Ys Origin

Don't let the "unsupported" flag talk you down. It runs well on Steam Deck. There's a popul saying that controllers aren't supported, but the Deck buttons all work fine.

Ys Origin provides decent action-RPG fun with great boss battles and an excellent soundtrack – however, the “three routes”-system might prove to be a turn-off for some players
Ys Origin is an interesting game in the Ys franchise for many reasons. For one, even though it’s the tenth game in the franchise, it’s actually the first one in terms of the in-game timeline – a prequel set 700 (!) years before the events of Ys I & II. This could mean that Ys Origin makes for a great entry point to the franchise and indeed, it’s usually recommended to play it either before or after Ys I & II for story reasons. I’d personally recommend playing Ys I & II first, however: They’re still holding up greatly and it’s more fun to catch the references in Ys Origin that way.
Another reason why Ys Origin is an interesting game in the franchise would be that it’s the only Ys game with multiple story campaigns – or “story routes”, if you will. Ys Origin has three different playable characters (each with their own story route), out of which only two (Yunica, Hugo) are unlocked as soon as you start up the game. Beating the game either as Yunica or Hugo unlocks the third playable character and their story - which is actually the only canon one, as the Yunica and Hugo are “what if”-scenarios that mostly serve as an introduction to the various characters and their motives. As such, I recommend playing the third character’s story route only after you’ve beaten both Yunica’s and Hugo’s story campaign, since you’re missing out on interesting character developments and world building otherwise.
That said, there is a catch with this “play through all three story routes” approach - especially if you’re the type of players that prefers engaging with new content instead of revisiting previous locations/puzzles/bosses: About 80% of the content in Ys Origin is shared amongst the three routes, since they’re all set in the exact same location – the Devil’s Tower with it’s many floors. This does mean that while beating all story routes. you’ll basically play through “mostly the same game” thrice, once with each character. The only thing that does actually change between the routes, the remaining 20% of the content, are different character dialogues during the game’s events – as well as a few bigger differences that occur during the third “canon” route.
Now, while the location stays exactly the same, I do have to mention that each of the three characters does play differently – Yunica is a melee-based character while Hugo attacks with ranged magic for example. And while “new dialogues” might sound like only a few words have been changed, they are actually worth seeing in this case, since the different characters handle certain events quite differently. For example, while all three encounter a certain magical sword in the same room during their journey, what they actually do with it is quite different. And lastly, as you progress through the Devil’s Tower multiple times, you’ll do it faster and faster with each new character, since you now know how to tackle each floor optimally.
But I can’t deny that it can be a bit tiresome to progress through the same rooms three times, especially if you’re not taking long breaks between each route. It also doesn’t help that some of the character skills are basically serving the same purpose in order for the puzzles to work – for example, the “wind” skill, acquired by all three character, might take a different shape – what’s a long dash for one character is a magical shield that allows for floating for another character – but ultimately it serves the same purpose: allowing the characters to cross large gaps. This streamlined progression between the story routes – especially since puzzles are always solved the same way – can make the game a bit tiresome if you play through all three routes in just a few days, especially if you’re the type of player that prefers different story routes to offer an entirely different experience as well (new locations, lots of new bosses/enemies, etc).
This is a shame especially because Ys Origin does play quite well – combat is a lot of fun and exploring the tower for the first time and solving the various puzzles makes for a really great experience. I was especially happy to see how straightforward of an experience climbing the tower actually was: if you take your time and explore each stage to the fullest, you’ll most certainly obtain all of the various items and rarely have to backtrack because you missed something.
While normal enemies won’t pose much of a challenge for the most time, the various boss fights are not only the highlights of the game but are also going to test your skills – even on “normal” difficulty, I rarely managed to beat a boss the first time around, although I never felt like the fights were unfair – I simply had to figure out the right openings to attack and then the fights usually progressed smoothly afterwards, improved immensely through the truly excellent soundtrack of Ys Origin.
The progression in Ys Origin can be slightly off, however. While the flow of item/skill/equipment upgrades is very nice, Ys Origin also features a levelling system, which requires you to reach certain levels if you actually want a chance at beating the various bosses in the game (you’ll only find these recommend level ranges in guides like this GameFaq one however). This can lead to situations (on higher difficulties) where you actually have to grind enemies in order to gain more levels for a bit – which can happen quite fast if you’re the type of player who prefers not fighting every single basic enemy all the time. I feel like the level system is only holding Ys Origin back – while it serves as means to beat a boss simply because you’re over-levelled, it punishes those who are already familiar with the basic enemy encounters (during their third playthrough for example) and just want to get past them as fast as possible in order to reach the next key item.
However, in the end, if you like action-RPGs even slightly, you really can’t go wrong with Ys Origin – unless you’re not a fan of the “three story routes” approach, that is. The story offers some great character moments, the music is excellent and the gameplay a lot of fun – from fighting to exploring and solving the various puzzles. Since this is a game from 2006 however, the graphics are serviceable at best, especially the backgrounds during outdoor scenes can be quite rough, with clearly cut textures at the edges.
It's also a shame that this version of Ys Origin doesn’t come without some technical issues – the game crashed on me during the end of a boss fight once and I highly recommend adjusting the deadzone settings using the game’s configuration tool if you’re playing with a controller, as they’re way too sensitive by default – you might find your character acting without your input even with a controller that’s not having any drifting issues in other games. Lastly, the game’s cutscenes did not work for me at all (even with the full K-Lite codec pack installed) until I manually installed LAVFilter, which fixed the problem. Apart from these technical issues, the game ran just fine however – and I seriously recommend giving it a try, as it's a yet another great action-RPG from Nihon Falcom, even despite a few issues.

Having never played a Y’s game, decided to give this a try and was pleasantly surprised and hooked. It's simple yet pretty challenging and has a lot of conveniences like moving with the mouse, 'very easy' mode, pretty good placement of save points and simple gameplay to get into from the beginning. Sometimes there are JRPG's that are a little bit difficult to follow in terms of storyline, that's not the case with this and the music is top notch. The game also has replayability with the option of playing with different characters. If you've never played a Y’s game, start with this one.

A really nice Action-RPG. Takes about 11 hours to play through.
This was my first time playing one of the Ys games. I'd assumed that they were JRPG's like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and the like but this is closer to Secret of Mana or Zelda in that they are more action-orientated.
Structurely it isn't like those, as this game takes place in one large muli-level tower. There isn't a sprawling map, it's very linear. You'll frequently meet forks in the road that never go too far to keep track of.
Combat gets a bit spammy and can sometimes devolve into just spamming your attack, flailing your weapon but I found it fun in its simplicity for the most part. You also get some special attacks that you can use consistently and are quite important for dealing with specific enemy types.
I played through the game on Normal (default) difficulty, and while that was a little on the easy side, I still found the challenge engaging and sufficient, I didn't stall anywhere for very long. I might go a difficulty level higher next time I try a Ys game. You have the option to grind XP if you are struggling, but I never found myself needing to do this on Normal difficulty. I made sure to kill everything on every screen and collect every item, which kept my character at a sufficient strength.
The story is well done, I thought. I mean, It's anime aimed at teenagers with a larger than life fantasy plot but the writing wasn't annoying me like most other anime would. It has some of the sillyness and cliches that come with anime but it at least tries to take itself seriously and doesn't get frequently silly (fair share of cliches though).
The one thing I did know about Ys before playing, was it's music. I accidentally stumbled upon some Ys MP3's decades ago and I've been listening to music from the series since. While the music isn't flawless or anything, it's energetic, moody, fun, romantic. It's livelier pieces almost remind me of some of the Shmups from the Genesis. This series is somewhat known for their tunes, many of which reappear across multiple Ys games, usually redone with new versions.
So yeah, good solid action-RPG! I enjoyed it enough that I'm certainly going to be exploring more of these Ys games.

Works great on the Steam Deck OLED even though it says unsupported. I loaded it in configuration mode, changed the display setting to 1280x720, and has been working great! Highly recommend this game to fans of Y's series or action oriented RGGs.

Ys Origin is an isometric action game. Originally a Japanese exclusive PC release from 2006. The prequel story to other Ys-series games.
The gameplay concept is simple: you fight your way from the bottom of a tower to the top, floor by floor, past hordes of monsters and occasional bosses.
pro:
- each of the 3 playable characters have a slightly different story. Their playthroughs are like 3 alternate timelines. The one that stands out the most is the unlockable 3rd character ("Claw"), which gives you the canon/true ending. The endings are interesting and made me curious about how things continue in the other Ys games.
- load times are instantaneous.
- there are roughly 20 bosses and most of them are no pushovers, even on normal difficulty.
- you can make everything easier by grinding levels. Farming 1 level up only takes 5-10 minutes (on normal difficulty) and you rarely have to farm more than 1 or 2 levels to defeat a boss that you previously struggled with.
- the level designs are good gameplay-wise. Save points where you need them, dying to a boss doesn't cost you much time. There are worthwhile exploration rewards and no unnecessary dead ends that waste your time (the game is relatively linear anyway).
- you can fast travel to any save point from anywhere.
- combat is easy to figure out and entertaining enough for the game's length.
- each playable character has their own (albeit limited) moveset.
- after beating the game, you unlock two bonus game modes: "Time Attack Boss Rush" and "Arena" (fighting waves of basic enemies). Extra content for people who really like the combat.
- some of the endgame levels look great in terms of scenery.
neutral:
- the default resolution is 800x600. You can adjust it, but not ingame. You have use the config tool that comes with the game for that.
- not much of an rpg, despite the labelling. You don't make any decisions that affect the character build or story, besides picking which character to play as at the start.
- there are only 3 instances where the "Mask of Eyes" can unveil something. Don't waste time double checking everything.
- the Time Attack online leaderboard is full of cheaters.
- the game is relatively short. 30 hours to finish all story content, 20 if you only care about plot relevant stuff.
- the story is overall mediocre. Cartoonishly evil villains, only mildly interesting protagonists, in between a few highlights, but mostly just a typical high fantasy anime story.
- I didn't get a single issue with bugs or glitches while playing.
con:
- no voice acting or narration (aside from the opening cutscene).
- most bosses merely repeat the same series of moves in the same order. The only thing to spice it up is when they have a phase 2. Gets repetitive over time.
- the graphics are dated, not a surprise for a 2006 game. Also some of the anime-style character images strike me as amateurish.
- Each playthrough is very similar, especially for Hugo and Yunica A few different bosses, some story differences, but that's it. You'll see a lot of dialogue twice if you play both. In general, you go through 90% of the game's content with each of the 3 characters.
- you can skip Yunica and not miss anything plot relevant. Her side of the story is mostly just about background characters, A shame, since I would rank the combat Yunica>Claw>>>Hugo in terms of fun.
- there are 2 or 3 instances where you need to do a specific thing in order to continue, but nobody tells you what (eg. lighting the torches on floor 11 to raise platforms).
- there isn't much atmosphere to it, next to no storytelling in level designs. The whole tower is a patchwork of random environmental concepts that never change.
- The soundtrack is a bit underwhelming. Not much variety, plays non-stop. Some tracks make me think of royalty free music, rather than something made for the game.
- the tutorials only show keyboard controls.
- changing gamepad controls in the config tool doesn't work, you have to manually open a file (see here:
Verdict:
Ys Origin is okay. Not bad, but nothing spectacular either.

Ys Origin is an action RPG (not turned based) which is pretty good! Its all about exploring and climbing the omnious tower, which was brought forth by demons! Or is there more at play...? The gameplay is rather simple (a bit like top-down Zelda games) which isnt bad in of itself. The main appeal though, are the BOSS fights, the artworks, the STORY - This game does those well. :) Ive heard at length about FALCOM games, and Ys Origin was my first. I did enjoy it!
PROS:
- 5 DIFFICULTY settings. Default (normal) was the one I went with for my first playthrough (as HUGO). For your first game, I reccommend playing at NORMAL. Then, for your 2nd playthrough (3 playable characters with their own story twists in the tower) lower it down a notch so you dont burn out and lower the grind needed. After all, if you finished once, you earned a break, right?
- Music is good! (My favorite is "Water Prison")
- 3D models transformed into sprites. This makes some monsters feel a bit "GoldenSun" uncanny with how some monsters are animated. But you know what? I liked that. Obviously, its not put into sprites with pixelated edges. Its clean! Characters and demons both look great (my favorite type's the dark skeleton mages at the end game).
- When attacking, theres a slight element of autoaiming when, lets say, you kill an enemy and one is behind your back. So you dont whiff constantly.
- Really good story. I really like Hugo, for one.
- The professionally made artworks during cutscenes are GORGEOUS!
- 3 playable characters with varied weaponry.
- UI (in your stats/gear menu) is PURE eye-candy. I love it. It fits the settings. Every/most items have flavourful descriptions and an ultra high quality 3D render picture of it. Nice!
CONS:
- The NEW GAME intro cutscene is UNSKIPPABLE (like 10min+) until you finish the game once.
- You can find gear in chests (you cant buy any). You can find ORE to upgrade your weapon. Missing any of these (theres not that many) means your fight against the next boss will be painfully long (on NORMAL MODE). Like its the diff between taking 18min to 2 min (prob worse on harder diff.) Its a weird system. There isnt many chests you can skip (maybe like 5 of them?) meaning you cant afford NOT to explore everything. LEVELING can alleviate difficulty to some extent, at least. While I list this as a negative, its not too bad. As all and all, the tower floors arent GIGANTIC and fairly easy to naviguate and remember where you've been and what not.
- Desert Area midboss (ring-related)
CONCLUSION:
My first game (NORMAL, HUGO) took me about 28h. My second one (EASY, ??? (unlockable character)) about 20h or so. I enjoyed myself on both! Even on Easy, you CAN and prob will still die a few times if you end up listening to a podcast while farming and losing yourself a bit (haha). The hidden final boss was worth it! If youre on the fence, I definitely recommend that game. Guess this means Ill try all the other FALCOM games now... xD