lot of respect to Ys. There are very few series nowadays that actually make me retry on Easy because I'm getting my ass whupped on Normal. Oath in Felghana really hammered that home. Origin is much more forgiving, I'm finding. Hopefully XSEED will be willing to bring over more of Falcom's PC back catalog if sales are good enough.

AriesWarlock

Both PSP games are available digitally for those who only got a Vita, right?

Onyx

Could be legit

Gundy

@AriesWarlock
I know for a fact that Ys Seven is available for the vita but im not sure about the other one.

Adrian Smith

@arieswarlock all 3 of them are available for the vita. I'm playing Ys 1 or at least I attempted to play Ys 1 until I died and had to restart the whole game

Dale North

TurboKill - XSEED liked your GIF. So do I

Agro

Want. But I will wait since I've got a backlog and the Steam summer sale is probably right around the corner.

Martin Montiel

Good to hear will have to pick this up when I'm done with my backlog of current jrpgs.

mattrod288

@AriesWarlock: Ys Origin was never ported to the PSP. It is a PC exclusive.

Ys Seven, on the other hand, is PSP exclusive.

You can get Ys: The Oath in Felghana on either system, but I'd say it's better overall as a PC game.

You can also get Ys Iⅈ on the PC or PSP or many other platforms, but I wouldn't recommend you play them first because they're unusual and not highly compelling. I enjoyed them, but I can understand why most people wouldn't. If you do want to play them, buy the PSP version—or pirate the PC version, apply the translation patch, and replace the music with the PSP version's music or the TG-CD version's music.

DrippingSins

Sold.

Jinx 01

Neat, I'll have to pick this up at some point. Nice to see more Japanese titles coming here on PC.

Excel-2011

I wasn't excited for it at first when I heard it takes place entirely in Darm Tower. I can't be the only one who had enough of it after Ys I & II, so I can't imagine a whole game of it would be enjoyable. Would it be after Oath in Felghana?

Smackybutts

I've played Origins already. Loved it to pieces. Despite it taking place almost entirely in Darm Tower, they do a great job of varying the levels. Will definitely be picking this up on Steam and blasting through it a few more times.

I prefer the PC ports and am glad I don't have to mess with translation patches anymore (especially from a whiny and cuckoo certain someone).

mattrod288

@Excel-2011:

It's the same location as far as story goes, but the interior is completely different.

In Ys Origin, the tower is much larger, much more varied, and much more straightforward. Ys Origin is a very enjoyable game.

Jack Dandy

Ys games kick ass. Xseed's doing a fine work bringing them over.

THIS is what an action-RPG should be like!

MrBoBo1

I'm playing the one before this. Really fun. Skill based rather than just leveling up. Pc needs maor games like diz.

Aderdunn 2

Pretty excited for this one...Gonna pick this up on Steam sometime soon!

long john

I'm on it bro! thanks dale!

ChainsawKillr

Really love this game.
Even better then oath in felghana.
Hope they'll bring the rest to steam.

Archwright

I'll have to check this out.

Jaguarnaut

This is great, thanks for teh review.

I was a bit stumped at first, no "Save" option in the menu,only Load....

I like this much better than Torchlight, simply because, besides anything else, it plays with a gamepad.

Shweeet!

Jaguarnaut

Jaguarnaut

Oh, and spam....

Ben77

Is it sad to say besides for Nier this is the only recent Jrpg I've found compelling and addictive? This generation has been rather cruel to me. I miss the PS2 days!

Regardless, Y's Origin has been great. I'd say anyone who enjoyed Zelda or Symphony Of The Night should definitely pick it up!

Lots of exploring,platforming,and tough boss battles!