There are few times in gaming history that I can recall a game shooting itself in the foot as severely as Ys X did. Just a few months after the game finally launched in the West, a re-release with extra content was announced. This resulted in the game’s sales slowing down and the fans who bought it early on feeling quite betrayed. Ys X: Proud Nordics is finally available in the West, bringing with it some surprising new content. That being said, it’s still tough to recommend due to the above circumstances, but the question stands: is the game worth it?
To be crystal clear, Ys X: Proud Nordics is not a DLC. It’s not an expansion. If you want it, you’ll be buying a full-fledged game. This means that if you already bought Ys X, you cannot pay for an upgrade. You cannot download something extra and integrate it with the game you already own. Additionally, you cannot use your existing save files from beating the previous iteration. Why this is a problem for any previous owners is obvious. They purchased the game in full, and now that there’s a superior version, they’ll need to buy this for the same price as they bought the first one for.
That’s not all, though. Since saves don’t carry over, that means they’ll need to completely start over in a game they already beat less than a year and a half ago. I like Ys X well enough. While it’s one of the lesser games in the series, it’s still a good time. But going through the game again so soon since I last played it felt more than a bit redundant to me, especially in the opening hours. This time around, I went through the dialogue much faster, but it still took me five hours to get through what’s practically the intro. Ys X has a long enough prologue as it is, but doing it again so soon got on my nerves.
There’s also the fact that you have to put in a pretty significant time investment before you can get to the new stuff. There’s a fair amount to see and do in addition to what the original game offered, but most of it doesn’t become available until you’re most of the way through. That’s not to say there’s nothing in the game’s earlier sections that’s different. For instance, the random ship battles you can partake in on the game’s overworld now have gold variants with tougher fights. Winning them gives you a new wind stream to make the sailing faster. This doesn’t really make that much of a difference, as the sailing is still painfully slow early on, but it’s better than nothing.
The airboard that Adol and Karja get to zip around on has been given a boost function that makes it significantly faster. This is a pretty terrific improvement that really should have already been in the game, but it is what it is. Moreover, all magic tools now have upgrades that can be purchased with a new type of currency. For the most part, though, you’re going to go through Ys X in much the same way as you would in the previous version of the game.
Now, one issue that can understandably be levied against the game is that the ocean overworld is at odds with how other Ys games play, but the biggest piece of new content here seems crafted in response to that.
Later in the game, you’ll come across a brand new island with some new characters that significantly add to the game. The island is large and full of strong enemies and puzzles, including ones that require you to use a new magic tool that lets you move objects around. It’s a substantial addition, to be certain, but whether or not it’s worth playing through the whole game again so soon is going to be personal preference.
Aside from that, there’s a new randomized dungeon sort of feature, which further extends Ys X: Proud Nordics‘ replay value. There’s even a similar one with ship battles, although the ship combat is far from the game’s strong suit. There’s also even more new stuff to see beyond these.
Ys X: Proud Nordics is absolutely the version of the game you should buy if you’ve held off on Ys X until now, but it’s a bit of a hard sell for anyone who already owns the original version. At the very least, there should be some sort of upgrade for existing owners, so it’s difficult to say that it’s worth it for them. Maybe when there’s a sale further down the line, but playing the game again so soon after my last time wasn’t the best experience, even if some of the new content is nice to see.
This is absolutely the definitive version of the game, so take that as you will.
Consider checking out our YS X: Nordics review:
Ys X: Nordics PC review — Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails |
