It also makes sense that their first game, Actraiser, was basically their second attempt at the whole Sidescrolling/Action/Platforming/RPG thing using the lessons they learned from Wanderers.
I really need to go back and play that game one of these days.
…Aaaaand as of a few days ago, I finished Memories of Celceta, meaning I’ve completed the entire series in English (I’d actually beaten the Ys IV versions on SNES and Turbo CD, but Celceta was the new canon, and wow it changed a lot for the better). I wish I had a good explanation as to why…but, I liked it a whole lot more than Ys Seven. I was really worried when I heard it had the same combat as Seven, but for whatever reason, I just had a lot more fun this time around.
Also, although it’s probably not relevant to people who aren’t wasting their time with fan translations, it was fun to see what changed story-wise between all the versions. I also personally enjoyed hearing how some of the original music evolved - the majority of the soundtrack consisted of music from the original Ys IV soundtrack, while there were about 10-12 original compositions for this version.
Compare - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkHptsKg2oA to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ValMIEtUG8 for an example of just how far the music has come.
I think its probably due to having a better party than Seven’s Ys Team Six + token four elements themed fantasy classes (though credit where credit’s due for having the Earth based one be the party Thief instead of the walking Beefstack; that went to Fire, though it did make Water’s Hunter sort of redundant outside of attacking at range).
That could be. I certainly was excited to play as Duren and Karna since they are the only two party members from the original YsIV. But, I thought about it after writing this, and I think it was just several smaller quality-of-life changes, too. Like, for example, in Ys Seven, party members you were controlling were usually invulnerable. I hosed Ys Seven really hard by just switching to a different party member right before I would get hit. It was really annoying in Ys Seven how you had to clobber every enemy after they died for more constituents, where as in Memories of Celceta, only certain enemies did that, and it wasn’t even 100% of the time. Not having to triple tap every_single_enemy you killed made it feel like I wasn’t wasting so much time. Finally, I think retracing virtually all of my steps in Ys Seven made the second half feel remarkably boring to me.
Also, there was one main difference in the story that I didn’t like:[SPOILER]Memories of Celceta featured Eldeel and the Eldeen civilization, a race of winged people that held onto untold information and technology which was passed on to tons of people. This was hinted at in Ys6, which tied the Ark of Napishtim to the Eldeen, and even the Galbalans (kind of stupid, since Galbalan was described in Felghana lore as some demon that was sealed away and would do terrible things if it came back, etc). Memories of Celceta not only explained how this process works, but they even tied Altago’s technology to the Eldeen.
…BUT, they UNDID the connection of the Black Pearl to the Eldeen civilization. Ys IV (both Mask of the Sun and Dawn of Ys) was basically made to be the third game in a trilogy of Ys 1, Ys 2, and Ys 4 (I can’t tell if the new Celceta takes places before Ys3 like the original Ys4 did). And, for all that was different between the two versions of YsIV, one of the only similarities - and one of the most important plot points - was the revelation that the Black Pearl from Ys1-2 was originally Eldeen technology. My least favorite thing about the Ys series is that after YsIV, every plot boiled down to “The Eldeen did it”…but, considering the great lengths they’ve taken to tie every single adventure back to the Eldeen, why did they undo the only one that was kind of interesting!? [/SPOILER]
I can think of a few possibilities going on with that.
First is the fact that Adol simply hasn’t had his adventure in Ys country yet whereas the original version he not only had done so, but he had even brought the [STRIKE]Pegasus[/STRIKE] Cleria Equipment along with him (which is kind of a big deal given that in order to beat the final boss, said equipment is upgraded to its Gold Cloth form). None of that comes into play during MoC.
Second is that maybe tying everything into the idea that an Eldeen did it, was too much for the writers at Falcom and they decided to draw the line there instead.
Third is that they’re planning something for Ys VIII: Romman Candle and wanted to save something from both MoC and Chronicles to use in that.
Actually, there’s a very overt reference at the beginning of the game that indicates that Ys1&2 already happened. Even if there wasn’t, the fact that Dogi shows up in some of the memories is also a clear indication, since that’s when they met. Dogi also references Dr. Flair in that memory, who was one of the minor characters from Ys1.The only thing that seems a little ambiguous to me is whether or not Oath in Felghana has already taken place. Dogi said something in one of his memories that I felt could have been referring either to Ysteria or Felghana, but they didn’t name anything in particular, so it was confusing. Either way, it def takes place after Ys1&2.
As for the second…I mean, maybe, but it seems weird that, if they felt that way, they would use Memories of Celceta to create a deliberate link between Altago and the Eldeen where there previously was none. That said, the whole “The Eldeen did it” thing is definitely my least-favorite thing about Ys. It really takes a lot of the mystique away when you already know who’s responsible for everything amazing about every civilization ever.
I suppose the one upside to the Chozo Effect is that they don’t have to worry about having a dozen separate ancient hyper advanced ruined civilizations within traveling distance of each other.
Not that you couldn’t effectively treat them as states within a greater empire, but that would require more world-building than your typical JRPG is willing to invest in (or at least better world-building than what the FFXIII trilogy tried to do; that was a lot of effort put into something rather stupid and poorly thought out).