Lacrimosa of Mana.
While my own personal experience with the Ys franchise is limited to Lacrimosa of Dana, Memories of Celceta, and Ys: IX: Monstrum Nox, I have become quite the fan of the series and am eager to jump into every new release. Even when I first took control of the adventurer Adol Christin, I knew the series had a penchant for jumping around the timeline. In fact, while Ys X is the tenth game in the series, it takes place following the events of Ys: II, and shortly before Adol would wind up waking up in the land of Celceta without his memories. Regardless, as a younger Adol than in his previous exploits in Monstrum Nox, this new adventure is fine enough, even if it doesn’t match the highs of its previous outings.
As Adol is attempting to sail to Celceta, himself, Dogi, and Dr. Flair Rall find themselves aboard a transport vessel that is captured by a group of Nordic Warriors called the Balta Sea Force. While their inspirations are clearly that of Vikings, the game takes a lot of liberties to apply unique and alternative names to this clan of people such as using the term Walhalla instead of Valhalla. As these warriors capture the ship, despite a tussle with Adol, the captain is slain and Adol and company find themselves then stranded on the island of Carnac, a town under the protection of this sea-fairing brigade known as Normans.
Shortly into Adol’s stay on this island, the town is attacked by a group of monsters known as the Griegr. These fiends are not invincible, but to normal folk they cannot be killed. According to the Norman’s, the Griegr can only be felled by two of their clan, Karja, and her father, the Norman Chief, Grimmson Balta. However, shortly before this invasion, Adol hears a mysterious voice and it lures him to a seashell that has washed up on shore. This voice then grants Adol the power of Mana, the same force that allows Karja and her father to slay these beasts. And while this power is enough for Adol to assist in vanquishing these creatures, the mysterious power then pairs Adol and Karja together, linked by a set of phantom handcuffs, forcing the pair to work together.
While the bulk of the game has you vanqushing generic beasts and other Griegr forces, you will also contend with three more advanced Griegr, those who have a more humanoid form. These become your threats for the majority of the game, each with their own powers and demeanor. These characters are fairly one note with each having one basic personality trait and then amping that up to eleven. It is a shame they are not terribly fleshed out and while the story built around their past is fine enough, they are probably the least impressive villains across what I have played of the series.
Ys has had pretty by-the-number storylines over the years, with nothing being too amazing, but each story has served its purpose with a few solid twists and turns. While the story does get to a good place with a few of those said twists, It does get to a point where you’ll know exactly how it ends, given it starts to predictably take certain players off the board in a steady fashion. Still, there are some endearing moments of Karja and Adol getting closer as a result of this union, especially as Karja is a brash and proud warrior when the pair first meet. The early moments of Adol having to convince her to wear something different so the townsfolk won’t recognize her is a nice touch, especially due to how fearful the people truly are of her and her people. For any faults the game has in its narrative, the relationship between Adol and Karja is one of the game’s better qualities.
For Adol to truly help Karja; however, he must become her Shield-Brother, a title given to the male partner of this pairing. And in turn, Karja will become Adol’s Shield-Sister as a result. While it simply means the two will take on a single mission to prove their worth, it nonetheless bonds the pair and causes Karja to be more forthcoming and honest with Adol. That said, if there was a drinking game on how many times those titles were spoken, you’d be sloshed within the game’s first few hours.
This pairing also allows Adol and Karja to perform several special attacks as they work in unison. These are separate from their own core skills they have individually. These attacks unlock every ten levels, whereas their own skills are unlocked as they purchase nodes on their skill tree. You can also learn skills via books, but the bulk are learned as you master the basic skills first. This tether between the two does more than just contribute to combat, they can use it to swing around like Spider-Man across various areas of the game as well as pull out blocks or lower ramps as they pull and tug at them. Traversal has always been fun across the series and Nordics proves no different than the rest, especially with the inclusion of a surfboard that allows you to race across flooded paths or glowing blue grind rails.
What is truly different this time around is that there is no party system or additional members to recruit. Sure, you’ll have a colorful bunch of allies that contribute in other ways, but you only ever play as Adol or Karja. While this is stated as some new combat system for the series, it really is no different than selecting the different characters you recruited in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. In fact, I truly believe that while the combat system as similar, I do prefer Monstrum Nox due to the variety of having different weapons and classes. Here, Adol and Karja wield the same weapons and the same basic skills across 25-30 hours. While less is more in some circumstances, that doesn’t hold true here.
Combat generally works as you swap back and forth between the pair. While that is fine enough, Karja and Adol both shout “SWITCH!” at the top of their lungs every single time with no setting to turn that off. The offhand character will gain some HP regeneration, but it’s rather slow to really be of much use. Still, being able to quickly swap back and forth is great, even if I feel it was better handled in Monstrum Nox due to the variety that switch entailed. Still, combat is as flashy and fun as it has been for years.
Adol and Karja can also block incoming attacks in a defensive stance by using their paired skills, whereas individually, you can only block certain attacks, forcing you to dodge out of the way. Attacks that you block while in this stance then contribute to your Revenge Meter, which grants you a bonus multiplier to your next paired attack. While you’ll rely on this union quite often, there are a few moments in the game where you’ll need to rely on other tactics to be able to handle combat without this pairing.
Both Adol and Karja can slot in 3 skills as well as their general attack. Their own skills are used with R1 and three face buttons, while their paired attacks are used by holding down R2 instead, with 3 skills slotted in to those attacks as well. The skill tree unlocks a series of nodes every ten levels with Mana Seeds to place in them that grant a series of stat increases, such as attack power, luck, or defense. As each ten-level segment will have several nodes to utilize, you can essentially create builds of sorts as you focus on certain traits more than others. And as you can craft more as you acquire the right materials, you’ll have a wide variety of different tiered Mana Seeds to use.
Combat and preparing Adol and Karja for the fight ahead is just one element of what this game offers as the pair will take to the open seas as they try to solve the mystery of this Griegr threat. You’ll earn a ship fairly quickly and then recruit and rescue those townsfolk who have gone missing during the invasion in the game’s opening hours. Each recruit will add to your ship’s stats across both Strength, Defense, and Speed. While adding ship combat and exploring the open sea is one way to build on the Viking inspirations and provide something new to the series, it only works if it is done right. Sadly, that isn’t the case here.
As you recruit new members to the ship, and unlock upgrades, you’ll eventually get into a good place with combat and speed. It won’t be amazing, but it will be better than at least the first 10-15 hours. You’ll have a series of different cannons and other ranged projectiles that allow for some fine enough combat, but it never becomes more than that. Targeting is easy to pull off and there are various activities and enemy spawns to tackle. However, the speed of the ship is hilariously lousy as you’ll constantly want to use the boost to even feel like you are moving. Even the top speed when you have maxed out the ship is painful. Thankfully, once you have discovered a location on the map, you can then fast-travel to it, meaning you can skip the whole boat sequence to slowly inch along this boring and PS Vita quality ocean.
Early on, you’ll be given control of the boat and feel like the ocean is your oyster, but you’ll soon be met with a ton of invisible barriers that railroad you into following the path. Thankfully, it isn’t long before you can sort of go wherever you want. Some areas will be locked off until you’ve gained certain Mana abilities that translate to the boat, such as a Mana Boost and a Shield, which allows you to traverse over dangerous waters. The ocean also has a lot of blocked off areas that require you take the long way around a series of small islands to get something on the other side of a shallow sliver of land.
While you can take in fishing or track down new islands or uncover treasure, one of the main activities to take on is a series of wave-based boat combat scenarios. In these sessions, you’ll destroy waves of boats while blasting away at blue pillars that spawn incoming threats. Once these are all destroyed, you’ll then speed through a rapid-fire dungeon to earn rewards. You can repeat these activities to get a higher score or earn better rewards, since your progress in the boat section has a level system that grants you better stats for the dungeon section. That said, I never found a compelling reason to really tackle them again and honestly, every dungeon is more or less the same basic location. Had costume pieces or ship cosmetics been at the heart of the top rewards, I'd be spamming those missions constantly. Instead, most of those types of items are part of the publisher’s DLC offerings as usual.
Ys has always felt behind when it comes to other NIS titles, such as the Trails series. It has normally been graphically behind in more ways than one. While Ys X: Nordics does run off a new engine, it feels dated and visually weaker than even Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. To convince myself of this, I reinstalled the previous game and genuinely do believe this is the case. Ys X: Nordics has some extremely bland level design with only three or four biomes at most, each of which has poor texturing and enemy draw distance. The ocean itself is a series of the same flat blue texture with very few instances that even convince me that I am sailing on water. It’s a shame that Ys X: Nordics looks so bland especially given that the latest Trails games, especially Trails Through Daybreak, have seen major improvements to their visuals from even the last three or four years. At its best, Ys X: Nordics looks fine, but this series truly demands a better effort next time around.
While good portions of the game is voiced, there are some odd moments that feel they would have been more impactful if the team had recorded more dialogue. Adol has the least dialogue of the bunch, with only a handful of sayings, mostly those that are him shouting during combat. Adol is a great character, and one that has a lot to say, I just wish he was presented better vocally. That said, while there are few extremely poor performances here, especially the voice behind Dr. Flair. The bulk of the cast is fairly well done for this series, at least for the most part, and allows them to be compelling enough to stand out, especially Karja.
Ys is a series I fell in love with some years ago and each new entry has often given me what I have wanted from it. Nordics; however, doesn’t provide me with much more than what I already got from Lacrimosa of Dana in regards to its combat and exploration, and the newly implemented ship combat and sailing is just as bland as its lifeless ocean. I love this series and want it to be better than it is, but after the remarkably impressive Monstrum Nox, I feel that this team is capable of giving us an epic and fantastic adventure for Adol to tackle. Ys X: Nordics; however, doesn’t provide anything new and interesting to really sink your teeth into. It’s a fine adventure that I did enjoy pushing through, but it’s my least favorite Ys game so far by a nautical mile.
Developer - Nihon Falcom, PH3 GmbH.
Publisher - NIS America. Released - October 25th, 2024. Available On - PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (T) - Blood, Language, Violence. Platform Reviewed - PS4. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.