Ys X: Nordics

Ys X: Nordics sends Adol Christin into harsh northern waters between two warring powers, where after a shipwreck he meets the young pirate warrior Karja. The pair must join forces to survive in a land full of ice, ancient wreckage and enemies who tolerate neither warring side, gradually uncovering an ancient catastrophe hidden beneath the surface of the northern sea, whose clues are scattered across the seabed among shipwrecks and on the lonely islands the pair gradually discover while sailing the open sea. The colder, harsher world is noticeably different from the sunny southern islands and port towns the series has typically been set in until now.

The tenth entry brought two significantly new features to the series - combat in which the player switches between Adol and Karja and can combine their strikes into joint attacks called Union, and full-blown naval battles, where open combat moves onto the deck of a ship controlled almost like a separate vessel with its own armament, which can be upgraded between expeditions just like Adol's and Karja's personal gear, depending on whether the player prefers fighting at sea or classic combat on land. The game launched in September 2023 simultaneously for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Switch in Japan, with the international release and PC version following only a year later, making PS5 one of the first platforms on which Western players could play the game via import. The PS5 version benefits from the highest resolution and frame rate of all releases available at the time, which is especially useful during the more hectic naval battles and the more open northern setting than in previous entries in the series.

Why play it: Ys X will appeal to players who want to see something new in the series - two-character combat and naval battles - while not being put off by the harsher Nordic atmosphere compared to the sunny islands of earlier entries. On PS5, they also get the technically smoothest version of the game.