Ys Seven PSP Review

Ys Seven is the latest installment of the very popular Japanese RPG series spanning over 20 years from its original release on the NES. It has gained a moderate following in the U.S. over the years and with this release, more RPG gamers will be enticed to explore the previous games in the series released in the U.S., which include the last game Ys Ark of Napishtim, and the first three games.

Ys Seven revolves around the kingdom of Altago and the adventures of Adol and Dogi within. The kingdom of Altago is experiencing troubled times, with a strange illness called Iskan Fever decimating the populace and large monsters called Titanos ravaging the countryside. Adol and Dogi are tasked with discovering the hidden menace behind the troubles and ultimately saving the world as usual.

Ys Seven is the standard hack and slash savior RPG, with the typical hero against the world mentality who ultimately gathers a party of five other players with varying abilities. The party system allows for the control of three party members at a time, with the AI controlling the other two, but with the ability to switch characters on the fly. There are two of each class, with Adol rounding the group out. Weapons can be bought in shops or synthesized from materials gathered from monsters and the environment. Synthesized weapons are much more powerful than bought weapons later in the game, but require extensive collection of materials, some being quite rare drops. Battle is real-time in the environment with no interrupting battle sequence except for boss introductions. Monsters respawn after a time and completed dungeons may be revisited at any time. Dungeons are fairly large considering this is a PSP game and the game revisits some of the dungeons, unlocking new areas.

Ys Seven inventory is limited to a specific amount of healing, status, and other items to prevent players from spamming healing potions while fighting difficult opponents. The game forces the player to level up their character, but on normal mode, I was able to blast through the game with minimal grinding at the end of the game where I was 10 levels below what was needed to defeat the final boss.

Ys Seven is an excellent RPG game for the PSP, a system still lacking great games and plagued by piracy. The game has four difficulty levels that allow the player to find what level of torment is best for them. Leveling up is essential to beating any of the bosses, but more so for the final boss battle, which is by far one of the most painful handheld boss battles in history. The game is beautiful to look at on the PSP and not that bad on the eyes through the component cable output on the slim PSP models. There is a limited edition version that comes with a soundtrack CD and a small art book covering some of the familiar games in Ys series. XSeed is bringing more YS fun to the PSP this November and hopefully other RPG gems from Japan. This game is a definite buy for familiar fans of Ys and new gamers seeking some fun on the PSP.