Developer: Nihon Falcom, PH3 GmbH
Publisher: NIS America, Clouded Leopard Entertainment
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch
Ys X: Nordics – Review
We are no stranger to the Ys series, which has actually been going strong since 1987. It’s hard to imagine a franchise two years shy of turning 40 can still capture fans all around the globe, but here we are. Today, however, we’ll be taking a closer look Ys X: Nordics, which does things a bit differently compared to previous entries. The game ditches the bigger party size for new combat mechanics, and while things proved to be a bit rough around the edges, we enjoyed the grand adventure that is Ys X: Nordics.
Story
The story of Ys X: Nordics is fairly superficial compared to several other entries in the series. Once again, you’ll play as Adol Christin who is en route to find his next adventure. While sailing the Obelia Gulf, however, the ship Adol is on is raided by Normans, who come for the captain’s head. It seems the captain hired mercenaries to keep the Normans at bay, which the Norman-ran Balta Sea Force didn’t take lightly. As the Normans think Adol is a mercenary, he gets in a scuffle with the Norman princess, Karja. Karja backs off when finding out Adol is only a passenger and not a mercenary. Sadly, with the captain six feet under, Adol and his friends are stranded in a small village, trying to find a solution to get back home or to continue his journey. During his short stay on the island, Adol’s mana powers awaken and when Karja challenges him to a rematch, they become linked, being unable to move too far apart from each other. While they try to figure out a solution to this, the village gets raided by the Griegr, who are unkillable soldiers, except for those who wield the powers of mana. From here on out Adol and Karja will have to work together to find a way to break free from their mana-induced shackles as well as how to beat the oncoming hordes of Griegr.
All in all, the story progresses at a steady pace, but it remains fairly simple from start to finish. It’s mainly the characters here that steal the show, as it’s quite fun to get to know the colorful cast of Ys X: Nordics.
Graphics
Ys X: Nordics left us with mixed feelings. On one hand, the game has interesting character designs, fairly varied sceneries, and great sprite art during some of the game’s conversations. On the other hand, everything looks really dated. We realize this title is also available on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Switch, but things look rough around the edges even then. Don’t get us wrong, we still quite enjoyed what the game had to offer, but we would have loved a slightly more polished experience on our PlayStation 5 console. Luckily, the Ys series has always been more about the story and the general gameplay loop.
Sound
In terms of overall sound design, Ys X: Nordics does a fairly good job. There’s quite a bit of voice acting present in the game, which does add a lot to the general atmosphere of the experience. We would have loved it had the game been a fully voiced experience, as currently only most main dialogues are accompanied by voice acting. The quality of the voice acting is great, and even the somewhat cheesy English dub is pleasant to listen to. The soundtrack is great and consists of sufficient adventurous themes to get you in the mood to explore your surroundings. The SFX are decent, albeit nothing to write home about. The hack-and-slash sounds make a proper impact, but they are nothing we haven’t heard before in other similar titles.
Gameplay
Ys X: Nordics is a fairly traditional JRPG, albeit a rather basic one. The game shifts between story exposition, exploration, and combat. Exploration and combat are both done on land as well as on water, as you’ll also be controlling a ship for a big portion of the game. Ys X: Nordics is a very straightforward experience and the game never overcomplicates things. As you progress, new mechanics and menus will gradually open up, and things will never feel overwhelming.
There is no turn-based combat in Ys X: Nordics, instead you’ll be able to swap freely between Adol and Karja for single attacks as well as duo attacks. When using the duo attack mode, Adol and Karja will stick close together and unleash coordinated duo attacks. When doing so, they’ll be slower in terms of moving around, however. All in all, the combat is very intuitive and easy to get the hang of. We only struggled a bit with general defensive skills, as the button mapping felt a bit awkward for free-form combat. Nonetheless, the combat was enjoyable. Those struggling with the general combat experience can still opt for the easy difficulty, allowing you to focus on the story that unfolds. While the combat was enjoyable, it also felt a bit too basic and rough around the edges at times.
In Ys X: Nordics, your party size is extremely limited as you’ll only be able to control Adol and Karja. Both characters have gear options as well as individual skill trees. These skill trees are fairly simple affairs where you unlock nodes on the trees in which you can slot mana seeds. These mana seeds provide passive bonuses and can be found by exploring and combat. The more nodes you unlock, the more skills that become available to your party members. Using skills also provides bonuses in the long run. All in all, both the gear and skill systems are fairly easy to use and never become too complex. Both characters also have skills outside of combat as well. Adol, for example, can burn vines that block paths while Karja can create ice platforms to reach higher ground.
Outside of the usual JRPG mechanics, you’ll also have to upgrade your ship. You can opt to increase speed or choose to deal more damage, for example, but you’ll need resources and money to do so. It’s an additional thing to keep track of, but again, it’s a fun twist on the traditional formula and it never feels like the game is throwing too much at you. Sadly, the controls when you’re commandeering your ship do feel a bit rough around the edges and so does the combat. Even so, it was an enjoyable change of pace. Luckily things get spiced up a bit the moment you can also encounter merchant ships or are able to board enemy ships.
The biggest issue with Ys X: Nordics is that it feels like a title that should have been released a decade ago. This doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy what the game had to offer, but everything felt extremely rough around the edges. Combat felt a bit clunky, your characters’ jump felt useless as smaller platforms were blocked off by invisible walls as you often had to find other ways to reach higher ground, and so on. It’s all these small things combined that prevented Ys X: Nordics from becoming a great title rather than a good title. The variation in the side content does luckily make up for a lot.
Conclusion
Ys X: Nordics is an enjoyable entry in the long-running Ys franchise. While it’s clear that this installment steps away from the format of the earlier entries by reducing the party size and adding the duo mechanics, it did provide a nice change of pace. We loved meeting the different characters of Ys X: Nordics, and while it was rather rough around the edges, we enjoyed every minute of it. We do hope to see the franchise get its true ‘next-gen’ installment in the future, as we would love to see updated visuals and smoother mechanics.
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