PC Engine Cover

Ys IV: Dawn of Ys

Ys IV: Dawn of Ys

Having offended so very many fans with the departure of Ys III, Falcom went back to the standard overhead formula for Ys IV. The gameplay is pretty much the same, although parts of it have been fine tuned. The PC Engine version of the first games used a "Slow/Fast" option setting to determine the speed, while Ys IV removes this feature and puts the speed at somewhere in between. However, the fighting is much smoother, partially because Adol can finally move diagonally. At first glance, the graphics barely looks any better than Book I & II, but there's a lot more detail in the backgrounds, which becomes apparent as you get further into the game. The character designs are also much better, and cutscenes appear with more frequency. Which is good, because the plot is intertwined more heavily with this game than any of its forebearers. It's also a much longer game, requiring more playtime than the first two games put together. In returning to the usual overhead perspective, there are a lot of references back to the original game - while Adol begins in the town of Minea, he quickly sets sail to undercover the mysteries of the country of Celceta and a race of long lost angel people who may have had something to do with the land of Ys, and are none to pleased with the existence of puny humans. This is not without some detours to meet old friends (Lilia is back, as is Dogi) and locations (you get to fight through Darm Tower again, although thankfully not all of it.) The game also takes place before Ys III in the game timeline. This game also introduces the Romun Empire and some of its antagonistic generals, who continue to harass Adol through the rest of the series. Characters Lilia Lilia returns in Dawn of Ys, and she's still got a huge crush on Adol, but she mostly serves just to get kidnapped. Again. Karna Karna offsets the whole "damsel in distress" thing Ys has had going for it, seeing as she's a totally badass swordsman. She saves Adol from the evil Romun Empire at the beginning, and even fights beside him for awhile. She's pretty AWOL beyond that, except communicating through carrier pigeon. Leeza This nice little blonde girl was madly in love with the angelly bishounen Eldeel until he turned bad. Bammy This pink haired temptress travels along with two other psychotic companions, Guruda and Gadeis. Like most evil dominatrix types, she's got quite the bust line and a skimpy outfit built specifically for showing it off. Eldeel The last of an ancient winged race who goes bad, and does not look kindly on the weak humans. Who knew angels were such jerks? The awesome Ys music we've come to know and love is back, although there's less of the action paced songs and more slower paced tracks. These aren't bad, but the saxophone in some of them lends a jazzy feel that I'm not particularly fond of. There's also a lot more voice acting, even though it's in scratchy PCM. Falcom released three Ys IV Perfect Collection CDs which contains the full soundtrack, although some tracks are slightly different. Everything that the original two games did, Ys IV does it better - better graphics, better dungeon layouts, some incredibly cool boss battles, more events, and just all around more awesomeness. It's a substantially longer, more involved game that before, but never to the point where it wears out its welcome. Many fans consider this one of the best action-RPGs on the PC Engine, and certainly the best of the earlier Ys game. Luckily, it's been translated into English by Deuce - grab the patch. While all of the text has been translated, the voices were not, for obvious reasons. However, the original game did not subtitle the spoken segments, so the only way to understand the cutscenes is by reading along with an accompanying text file. MP3s Field Lava Area - A Kiss for Eldeel Dawn of Ys Walking the Path of Legend

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Ys IV: Mask of the Sun - Super Famicom (1993)

Super Famicom Cover

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun

Ys IV for the Super Famicom (dubbed "Mask of the Sun") is almost an entirely different game from its PC Engine brethren. It all begins when Adol finds a letter in a bottle, begging for him to come to the land of Celceta. Trouble is abrewin' with the evil Romun Empire, all involving a masked angel fellow named Eldeel. This country may sound familiar from Dawn of Ys, and there's a lot of similar situations between the game (you get locked up in the beginning in the same manner, you meet Karna, etc.) Similarly, you also get to see Minea again, reunite with Lilia, and even revisit Lance Village from Ys II. While this sounds all well and good, the actual game clearly suffers from its cartridge limitations. Visually, Mask of the Sun can't compare at all to the PC Engine version, and while most of the graphics are just as detailed, they're darker and aren't nearly as aesthetically pleasing. There's a near total lack of cutscenes, and there aren't any character portraits at all, even in the shops. At least the music holds up admirably, despite some bizarre sound samples here and there, though the slower songs from Dawn of Ys show up here with a faster tempo. The instrument set leans very heavily on the electric guitar, making it sound rather similar to a Mega Man X soundtrack. Apparently the designers of this version really enjoyed the old computer versions of Ys, because you really need to be precisely on target when attacking - thankfully, you can take quite a bit of damage before dying. Unfortunately, you can't walk diagonally, which does make combat feel stilted and frustrating once again. And whoever decided to introduce the concept of poison to an Ys game should be kicked furiously. So while Mask of the Sun is a reasonably good game in its own right, but it's always stood as the younger brother to the superior version of Ys IV. Its boss battles aren't as cool, the dungeons are less interesting, the actual fighting is certainly a bit more annoying, and the whole game just feels more watered down than it should. It's also recognized as the "official" storyline, despite largely agreed to be the inferior product. MP3s Intro - Dawn of Ys Title Screen Crimson Wings

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Ys IV: Mask of the Sun - A New Theory - Playstation 2 (2005)

PS2 Cover

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun PS2

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun PS2

Taito's PS2 remake of Mask of the Sun attempts to pattern itself after Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, with its 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work. For starters, the graphics have a very low budget feel. While there are occasionally some interesting scenery - some of the towns in particular look kind of cool - the dungeons are long, repetitive exercises in frustration. Almost all of them are poorly designed, with almost no variation in textures and layout. Furthermore, they're full of invisible boundaries and objects that block your characters, allowing enemies to get easy hits. It gets even more aggravating when you have to backtrack through huge stretches of these boring areas. Adol doesn't walk very fast and controls rather sluggishly. You no longer need to ram into your enemies, and instead have three different strengths of sword attacks. There are some new elemental swords and magic spells, but they don't add much to the game. Like the Ys III PS2 remake, the music is rather disappointing, with average MIDI arrangement of the otherwise excellent soundtrack. It's a step up from the SFC game, but can't touch the PCE versions. The plot is loosely based off the Super Famicom game, although there are plenty of variations and tangents to make A New Theory a unique experience. For instance, you now have to fight a boss after you're imprisoned by the Romun's, and you no longer have to fight anything in the crater. The order of events is mostly the same, but there are plenty of differences here and there. The new character artwork is pretty nice, although the intro, showing various locations of the game along with portraits, is pretty awful compared to the PCE game. Overall, A New Theory is a disappointing, sloppy excuse of a remake, and can really only be recommended to the die-hard fans, as both of the other versions of Ys IV are superior - and in the case of the relatively mediocre SFC game, that's saying quite a bit. MP3s Intro - Dawn of Ys Field Promalock

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Character Screenshots