06/01- 12:00PM EST
Welcome to another episode of Q&A! Ys Origin
is now out on Steam and I hope you're all
getting your Ys on. I've also been
continuing to play some Shiren the
Wanderer, Romancing SaGa, and Devil Survivor.
Lots of challenging games on my plate!
What's everyone else playing? I have to
wonder if any of you readers are Shiren fans,
and no I'm not just asking that because I
died on floor 29 and am in desperate need of
a rescue.
Anyway, letter time!
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Wheels,
Long time no speak, I just wanted to write
to you to let you know I am
a huuuge fan of the Ys
series, I was 14 when I first heard of this
quirky game on the
turbographix 16. (although I could not
afford the almost $600 total
price tag for the system and cd add on.)
When I saw pics in a videogame
magazine I was hooked and then eventually
got to play it at a friends
house, I thought this was so real, so
lifelike, incredible....
Wheels
Good
to hear from you again (and to
hear that you're an Ys
fan)! Ys I&II on
TurboGrafx-16 is what got me
into the series as well, though
much later. I had listened to a
podcast talking about the
history of Falcom, and they
mentioned that it was available
on the virtual console. Having
only played the horrible NES
version in years past, I decided
to download it and give it a
try, and I absolutely fell in
love with the game. So much so
that I eventually imported
several Ys
games directly from
Falcom, including Oath
in Felghana well
before its release on PSP here.
It swiftly became one of my
favorite games series! I never
thought combat involving just
bumping into enemies could be so
engaging...
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I have played all the Ys
games released in the u.s. on the turbo cd,
snes, genesis, psp, ps2
ect....
Wheels
I
have to ask you then, which is
your favorite version of Ys
III? I've heard the
Genesis version is the best, but
I didn't really care for any of
them, preferring to just play
the superior Oath
in Felghana. To be fair
of course, I have yet to play
that particular version.
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I have also sent you a contest entry awhile
back when the Ys games for psp were
being released, you asked something like, if
someone had to make an Ys game
what would it be about..
I said something like starting from Ys
7 fighting all the bosses and
ending up at the begining of Ys 1
has he is trying to get back
home...(I can't actually find the email) I
lost but hey I got the game
anyway...
Wheels
I
remember your entry, it was
quite interesting! You'll be
happy to know that you're one of
two to write in about Ys
so you've got a pretty good shot
at winning a code for Ys
Origins!
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I have included a pic of my ever growing Ys
collection.....including in the
upper left the Ys anime book
1...I know there are others that have waaay
more Ys
stuff than me but I just wanted
to show my love for this series..
Wheels
That
is a nice little collection!
Surprised you don't also have
the PSP version of Ark
of Napishtim. Very nice
to see all three premium
editions. How is the Ys
anime? I have pondered
picking it up, but was worried
that it wasn't any good.
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I have been wanting to play Ys
origins since it was announced for
the pc back in the day for
Japan, but I did not want to resort to
importing and such, this is
awsome that xseed has decided to bring over
Ys origins
to us....I only wish it
was a physical copy of the game, but
something is better than nothing.
If we support this enough they may just port
it over to say...the PS
Vita.
until next time,
always keep your wheels rotated
gameremporium
Wheels
A
PS Vita port would be nice! I
had thought after the Oath
in Felghana PSP
port they'd port Origin
there as well, but Origin
may require a bit more graphical
punch. We shall see! At the very
least, we've got the complete
remake of Ys
IV on the way for
Vita, which I'm hoping XSEED
will tackle. Anyway, good to
hear from you again. Don't be a
stranger!
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Heya Wheels,
You wanted to discuss Ys,
right?
Well, I have very little experience with the
games. I played a PC
version for a couple of hours, and it wasn't
really for me. So sorry, I
can't help you there. The only interesting
tidbit I found was where the
name "Ys" comes from. Apparently it's the
name of a mythical city in
France that was swallowed by the sea. A sort
of Atlantis, so to speak.
The story behind it is pretty cool and I had
never heard of it before,
which is kind of strange because I do have
an interest in such things.
Look it up, if you didn't know about it
either.
Wheels
I'm
thinking perhaps you played a PC
version of Ys
I with the bump based
combat? If that's the case I
can't blame you for not liking
it. It is very old fashioned and
not everyone digs it. I was
aware of the actual legend of
Ys, which oddly Falcom doesn't
seem to pull from too much. They
have used other legendary lost
cities in the series, and I'm
hoping at some point they can
use Atlantis in a cool way. Sad
to hear you haven't really found
an Ys game you
liked. If Oath
in Felghana wasn't the
one you tried, you should grab
that from Steam and give it a
try! Well you've got a chance to
win that Ys
Origins code anyway.
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Glad to know the Game of Thrones
books aren't as bad as the television
series. I thought it was a
terrible letdown. Especially considering
some episodes span several
chapters from the books, they probably just
rushed through everything,
trying to take out the most interesting
bits, ultimately making it...
not very interesting... not to me at least.
Oh well, you can't have it
all.
Wheels
Well,
there is less sex yes, but
certainly more politics than the
show, which seemed like
something you weren't really
into. It is a bit rushed
compared to the books, but
they've done a good job fitting
in all the major plot points. I
still recommend you try reading
the first book.
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Anyways, speaking of volunteering for
reviewing pen-and-paper RPGs, I
am not sure I am the right guy for the job.
I love reading through
rulebooks, but I hardly have the time to
actually take the books and
play the game with friends. If that wouldn't
be a problem, I wouldn't
mind reviewing something every now and
again... But I wouldn't be
churning out reviews like there was no
tomorrow... But I understand the
"scarcity" of reviews if only one person is
responsible. It's not even
that it's that little, I appreciate the
coverage that is given.
Wheels
That's
OK, reviewing takes a lot of
time to do so I completely
understand. I'm glad you find
our coverage at least
sufficient.
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There are no games I would like to see in a
retroview. I think you guys
do a great job reviewing those games I never
heard of before and that
is what I enjoy most. Unless you guys would
like to retroview
Terranigma. I think your American readers
would like to know more about
that one.
Everyone, keep up with doing a great job.
RPGamer is one of my
favourite sites.
Daniel
Wheels
That's
good to know, as picking games
for retroview is no easy task.
The big titles have obviously
been covered to death, and it is
a challenge to find interesting
obscure games to take a look at.
I think the reviewers do a great
job of finding interesting
titles. I would love to see a
retroview of Terranigma
as well! I've never played it.
Glad you enjoy the site! The
staff works very hard and I
think they do a great job.
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Hey Wheels, wassup?
Remember a while back when I challenged you
to come up with a central villain for an
RPG? Whatever happened to that?
So, to beat you to the punch and to
encourage you to write in, I'm presenting to
you... a philanthropist.
Wheels
I do remember that challenge, I just
got bogged down in other stuff. I
shall come up with something
brilliant though. Let's see what
you've got!
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Darius Kreux was born to a wealthy family in
a human principality of
the middle lands between the elven and
dwarven kingdoms. After losing
his parents in an accident when he was ten,
he went to live with his
elderly grandfather. These were the some of
happiest years of his life,
but too quickly his grandfather also passed
away from age-related
illnesses. Still in his teens, Darius made a
vow that he would solve the ills of aging
and disease, and with the bulk of his
inheritance behind him, he
proceeded to do just that. He studied
in the great libraries of
the elven healers, experimented in the
laboratories of the dwarven
apothecaries, and searched the savage lands
for rare and potent herbs.
The organization that he founded helped
raise the standards of health
across all the human lands.
Wheels
Sounds quite ... non-evil so far,
continue...
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And then, almost thirty years later, he
looked around and saw that it
still wasn't enough. People were living
longer, yes, but they were
still
dying of illness. They were still tied to
the cycle of age and weakness
that had taken so much from him. He wanted
to know why, so he could
also
know how to stop it. He looked at the elves
and dwarves -- long-lived,
but with small populations and few births.
He looked at the savage races,
the
orcs and goblins with their short lifespans
and high birthrate. He
considered these, and came to a conclusion.
It wasn't the obvious one,
that
longer-lived peoples had fewer children as a
reaction to population
pressures. No, he decided that there must be
some force, some anima
generis that was shared by all members
of a species. Thus, the more
people there were, the farther this force
was stretched, and the
shorter
the lifespans of all became.
Wheels
This sounds like it's headed to a
pretty dark and awesome place,
continue!
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Now that he thought he knew what the problem
was, he put all his
resources
into solving it. He set up "production
colonies" in far-off lands,
promising the human princes material rewards
if they would help supply
him
with labor. Thousands of the poor, the
criminal, and the luckless were
sent to these colonies to work, but none
ever returned. His researchers
did their work, searching for his
theoretical anima, attempting
to
quantify the energy of a human life. The
test subjects, reduced to
husks,
were then used in other experiments on the
potential of replacing anima
-- in effect, inventing necromancy.
These reanimated husks
were then set to work producing all the
materials that the princes
desired.
Money, materials, and propaganda ensured
that no one questioned the
fate of
the riffraff "honored and blessed" to be
chosen to work in the colonies.
Right about the time the game would start,
when the heroes-to-be
narrowly
escape being put on a colonial conscript
vessel, Darius Kreux has his
70th
birthday. By this point he is obsessed with
proving his theories to be
correct, and at the same time frantic that
there does not seem to be
any
change in human longevity, even now. He
constantly calculates and
recalculates the numbers of birth, life, and
death, and makes his final
decision. In order to raise humanity to the
same level as the elves,
with
lives that span centuries and health that
cannot be blemished, then
ninety
percent of humanity simply cannot be allowed
to continue its existence.
He
has the nobility on his side, though they do
not realize what he plans.
He
controls much of the resources and
infrastructure of the human realms,
either personally or through proxies. He is
known and loved by the
populace as the man who brought an end to
plagues. And he is about to
unleash hell on the world.
Beat that, Wheels.
Your fellow columnist,
Gaijin
Wheels
Wow, that is quite powerful. I don't
think I will be able to come up with
anything quite like that. A villain
such as this would make for a very
interesting plot, taking a good idea
and stretching it so far that it
becomes a vile and evil thing.
Please convince some developer to
make a game with this villain!
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That's it for this week!
Q&A is going to take brief holiday next
week, so get some letters in for me to
answer the following week!
-Wheels
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