To each their own, I suppose.

I would say Celceta was the best game, with Ys 7 being a good runner up, and VIII being the most "modern" for people who don't like anything to feel even slightly dated.

No they didn't. As of right now, July 2020, the GOG version of Ys VIII still has no Achievements, even though the Steam version has had them for years.

NISA easily could have fixed this problem - and still can - by paying Durante for a few hours of his time to make the GOG version equal to the Steam version. But they haven't, and apparently are never going to.

So the only thing they did a 'great job' with in regards to Ys VIII is treating GOG customers like second-class citizens by offering us an inferior, feature-removed version of the game.

Oh, right, one of those "GOG not having chievos is treating its customers like second-class citizens" thing, right, right...

Fine if you want achievements, that's your prerrogative. Personally, I don't care about them, and I honestly think you people tend to take it a bit too far. I mean, are we being treated like second-class citizens when other Ys games have credits for the "Steam version", since XSEED only had them on Steam for the longest time?

This is not the place nor the time for moaning about chievos or lack thereof. Take it up with NISA on their social media, from what I understand, Durante himself was the one who said he didn't feel like being bothered to include achievements on the DRM-Free version of Ys VIII, when NISA got him to fix all that was making the game *unplayable*. I can play a game even without freaking achievements, but I can't play a game if it keeps crashing and overheating my GPU all the time. So, yeah, you're entitled to be mad about games having achievements on other stores but not on GOG, but at least stop treating this issue as if it was the end of the world.

All things considered, Ys VIII is DRM-free on GOG and not on Steam, so, to me, Steam users are the ones being treated like second-class citizens, even if they get patted in the back by the game itself whenever they finish a chapter or defeat a number of enemies.

So far I liked every Ys game, but I'm still a bit doubtful about this vertical movement aspect. I always liked Ys as a simple fast-paced straight forward action RPG with arcade-feeling and don't want it to become an "climb on every building and mountain" exploration RPG.

I see they had fun with the title

Didn't know there were this many Ys games.

I see, so you've been there as well. I guess I'll check Ys VII out to see if it's more manageable for me and, if so, move forward from there. (Still, I would like to play the previous ones since I bought them, but this is merely an issue with us GOGers and our backlogs :P )

Damn, I'm impressed with Falcom's respect for us GoGgers; to release their entire series is incredibly generous considering not every serial IP has their entire saga released here!

Thanks Falcom/GoG for bringing the entire ys saga for us over here at GoG! Insta-bought once I finally have my 3080ti/CP2k77!

It is another party one isn't it? They're not as good as the old ones. I'd rather play as Adol on his own but Dogi tagging along would be fine. Have NISA finally leveled their PC port skills to match XSEED? I didn't hear much noise about the state of Cold Steel 3 so maybe they did.

Aside from that... Is there anything for NISA to censor in the game? I still haven't learned Japanese yet and Trails of Cold Steel 3 is the top of list to play after.

You're right, all the Falcom games released and translated in the west are on GOG, even the newest and futures releases.

I think GoG should aknowledges this and promote more this developper on their social medias with articles, special promotions and contests. It could create some incentives to others developpers for their long standing appreciation of DRM-Free games.

Agreed, they do need much more exposure and love! I'll post this suggestion over on their twitter/reddit sites!

Considering it's NIS that's a pretty good release.

They have another game (Alliance Alive) out here that was modified for GOG release so we can use half-baked keyboard and mouse controls, the Steam version is controller only without even a mod to let you avoid being forced to use one.

It's actually easier to play the 3DS version on an emulator than it is to play the native PC port thanks to how incredibly lazy they were in bringing it over.

At least they did fix all the game-breaking bugs, enchance the control options beyond the kinda "meh" release version, and mostly fix the localization, for Ys VIII.

I do feel you though, despite not caring about achievements myself, I like to see full feature parity for the GOG release so even stuff I don't give one whit about is kinda annoying to see left out like that.
That is all Falcom, too.

No matter who does the localization and porting (a few companies here released their very first game on GOG due to Falcom demanding it for their loyal customers, some have kept going while other just released the one, but before that they had nothing on GOG and only Falcom changed that) they make sure it gets released everywhere, sometimes it has a bit of a delay (Tokyo Xanadu comes to mind, that took months to show up here, buit it did come) before release on GOG, but they make a point of getting their games into the hands of as many people as possible through whatever legal channel they choose rather than trying to force people into some ridiculously narrow and restrictive distribution method like so many other Japanese companies seem to be obsessed with.

That would be useful and they had a level indicator in Zwei II, although there they hid some of the levels so it could be quite a challenge at times just to find the next one :/. IIRC, there are hints in the Ys games about what you should do next if you talk with the right characters.

Oath is the only one I couldn't complete on Normal difficulty and at least Memories and VIII (possibly Seven as well, I don't remember) I was able to complete on Hard difficulty. In the newer ones, Hard is only really a bit harder at the very beginning of the game and possibly a bit easier at the end due to leveling faster at higher difficulty. Difficulty can also be reduced during the game in Memories and VIII (and also increased in VIII).

I also suggest remaping some buttons: put magic/skill as L and next/previous skill as X/Y in Origin/Oath/VI so that you can easily hold L while attacking and jumping. In Seven change dash to R. In Memories change Extra Skill to L and dash to R. In VIII change the extra skill trigger to RT.

With the older games one big thing to remember is to try to never get game over (other than boss battles) since it looses a bunch of experience, instead try to warp back to safety if you are low on health and save again with the experience you have gained. Sometimes I found walkthrough strategy help with bosses quite useful when I was stuck. If you find yourself not doing much damage to the boss that means you missed a weapon upgrade somewhere.

IMO, Seven has the worst graphics, is too zoomed in, and has some really annoying voices. So if you find those things too annoying give Memories and/or VIII a try before giving up. Also, with Seven I had a black screen issue a few times (mostly during boss battles); if that happens, switch party members.

VIII is a great introduction to Falcom in general but the least Ys-like due to the extensive story. The optional fishing thing is also the most extreme, controller-destroying button masher I've seen in any game and some of the optional side quests also get quite difficult. Also, like the Trails in the Sky games you will miss side quests and stories if you do what the main story tells you to do (when the story wants you to urgently go somewhere). In Memories and VIII the hardest boss is in an optional side quest not the main story (I don't remember a super hard boss in Seven). Also, I didn't notice until after I played but VIII has a free high quality texture DLC that adds 4GB to the otherwise 16GB game, although I'm not sure how much difference it makes.

I'll also note that Xanadu Next is essentially the first game in what became the new-style Ys games (Seven, Memories, VIII), although it is also a different in some ways (and annoyingly the button to start a conversation is also cancel rather than continue). Notably the pseudo-3d view rotation does not appear in any Ys game and is a bit annoying IMO. The protagonist is almost Adol and the story seems more directly the (French) Legend of Ys than most if not all of the Ys games.

My general recommendation with Ys games is to start with Origin, I, II, and Memories and if you don't really like one go on to the next, even II is not as closely connected to I as you might think. I and II are quite maze-like at parts and having a walkthrough handy will save a bunch of time. If you don't really like Origin then skip Oath and VI as well.

Lots of info, thanks!

As I said in my first post in this thread, I managed to complete I & II using a walkthrough 3 or 4 times in total. Oh, and I still remember those mazes... At some point I used a piece of paper to draw a graph while moving, otherwise I would never be able to progress in those caves!

Due to the hardcore nature of Ark, Oath and Origin, Mr.Mumbles previously suggested that I skip those and try from Ys Seven onwards. You seem to have another opinion (I like when that happens in a healthy discussion) :)

Now that I took a look at screenshots I remembered 100% it was "Ark..." that I quit before mid-game due to not being able to progress. This is the one I played right after completing I & II.

(Sorry if this is too much text :/, I won't be offended if you don't read it.)

That is rather good, I used it more than that and only partly because I was too lazy to draw :(. Speaking of caves, did you run around the warm cave area as a roo and talk with the monsters? The one who wanted to join the monster union makes me laugh. The temple complex is the part I had the most trouble with.

I think all of the older ones I ended up using a walkthrough a number of times, although the newer ones I think I only checked once or twice if at all.

One aspect is that Seven is not as polished as Memories and is in that way harder to play later. I only remember the tie in with VI at the beginning and that is minimal so I think it is slightly less connected to the others (and the connection is never more than slight in any case so not playing story order is completely fine). Also, if you play VI far enough then there is a tie in with V that is more extensive than most if not all of the others (still minimal) and V only has a fan translation so far. Memories takes place right after II and being a bit more polished might be a bit more likely to hook someone who isn't really sure of the series, although Seven is also a good game. VIII and VI both have mentions of Memories (but not Oath because that was once Ys III).

Full story order is: Origin, I, II, Memories, Oath, (V), VIII, VI, Seven

Publication date is a bit difficult (and XSEED did some extra work when translating on some) but counting Memories and Oath as the remake dates in Japan the order is: I, II, (V), VI, Oath, Origin, Seven, Memories, VIII

IMO, VI and Memories have the nicest background art.

I don't remember too much about that one other than that the game wanted you to kill the cutest little creatures right at the beginning :(. I found it less difficult than Origin, although possibly just because I had completed Origin by then, which took me a few tries (giving up for a few years after one). Origin also has an improved help system that is another good reason to do that one earlier, although on the potentially negative side it makes you play through the whole game three times to get the full story. I tried a second run with Hugo but didn't make it too far before getting stuck again even after beating the final boss five times with Yunica due to a really annoying bug that caused the game to crash right after you defeat the final boss (if you start getting random crashes later in that game you might want to check the forum for the solution before getting that far :/, although at least my frustration was limited by amazement that I could do it). So I went on to I, II, Memories and got stuck on Oath and eventually went back and finished Origin, then I and II again, then Oath on easy, VI, Seven, Memories again, and VIII (that I didn't realize came earlier in story sequence).

Anyway, I agree that Origin, Oath, and VI are on a very different difficulty level than the others and some people will prefer to skip them. I really wish they had a separate boss difficulty level since that was the part I most found unreasonably difficult. But, if I can do it I'm sure you can too if you keep at it. Make sure to sleep well after playing to help learn the movements :). The only question is if you would have more fun spending the time on something else.

Oh yeah, I remember VI had some items that were quite difficult to reach. Even with a walkthrough in the worst cases (optional stuff), although IIRC there was one case where I didn't realize something was reachable and thought it would be reachable later but IIRC it turned out to be necessary and reachable by a different way than I expected.