700 years before the events of Ys I, the land was in turmoil. Dive into the demonic tower and find your Goddesses in Ys Origin.
I really should have played another Ys game after Celceta sooner. I finally decided to work on Ys Origin after having it gifted to me for Christmas. In Ys Origin, your Goddesses have gone missing from the floating Solomon Shrine and you must find them. The main land of Ys has been overrun with demons and have been building a tower to get to the Solomon Shrine.
While Ys Origin definitely isn’t as long as Memories of Celceta was, it’s still long enough. The entire game is based in the tower… well, the entire game other than a few cutscenes and the end and the beginning. Despite being entirely based within that tower, each “section” feels unique. You’ll definitely see some repeat enemies, though they have enough variations in how they behave to make them still different.
My only really prior comparison for a Ys game is Celceta, so that’s all I have to compare to for things like the combat. Origin’s combat still feels extremely fast paced, and it’s definitely nice to be able to run in and work on just smashing 
enemies. Well, I was on Very Easy so that probably helped in me doing that, but still it was fun. Some of the bosses will still require a bit of strategy at least, or at the very least they’ll require you to learn good dodging.
The controls barely seem built for a controller. They are definitely much better attuned to those who wish to use a keyboard. You can’t even get in-game information as to what does what, you just have to guess! For awhile I was just hitting random things trying to figure out what did what, and even near the end I still got a bit confused as to what was what. Why did the start button cycle my active spell instead of going to the menu? Why did clicking the right stick go to the menu? Well, who knows.
While I can’t speak for the other characters, the “spells” Yunica had were all pretty good. Well, they weren’t really spells and were more just abilities since she couldn’t use magic. There are two other characters available for play, though one of them is only available after you’ve beat the game once. They each have their own stuff they do, even if they go through the same place. They each have their own playing style, so you can choose what best suits you.
I can’t really think of many complaints against Ys Origin, though it’s definitely not perfect. The controls on controller left a bit to be desired for sure. The SP system within the game was nice though – you progressively get more as you go further in, which does help when the most expensive things are so good. The save points also felt well placed, and the ability to easily warp between them also helped. Though of course there were some points that I was like, “man, I really wish I had a save point right about now.”
Is it worth playing though? Yes. Especially if you liked the other Ys games, or are even just into action RPGs in general. I definitely feel like I’ll be diving into Ys I and II in the near future now… Or it may just take another year for me to play another one, who knows!
Ys Origin Review Score
4.5/5
