The Ancient Land of Ys is an old role playing game that is just neat and simple and everything a role playing game is supposed to be wrapped up into a cute little package. By today’s standards, it really doesn’t add anything to genre, but when it was released in 1989, it was awesome. It had everything. It was published by a formerly well known company in Broderbund. It had a fun story line and a heroic swordfighter protagonist.
It had lots of bad guys, several really bad guys and one ultimate bad guy. It has an easy combat system, side quests, a variety of equipment, and an open end to insure a sequel. In fact, it spawned a series totaling seven games, the latest installment being released in 2003.
The story involves a village of farmers who are simple and happy and work together in a communal environment. Then, one of them finds a metal that would be similar to modern day gold and everything changes…for everyone. He shares, and the entire community of farmers prospers until a series of disasters wipe out their crops and their homes. The area wise man declares that the kureria
(the name of the metal) brought the disasters upon them. It is immediately locked away in a magically sealed cave, hopefully to never be heard from again. Years go by and all is well until an evil wizard decides to try to harness the powers of the kureria to use for evil. He steals the six books of Ancient Ys to learn about the kureria. He gives five of the six books to his underlings, and keeps one for himself. The young swordfighting hero has to recover the books and defeat the evil wizard Malificus and his minions to restore peace to Ys.
He will do this by traveling all about a large map, fighting demons and monsters and seeking clues to the location of the baddies. He will partake in an extraordinarily simple fight model where walking into an enemy initiates a battle. Defensive and offensive might depend on two basic factors: the strength of your equipment and the manner in which you attack. The same is true of your foes. If you attack from the front, you will be in a full flung battle. If you sneak in from the back or the side, you can do more damage and take less yourself.
The game continues on in this manner, you fighting and getting stronger and better until you meet the boss characters and eventually Malificus. He’s waiting for you with everything he has and you will have to be well equipped and well versed in fighting to beat him and save the Ancient Land of Ys.
