Review: Ys 7

Buy Ys Seven at Amazon.com

I don't use my psp for a whole lot other than the terrible and probably illegal task of playing old ps1 games. The handful of games I've bought for it probably have dust on them and the DS has more of my attention than ever.

That is, until I saw this little gem during one of my last days at *insert hellish corporate game selling store here*. I am a sucker for Limited Editions and Japanese RPGs. E, however, knowing my impulsive desire to covet and collect these sorts of things wouldn't let me buy it. He also unfortunately knows that I never play anything on my PSP.

Solution? Play it and see if I like it.

This was probably one of my greatest RPG experiences. It's, at the very least, on my Top 5 of all time.

Story
Isn't that the reason people play RPGs? It's mine, anyways. (I guess some people like fighting and grinding but those people are certifiably insane.) From what I understand now, all of the Ys games are different sections of the main character's, Adol, really long ass adventure. Knowing nothing of the other games or the series, I dove right in - it's very newcomer friendly. The story itself is incredible. There's something happening at every turn and nothing feels like a fetch quest, EXCEPT THE FETCH QUESTS THEMSELVES. E and I have been talking about how awesome certain ideas would be if we could make our own RPG - well, Ys 7 beat us to them. It's all absolutely incredible. You're an adventurer who's just passing by, the king wants to give you a task! Lo, it becomes more than it seems at first. Cliche, but played out oh so wonderfully.

Gameplay

Action RPG. Not quite hack n' slash. This game is comprised of having a party of three characters and you get three different attack types that are effective against the three different types of monsters. Go figure. So obviously you should carry one of each at any given time. But don't worry about who you want - just pick your favorites and go! Your reserve party members, get this, level up alongside you. You can only control one at a time though but it's easy enough to switch off. 

There are a myriad of special attacks that you learn through your weapons. And I love the shopping/equipment system - you can, of course, purchase your weapons and armor OR you can use the various materials to forge together even more powerful weapons/equipment/ and even rare items. This is the only way, in fact, to get everyone's best gear at the end of the game. And as for those items - this game DOES require a fair bit of strategy - with single person only items, you can carry a max of 5. For items that heal the entire party? Maximum of 3. This kind of sucked at the last boss when there were 3 forms and all my characters were split up to fight them. You just have to fight smarter. There is no endurance with spamming items to be found here.

Graphics/Sound

This game has some of the crispest (is that even a word?) graphics I've seen in a long time and a stellar soundtrack. I was pleasantly thrilled when new music played. Definitely worth getting just on that aspect alone.

Overall

This game is like a nice boy your BFF hooks you up with. He takes you out to your favorite spot for dinner and lets you order any and everything you want, gets you a nice bottle of wine, takes you home and makes the bed shake in a truly memorable way and then clobbers you over the head the next morning. I was so mad at the end of game boss fight. That's truly how it felt though and it was probably the best video game experience of my life. Or at least my best on the PSP.

A++++++++++++++++ Would date again.

-A