Game 8: Ys: Book I & II (TG-CD) - Book 1 Finished, On to Book 2!

I've completed the first game, and got a nice cut-scene showing Adol being flung to the floating island of Ys. Here he's woken up and brought to a town by a girl named Lilia. We'll pick up this game in the next post.

Last we left Adol he was in Darm Tower where a hallway was sapping his strength. In order to pass, I needed to find a way to destroy one of the pillars creating an eerie tune. "Maybe my sword was enough for the job," I thought, so I tapped on every pillar I found. Nothing came of this except for wasted time.

One of the few bosses that require strategy

I decided that I must have missed something. Then I remembered the boss I bypassed, but I had yet to find anything significant to beat him with. Continuing further back I came across a chest I had overlooked. (I missed it because while previously exploring I died in a certain hallway, and decided not to go back that way.) Inside was the Silver Sword, which is just what I needed to beat the Mantis boss. Behind him was a hammer. Just what I needed to destroy the pillar. It's nice when things come together.

I want to smash them all...

The next challenge ahead of me was a mirror maze. Before I could start this though, I'd been told about a broach that allows Adol to see more than his reflection in mirrors. Noticing a side passage as my only alternative, I came across a rock boss. There seemed to be no pattern to his volley except the initial spread; it seemed more like luck than skill when I finally took him down.

With the broach in hand I navigated the maze--with a number of missteps. The key here is to notice all the mirrors. Finding the Silver Armor completed my silver equipment collection, which becomes very important for the last two bosses. Progressing onward I came across a nice grinding spot, and decided I could use a number of levels.

Fancy meeting you here

Having my fill, I move on to find the girl Feena trapped again. I had rescued her from the shrine earlier, and now she's gotten herself captured to give me a message. Somehow she knew I'd save her. She reveals the final enemy Dark Fact can only be harmed by equipping all of the silver gear. The next boss is two floating heads surrounded by fireballs. Only the orange head can be hurt, and once hit it will swap places with the purple head. This makes hitting them when they're overlapping the most ideal situation. Strangely the number of fireballs reduce as he takes more damage.

Doesn't the boss normally get harder as the fight progresses?

Behind him is the door to the final boss; however, it's locked with an evil power that the Evil Ring doesn't dispel. I beat my head on this door a number of times trying every item I can think to use; luckily the door will never kill as it only does damage equal to half Adol's HP or 0 if it's already 3 HP. It turns out that I'm suppose to return to an earlier NPC once I retrieved a book of Ys his ancestor wrote. At this point he decides I'm worthy of the Blue Amulet, which gives me access to the final boss. The backtracking is bad enough, but not to give any indication that I should return to this otherwise useless NPC forces me to search randomly. Sure, I suppose some people would make the connection of the last name Gemma, but I did not.

So, I head back to Dark Fact, and the first time I completely blank on decking Adol out in all silver. It's a quick fight, over in two hits. Figuring out my mistake after the first hit, I correct it before the next fight. Round 2 goes by much more smoothly, and Ys I is at an end.

Four hits... made me anticipate a second form

All the power of the six volumes cause Adol to surge with power, and he flies off towards his adventure in Ys II. This seems like a good point to break, and I called it a night. It's nice to have the obvious break between games, but I wonder what it would have been like to have these two games really be one seamless adventure. Even the saves state my files from Darm Tower are "Ys I" and probably not selectable. No matter though, I save and find I'm in Rance.

Session Time: 2h22m (Total Time: 5h20m)