Ys fans know that the history of Adol Christin is filled with wild adventures all over the world of Ys, a land that’s very similar to our own but populated with fantasy creatures and versions of real history and culture. Adol himself dies at the age of 63 and the Ys games are considered to be his adventures as discovered in a massive series of journals chronicling his exploits. Each game in the series chooses an adventure from one of Adol’s travelogues and at least one limited edition of the Ys games even comes with a replica journal.
Each adventure in Ys takes place in a different part of the timeline of Adol’s life. From one game to the next, Adol might be noticeable older or younger, and slotting these adventures into the timeline that developer Falcom has created is a fascinating exercise. With the help of publisher NIS America, Falcom has now released a tenth game in the series, Ys X: Nordics. If you hadn’t caught on by now, it’s a prequel, slipping into Adol’s history between two outstanding releases to tell a new story, one that we hadn’t even realized existed.
Taking place between the original games, Ys Book I and II (they were released as a single two part game in most releases) and Ys: Memories of Celceta (review here) which was originally released as Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, Nordics catches Adol leaving Esteria for Celceta by ship. Unfortunately, on his way the ship is waylaid by what appear to be Normans (very reminiscent of the actual historical Norman raiders from around 900 CE) and taken to an island chain where things do not go anywhere near as planned. Always thirsting for adventure, Adol slides right into the thick of things along with his faithful and rather burly companion Dogi the Wall-Crusher.
Ys X: Nordics is a bit of a mixed game compared to other entries. Previously, most modern games in the series have you switching between three different characters with various talents and skills. Nordics switches things up a bit, leaving you playing only two, Adol himself and Karja Balta. Without giving too much away, Karja and Adol are inextricably linked and forced to adventure together. This changes the play dynamics from previous entries somewhat, leading to a more focused and intense combat experience.
In addition to gameplay changes, Nordics incorporates a new sailing mechanic where you must travel by boat around the island chains of the Obelia Gulf, fighting fantasy monsters and more in sea battles as well as adventuring in a more traditional Ys manner. This shift back and forth between sea and land further distances the design of Ys Nordics from other Ys games, although each game has some different mechanics to learn, such as the Monstrum powers in Ys IX and the essence in Ys VIII.
Let’s start by taking a look at the land-based parts of Ys X: Nordics. Adol and Karja are both users of a power called Mana, which is the only way to defeat the mystical Grieger which are attacking the Gulf. Mana users are exceedingly rare so it’s a bit of a shock to the people of the Gulf that Adol has the ability. Mana allows you to focus your attacks into special attacks and as you gain levels, your attacks slowly increase in both power and variety. While you start off with only a few special attacks, the menu allows you to access the Release Line system. As Adol and Karja build up Mana Points by leveling up, they can be spent in the release line system to unlock nodes. Each node lets you set a removable Mana Seed within it that boosts various character stats.
When you level up and gain Mana Points more and more nodes can be activated and at set points on the level progression system, additional mana attacks unlock that can be set to your combat loadout. You have four slots to choose from, allowing you to hold down R1 and tap any of the face buttons as long as you have enough rechargeable mana to use during combat. Regular attacks boost mana production so if you run out, don’t worry…it’ll replenish.
For that matter, the same goes for health, with the inactive character controlled automatically and slowly regaining health as long as you’re not holding R2 and activating your linked abilities. For longer fights, it’s important to make sure you’re fighting tactically, not just button mashing as that technique definitely does not work well in Ys X: Nordics. Enemies will run roughshod over you if you are not dodging with evade and strategically using both Adol and Karja’s individual abilities as well as just charging in to pummel foes. This is a shift in gameplay from some of the other Ys games where button mashing worked just fine, so some players may be surprised to find their tactics need to change.
Naturally, there’s an equipment progression as well, so make sure not to neglect your gear and upgrade whenever possible as you’re going to need that extra strength to get out of some hairy situations. Bosses in particular are incredibly grueling with multiple power levels and attack patterns and they test the limits of your expertise with each new learned skill and ability. If you’re truly awful at action games, you can always play a lower level and just as in other modern Falcom games, you can also fight bosses again as weakened versions when you die and then continue to play at your chosen difficulty for the rest of the game. There’s a difficulty for everyone in Ys X: Nordics and good accessibility is always a treat.
Finally there are the antiques. A number of mana-powered antique devices are at your disposal including the mana string which is basically a magic grappling hook that can attach to specific points and the mana ride which is essentially a magic surfboard that can fly through mana-powered areas and surf across both land and water. You’ll also eventually unlock an elemental attack based on mana, the power to see hidden areas and even affect time. Mana is pretty versatile stuff and some of these additional antique mechanics are particularly fun (surfing is definitely great!).
Sailing on the other hand is a bit more frustrating. You get a decrepit old ship called the Sandras and slowly upgrade through the course of the game. At first, your ship is slow and surprisingly weak. It’s also frustrating to navigate. Nordics has some fairly irritating button layouts and you’ll notice very fast when sailing the Sandras that the perspective shift button being mapped to Square on the PS5 controller isn’t the best choice. Ship combat buttons are X for cannonballs and Triangle for broadsides by default, forcing you to reach up a bit to triangle when the natural tendency is to use the Square button as you do heavily in land combat. That means that if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to swap to one of the other camera views mid-combat. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to swap mapping in the menu, but it’s still a weird default choice. That’s not the only mapping faux pas either, so be aware you can change things to suit your preferences.
Bringing the Sandras back into port allows you to upgrade various features such as speed, power, and durability based both on game progression and on the number of supplies you manage to get. Sea grinding is a bit of a drag but it’ll net you plenty of supplies for upgrades, making combat easier so it’s worthwhile. Once you get the hang of the sea combat and gain a bit of power, things get easier too and if you practice hitting ships with a close broadside, they usually go down in a shot or two, making quick work of skirmishes.
There’s a bit of an open world aspect to ship play works as well, allowing Adol and crew to travel about to new islands and explore them, adding additional locations. That exploration mechanic fits well with Adol’s personality and the whole vibe of the Ys series so ship use while frustrating at first, slowly becomes more enjoyable. Explore more and you can visit Dogi in the ship command post and get some nice bonuses too! While in the sea you can also drop in and talk to your crew on the ship, mix potions, cook, and even upgrade weapons at the ship’s smithy. Sailing around also nets you additional interactions with characters in the game, further adding to the depth of the story and the development of both Adol and Karja as well as the supporting cast. If you happen to sail into any kind of event, the game even auto-logs the rest of the conversation for later reading from the menu system. Finally, the wave attacks from Ys VIII and IX make a bit of an appearance on shipboard combat at pre-designated times with boarding events but they’re significantly minimized from other games and that’s a good thing as fighting wave after wave of enemies in those games became fairly tedious.
Between ship adventures and land exploration, there’s a lot to do in Ys X: Nordics and one of the best parts of that is that this is a beautiful game. The PS5 version of Nordics features the most detailed graphics and additional slight touches like more detailed clouds and water that make it stand out in side-by-side comparisons with the PS4 and Switch versions of the game. Adol looks noticeably different from his last outing too and the art style fits well with this younger Adol. While the visuals look impressive, the style of the series remains intact too, so don’t expect any photorealism or anything like that. Crisp clean graphics with no visual glitches are pretty great these days though and Nordics definitely delivers. The menu system is straightforward and easy to navigate too, with both style and accessibility built into the GUI. This is an exceptionally pretty game and the little touches like close-in cameras while sailing the Sandras as well as dramatic slow-motion QTE images during key combat sequences add significantly to the style and flair that the Ys series is known for.
Music has also always been a huge component of the Ys experience and JDK Team is back at it again with outstanding symphonic music that accompanies a wild high-seas adventure. There’s a subtle but noticeable shift in the music to give it a more Scandinavian feel in line with the overall design aesthetic and it really works. Voice work is also extremely well done here with actors taking their characters seriously rather than going over-the-top with characters. That really helps ground the series more than almost anything else as there is a fair amount of voice acting in Ys X. While not everything is voiced, the events and dialogues that are make a substantial contribution, even if it is weird to hear Adol actually speak a bit, something that has almost never been done in the series.
There are some negatives here too of course. Ys X: Nordics isn’t a perfect game. The mapping is certainly a bit of an issue, but one that’s easily remedied with a bit of patience and creativity on the player’s part. A couple of the other issues are a bit more irritating however. One is that Ys X features a surprising number of invisible walls. Your ship is sailing along and then it’s just not. Bam, wall. You can’t go that way. That’s a weird experience, especially after playing games like Dredge (review here) and Cat Quest III (review here). Open seas to be sailed (and consequences for going where you shouldn’t) make things a little more approachable in sailing mechanics and it’s a strange choice to limit Adol in his adventures, even if it makes sense from a narrative and leveling standpoint.
The other flaw is in overall design. As much as Ys X: Nordics is beautiful, it’s also limited from a design standpoint. Villages look largely similar, islands look quite alike, and it just doesn’t feel like there are as many different varieties of terrain as there should be. That is an unfortunate choice after the wider variety of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox and the absolute breathtaking beauty of Ys VIII. There’s nothing inherently bad about the designs, they just don’t feel like quite as much as they should and that lack of biomes makes the design work a smidge of a miss here. Some people might find fault with the overall story as well as it’s mostly carried by Karja and Adol, but if you use the shipboard events and talk to everyone, the world of Ys X: Nordics does seem quite alive and the character depth is more than sufficient.
There is quite a bit of DLC available for Nordics as well, including both costumes and additional consumables if those are your thing. We didn’t get a chance to take a look at the DLC for this review but there’s a wide variety available and even a few freebies, in line with other Falcom releases. Your mileage may vary for DLC but it’s nice that it’s available and if you want to deck out the Sandras or change designs, there are plenty of options. For Playstation Portal users, Ys X: Nordics runs great on the Portal as well, though our internet connection had the occasional bit of lag here and there and the resolution, especially for text is a bit more limited than some players might prefer.
All in all, Ys X: Nordics makes an attractive package, putting together an all new adventure for Adol with some new and interesting game mechanics, solid graphics, music, and sound, and a serviceable storyline made excellent through the dynamic character interactions of Adol and Karja. You’re looking at a fairly lengthy adventure too with around a 30-40 hour completion time and longer if you want to do absolutely everything there is to do. This is unquestionably a solid game and the AAA price is fully justified at $60. For PS5 users that don’t mind a slight graphics drop, the PS5 version allows you to download the PS4 version as well at no additional cost, allowing you to use a PS4 controller to play if you prefer it. That’s a nice little bonus for players who still have both systems hooked up or would rather use a Dual Shock 4. There is certainly no reason to be on the fence here. Ys X: Nordics is an excellent game that is both fun and immersive and you’re definitely going to want to play it, especially on the PS5 as the most impressive looking and running version of the game!
This review is based on a digital copy of Ys X: Nordics provided by the publisher. It was played on a Playstation 5 using a Sony 55” 1080p TV and on the Playstation Portal. Ys X: Nordics is also available for PS4, Switch, and PC on Steam.
Jon’s thoughts
I received the chance to play Ys X: Nordics on Switch and PC and rather than go over the game itself, as I feel Nate has done a wonderful job with that, I want to discuss these versions.
I was surprised to see how well Ys X: Nordics ran on Nintendo’s system, particularly after Ys IX. It was not that that game was bad per se, but had a number of performance issues that held it back. Ys X: Nordics on the other hand performed much better, even at a reduced frame rate compared to the more powerful systems and while I did notice some sluggishness with some of the combat, this did not occur too often and only in a couple of instances when the game seemed very overwhelmed. Otherwise, is performed extremely well, and the visuals stood out as incredible.
Ys 8 had a fantastic port to the Switch that I hold up as the standard to which these games have to be measured, and I am pleased to say that Ys X: Nordics far surpasses that title. Ys 8 had issues with the reduced frame rate affecting the combat in multiple areas, and though patches were applied, it was still an issue even as the overall game was incredible. Ys X: Nordics reduces these to a minimum, even if it does not fully remove them, and it manages to look far better than Ys 8 did, which was already visually stunning on Nintendo Switch. I was worried about the ship battled, but while these were a source of some frame rate stutters and minor slowdown, it overall did not hamper the gameplay experience.
Taking Ys X: Nordics on the go was a great experience, and I am happy to say that the game handled well in handheld mode. There was a bit of system overheating when some cutscenes were running, but that happens with multiple games on the Switch, and in this case it did not cause major issues. The game also sounded great even in handheld mode, so nothing felt lost there.
Overall I was very impressed with the Switch port of Ys X: Nordics, and I have to commend Falcom for such an amazing product.
The PC version of the game was rather surprising, I have to say. Some previous NIS ports of Falcom games have not handled the best, but Ys X: Nordics handled like a dream this time. There were absolutely no frame rate issues that I could see and the game was able to run at an incredible stable and smooth rate, creating a very enjoyable experience. I was also able to tinker with the settings to adjust to how I wanted the presentation to be, and I was not dissapointed.
To explain, I used a custom built 4K gaming PC for the purposes of this review, and Ys X: Nordics performed better than some games from AAA studios that have great track records with PC games. The issues that plagued the previous two mainline entries were not present here and instead I was able to play the game I enjoyed on Nintendo Switch but with a vastly improved presentation. Asa result, I enjoyed some of the most fun with a PC game I have had all year.
The visuals popped out in the best way and the game’s music sounded incredible. None of the issues I had with the Switch version were present and instead I found the perfect version of Ys X: Nordics. Comparing notes with Nate’s time with the game and my experience with the Switch and PC versions, I would have to say the PC version stands out as the absolute best. It makes sense since Falcom was always a computer focused company, but Ys X: Nordics stands as one of the company’s best titles yet.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.