Review: Ys X - Nordics
Ys X: Nordics is a game of two halves. On one side, you have the typical hack and slash gameplay that's probably why you're here at all, and I'm pleased to say that this is the best the series has been since the Oath/Origin era. The duo-combat system is a lot of fun and a big bounce-back from the party-based combat of 7-9. Unfortunately, the other half of the game is Wind Waker (Wind Waker Classic at that); and much like Wind Waker, it threatens to drown the parts of it that people are actually here for with far, far too much monotonous sailing and overworld travel.
Let's the start with the good: When the game sticks to dry land, you get one of the best combat systems the series has had in well over a decade. The short version is that for story reasons (more on that later), Adol and his new companion Karja are literally shackled to each other and can't be more than about 10 feet apart. The systems borne from this premise revolve around combo skills and covering each other to block powerful attacks. Red power attacks need to be blocked with a Duo Guard (or parried outright, if your timing is right), and blue Speed attacks need to be dodged via holding the dash button. Hit either of them just right, and you'll get a free combo attack that does tons of damage; use the wrong stance, and you'll eat shit unless you manage to completely avoid said attack.
This is not to say that solo combat doesn't have its merits - combo attacks require at least 100 SP on both characters, plus you'll want to be fighting solo to master and unlock new skills for each of the main characters. There are also sections that force you to play as just Adol or Karja, and while they are both shorter and fewer in number than they really should be, you will want to have at least a rough handle on how each character plays, as well as have a basic build in place. Now, with that said, it cannot be overstated how overpowered the duo stance is. With the exception of a couple attacks that hit multiple times in quick succession, a duo guard will completely block damage unless you're in the middle of attacking the enemy yourself. Combo skills do significantly more damage than anything Adol or Karja can do on their own, and unless you're facing a lot of enemies that bombard you with blue attacks, there is functionally no reason to not use it, at least in the early game. Late-game enemy formations tend to be better about using foes that have both attack types, and I imagine that in Ys 11, whatever form that takes, things will be better balanced.
The one part of the on-land gameplay I was not enamored with was the platforming. Jumping is very stiff and often doesn't start until half a second or so after you actually press the button, the grapple hook has very strange momentum and is very finnicky about whether or not it'll grab the target you're aiming at, and the hoverboard is like eight different kinds of jank. Jumping between air streams is very stiff, it loses momentum unless you're descending a hill, and you can't actually get on it when you're in the muck that it's intended to sail you over, meaning you have to sloooooooowly trudge your way back to dry land to try whatever sequence you were attempting again. It's possible that some or all of these issues are related to playing on the Switch (where it runs at 30 FPS instead of 60), but given that the Switch was the lead platform, I find that hard to believe.
Moving on to the sailing portion of the game, I did not invoke Wind Waker's name lightly. Much like that game, most of your time will be spent sailing the seas in search of new islands to explore or engaging in bad ship-to-ship combat. The immediate knock against the sailing is that it is godawfully slow - you get an ability called "Mana Sail" after the first section of the overworld that helps considerably, but it only has one charge to start, and it takes forever to regenerate unless you're riding one of the handful of wind currents in that particular part of the sea. If you're the type that wants to fill out the map, I highly recommend waiting until you have a couple charges to being exploring in earnest, lest you waste a lot of time getting to the corners of the map.
Ship combat itself is barely worth mentioning, since you either get trashed withing the first 10 seconds of the fight or steamroll foes with basically no resistance. The gist of it is that you have your regular cannonballs (up to 8 at once by the end of the game), up to four special ammo types, a super attack, as well as Mana Sail acting as a both a dodge and a ram, and a shield to block enemy attacks. Some enemy ships have armor that needs to be blasted off before you can actually hurt them, but by and large you hit enemies with a couple cannon shots to lock them in place, then unload on them with a special ammo type or your EX attack. None of it is very engaging, although not for a lack of trying on the game's part - replacing the raid battles of Ys 8 and 9 are missions where you have to recapture an island taken over by enemy forces. These takes the form of a ship battle where you have to destroy barrier towers while clearing little mini-missions that pop up on the side (Use special ammo 3 times, ram an enemy ship, etc), then a mini-dungeon that you clear on foot with Adol and Karja. The more missions you cleared during the ship section, the more benefits you get in the second half, and you ultimately get a rank and several prizes upon completion. They are...fine, I guess. The island captures are never very difficult, and the only place I got frustrated with them at all was in the final overworld section, where I had to do three of them back to back.
Finally, let's quickly talk about the story. This one takes place immediately after Ys 1 and 2, so a fresh-faced 17 year old Adol finds his way into Obelia Gulf, where he finds himself caught up in the affairs of the Normans and their conflict against the Grieger - undying foes who can only be slain by those who have the power of Mana. Shortly thereafter, Adol discovers a seashell which grants him said Mana powers, and also literally chains him to Karja, the daughter of the local Norman chief. For the first two-thirds or so of the story, you spend your time exploring the area, helping folks, and fending off the three Grieger generals known as the Trident, and this works! It's not the most ambitious story in the world, but both the series and Falcom as a whole have done much worse. I even liked the "End of Act 2" twist, as that is not the character I expected to be the villain. Unfortunately, the Act 3 reveals are broadly very dumb. My least favorite was the explanation for how and why you got handcuffed to Karja in the first place, but the ultimate explanation for everything being "idk a god did it I guess" is certainly A Decision.
Not helping matters is that the game's pacing really suffers from all the sailing and sidequests. For reasons I do not understand, Falcom keeps trying to turn Ys into Trails, so every character has a sidequest you need to do for them (both to upgrade their ship skills and to fill out their page in the character book) and the plot really starts to drag in the home stretch. Around Chapter 9 or so, I was very ready for the game to be over, and I distinctly remember the feeling when I realized "oh my god there's a Chapter 10 after this, isn't there?" (There was.) My final time was around 35 hours, but you could easily have cut 10 of those by reducing the amount of time you have to spend sailing, or just generally streamlining the quests and plot. Given that I definitely had the "this is too long" complaint about both Ys 8 and 9 as well, that's uh...not a good sign for whatever comes next. At least this was shorter than they were? Definitely shorter than 8, at least.
In the end, I can't say that I disliked the game, because when it stuck to doing the classic Ys gameplay, it still whips ass. Unfortunately, there's a lot less of that by both volume and play time, and I can't in good faith give the whole package more than a 7/10 or so. Further muddying the waters is the fact that about 3 days after I bought the game, Falcom announced Ys X: Proud Nordics - a Persona 5 Royal-esque version of the game that expands on the game's story, adds another playable character, and who knows what else. This is technically nothing new, seeing as the Ys 8 that we got in North America was that game's version of Proud Nordics (as was our version of Tokyo Xanadu, eX+), but those at least had the excuse of moving from the Vita to the PS4 and having to justify the upgrade. This...appears to be that Falcom just sold us the beta version of the game, and I'm not going to hold my breath that it becomes available as DLC. I'm still excited for the future of the series, but if this becomes the norm, I fully expect to stop buying them at launch, just like I do with Atlus games now.
Also, next time? Let's stay on dry land, eh Falcom? How about that Ys V remake next?