Ys I & II

1989 · Action RPG · TurboGrafx-16

Overview

Ys I & II (1989) combines Falcom's two action RPGs on one TurboGrafx-CD disc, with voiced cut-scenes and a CD-audio arrangement of the soundtrack.

Deep Dive

Ys I & II tells the story of the red-haired swordsman Adol Christin, who washes up on Esteria and uncovers the lost land of Ys. Combat works by walking into enemies slightly off-centre rather than pressing an attack button, which keeps the pace brisk. Hudson Soft's CD-ROM version brought both of Nihon Falcom's computer games together with animated, voiced cut-scenes and a redbook audio arrangement of the celebrated music by Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa, making it one of the defining early CD console games.

Developer Story

Ys I & II was developed by Hudson Soft from Nihon Falcom's PC-88 originals and released on TurboGrafx CD in 1989.

Did You Know?

The CD version tells its story through animated, voiced cut-scenes — rare for console games in 1989.
The CD-quality presentation of Yuzo Koshiro's Ys soundtracks revealed compositional complexity the PC-88's FM synthesis had only approximated.