I LIVE AGAIN
Goodness, Adol's been booking it up here. Coincidentally, I'm just wrapping up Ys VIII, my first experience with the Ys series. 50+ hours, done all the sidequests, maxed out everyone's approval, 100% everything...
Yeah, it's pretty good.
"adol christin might be the strongest contender for 'most chadlike protagonist in jrpgs'"
-A helpful Steam reviewer
Thank you, helpful Steam person. Now to business.
First off, a brief explanation on the early years of Falcom.
Falcom is an old Japanese company, small but influential. Beginning in 1981, they started by selling hardware and software for the Apple II computer, before shifting gears to the PC-88 and PC-98 when they started making games. They truly broke out with the release of Dragon Slayer in 1984. While very primitive by our standards, Dragon Slayer was one of the very first Action RPGs. The following year, they released Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, which codified the ARPG genre and was the first metroidvania game (Though it didn't quite solidify until Metroid released the following year).
Adol's series, Ys, started in 1987, with the release of Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - Omen. The series follows the chronicles of Adol, a self-proclaimed "adventurer." Technically, that's not an actual occupation, and he's closer to a traveler or a cartographer. That being said, those terms are underselling his skills a little. The plot of Ys is pretty easy to understand, and generally follows something along the lines of this:
ADVENTURE! -> Demon/evil god suddenly appears -> Get the magic final god sword -> As per JRPG tradition, kill the god -> Board boat to go to another continent to explore -> Crash the beat and lose all your gear -> Rinse and repeat.
Ys, like most long-running series, has changed up it's gameplay quite a bit. Originally, it used an overhead perspective with a "Bump system," where Adol dealt damage by walking into any side of the enemy that wasn't the front. This was made with accessibility in mind, as PC RPGs were becoming more complex and difficult at the time. This gameplay style was retained for Ys II and both versions of Ys IV, while also implementing magical spells as well. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, on the other hand, changed to a side-scrolling action game a la Zelda II. It was meant to be a spinoff, but was changed at the last second, hence the sudden shift in gameplay.
Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand marked a shift in gameplay, reimplementing the attack button from Ys III, as well as buttons for a jump and a guard. It was also deemed so easy that Falcom had to release a harder Ys V Expert only a couple months later. After that, Falcom suffered a major brain drain, leaving them stuck churning out countless remakes of Ys I & II, packaged together. This rut finally ended with Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, which improved upon the formula of Ys V, refining the controls and introducing a "three weapons" system, allowing Adol to swap between three different magical swords. This new style was perfected by Ys: The Oath in Felghana, a remake of Ys III, followed by a prequel in the form of Ys Origin.
A third style of Ys began with Ys SEVEN, where Adol fights with an active party of allies, various skills from a skill gauge, three different types of damage in slashing, striking, and piercing, a powerful EXTRA Skill with a gauge that fills up over time, and a Flash Gard system, where blocking at the right time gives you a boost in power. Ys IV was remade in this style as Ys: Memories of Celceta, adding a Flash Move system that slows down time after a correctly-times dodge. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana changed to a behind-the-back gameplay style instead, as well as adding a Break status; When enemies are hit with an attack they are weak to, they become weak to all attacks. The most recent installment, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, uses this gameplay style, while also introducing Monstrum powers for use in combat and exploration.
good golly I did not expect that part to take so long. I suppose this is what happens when you write about a 30-plus-year-old series. Anyways, onto Adol himself.
Born in a nameless mountain village in Garman (Re: Ys-verse Germany), Adol had surprisingly humble beginnings. He was born into a peasant family, but still lived a normal daily life. He was taught how to use a sword by his father, a skill he had a gift for and later honed on his own. His desire for adventure was sparked by the tales of an elderly travelling merchant, and he set off on his own at age 16. It should be noted that he began the cycle of adventure, god-slaying, and ship-wrecking in Ys I, where he was only 17.
At some point in his fifties, Adol returned to his village and wrote chronicles of his adventures, which is how the events of the game are told. Canonically, there are 100 travelogues, and we've only experienced eight so far (Counting Ys I & II together). Adol's last known adventure was at the North Pole at age 63, which he never returned from. It's believed he finally met his end there. Adol's adventures are so legendary that the chronology of the Ys timeline is marked as Before Christin and After Christin. Some wonder if such a man even existed, what with all the god-slaying. Nevertheless, Adol's adventures went on to inspire the travels of many other individuals, giving rise to an Age of Discovery.
Due to his travels, the cast and location of each Ys game is different. The only regularly recurring companion is Dogi, a giant but kindly man who travels alongside Adol. Originally, he was just a guy who busted Adol out of prison, but the fact that he busted through a wall to do so left quite a lasting impression, and now he's Adol's closest friend. Bearing the moniker The Wallcrusher, if Dogi appears in a game, chances are a wall's gonna be broken. His crowning moment was in Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, where he crushes no less than six walls, some of which already have an unlocked door.
Besides that, Adol has amassed a large amount of love interests over his travels, to the point that the wiki has a
list. However, Adol's one true love is adventure, and he always ends up leaving them to go on another quest. The only one Adol has explicitly returned the favor for is Feena, who's actually a goddess and had to ascend to heaven. Kinda out of his league there...
Of course, you simply can't bring up Falcom without mentioning the music. Due to the more powerful hardware of the PC-88 and PC-98, Falcom could manage more direct music than the bleeps and bloops of the NES, and by god, did they deliver. Falcom is one of the first companies to have a dedicated sound team, named Falcom Sound Team jdk (Or just JDK for short). They even have a separate group to play these songs live, JDK Band. Ys is also known for having way more rock songs than you'd expect from a fantasy RPG. They don't just break out the guitars for the boss themes, everything uses the guitars.
The usual three songs posted for RTC aren't doing it justice, so here's a list. A very long list. I can't pick just a couple, so instead I did 16.
Enjoy.
Something to note is that Ys used to have some issues with localization, but not anymore. With the help of XSEED, and now NIS America, Falcom's works are translated and released abroad. Ys VIII and Ys Origin are both on the Switch already, with YS IX being planned for a port next summer. If that's not enough for you, every Ys game is on Steam besides Ys V, which is one of the weaker entries anyways.
I'm gonna have to mention the Falcom leak, aren't I? Yeah, probably should.
arch.b4k.co
Basically, there was a leak back in June that called for various Falcom ports and a Falcom character in Smash. Ys IX, Cold Steel 3 and 4, and recently Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure have been confirmed, so even if the leak's fake, they managed to get a fair bit right. I'm not usually one to bank on leaks and rumors, but it's still something worth noting.
And now, a brief rundown on what Adol could bring. There's a lot to pull from, what with how long the series has been going, so I'll just list off a few recurring elements.
- Bump System - The gameplay style used in the early games, also given a callback with an item in Ys VIII. Adol could deal damage via dashing, though I think it would work best in an important Spirit like Dogi gave you Impact Run.
- Attack Momentum - Adol's attacks have generally pushed him forward somewhat. While not exactly a gimmick, Adol's normals could have him moving forward at the same time, allowing him to close the gap better.
- Three Weapons - In the Ark-styled games, Adol could change between three different weapons, something that would evolve into the three damage type system in the party games. The weapons vary between games; Basing them off of Ys VI, which uses them most prominently, there's the single-edged wind sword Livart, the double-edged fire sword Brilliante, and the thrusting thunder sword Ericcil. In Smash, Adol could use these as a stance system, or just use them for specific attacks like Byleth.
- Flash Guard and Flash Move - As mentioned above, the party games give you a boost in damage or slow time by guarding or didging at the right moment, respectively. This could be implemented as passive abilities in Adol's moveset, though the timing might be a bit precise for such a fast-paced game.
- Fireball - A recurring spell from the earlier games, when Adol has access to magical weaponry. Would probably act like a weaker version of Hero's neutral special, with the tradeoff of being faster to charge and not needing any MP.
- Spinning slash-type skill - A recurring attack, both as a wind-based spell in the Ark-styled games and as a skill in the party games. It has a bunch of different names that could be used; Maelstrom, Tornado Slash, Aerial Spin, etc.
- Rising Slash - A recurring skill from the party games, it takes the form of an upwards slash, sometimes propelling Adol into the air. Could work with any upwards attack.
- Running Slash/Sonic Slide - Another recurring skill from the part games, it's pretty self-expandatory. The amount of momentum Adol gets seems to vary between games, so it could work as a dash attack or side tilt
- Rapid thrusting-type move - Yet another recurring skill, with various different names. Works as a flurry attack.
- Sword beam-type skill - Also a recurring skill, has gone through a lot of different names (Scud Sword, Sonic Wave, Arc Shot). Faster than Cloud's Sword Beam, but smaller. Works as a neutral special or side special.
All in all, I give Adol a
45% chance. He's definitely a Terry-type situation; Not as well-known as some of his contemporaries. but incredibly influential. Not only that, but his company is smaller and has the potential to give an expansive tracklist from across their entire catalogue of works, not just Ys. He's got some serious darkhorse cred under his belt.
It should be noted, however, that Adol has some competition from the Trails series, most notably Estelle. I don't know too much to go in-depth on this topic, but Trails is a very popular and profitable work by Falcom's standards, and shouldn't be underestimated. It's hard to tell which of them has a better shot; I'm tempted to give Adol a little extra, but that might be bias speaking, because I'm giving him a full
100% want. The gameplay is a blast, I can't help but love his character of being a mostly average guy who wrecks divine beings on a regular basis anyways, and the
music. The guitars. The music was the first thing I truly learned about Falcom-Specifically, the Ys III version of The Strongest Foe, via SmashBoards, and I was hooked after that.
Funny story, I've actually got a game idea going that I've been adding to for a while, and it's uncannily similar to Ys VIII. Behind the back action RPG with a lock-on, a dodge, a parry, access to skills by holding a shoulder button and pressing the face buttons, and an emphasis on exploration. There's definitely a lot of differences so it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I had been building on this since the summer of last year and had never heard about Ys until that point.
The similarities were just
so close, and I ended up getting Ys VIII less than a week afterwards. Usually I spend a while contemplating getting a game or just offhandedly mention it in a wishlist and end up getting it as a gift. Best snap decision I've ever made.
And that concludes my longest SmashBoards post up to now. Thank you for reading.
