Ys: The Vanished Omens

aka: Ancient Land of Ys, Y's, Ys, Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished, Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished Omen, Ys: Book 1
Moby ID: 242
MSX Specs

Description official descriptions

In this game, the player takes the role of Adol (Aron in the English-language Sega Master System version) Christin, a red-haired adventurer and expert swordsman. One day he encounters a fortune teller who sends him on a quest to find information about the six books of Ys. It appears that there was once an ancient land called Ys, whose secret was sealed in those six books. Before long Adol learns that the six books were all stolen by the evil wizard Dark Fact (Dulk Dekt in the Sega Master System version, Malificus in the English-language computer versions). It is Adol's task to defeat the villain and discover the secret of Ys!

Ys: The Vanished Omens is an action role-playing game with its own trademark combat system: instead of pressing the "attack" button, the protagonist simply runs into the enemies he encounters. More damage is inflicted upon the enemies if Adol charges at them from the back or from the sides - a head-to-head collision might result in the hero's death if the monster is stronger than him. The player gains gold and experience points for defeating foes; once enough experience has been accumulated, Adol levels up and becomes stronger. The hero can buy and equip swords, armor, shields, and other accessories.

Spellings

  • イース - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

Credits (MSX version)

27 People (15 developers, 12 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 46 ratings with 4 reviews)

Amazing!

The Good
Ys: The Vanished Omens was one of the best Sega Master System games to be released, at in America. Everything about the game is groundbreaking, both as an RPG and as a game for the ill-fated Master System.

The Sega Master System was quite popular in many nations, but its success in the United States was much more limited. For American Master System owners, such as myself, this meant that we only had official access to a small library of games, many of which were not terribly good.

Luckily, Ys: The Vanished Omens was one of the Sega Master System games to be officially released in America. I had never heard of the Ys series prior to playing this game, and (for years) was I disappointed by the fact that this was the only Ys game given a American release.

Everything about this game -- its graphics, music, storyline, character development and playability -- is perfect. The game shows off what the Master System can do, in the right hands, and it also introduced Americans to one of the best RPG series that has ever existed.

The Bad
The worst thing about this game was, that (after beating the game) no sequel existed for us, lowly, Americans.

NEC gamers got Ys I and II released together as a CD set, which (as far as I could tell) was the only way for Americans to officially play the second game. Instead, Ys III (not Ys II) was -- eventually -- given an official released on the Sega Genesis.

I had hoped that the Ys series would be re-released for the Xbox 360, but that does not seem to be in the pipeline.

The Bottom Line
Ys: The Vanished Omens is a great Master System game. It is one of the best RPG game series ever made. It is also probably the best Master System released in American Hopefully, more American gamers will -- one day -- be able to explore all the Ys games.

SEGA Master System · by ETJB (428) · 2014

Filling the 8-bit console RPG niche for PCs.

The Good
I don't have a lot of experience with console RPGs like Final Fantasy 3, Legend of Zelda, etc., but if Ancient Land of Ys is anything like them, they must indeed be fun.

Gameplay consists of running around your surroundings in an overhead view, bumping into people to talk with them (or bumping into enemies to hit them). The more you fight, the more experience you get; the more experience you get, the more hits you can take and the faster you recover.

The graphics are decidedly anime, but there's a certain charm in that.

The Bad
Certain parts of gameplay are not obvious and frustrating. At one point, the only way to go from one section to the other is to find a hidden door. You can easily see this door if you're wearing a special mask. But if you're not wearing the mask, you not only can't see the door but you can't open it either! I had "opened" the secret door at least 10 times before I stumbled through it with the mask on.

The Bottom Line
If you like console RPGs, you'll love Ancient Land of Ys.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999

There just isn't any good reason to play this game.

The Good
Charming in that Japanese anime sort of way.

The Bad
Ys has all of the bad things about Japanese console RPGs, with almost none of the good. Graphics are weak even by the PC standards of the day. Combat is excessively simple (bump into your opponent!) and extremely monotonous. The plot is ok, but nothing that special. There really isn't anything in Ys that isn't done much better by countless other Japanese-style RPGs.

The Bottom Line
I would only recommend this game to very small children or other people who enjoy lots of repetition.

DOS · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2013

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Translation patch? Edwin Drost (9295) Feb 18, 2021

Trivia

Name changes

Ancient Land of Ys was ported to many different computers and consoles, but the PC port was the only one to change the names of some of the game characters.

NES translation patch

On March 30th, 2000, fan translator David Mullen released a complete Japanese-to-English patch for the Nintendo version. You can download it here.

Information also contributed by j. jones

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  • MobyGames ID: 242
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

J2ME added by john brandstetter. Windows added by firefang9212. BREW added by Kabushi. PC-98, PC-88 added by Terok Nor. Apple IIgs added by Игги Друге. NES, MSX, SEGA Master System, FM-7, Sharp X1 added by Unicorn Lynx.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, chirinea, Sciere, Alaka, Kabushi, formercontrib.

Game added August 23, 1999. Last modified January 20, 2024.