GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
Y's BOOK I & II
(Hudson Soft/Falcom, Fall 1990)
OK, even though 99 percent of yous never heard of Y's before (pronounced 'ease' or 'that kickass Turbo CD game') this rare role playing game is still one of the best video games I ever played in my life. This game here isn't just a remake of that really old Y's: The Vanishing Omen game for the Sega Master System either, Y's book I & II not only features better presentation in the sound and visual department but it also has the continuing story of the first title that gels into the whole new second game here. See why I'm pleased to yak about the awesome May and June's Game of the Month 2002 Y's book volumes One and Two.
This Y's book I & II game here was actually the third official game released on the then young and very unpopular Turbografx 16 CD add on system in 1990 (c'mon, I bet most of you readers never played the Turbografx before, eh?). The first two Turbo CD games were Fighting Street and Monster Lair: if you don't remember those games then don't worry because no one else reading this remembers those two very lackluster arcade-like games either. Those two barely used the advance power of the new CD hardware and overall they are not that fun to play. Y's book I & II here on the other hand was a much different story and it won rave reviews in both critics in the US and Japan. It almost made the high introduction price of $650 (Canadian) seem justifiable for the Turbo CD add on. It may be one of the first ever CD games ever made but the game's impressive showing of anime style graphics, sharp musical scores and lengthy game play helped people to give this whole CD gaming medium a second look.
Meet Feena, she has a present for you!
Enough about that junk though, lets see what this game has for story. The game centers on the lost land of Y's: the peaceful neutopia that disappeared nearly 800 years ago. The 6 priest of Y's have hidden 6 books telling the story of this mystical land and what went wrong. The adventure starts off with the hero, Adol Christian, arriving at a small town thanks to the local fortune teller's plead for help. Adol learns about an evil plot by a strange man known as Dark Fact (Dark Dekt to sega master system owners) to take over the world. Adol must find all of the missing books to solve the ancient mystery of the lost land and the game doesn't even end after that. There is a strange new land in the sky here in the game as well and Adol must rid the world great evil mastermind Dark Darm in another chapter (Y's II).
| The game play and bottomline: | |
 The game play is different that the usually RPG out there like Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, instead waiting for your characters to response to
your text commands in most turn based role playing games you just kill your
enemies by merely running into them. It sounds crazy and you better be careful
on who attack and what your status is for experience and equipment because if
a enemy is too strong you'll may die instantly but once you get use to the fighting
style it works pretty well thanks to the easy to use controls. The same goes
for the Y's II adventure but now you have the ability use of some cool new magic
to attack from a safe distance like a fireball or you can even talk to your
enemies by becoming one yourself. There are tons of cool items and power ups
to find in both titles so it's going to take awhile to beat one. Moving on to the game's graphics the Y's series were never too great and this
game is no exception but they're still a lot better than the bland looking Y's
I on the Sega Master System at least. Although a lot of the game looks tiny
and some of the backgrounds look repetitive, the characters were well defined
and the colours did the job too but what really stood out was the some of the
new Anime cut scenes made exclusively for the Turbo CD. You also have to love
that nude girl holding the blue crystal ball there, eh?!As good as the graphics are the music in both games here were truly incredible! All of the old original Y's soundtracks have been remixed and there are all new soundtracks here for Y's II adventure as well. The music is so good here you may just hear some of the best collection of music on a video game (screw you Secret of Mana and Tempest 2000)! There is even some spoken dialogue too here and there once you meet an important character in the game. Although some of the voices don't always match the lip synching it's still a lot better than those super bad NEC's CD games like Last Alert and Final Zone II translations for example (buy those games for a good laugh by the way). The sad thing about the Y's series is that it's not too popular here in North American despite how good this game was and still is (the RPG wasn't a very popular trend back then either). I even heard that Y's IV: The Dawn of Y's was actually suppose to be better than Y's book I & II but it was never translated into English and that's just wrong. I need to go to Japan and kick somebody's head in (where are those pills)! Hopefully by talking about it now and naming this Game of the Month I could help spread the word and bring this awesome game series in the spot light where it belongs (maybe re-released the whole series on the Nintendo Wii or something like that). Till then it's still on the old Turbo CD and PC so don't let that stop you. Y's book I & II here is a spectacular two volume event that should not be missed by any true RPG fan looking for a long and challenging adventure. I also recommend getting that sound track too, eh? |
Here is my 9 minute video review of Y's Book I & II too! Warning: there is some swearing in it because it got me crazy at points: |