Nihon Falcom games made since 2000, all of them. Ys games are so much fun and the Trails series has the most expansive world-building I’ve ever seen. Imagine something like a Bethesda game, but instead of every character basically just having one quest-line and ten lines of dialogue, they are constantly changing throughout the entire game, reacting to world events and progressing their own particular arc
there might be hundreds of side characters in each game that all have their own arc throughout the game, or maybe multiple games
The series really does ruin a lot of other games for you though, you come to expect this and then you play a game that doesn’t’ focus as much on narrative or world-building and everything just feels so videogamey as a result. Oh this character only talks about their Bar? and their dialogue doesn’t change at all? and they have one quest and then you’ll never speak to them again?.. okay.
I don’t have much experience with JRPGs. What’s the gameplay like? Action or strategy, or something of a hybrid? Are they hard to get started with? I see Ys Nordic just released back in September. Would that be a good starting point, or would I be confused from missing prior games in the series?
Ys Nordic is only released in Japan yet as far as I know.
Ys 8 is a good starting point.
The stories aren’t that connected besides some characters and a lot of Easter eggs / references so you can play them in pretty much any order you want.
Nihon Falcom games made since 2000, all of them. Ys games are so much fun and the Trails series has the most expansive world-building I’ve ever seen. Imagine something like a Bethesda game, but instead of every character basically just having one quest-line and ten lines of dialogue, they are constantly changing throughout the entire game, reacting to world events and progressing their own particular arc
there might be hundreds of side characters in each game that all have their own arc throughout the game, or maybe multiple games
The series really does ruin a lot of other games for you though, you come to expect this and then you play a game that doesn’t’ focus as much on narrative or world-building and everything just feels so videogamey as a result. Oh this character only talks about their Bar? and their dialogue doesn’t change at all? and they have one quest and then you’ll never speak to them again?.. okay.
I don’t have much experience with JRPGs. What’s the gameplay like? Action or strategy, or something of a hybrid? Are they hard to get started with? I see Ys Nordic just released back in September. Would that be a good starting point, or would I be confused from missing prior games in the series?
Ys Nordic hasn’t come out in the west. Just pick up ys 8. It’s everyone’s favourite, it’s on sale all the time, and it’s on all the platforms.
The story doesn’t matter, you can play them all in any order. Just endless fun action rpg with amazing music
Ys is mostly action RPG. Trails is turn-based. This site can help you pick a good place to get started with the Ys series.
Ys Nordic is only released in Japan yet as far as I know.
Ys 8 is a good starting point.
The stories aren’t that connected besides some characters and a lot of Easter eggs / references so you can play them in pretty much any order you want.