Ys Seven

What a ride. I didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. Granted it's no Ys 8, but man was this good.
I feel like this one is superior to Memories of Celceta in every way, tho I didn't finish Celceta yet (Will come back to it eventually).
As per usual with Ys games the combat is very fun, music is great and the story was suprisingly good, predictable, but good. Dungeons here are some of the best in the series and boss fights are great.
Overall not a perfect game by far ofc, but a very solid one.

It doesn't say, but Ys Seven does work on Steam Deck. Though it doesn't support the native resolution, so you'll have to be happy with 720p and having black bars on top and bottom. The game does run in 4K 60fps in you play in desktop mode.
This is an absolutely great game and I highlynrecommend it. It's a bit archaic and short, but it's pure simple fun.

Ys Seven is the series foray onto the portable market for the time. However, despite what many might think that implies, it shatters nearly all expectations for the time. What Ys Seven accomplishes is creating a new battle system which will be used in two other titles (one remake and one mainline) and being the first in the series to pack in a ton of contant, story and side quests abound.
The sound design is the typical Ys fanfare. And while the rocking tunes can really get you pumped for the area you're about to venture through, it does make most areas lacking in terms of an identity. I find some of the areas to blend a bit together, making it hard to distinguish different areas in the game. That isn't too say it's bad. I absolutely love the music and there are definitely tracks you'll be listening to which are fitting to the tone, unique to the setting alone, etc.
The visuals are dependent on how much you love older graphics. This game is from 2003, originally on the PSP hardware. For that, I really think the game is absolutely stunning. It really does show off the power of the console for the time and what Falcom was able to accomplish. But, with that said, it isn't to everyone's cup of tea. If so, there are some HD texture packs if you're interested, but I personally think the style, as is, is charming.
As for the gameplay, depending on if you played the other games in the series, it might look familiar. The action gameplay is back but with a new system where characters are given a characteristic regarding their weapon: Piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning. Get bonus damage if you use the right one or nerfed damage if you don't. In regards to this, I believe that Ys Seven, which created the system, does it the best and it's regarding the nerfed damage. I found myself in the other two (Memories of Celceta and VIII) ignoring it, for the most part, as I was able to output so much damage regardless. But Ys Seven really nerfs your damage output if you choose to ignore this. I can see if others may find this frustrating, but with items which enable Adol to change his typing if needed, always you to experiment with the composition to fit your style.
Now, lastly, the story. In short, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The first half of the game feels like you're going through motions to play a game. It especially has that game element going for it; not hiding for a moment that it's a game you're playing instead of pulling you into the story. But, with that said, the second half really brought me into the story proper. I found myself engaged and, when it was about to lose me again, really brought me right back in. If you're able to sit yourself through the first half, know you'll be getting an amazing time for the rest of your experience.
I wanted to also bring this up for those who have played it, as it felt like a drag while playing this game. If you've played Ys: Memories of Celceta, it'll really feel like you're playing the same game for a bulk of it. While circumstances are different, the story nearly goes beat for beat in terms of what you're objectives are. Going around to certain groups and solving an issue they're having, or needing to touch a macguffin they have in their position. Then, after the midpoint, you have to go back again to all the same areas before you unlock the end game. While I like both games and, honestly, prefer Ys Seven over the other, it can really feel like you're playing the same game again. If you get that feeling, I understand and would say to soldier through, but again, understand if you don't want to play two very similar games back-to-back.
Ys Seven is an amazing addition to the Ys series. Even more, if did such an incredible job for the hardware it was on. The game is even the first of the Ys series to be ~15 hours, before the games being ~10. The characters are feel quite lively in the world and add to the development of making Altago a breathing world. This is, not only an Ys game, but an RPG that should you should have your eye on.

A really good Ys in terms of the gameplay who switch to a 3 party member versus the old school Adol only.
Better start with normal/hard for your first playthrough and suffer in nightmare afterwards. A great action pact adventure like usual to save the world.

If you want to finish the harder achievement grinding at the end (all lv 10 skills with Adol) while gathering materials and money so you have less back and forth to do.

An interesting entry in the Ys Series. It is a port of a PSP game so it is a little older now and the graphics are dated, but still look good. Music is great and it has the typical Falcom polish in the story and gameplay. This game is one of the earliest iterations of the "attack type" character swap mechanic that the Ys games have used since the PSP games. It is a bit more polished than the first iteration, but not as smooth as it is in Ys VIII and Ys IX. If you are looking for a fun action RPG, this is a good game to give a go.

Sideways thumb.
This was quite the disappointment. This is the first Ys game to start using party combat, and boy does that have me worried for the next games (I own Celceta & Ys VIII, so I'm going to try them eventually).
So Ys had a string of games that were pretty solid 8/10's (at least to me) with Naphistim, Felghana & Origin. If you've played one of those, the others were predictable, the gameplay would be pretty much the same.
With this game, Ys introduced the character swap mechanic in place of the fire/thunder/etc weapons, and this system just feels worse/more convoluted than the previous. It's not at all difficult to grasp or anything, but it just feels like you're swapping characters to the one most effective at dealing damage to specific enemy types. Regardless of whom you swap too, you're using your basic attack and occasionally your big attacks. Some of these basic attacks are slow, or ranged with a very limited range, they don't feel particularly great, whereas when you used your various weapon skills in the previous Ys games, they each had their place and felt more powerful/better to use. The combat system here does have more special attacks and things going on with it, but it feels like a downgrade from the previous games. I also felt more spammy with that attack button, almost like I was playing a beat'em up game.
Other changes that don't improve the gameplay, and in some ways made it worse:
Your jump has been replaced with a dash. Okay, so dashing out of the way of enemies is fine, but I enjoyed being able to jump and was missing it here, it also led to more interesting level design and platforming in the previous games.
You get different stat bonuses depending on which 3 characters you use, but this doesn't feel interesting or important to develop any kind of synergy.
They added crafting ingredients which you collect, which feels needless, though seemed at least be straightforward and mostly inoffensive.
Often enemies die and remain there to be whacked a few times to drop extra resources, it serves as a needless, minor nuisance.
Enemies respawn now after a period of time, even if you don't leave an area, like in an MMORPG. I'd prefer them not too, but whatever, okay.
On another note, a game is also more immersive to me when you feel like you're adventuring alone rather than with a jumble of characters on the screen, it makes you feel more isolated in your environments.
The game otherwise appears to follow most of the usual Ys formula, though feels a bit sparse/bland in its area design (probably in part due to jumping being taken away). The second half of the game is a big step up from the first, with larger dungeons and more interesting things going on, it does get better after the first 12 hours, but by that point I also felt like I had stockholm syndrome. This game went from being a dull 6/10 to something like a 7 or 7.5 and I eventually flipped this review to positive.
Apparently the next Ys games are doubling down on this party system, so yeah, this was disappointing, and the future looks bleak. Whilst the previous games had a streamlined machine going, they were quite repetitive and I agree with the decision to try and mix things up a bit, but this wasn't the sauce that the series needed, and in fact has led to the combat actually becoming more dull and repetitive. It's quite playable and fine, but just incredibly bland compared to the previous games, mid at best.
Other issues, mostly technical:
-The game doesn’t launch in full screen mode and I had to check the Steam discussion page to find a way to make Steam launch a configuration tool which then allowed me to fix that. Pretty shoddy, but easily remedied.
-The title screen has a portion of the screen cut off. This is fortunately only on this one screen, so it isn’t a big deal but again, shoddy.
-At the start of the game, I visited every possible location & NPC in the town and appeared to be stuck/trapped. Apparently the game relies on your entering one of the screens from a specific side in order to trigger a crucial cutscene, which I eventually stumbled upon running in circles around the place. Poor design.
-Sound effects were a little too loud in relation to the music, you can adjust that with the volume sliders in the game, but by default you’d expect that to get picked up during testing. I’ll add that some character sounds still sounded too loud.
-I was beating most of these bosses on the first try on Normal difficulty, but I don't think making them spongier by playing on harder would've made them more interesting encounters.

This PSP classic is amazing! Played for almost 2 hours already, and for me personaly its realy nostalgic! :) Highly recomended if you are into older (j)rpg's!