Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished

Ys was the forerunner of narrative role-playing games ^[3] . The protagonist of the game is a young traveling warrior named Adol Christine. At the beginning of the story, he had just arrived in the city of Minea of ​​the land of Esteria at the request of the fortuneteller Sarah, who tells him of the great evil that spreads across the earth.

Adol learns that he must find six books that write the history of the ancient land of Isa. In this way, he will be able to find out how to deal with evil forces. Sarah hands Adol a crystal for identification and instructs her to find her aunt in Zepik Village, which has the key to one of the books. From this moment the journey begins.

The player controls Adol with a top view. While traveling on a map and exploring dungeons, the hero has to fight enemies.

The battle in Ys has significant differences from other role-playing games of the time, where the system of turn-based battles or a manually drawn sword was usually used. In Ys, Adol automatically attacks enemies in a collision. When the main character moves towards the enemy, then both sides take damage in turn. A direct attack does the most damage, but at the same time reduces defense. Such a combat system was created to be extremely understandable for players, and has become one of the hallmarks of the entire game series ^[4] . The developers themselves compared the gameplay with inflating soap bubbles in the sense that they had done serious work to create an arcade game. According to the magazines GamesTM and The Escapist , as well as the opinion of John Shchepanyak from Retro Gamer magazine , “what is happening on the screen is enjoyable, and even in the event of a retreat, progress always remains dynamic, so the player will not stop moving forward” ^[2] .

Another distinguishing feature that has been used in almost every game in the Ys series is its restored health; a similar system was previously used in the Hydlide series. To date, the mechanics of recovering health are present in many video games ^{[4] [5]} .

The game, ported to various platforms, from version to version remains almost the same (excluding graphic design), however, individual game elements in it change. For example, in the version for the Sega Master System, some game dungeons are shown from a horizontal angle, and there are also some minor differences.

The most distinctive of the early ports was the Nintendo Entertainment System edition of the game, released by Victor Musical Industries . This version was very different from the original: new sketches of cities, fields, dungeons, rearrangement of music and a new order of action in the final battle.

The MSX version of the game contained a new set of music tracks that took the place of the original soundtrack. Some tunes that didn’t make it into the game were later included in Ys Eternal and Ys Complete .

Versions of the game for TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Saturn contained additional in-game scenes , in particular an opening screen saver where Adol arrives in the city of Minea. In remakes of Ys Eternal and Ys Complete for Microsoft Windows, in addition to this, many story elements were added, they also contain improved gameplay.

A remake of the game for the Sharp X68000 , released in 1991, was notable for the use of 3D rendering for boss sprites . At the same time, 2D graphics still prevailed in the game itself ^[6] .

Created by Yuzo Kosiro with the assistance of Mieko Ishikawa, the soundtrack of the game is characterized by a variety of melodies ^[7] , which is characterized by the development of game music of the time, which previously consisted of monotonous signals. The Ys soundtrack was considered the best play music ^{[2] [7] [8]} and the hallmark of the game ^{[2] [9]} .

Several Ys music albums were released separately from the game by Falcom . These include:

• Music from Ys (1987) - contains the soundtrack from the original edition of the game for PC-8801, as well as unused and moved tracks included in the edition of the game for MSX, many of which later also entered the soundtrack of the game Ys Eternal . It also includes five arrangements from Ryo Yonemitsu , who took part in creating music for the game Ys I & II ^[10] .
• Perfect Collection Ys (1990) - two-disc edition. The first disc contains new arrangements for the soundtrack from Ryo Yonemitsu. The second disc contains mixed arrangements from Ys and Ys II .
• Music from Ys Renewal (1995) - the complete soundtrack of Ys , which includes additional audio tracks reproduced using a synthesizer.
• Ys & Ys II Eternal Original Sound Track (2001) - a two-disc edition with music from remakes of Ys and Ys II games for Windows.

In March 1989, a review was made of the version of the game for the Sega Master System in Computer and Video Games . The magazine rated the game at 92%, noting the excellent graphics and the fact that the game “is so deep and playable that it can captivate the player for several weeks” ^[11] .

The Games Machine magazine rated Ys I at 90% and compared it to The Legend of Zelda , noting that "in many ways, the detailed characterization of the characters and the environment makes the game better for visual perception," and concluding that Ys is "one of the best role-playing games ” ^[15] . Later, in 1991, the game appeared on the pages of Dragon magazine in the "Role of Computers" section. Reviewers Patricia Hartley and Kirk Lesser rated the game with five stars out of five possible ^[12] .

• Game on World-Art