Ys series

Group Description

Ys (イース) is a series of predominantly action role-playing games by Nihon Falcom. Its first installment, The Vanished Omens (1987), was among the earliest top-down action RPGs. It is currently the largest and longest-running Japanese series in the genre.

Ys games takes place in a medieval fantasy world called Eresia, which has certain similarities to Europe. The title itself is derived from a mythical city in Brittany, France, which was swallowed by ocean. In the game series, Ys is the name of a floating island, home to a mysterious ancient civilization, around which the plot of early installments revolves. The series features a recurrent protagonist, the red-haired swordsman and adventurer Adol Christin.

In Ys games the player usually controls a single protagonist, who gains experience points and levels up by defeating enemies. The distinguishing gameplay mechanic of the series is its action-based combat coupled with top-down exploration similar to those found in turn-based RPGs. A gameplay feature that was particularly common in early installments is "bumping" combat, which allowed action-based battles without the necessity to press a separate action key or button. This, along with recharging health, became a staple gameplay element of the series and led to the term "Ys-like" when describing comparable games.

Pronunciation

The series is pronounced as eece, like saying east without a T at the end, not ease.

Information also contributed by Sciere

Selected Covers

Game group created by Jeanne (76516), additional games added to group by Corn Popper (69379), GTramp (60821), リカルド・フィリペ (152032), Kam1Kaz3NL77 (101886), Sciere (510982), jaXen (178140), Игги Друге (46428), Oleg Roschin (181731) and MAT (186622)