Ys Origin

Ys Origin takes place seven hundred years before the events of the whole series, on the day the mysterious Darm Tower rose into the sky and the abduction of the goddesses Reah and Feena set off the chain of catastrophes recounted in the later entries Ys I and II. For the first time, the player doesn't control Adol Christin, but instead has two playable characters from the very start - the mercenary Yunica Tovah and the knight Hugo Fact - plus a third, mysterious character unlocked after completing the game at least once with either of the two chosen pairs. Each has a different fighting style, their own set of spells, and their own perspective on the events around the tower, so on repeat playthroughs the story is assembled from multiple viewpoints, and the player gradually pieces together the full picture of the catastrophe that will forever mark the entire future history of the world of Ys.

The game was released in August 2006 for Windows as a Falcom title that grew out of a fan group's initiative and was later officially published under the studio's name - for a long time it remained purely a Japanese PC affair. It didn't reach the West until years later, in the form of ports for PS3, PS4, Vita, and Switch, making the PC version historically the first and longest-available release, with a high frame rate and community mod support that later console versions don't offer, so it remains the version closest to the original release as Falcom designed it, before the console ports later altered the game. Structurally, it's more of a vertical tower dungeon crawler with a single sprawling setting than the open world typical of other entries in the series, which makes it one of the most action-heavy and demanding Ys games, where climbing the tower replaces the usual wandering across the landscape between villages and wilderness.

Why play it: Ys Origin will appeal to players who want fast, focused action without an open world and don't mind a higher difficulty. As a prequel, it also works as a great introduction to the series' mythology for newcomers who want to start right from the very beginning of the story.