At first, I thought Ys Seven was going to be one of those role-playing games with fixed battle phases and shortcomings in the story plot. That is not the case. If you have liked playing an RPG that has free roam during battles in the past, then this is the game you need to purchase. Ys Seven has a great plot at the beginning of the game and does well at creating a good structured storyline that brings the player into the game.
In Ys Seven, you start as a character named Adol. With you is your trusted buddy named Dogi. As you and Dogi first get to the town of Altago, you find a little girl selling flowers in the middle of the city. She and her sister are poor girls being picked on by some crude guys called the Dragon Knights. As you confront these soldiers of the city, they become one of your adversaries in the game. You quickly become friends with the king after being thrown into jail for interfering with the Dragon Knights. As you and Dogi meet the king, he asks you to help him on some quests. This is where you and Dogi’s adventure begins as you search for items and people. You begin to learn these ancient lands are protected by five dragon gods who have chosen you as the savior of the region. Now it becomes you and Dogi’s quest to find all the shrines and collect the power of the five dragon gods to stop a nameless evil from wrecking havoc upon the land.
The sound effects in Ys Seven are a little generic, but I believe they done well. As you are in battle, it makes a crunch sound as your weapons smash against the monsters. As Adol slices his way through these monsters, it sounds like a sword swiping through the air, and as the player battles as Dogi, it also has some whipping sound effects also. The sound effects are well-suited for this game — even if somewhat generic. As for the music, it adds an epic RPG kind of background sound to the game. There’s an active feel to the game because of the sound, and it works well with the game’s theme and character’s actions.
The graphics seem a little jagged in this game and could’ve been brushed up to make it have a smoother look. The characters are well-structured and have a medieval look to them. Each of the characters, backgrounds and villages fit the game’s theme of a medieval era. The backgrounds are nice and have a jagged look but are well-structured for the most part. As for the scary monsters, they didn’t seem all that believable. So, it didn’t feel like an adult-type RPG. The monsters were somewhat childish in appearance and didn’t fit the game’s overall structure. However, there is a good variety of nonplayer characters and layouts as you and Dogi travel from village to village. Therefore, you can tell the design team took time to build some complex levels for the player.
The heads up display is well-created and shows the player’s character status and gauges. These gauges on the HUD are your hit points, experience points, extra power and skill points. In addition, the character status on the HUD is the player’s level, current face and skill icons. There is also a minimap as you are walking along in villages or other places so you know where you are in each level of the game. The HUD is very helpful to the player’s performance by relaying what the player can do or what needs done. The player’s customization revolves around buying, finding and combining new weapons. Every item for each slot has different results for skills than the next. Gaining XP is very fluent so the player is able to gain the skills faster. This allows the player to yield better skills for each of the characters to get an advantage in the game. As the player gains a level, it’s no longer attached to their weapons and can be freely used by the player’s character.
Ys Seven may not be a game with much depth, but it does make it up by giving little downtime so the action and bosses make the game just fun to play. The fight scenes are hard enough without being tedious, which makes the game more exciting. I think Falcom didn’t waste time in creating a fun and exhilarating game for the PSP. Also Ys Seven uses combat moves in real time that are so extremely fast your enemies vanquished in a matter of seconds. The player also can switch between characters to get a better advantage against your enemies.
Overall, Ys Seven has the action and adventure of a true RPG. It uses real-time attacks during battles that give this game its edge. It has a compelling storyline and plot for the game that keeps it interesting. Each level is packed with battles and bosses to keep the player busy, but it’s not too tedious the player can’t keep up. The HUD gives the player valuable information about each characters life and SP level to their skills and the skill icons that the character can us in battle. In addition, the graphics are jagged, but it makes it up with a compelling action adventure game. Ys Seven is a top-notch RPG and will keep the player’s interest throughout.
Tommy started playing with the Atari 2600 when he was about 8 years old. Two years after that, his father bought him a brand new Nintendo, and since, Tommy has been addicted to games. Tommy is a full-time student at Full Sail University working toward a bachelor's degree in video game design. He's more into gameplay than story, but he does think that story creates flow in a game and makes the game more interesting. Tommy doesn't like games that have too much story, though. He likes games that have three-fourths gameplay to one-fourth story. To him, gameplay makes the game fun and interesting. Tommy also believes if you are a designer, you have to have that gift to let yourself see all sides of the spectrum of the industry. Games have choices that make the game interesting to the player and those choices need to be logical not irrational. With making games, everything is essential to the creation of the game as a whole. A movie without sound is like a game without gameplay. Everything is accentual to the game as a whole — that is how games create the fun within them.
