Ys X: Nordics Review

An Unsinkable Ship

Long heralded, the Ys franchise has been around for decades, providing action RPG enjoyment to fans like clockwork.  While developer Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes series is where it primarily shows off its narrative chops, Ys has also benefitted from the expansiveness of modern storytelling, and its latest title Ys X: Nordics is no different.  Like Adol, there’s a sense of revelry in being in an adventure.  It glides along, with wonderful pacing that makes every step of the journey warranted and varied to make it feel exciting to be on an adventure again.

Although fully its own story without any need for knowledge of the other games, Ys X: Nordics is set between the events of Ys II and Ys: Memories of Celceta and begins with wandering adventurer Adol on a passenger ship to his next destination.  In line with Adol’s other nautical experiences, this ship is waylaid on the way by a band of pirates, called the Balta Seaforce, which acts more as a stern protector over these waters.  They take exception to the passenger ship captain making trips through their waters without the Seaforce’s say so, and the captain seals his fate by hiring mercenaries to try and beat them back.  As the mercenaries fall one-by-one, their leader, the pirate princess Karja, duels Adol to a standstill.  After this, Karja ends up executing the captain, stranding Adol and his companions Dr. Flair and Dogi in the quaint village of Carnac figuring out how to pass the time until the next passenger ship is ready to sail.

Ys X: Nordics touches on some heavy themes at times.

Adol, being a magnet for adventure, doesn’t take long before finding a seashell that beckons to him and provides the power of Mana.  Karja is also a Mana user and appears in Carnac to settle that duel with Adol.  However, a magical set of shackles tether them together just in time for them to face one of the Greigr, undying creatures that can only truly be defeated by a Mana wielder.  What the Greigr’s end game is for the Obelia Gulf and how Adol and Karja can release the shackles binding them together are the main mysteries that Ys X: Nordics dives into.  There are a lot of big personalities in the cast of characters, which makes Adol’s characteristically quiet demeanor take a back seat.  This is fitting due to a lot of this feeling like Karja’s show with a side of the Carnac villagers.

Every single person met in the town of Carnac has a fleshed out story that advances along with the adventure.  These arcs play out in different ways, building each character and developing the world around them.  Beyond Carnac there are other NPCs that Adol and Karja meet — including townsfolk, merchants, and members of the Balta Seaforce — who all receive some level of storytelling that helps to generate extra stakes and personality everywhere the duo goes.  Tales of family strife, heartache, loneliness, and pain weave wondrously with stories of virtue, surprise, passionate hobbies, and comradery, as searching out these conversations is a joy.  Despite not getting huge amounts of screen time, the antagonists have a few layers to them and impact the story in fun ways.  There’s a highly impressive balance of urgency and levity to create an excellent narrative, all the while keeping the series’ classical adventure feel.

As expected of a grand adventure there are a lot of places to explore.  Adol and Karja can sail throughout the Obelia Gulf, searching through various islands in the area.  The ship that they obtain can be a bit slow at first, but after enough upgrades ends up cutting through the seas making it a joy to hunt out for landmarks and new areas to explore.  The ship and any unlocked checkpoints, called Hewnstones, can be traversed to instantaneously making backtracking for buried treasure a breeze.

It is mildly refreshing to see an enemy with a survival instinct.

Every island map details the amount of treasure remaining, making it simple to know what’s missing.  Swapping between Adol and Karja is as simple as a button press.  All traversal skills can be used by either of the pair, except for Adol’s burning of vines and Karja’s creation of ice platforms in water.  These skills are used sporadically throughout the game along with a few Mana abilities that are unlocked as the story dictates.  Mana ride uses what is effectively a hoverboard and lets players boost speed, glide across water or ride along Mana rails.  There’s also a string that can be shot across gaps, attaching it to branches and allowing the duo to swing across, and finally, a Mana sense that lets players halt time or find hidden switches and buried treasure.  There are enough of these puzzles, with a good mixture throughout the game to keep exploration fresh and fun beyond just finding treasure or defeating foes.

Combat in Ys X: Nordics is deceptively complex.  Typical traversal is in Solo mode where the characters move independently from one another and have a basic strike as well as four different skills that can be swapped out for both Adol and Karja.  Only the player controlled character can be injured as well, which can make the timing on a swap strategic.  When one of the two drops they can be restored for half of the remaining health.  Skill use is simple, needing just a quick combination of shoulder and face-buttons to execute.  The tougher the enemy, the more frantic the action gets, but never in a way to feel cluttered, more in a flashy tableau that just keeps climatically building.  For stronger enemies, there’s often a break bar that needs to be depleted before their health goes down, with certain skills able to tear through shields more effectively.  Shields often replenish at certain points during boss fights, adding to the climactic feel.

Defending triggers Combination mode, in this the duo can only move slowly, aren’t easily harmed, and can do devastating attacks that deplete both their skill points.  Deciding when to defend and when to dodge is helped by stronger enemies having a blue and red indicator to dictate attacks.  Blue signifies an attack to be avoided, while red is a powerful attack that must be guarded against.  Perfect timing on either leads to a special cinematic counter by the duo, although the timing for this is difficult.  Enemies never pause, so while the guard is generous and prevents damage, eventually players have to go on the offensive.  Near perfect guards also boost the revenge gauge, which adds a multiplier to Combination Mode skills, making them even more powerful to use.  Positioning is important with this; if an enemy dodges just far enough back then it’s entirely possible to miss with all but one hit and fully deplete the gauge, but it is immensely satisfying to successfully unleash a full combo.

A fearsome foe ready to start an attack on the duo.

There’s a steady influx of new skills that both Adol and Karja learn, as well as a mastery bar that increases as they are used.  The more skills are used, the more that are unlocked, providing more powerful and flashier moves that reward players for changing things up.  There’s a good deal of care put into the skill animations, and they gain more flashiness and style as they are unlocked.  Meanwhile, Ys X: Nordics‘s skill tree involves a “release line”.  Every ten levels Adol and Karja can use their accumulated points, obtained from levels or unlocking Hewnstones, to release nodes.  Some give new skills, but most are empty slots that can be filled with a Mana seed.  These seeds add bonuses to attributes and more, while linking enough of them together results in further boosts such as a greater knockdown chance.  Finding mixes that work is intuitive and Adol and Karja are flexible enough that it is a simplistic yet deep system to tinker with.

Ship traversal has its own distractions as well.  First are glowing purple points in the sea that lead to encounters with other ships.  Some of these naval battles are pure mayhem and destruction, but a few have unsinkable ships that have a break bar to deplete and are then boarded.  Boarding involves taking on a few waves of enemies before being gifted a treasure chest.  This is all enjoyable enough of a detour that it is fun to do on occasion when moving to the next island.  Players also have the option to recapture islands.  These missions take the form of big fights in the sea against waves of ships where the goal is to tear down energy pillars.  While this is happening, players also have a list of optional objectives like use a ramming technique once, or destroy three ships, which when completed build up a set of prizes.  Once the ships are dealt with, there’s an infiltration section as the duo tears through enemies in various rooms until all are cleared.  Players are rewarded based on their score, but recaptures are a lot of fun even without them.

There are a lot of nautical themes at play in Ys X: Nordics, with many of the visuals either showcasing the island locales or the sea itself.  This means a lot of of the colour blue, beaches where fishing can be done, and balmy plains to traverse.  This can feel formulaic at times but the colourfulness of everything and brisk pacing of the narrative never detracts until after the experience has ended.  Enemy designs recycle frequently, but thankfully the boss designs have a lot of detail to them and every one, large and small in size, is showcased wonderfully with stylish attack animations unique to themselves.  There’s a lot of good voice work provided to plenty of the characters and their designs are memorable as well.

Okay, maybe, just maybe, there’s also an epic chase sequence involving a giant whale.

The soundtrack feels frantic at times, providing chaotic energy in the form of trumpets, violins, and guitars.  At times, particularly in combat, these work wonderfully as they heighten the tension.  Other times it blends in with the docile visuals making for a sleepy experience that serves only to put more emphasis on the flashy attack visuals that Adol or Karja are doing.  Ultimately, this makes for a very hit or miss soundtrack with some tunes feeling like instant classics, while others are instantly forgettable.

There’s a lot packed into Ys X: Nordics, making for a thrilling ride.  Quick-paced features make sure something exciting is always happening during gameplay, but the cast is given an appreciated chance to breathe and stand out in their own way.  Combat gives players many different ways to tackle enemies, with the vast array of skills available making every fight enjoyable.  The action choreography during boss fights is breathtaking, making it easy to get fully wrapped up in the battle.  Ys has always been about adventure and this injection of added character work just adds a new layer of finesse to this grand stage.

 

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Scores
BATTLE SYSTEM
    
INTERACTION
    
ORIGINALITY
    
STORY
    
MUSIC & SOUND
    
VISUALS
    
'Excellent' -- 4.5/5
ps5
40-60 HOURS
MODERATE

Combat is always pleasantly briskly paced

Boss fights always feeling like cinematic clashes

Every character feels fleshed out and fun to experience the journey with

Naval recaptures are a delight

Fodder enemy designs and background scenery recycle frequently

Soundtrack does have a few misses

Dalandar

Ryan Costa

Friendly neighbourhood reviewer that thinks every RPG should be discussed, because one never knows where a hidden gem can appear.

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