Ys Origin

Very enjoyable gameplay and story with GREAT soundtrack. Works great on Steam Deck without any tinkering.

I went into this game expecting a fun action combat gameplay experience. I came out with more than just that. This game brought out some emotions I thought I wouldn’t have going into the fairly dated Ys games, and I loved it.
I have been replaying the Ys games in canonical order based off the Digital Emelas site, as I played most of the games without too much thought on the lore behind it when I was younger, especially the older Ys III games which are apparently not canon anymore. This decision came after I introduced myself to the Trails series in 2023 and have since been absolutely immersed and almost caught up with that series. I figured Ys would be an enjoyable pure gameplay experience in between Trails games. I didn’t think I’d be so invested in the lore for this series as well, and especially after Ys Origin.
With the release of Ys X: Nordics, I decided that after I finished that game, I would go through the Ys games to understand Adol’s journey a little better and the world itself overall. Ys Origin is the latest completed Ys game I’ve played, following Ys I and II Chronicles, and man, I did not expect a story that would get me emotional haha.
While I am not a fan of having to go through THREE playthroughs to experience the story bits in its entirety, I highly recommend it, maybe not all in one sitting like I did, but perhaps 1 playthrough here, and the other 2 in separate sittings in between other games. My reason for this is how repetitive it is. You are essentially going through the same tower, with a different character and their point of view, and apparently only the third character’s playthrough is the canon route. This much was clear when you go through the second playthrough because certain moments in the game didn’t line up with the previous playthrough such as interactions on certain floors and who obtained the Ys artifacts. I thought it would be something similar to NieR Automata, in which each character’s interaction with each other happens at the same time on all the playthroughs but how they navigated the tower was different, providing a very different gameplay experience on top of their battle styles.
This is probably my only issue with this game, but otherwise, I absolutely love a well done and written narrative that is also simple enough to understand. Not only that, it is definitely a bonus to have played Ys I and II to understand the full picture. I highly recommend it, if you can get over how dated those games are.
It made me look forward to seeing the rest of Adol’s journey. Part of me only wishes we got to see the rest of the lives of the characters in Ys Origin, as this game takes place way before Adol’s journey even begins.

I cam into Ys Origin expecting a fun game, but it ended up being far more fun than I thought. Ys Origin is a prequel to Ys 1 and Ys 2, but you can play this without playing the prior two games just fine as the story is self contained and takes place hundreds of years before the other two.

Gameplay wise, Ys Origin is a 2.5d action RPG that is fast paced and feels like a hack and slash. The game design, combat, short puzzles, bosses, and story all keep the game very entertaining to play. Without spoiling anything, there are 3 characters you can play as (2 originally, 1 after beating an original one), and each provides more story context. The 3rd character has the true ending and is considered the canon path. Although this means you need to beat the game 3 times to unlock all endings and full context, each character plays different enough that it feels like a different game. As someone who is trying to make my way through all the Ys games on steam, I honestly thought that I was just gonna blitz through the game and just do one run. However, the more I played, the more I enjoyed the game... and I ended up doing all three characters. A big part of it was just that I wanted to see more of the story unfold and the true ending. I was not disappointed, as the true ending was genuinely satisfying, and I now see how things link up to Ys 1 and 2.

Overall, Ys Origin is a highly enjoyable game. Even though it is a bit on the older side, this is still very fun.

This is easily my favorite of the three early 3D Ys games. The combat is fine tuned, the pacing is exquisite and all the characters are fun to play. It's three playthroughs through the same tower, but thanks to the different aspects of the story and the short runtime per playthrough this game felt much shorter to complete than Felghana did for me (and I put more than twice as much time into Origin). As much as I like Adol as a protagonist, this game absolutely benefits from his absense and brings in a story that feels at par in quality to the Trails series.

I can absolutely see myself coming back to this game for more runs in the bonus mode or higher difficulty playthroughs. If you're trying to decide between Felghana, VI and Origin - It's Origin by a mile baybee.

TLDR: Three distinct playstyles add variety, but a repetitive single-tower world and locking the canon story behind a full extra playthrough make this the most skippable Ys entry so far.

PROS:
➕Good port
➕Three different characters, each with their own story and gameplay mechanics
NEUTRALS:
🔹Achievements are mostly locked behind three(!) playthroughs
CONS:
➖Poor game world - samey environments as the entire game takes place within a single tower
➖The cannon story is locked behind 1 playthrough, meaning you must play through 2x to get the cannon story
➖Didn’t find the cannon story worth the extra playthrough
My reviews of past Ys games:
Ys 1&2
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Content (Game world/Narrative) –
The game world here in Origin is perhaps the worst out of any Ys game I’ve played to date. The entire game takes place in a single tower. There are slight variations in the environment, but it’s still all very samey with tower-like materials everywhere. No city or town, no shops, very basic NPCs. The tower has some basic hidden paths, but it’s still all very linear. It’s not a good fantasy world to immerse yourself in and explore.
The narrative is split into three sections - Yunica, Hugo, and Toal. The cannon story is Toal’s, which is unfortunately locked behind beating the game once with either Yunica or Hugo.
I played through twice - Yunica and Toal. I think the story was good, but it wasn’t good enough to warrant two separate playthroughs. Origins does have some tiebacks to names or characters that you’ve seen before in the past (release order) Ys games, like house names Fact, but it’s mostly a contained story.
Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) –
Origin has by far the most expanded gameplay of the Ys series up to this point. All three of the characters have their own playstyle - Yunica is basically a copy of Adol, so will be most familiar to those that played the prior games. Hugo is a spellcaster, so he plays like a darn shooter. It’s unique but didn’t really jive with me. Toal is closer to Yunica, but has very different magic attacks.
Aside from the different playstyles, most of the mechanics are the same as found in previous entries, with you aiming to explore, level up, and get increasingly stronger loot to face bosses, which have their own mechanics and strategies for defeating.
For difficulty, I played through Yunica on Normal, dabbled in Hugo on Very Easy, and did Toal on Very Easy. These are apt descriptions of the difficulty present, Very Easy was a joke, while Normal did often take a few tries with bosses. The difficulty here is much more friendly then past Ys.
Graphics (Quality/Technical) –
This uses the same engine of the prior Ys games (and Trails in the Sky?) so it’s very similar to the PS2-era fidelity. It looks fine.
Technical side is great. I ran fully maxed with no issues and noticed no bugs. This is a quality port.
1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD
Audio –
Good soundtrack consisting of mostly hard rock music that pairs well with the rush of the combat.
There is no voice acting other than some songs in cutscenes.
Replay Factor (Longevity) –
You can play the game three times for a story between characters. Most of the achievements also require three playthroughs. A single playthrough took me around ~11 hours.
I don’t think this game has great longevity considering how similar the stories are and how linear the game is, but does get a small nod for offering branching playthroughs with different gameplay styles.
Final Verdict –
Ys Origin is the 4th game of the Ys series based on release order (5th game if you could Ys 1 & Ys 2 as two separate games, on Steam they are bundled as one). Origin continues the action RPG gameplay of Oath and Ark and doesn’t change much of the established formula. In fact, considering this is a contained story that takes place hundreds of years before the main series and serves only to provide some historical backdrop on famous names, I’d say it’s the most skippable game of the Ys series so far.
The part I didn’t like most about Origin is the game world, which takes place entirely in a ~25 floor tower. This makes the world seem uninviting and repetitive. You’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between floors 12 and 22 aside from a color swap and different enemies. This is a huge stark contrast to previous Ys games that actually had a cities and NPCs to chat with.
I’d also point out the story as not that great and not worth the effort of another playthrough, which you must do for the cannon ending. Unfortunately, the cannon story is the best and has some nice twists you wouldn’t otherwise see, it’s just a shame you have to throw away ~10 hours of a playthrough before you can even start to experience it.
The best part of Origin to me is the combat, which isn’t saying that much since it’s so similar to Ark and Oath, but I respect the effort to have three different styles, even if Toal is a bit similar to Yunica.
Overall, I would say this is a good entry only if you want more old-school Ys gameplay, but if you want to stick with Adol’s story and that world, Origin is fine to skip.
I suppose with a few Ys game sunder my belt now, I should rank them. Here’s my first stab at the rankings -
Ark
Oath
1 & 2
Origin
Recommend? (Price)
Yes
$20 is way too much for this. Strongly suggest waiting for the Steam historical low of $5.
You can find my curator page here:

I got the game while on sale so it was a great deal imo.
The game is pretty old but i think its still fine to play.
I just have a few bosses I hated not because its difficult but its just annoying.
In fact, I think the majority of bosses are kinda annoying in a way that
you cant just dps them but have to follow their patterns no matter what.
But I understand the game is old so there is no variation in gameplay.
Still it was decent.
I'm ready for the full series train run c:

I think nostalgia is a defining factor to why I love this game. But while it did serve as the hook and the basis to why this game is dear to me, the gameplay and music did by no means disappoint. Ys Origin gives off this medieval Zelda vibe to it, and the isometric 2.5D perspective and chibi characters is representative of that old-school JRPG aesthetic, filled with cool magic and ugly monsters alike. Having released in 2006 on Windows XP gives it that extra charm that I love. 8/10 wish I found this sooner