Two if by land, and two if by sea.
At the end of July, I attended a digital preview event for the next entry in the long-running Ys series, Ys X: Nordics, hosted by NIS America. Adventurer Adol Christin is back again, and this time his exploits play out on the high seas aboard a ship called the Sandras. The demo (which appeared to be running on a PS5) took place in Chapter 4, which is early on in Adol’s 40 to 60-hour journey, and we were given a sense of what naval and land combat look like, in addition to some of the systems and mechanics Nordics has to offer.
Compared to the large island space of Ys VIII and the urban areas of Ys IX, Ys X involves island hopping and filling out sea maps as you build up the crew of your ship. As in those earlier games, the friends you meet along the way will move onto your ship and offer sidequests and services to help you on your adventure. I was happy to see the idea of a home base show up again, as that was my favorite aspect of Lacrimosa of Dana. You can also customize your ship, such as bolstering your cannons to make short work of enemy ships and shield towers. During the demo, we saw a “recapture battle,” wherein Adol and his crew sought to take back an island from undead enemies known as Griegr. The second part of the battle saw Adol and his partner Karja take to land to make their way through a brief three-floor dungeon that culminated in a mini boss fight.
The dungeon segment showed off the action combat the Ys series is famous for, with quick swapping between Adol and Karja and their distinct weapons being one of the key mechanics for successful fights. The pair can link up for more devastating special attacks, too, and it looks like you’ll want to be busting these out to whittle down bosses’ larger health meters. There’s a fair bit of visual flair to the linked up moves of Adol and Karja, and I’m eager to see more of the combat and how it evolves over the course of the story.
We weren’t given a lot of context about the overall story of the game, but I did ask about the choice to include only two playable characters, which is noticeably slight compared to the six each in Ys VIII and IX. I was told that, from a narrative standpoint, there’s more you can do depth-wise with a two-member party, which makes sense. Mechanically, it’s also possible to flesh out the skills of Adol and Karja more given that they are the development focus. It remains to be seen if a series that generally leans into a more expanded cast will succeed with this slightly new trajectory.
As August begins, we’re but a few months away from the October 25th release date for Ys X: Nordics on Switch. Questions remain about the game’s performance on Nintendo’s aging platform after the numerous issues that plagued Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, but I’m optimistic that having even more experience developing for the system will yield positive results. Be you landlubber or pirate, if you’re in the mood for more Ys action, you don’t have much longer to wait.
