Ys Seven
2009 video game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ys Seven[b] is a 2009 action role-playing game developed and published in Japan by Nihon Falcom. The seventh numbered installment in the Ys series, it was released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan in September 2009.
| Ys Seven | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer | Nihon Falcom[a] |
| Publisher | Xseed Games
|
| Director | Toshihiro Kondo |
| Producer | Masayuki Kato |
| Programmer | Hideyuki Yamashita |
| Artist | Katsumi Enami |
| Writers |
|
| Composers |
|
| Series | Ys |
| Platforms | PlayStation Portable, Windows |
| Release | PlayStation PortableWindows |
| Genre | Action role-playing |
| Mode | Single-player |
The game marked a major redesign of the series' combat. It introduced a three-member active party whose characters can be switched during battle, three weapon-based attack types, learnable combat skills, Extra Skills, and the timing-based Flash Guard mechanic.[3] This framework became the basis for the combat systems of Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox.
Xseed Games released the PSP version in North America in August 2010 and in Europe that November. A Windows version was released in China in 2012. Xseed later commissioned a separate Windows port, released internationally in August 2017 with higher-resolution rendering, a frame rate of 60 frames per second, and a revised English script.[4]
Plot
Adol Christin and Dogi arrive in Altago after the Romun Empire ends its restrictions on foreign travel to the kingdom. Shortly after reaching the capital, they intervene when local Dragon Knights threaten the sisters Tia and Maya. Adol and Dogi are arrested, but King Kiemarl recognizes Adol's reputation as an adventurer and asks him to investigate a series of earthquakes and other disturbances occurring throughout Altago.[5]
Adol travels through Altago with Dogi and several companions, including the Dragon Knight Aisha, the merchant Mustafa, and members of regional communities. They learn that the disturbances are connected to the Five Great Dragons worshipped throughout the kingdom. Each dragon grants Adol part of its power and directs the group toward a ritual intended to prevent a recurring calamity.[5]
The group discovers that the destruction threatening Altago is part of a natural cycle of creation and extinction controlled by the dragons. Tia, who is descended from the ancient people responsible for the ritual, intends to allow the cycle to continue after witnessing the suffering caused by Altago's social divisions and exploitation. Her adopted sister Maya is selected as the sacrifice needed to complete the ritual.
Adol and his companions reject the destruction of Altago and confront Tia and the power governing the cycle. After defeating the final manifestation of the calamity, they prevent Maya's sacrifice and end the cycle. Tia disappears after helping the group during the final confrontation, and Adol and Dogi eventually leave Altago to continue their travels.[5]
Gameplay
Ys Seven is an action role-playing game in which the player explores fields and dungeons, completes optional quests, gathers materials, and fights enemies in real time.[6] The active party can contain up to three characters. The player directly controls one party member while the other two are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence, and can switch among the three characters at any time during exploration or combat.[7]
Characters and weapons are associated with one of three attack types: slashing, striking, or piercing. Slashing attacks are particularly effective against soft-bodied enemies and have no enemy type against which they are completely ineffective. Striking attacks work well against armored or hard-bodied enemies and are effective at inflicting stun, but are less accurate against agile opponents. Piercing attacks can target fast or distant enemies but are less effective against enemies with hard bodies. Players are therefore encouraged to switch characters according to an opponent's characteristics.[7][8]
Special attacks consume skill points, or SP. Skills are initially associated with particular weapons, but repeated use increases their proficiency and eventually allows the character to retain them after changing equipment. Skills can then be assigned independently of the weapon through which they were learned.[9][8]
Attacking enemies replenishes SP, while charged attacks and attacks against stunned enemies fill the gauge more efficiently. Enemies have a stun gauge that increases as they take damage; when it is filled, the enemy is temporarily incapacitated and yields SP more rapidly when attacked.[9] Each character also has an Extra Skill, a more powerful special attack that becomes available when the Extra gauge is filled through the passage of time and the use of ordinary skills.[9]
The game introduced a defensive mechanic called Flash Guard. By guarding immediately before an enemy attack connects, the player can negate the attack, receive a substantial increase to the SP and Extra gauges, and cause the following counterattack to inflict critical damage. An unsuccessful attempt instead exposes the character to heavy damage.[9][8]
The player can also evade attacks with a directional roll or step. Boss battles emphasize recognizing attack patterns, avoiding large attacks, and combining character switching, skills, evasion, and Flash Guard.[10]
Development and release
Platform selection
Falcom developed Ys Seven for the PlayStation Portable during a period in which the company was shifting its principal development efforts from Windows computers to dedicated gaming hardware. Although the Nintendo DS had a substantially larger market presence in Japan, Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo said the company believed that the interests of PSP owners overlapped more closely with those of its existing audience. He later described the decision to release games for the PSP as successful and said it helped rejuvenate Falcom's fan base.[11]
The project was Falcom's first original Ys game developed specifically for the PSP. It followed several Windows releases built around the action framework introduced in Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, including Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin. Whereas those games used a single-character combat structure, Ys Seven was designed around a larger explorable region, a traveling ensemble cast, and a three-character active party.[12]
Design
Falcom designed Ys Seven around a three-member active party whose characters could be switched during exploration and combat. Previous internally developed numbered entries had generally centered on Adol as the sole playable character. Ys Origin offered separate campaigns with different protagonists, but did not allow them to travel and fight together as a party. In Ys Seven, companions instead participate directly throughout a shared campaign, while the two characters not under the player's control are directed by the game's artificial intelligence.[13][12]
The party system changed the role of supporting characters within the series. Dogi, who had previously accompanied Adol primarily as a non-playable character, became a regular playable combatant. Other companions represent different settlements and communities within Altago and use distinct weapons, attack ranges, and movement styles. Characters can be changed in real time, allowing the player to respond to enemies without leaving combat.[13][14]
Each playable character and weapon is associated with a slashing, striking, or piercing attack type. Enemy characteristics determine which type is most effective, encouraging players to switch characters rather than relying exclusively on Adol. This introduced an element of party composition and situational character selection that was absent from the predominantly single-character combat of the preceding Napishtim-engine games.[13]
The game also replaced the fixed weapon and magic systems of several earlier entries with a broader weapon-linked skill system. Individual weapons teach special attacks that consume skill points. Repeated use increases a skill's proficiency until it can remain available after the character changes equipment. More powerful Extra Skills use a separate gauge, while stun gauges and charged attacks provide additional ways to control enemies and recover skill points.[3]
Ys Seven introduced Flash Guard, a timing-based defensive mechanic that negates an attack when the player guards immediately before it connects. A successful Flash Guard replenishes the skill and Extra gauges and causes the following counterattack to inflict critical damage, while an unsuccessful attempt leaves the character vulnerable. Together with manual evasion, character switching, and weapon skills, the mechanic gave defensive timing a larger role than in the preceding single-character games.[3]
The game also broadened the structure outside combat. Rather than progressing mainly through a compact sequence of towns and action stages, the player travels across Altago, visits settlements associated with its regional communities, completes optional quests, gathers materials, and uses those materials to obtain or improve equipment. The larger field areas and repeated returns to populated locations gave exploration and side activities a greater role than in The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin.[15][12]
Visually, the game moved away from the combination of two-dimensional character sprites and three-dimensional environments used in Ys VI, The Oath in Felghana, and Ys Origin. Ys Seven instead used polygonal characters and environments throughout gameplay, while retaining illustrated character portraits during dialogue.[12]
Falcom later adapted the basic action system for the 2010 crossover game Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga, modifying it for competitive battles involving as many as four characters.[16]
Kondo later discussed an unused concept that preceded the completed depiction of Altago. After joining Falcom, he encountered an older planning document containing the phrase "a seafaring Ys" and a proposal in which Altago's Five Great Dragons were enormous warships. The team did not use that concept when developing Ys Seven, instead depicting Altago as a continental kingdom inspired by northern Africa.[17]
Kondo said the unused proposal remained in his memory and eventually influenced Falcom's decision to make sailing central to Ys X: Nordics.[17]
Japanese release and music
Falcom released Ys Seven for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on September 17, 2009.[18] The limited edition included a drama CD performed by members of the game's voice cast. ASCII Media Works published an official strategy guide around the time of release, and the game received a Gold designation in Famitsu's cross-review feature.[18]
The score was composed by Falcom Sound Team jdk members Hayato Sonoda, Takahiro Unisuga, Saki Momiyama, and Masanori Osaki. Its music combines orchestral, rock, electronic, folk, and ambient elements, with regional styles used to distinguish the settlements and cultures of Altago.
Falcom released the two-disc Ys Seven Original Sound Track on November 19, 2009. The album contains 52 tracks from the game.[19]
Localization
Xseed Games published the PlayStation Portable version in North America on August 17, 2010 and digitally in Europe on November 3. The release was part of a wider agreement through which Xseed localized three PSP Ys games and three titles from Falcom's Trails series.[20]
Localization producer Thomas Lipschultz worked as a co-editor on the English localization and contributed writing and layout work to the instruction manuals for Xseed's PSP Ys releases. Lipschultz later said that Ys Seven was the first editing assignment he received after joining Xseed and that he entered the project near the end of its production cycle.[21]
The original PSP localization was produced under schedule and text-length constraints. While preparing the later Windows edition, Xseed reviewed the entire script and changed more than one thousand lines. The revisions included spelling and punctuation corrections, changes to awkward word order, terminology standardization, and larger rewrites intended to make the English text clearer and more faithful to the Japanese dialogue.[4]
Windows versions
Beijing HappyEver Technology Co., Ltd., commonly known as Joyoland, developed a Windows conversion of the PlayStation Portable version for the Chinese market. Joyoland announced that it had undertaken the port itself and described it as a high-definition PC version rather than a localization of a pre-existing Windows release.[22]
The simplified-Chinese edition was released in mainland China on June 20, 2012. Joyoland served as both the developer of the conversion and its mainland Chinese publisher. The company offered a 50-yuan digital edition, a 99-yuan limited physical edition packaged in a metal case, and a 299-yuan deluxe edition.[22]
A Traditional Chinese edition based on the same Windows conversion was released in Taiwan on July 21, 2012 and distributed by Interwise Information.[23] Interwise acted as the Traditional Chinese publisher and distributor; the underlying port remained Joyoland's adaptation of the PSP game.
The Joyoland version retained the basic presentation and interface structure of the handheld release while rendering the game for Windows computers. It was available only in Chinese and was not used as the technical basis for Xseed's later international edition.[4]
For the worldwide Windows release, Xseed commissioned a completely new conversion rather than licensing or modifying Joyoland's port. Xseed stated explicitly that the 2017 edition was a separate PSP-to-Windows port produced under its supervision.[4] The developer was identified in the game's credits as Hyde, Inc.
Xseed reported that Hyde's first submitted build was already playable from beginning to end and supported higher-definition rendering and a frame rate of 60 frames per second. Character models and interface elements were rendered at higher resolution, but some original environmental textures were retained because experimental upscaling produced visible seams and inconsistencies between map components.[4]
The increased frame rate required adjustments beyond changing the display output because several animations and effects had originally been designed around the PSP's frame rate. Xseed and Hyde also added configurable controls, multiple resolution options, achievements, and support for contemporary Windows systems.[4]
The new Windows edition was released through Steam, GOG.com, and the Humble Store on August 30, 2017. It incorporated the revised English script rather than reproducing the original PSP localization unchanged.[4]
Legacy
Ys Seven marked a turning point in Falcom's treatment of the series. Its commercial and critical reception gave the company a foundation for continuing original Ys development on dedicated gaming hardware after a period in which its internally developed releases had been concentrated on Windows computers.[11]
The game also provided Falcom with a model for developing new installments around a recurring mechanical framework while changing their settings, casts, and exploration concepts. The company used that approach for Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, each of which retained the party-era foundation while adding its own traversal, settlement, mapping, or narrative systems.
Its depiction of Altago resolved a location and adventure that had been referenced within the series before receiving a complete game. The return of Geis as a playable character also strengthened the continuity between Ys Seven and Ys VI, while the Five Great Dragons became part of the wider mythology associated with Adol's travels.
Falcom eventually concluded that the party structure created its own design limitations. Kondo said players frequently settled on three preferred characters and made limited use of the remaining cast, while developing and animating a larger roster required substantial resources. For Ys X, Falcom therefore replaced the larger party with Adol and Karja and built the Cross Action system around their relationship and coordinated abilities.[17][24]
A separate idea abandoned during the planning of Altago also influenced the series years later. The early proposal in which the Five Great Dragons were depicted as warships was not used in Ys Seven, but Kondo later cited it as one of the inspirations for the seafaring premise and naval exploration of Ys X.[17]
Reception
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PSP: 79/100[25] PC: 80/100[26] |
Reviewers generally praised the game's combat while expressing reservations about its presentation and pacing. Ryan Clements of IGN praised the skill system, the battles, and the level of concentration required during boss encounters. He also found the music enjoyable and considered the story effective despite its simplicity, but criticized the amount of backtracking and described the graphics as modest.[30]
Bethany Massimilla of GameSpot similarly praised the fast combat, character switching, and boss battles, while criticizing the game's visual presentation and elements of its narrative.[31] RPGamer named it the best PlayStation Portable role-playing game of 2010,[32] while RPGFan selected it as the overall best role-playing game shown at E3 2010.[33]