Recent reviews by staticsnake

Game will not save and/or will corrupt the save. Don't waste your time.

Played this after having played the second one a lot. I fully played this on Steam Deck and it generally went well, with I think only one crash. Just requires a teeny bit of tinkering to get it initialized and switch the options menu to controller input. I tuned down some of the graphics options and had it running at 90 frames all the time. You can go into the games files and rename or remove the couple of intro videos and skip all that. It'll load straight to the menu. Also note this game doesn't have cloud save, so back up your save before uninstalling.

This reminds me of the latest of PS2 or earliest of PS3 era games, such as Far Cry 2, Just Cause 1, and stuff like that. In fact, many of the maps felt like great creations I'd seen back then in Far Cry Instincts Predator, or Far Cry 2. Of course this game is cheesy and has a decent amount of poor programming and bugs and a fairly basic story, but it is still super playable and a lot of fun regardless. It's slightly less forgiving than the second game, but it's not bad. Still has decent shooting physics. This one doesn't have the same silent stealth kill with knife animations, but in this one you do get to be the spotter for a mission or two which was really cool. There's a handful of missions where you have to play the ground troops as well, which seems kind of neat, but honestly it just wound up feeling like a cruddy Call of Duty during those segments. The assault rifle during those segments is not great. Finally, the music is very repetitive, but I liked it. It was just fun to visit an old linear first game in a series from back in the day.

Overall it's definitely worth a playthrough. It's not very long. The environments are fun, and you'll be laughing at some of the ridiculous bugs.

Played streaming via Steam Link (the actual physical device they sold almost 10 years ago), then later played via Steam Deck. Manually transferred my mid-campaign save info (this has no cloud save) from PC to Steam Deck, and it worked fine, even continuing to allow achievements. With a little fiddling settings, it plays great on Steam Deck. Just limit the FPS to 60 and turn down most things like shadows. I tend to leave textures higher and water/shadows/physics type of stuff lower, and then I can get a few hours of battery life and keep the temps down.

Playing some good old fashioned linear story-based games is great. This has great gameplay and a good story to replay, widely varying locations for each Act + DLC, and some pretty good music too. The missions within each Act are individually replayable, and there's some collectibles to be found and challenges to try for (achievements). Some parts of the game have multiple ways to play through. You can go really slow and stealthy, or you can kill everyone and go faster. Both require different forms of skill and pose dangers.

Fortunately the cutscenes are skippable and reload checkpoints are relatively forgiving when replaying things a lot. I don't care for multiplayer usually, but I played one round and there are still people playing it online, it was easy to get in, and multiplayer works on Steam Deck.

The Siberia DLC is great too. It adds a bit more story and seemed to be relatively harder than the main campaign. It's also fun to have a snow environment.

Definitely a fun game with nice visuals, cool bullet cam shots, varying objectives, and only the occasional bug that usually made me laugh, such as frozen enemies after multiple reloads, or world items disappearing in some areas (this was all on Steam Deck with no proton). None of the bugs were enough to ruin the gameplay.

Played mostly on Steam Deck, where it plays great with some initial setup. It’ll drain the battery if you max everything out, so turn down a few settings. It looks a lot better on the smaller screen, and I’ll always think of Ys as a handheld series. I also played a bit via streaming from PC to Steam Link (the physical box) and it worked well on the TV with a DualSense. When swapping between PC and Steam Deck, the game save transferred via cloud, but the game settings for each were separate. So that kept graphic settings different for each device, but it also kept custom button config’s separate as well. Only a minor thing to deal with setting it for both.

The programmers who ported this to PC have put a lot into optimization, and for such a niche series, it’s appreciated. They have also been known to make updates to these PC Ys games years after release, so this will likely continue to get some support for a while. I specifically bought it on PC this time for that and other reasons.

Most Ys games are a slog at first and seem slow and disappointing initially. Stick with it. The usual character development and expanding story is here. It just takes time, and just like every other Ys game I’ve played in the last decade, I go through an initial period of disappointment until I realize the game is actually tons of fun and charming.

This entry has some references to people and incidents from Ys I & II. You'll enjoy just a little bit more here if you've played those games first, however, it’s not critical to the story. Maybe read an overview of those games and it’d help. For story, this game takes place between Ys II and Ys IV: Memories of Celceta. This game expands on specific regions and histories not previously discussed much in other games in the series.

This one has a LOT more English voice acting. There’s still a lot of text with no voice, but it’s an improvement to humanize characters more. There’s less of those jarring transitions where they voice act a few lines and then you gotta read the rest. It's nice to have a change of story-telling and gameplay style with only a two-person party with some new fighting features. It’s not a huge change from recent entries, but I was glad to not have six characters to play again, and I think it really helped build the development of the two playable characters. The fighting really hasn’t changed much, but I do like they tried something new, and while it took some getting used to, there is something interesting here with swapping characters on-the-fly to keep your SP skills going, and/or when to use the new duo mode skills instead. It’s not largely different in fighting style from recent games, but different enough to be fun. The more I played and practiced, I realized it was actually a neat new system with a lot of choice. If you’re just a button-masher, you probably won’t care.

While some may not like this, I appreciate that this series still follows a semi-linear path. I am tired of every game needing to be open-world, and in a lot of games it just destroys the flow of the story. This is probably the most “open” Ys game, but it still guides and is fairly linear in a way. The ship part is the most open part of the game. The on-foot parts are more like prior entries with smaller sections to explore.

The settings for PC are nice, including coop directly built in, which is super uncommon for this kind of game. The coop for the other recent games was a ton of fun. Even if the game wasn’t built for coop and it isn’t perfect, it’s a blast to share the game with someone else.

I liked the inclusion of tips when idling. Since loading screens aren't long enough, sometimes I'd see these tips when idling to heal or coming back from as break. I also like they continue giving exhaustive button config settings, because these games have never had good button layouts. It took a lot of gameplay and fiddling to settle on a button config I liked, but at least they allow you to do it. They also included built-in settings for different button icons, such as Xbox, Playstation, and Steam Deck button prompts in-game.

The icon art for the achievements is a lot of fun to look at.

The Ys series continues to name places and things in ridiculous ways ripped off real life. I burst out laughing at "Walhalla" when it was first said out loud.

The graphics are appalling. It doesn't need to be amazing, but this is pretty sad. The water seems worse than it was in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, and this is a ship game. When these games were on handheld it looked charming. However now on PC with everything basically maxed out, especially while sailing and looking at the towns and islands from the ship, it looked like I was playing a PS2 game. Some places like the first town are not great in general presentation when walking around and seem barely populated or full of life (compared to the town in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox). Like most of my review, while some of it’s disappointing, you eventually get over it cause the gameplay and story are fun as usual. There are some areas that look great however, like inside places.

The movement of characters also seems cheesy; more than recent games. For example, characters get done talking, and need to head a different direction, so they awkwardly pivot their whole body to a position, and then set off. It feels like PS2-quality animations of people. But don’t get me wrong, there’s so much voice acting, story depth, and character development, you eventually get over it.

Additionally, I'm surprised at how limited some areas are. I don't need open world, but some areas are tiny and there's no shortage of invisible walls in places that might surprise you. It's not a deal breaker, but just a smidge more explorability would have been nice. However, I play these games for the stories character development, fighting, and the looting/leveling, so I've gotten over most of the graphics and cheese of the animations. You do get used to the graphics and the fun of the game takes over.

They added fishing back in with this game, but they changed how you trigger it. You hit a specific button to pull up a top-left menu which ONLY contains an option to fish. Terrible design. This is also where character chat bubbles appear when running around on foot, and one of them ALWAYS comments when you’re near a fishing hole. The bubble disables the menu temporarily, so you have to wait until they shut up and the bubble goes away for the toggle to reappear in order to actually fish. A minor but consistent annoyance.

When out at sea, some of the trigger points for sea battles do nothing randomly, and it just seems like a bug. Sailing feels slow early-game, and I mean REALLY slow, and so taking time to sail to a spot for it not to trigger is frustrating. Later in the game the ship upgrades make sailing and ship battles a lot more fun. Pay attention to people and side quests, as that is essentially how you upgrade your ship.

You should definitely play this game, even if on sale. Every Ys game has faults, but they are always incredibly fun action RPG’s, and I will always appreciate their willingness to try new things with every entry in the series. These are my favorite JRPG’s, and I just have never seen the appeal of other JRPG series. They don’t do for me what Ys does.

About 50 hours in I am probably barely past halfway. I am typically a slow player and like to experience everything though. Some day I will probably also try the harder modes in a replay.

Played this almost exclusively in the experimental co-op via streaming it across my house hard-wired from PC to my Steam Link (the little physical box from 2015), using two DualSense controllers. Just has some issues with controller detection, so make sure no other controller or controller-like devices are plugged into the computer and it should be fine.

As far as the co-op goes, it was never intended for this game, and as a result there are times where it's a bit wonky, but I didn't care. This was a brilliant thing to have to be able to laugh at the silliness of the co-op at times, and to be able to have another person in the household more closely share in the experience so we could all enjoy this wonderful story together. I wish more single-player games enabled even a basic co-op feature like this. It was also not split-screen co-op which is really nice. I would just encourage using the Steam Overlay custom controller settings to disable the right-stick on the 2nd controller, so only player 1 controls the camera. Otherwise you'll frustrate each other. Also be cautious of too much lock-on, it's not great during co-op. But definitely play this co-op. It's such a great experience together. Also, it's a drop-in/drop-out co-op, so you can fortunately easily turn it off and continue, or have them hop in at any time.

Everyone should play the Ys games. They are possibly the most under-rated JRPG's out there. Ys VIII really builds on the good parts of what came before in Celceta and Seven. While I do feel some aspects of this game overstay their welcome (this is the longest Ys game so far), I think it's a good thing. A ton of it is optional, but personally I wouldn't skip anything. If anything, I'm disappointed the original Vita release didn't have some of the extra content this one has, since it adds in my opinion a lot more to the story that really rounds out a specific aspect of the story and helps you better feel for and understand the impact of that area of the story, which is really the reason I play these games. This truly feels like a definitive edition of this game. This is the best Ys story of them all so far, with well-developed characters, constantly changing circumstances and new directions it'll take you, surprises and twists, and by the end you will probably really feel for the characters and feel like you were actually a part of the adventure that happened here.

There's no need to have played any other Ys games to get into this. Most Ys games are largely standalone, but if you've played past games then you may get little bits of extra happiness and interesting things you'll notice tucked into everything going on.

The gameplay is phenomenal and the best thus far. For an action RPG, I don't think this can be beat. It's fast-paced, hectic, has options to make it painfully difficult if you want, and feels rewarding with the level of progress you make in developing your characters levels, gear, and skills. With this version of the game, there's also some additions that really extend the gameplay and give you far more to do if you're interested.

Ys games are slow moving at first. Give it a chance. Stick with it. The story and gameplay really pays off later on, but you have to stick around through the very long beginning of the game where it takes a while to really get moving and build the mysteries that the story winds up truly being about. Another tip, take the opportunity to talk with every character you can, when you can. Explore all areas you can before progressing the main story, go back for areas you might have missed, and remember to stop after story progression often and head back to the Village to check with people. It'll all really build up the story development for you if you do. This is one of those games that if you put it down and never finish it until a long time later, you'll be kicking yourself once you see what you missed out on.

If you beat the game, be sure to save your clear data, then reload it and instead of restarting a new game, choose the option to return to Chapter 6, and then go look for an interesting new quest in the center of the ruins marked on your map. Go do all of that, THEN beat the end of the game again and re-save the clear data. Now you'll have truly done everything. It was not obvious to me this was added in beyond the Vita version.

Finally, I also appreciate that this game has so many positive messages about teamwork, friendship, persistence, determination, and overcoming struggle and heartache. While it has a little bit of the usual RPG things, it's nowhere near what other JRPG's are. Every time you think there's going to be some kind of romance or something, there isn't. These are adventurers and friends, and they focus on that, and it really sends strong signals about having those healthy boundaries, unlike most other media that basically always goes there. In this game and this series, the boys and the girls can equally be powerful, and they can form intensely strong bonds that don't necessarily have to go those typical routes. For these reasons, I felt this game was a great one for teens or pre-teens since the positive messages were so well told and it displays lots of good ways to handle friendships with people.

Ys will always be one of my top 2 or 3 favorite series of all time. Now on to New Game+ which is so much fun in these. I'll be trying that out on Steam Deck.

Also, I got near 200 FPS with certain settings. If you're having FPS issues, try dropping Supersampling in Screen options and re-booting the game, and avoid the HBAO+ setting in Graphics and keep the shadows options to mid or low settings. Those seem to affect FPS the most depending on your hardware.

One more thing on the differences from the original PS Vita release. I am convinced they altered the experience gains in this game. I think you level up slightly faster in this version than in the original Vita version. By the time I was 100% completed in my first playthrough on PS Vita, I think I was around level 64. By the time I was 100% done on my first playthrough on this version, I was around level 85 before restarting at Chapter 6 for the final hidden dungeon, and then about level 96 after that dungeon. It's nuts how much you can level up by just thoroughly playing in the Steam version.

Anyways. Play Ys games, they're awesome, and give the co-op a whirl with someone.

UPDATE: I played a nightmare new game+ mostly on Steam Deck and it generally ran well. Turned down a couple settings, but for the mot part it looked and played great with decent battery life. Only a couple rare times in 25+ further hours on Steam Deck did the game randomly crash. Otherwise it played great.

Exclusively played on Steam Deck with no issues. Be sure to save often, it gives you a lot of save slots. Also set up the configuration first. I went with Chronicles and not the bordered one.

Again, you will probably enjoy this most if you play with a guide so you won't miss little things that really add value to the overall gameplay and story, and also so you don't waste forever in confusing sections wondering what to do. The gameplay is fun and all, but really I was here for the story and wanted the full experience.

If you are a fan of any game in the Ys series, or enjoy deep story-telling and character development, as well as looting/completing things, this is an incredible game that continues to set up and develop Adol's origin story well, or at least his first major adventure. This game continues immediately from the events of Ys I, and both wind up tied together. Like the first one, the game rewards spending time talking to all characters, and returning to talk to them at varying points throughout the story since their dialogue will change. There are funny moments along with intense moments, and even a couple questionable easter eggs if you so desire (Ys I did as well).

This is an excellent remake of an old game, and for what it is, it's more than worth a playthrough at least for the story and characters. As usual the music is compelling and really adds value to the experience as well.

When you first begin Ys II, you may be automatically leading into it from Ys I, so I'd recommend having set up the configuration tool for Ys II first so it's more seamless for you. Ys II was much longer than Ys I. Probably almost twice as long to play and fully experience.

I do agree playing these before Ys Origin is the way to go from a story perspective.

Exclusively played on Steam Deck with minimal issues, aside from mainly a game save problem around Floor 17 that is apparently not specific to the Steam Deck. Be sure to save often, it gives you a lot of save slots. Also set up the configuration first. I went with Chronicles and not the bordered one.

You will probably enjoy this most if you play with a guide. If you are a fan of any game in the series, or enjoy deep story-telling and character development, as well as looting/completing things, this is an incredible game that really does set up and develop Adol's origin story well, or at least his first major adventure. The game rewards spending time talking to all characters, and returning to talk to them at varying points throughout the story since their input will change. There are funny moments along with intense moments.

This is an excellent remake of an old game, and for what it is, it's more than worth a playthrough at least for the story and characters. As usual the music is compelling and really adds value to the experience as well.

When you complete the story, it automatically leads into Ys II, so I'd recommend having set up the configuration tool for that as well.

Also, first appearance of Dogi by itself means you must play this.

If you were a fan of Qix, this is for you. These are great short length games to play. It feels more modern than Qix and refreshed since it has a theme of dragons and towers and catapults. There are varying approaches you can take that make replaying again, or on different difficulty levels a lot of fun. It's quite a short game though, but it's a lot of fun to play.

I've played this on Steam Deck, PC, and streaming through Steam Link (the actual little box from like 2015). It plays well on Steam Deck. You'll need minor mouse input with the touchpad or right stick, but only for menu's, not necessarily during gameplay. Now go capture a dragon.

Plays great on Steam Deck. I've played on Steam Deck, PC, and through Steam Link streaming (the actual little Steam Link box). Originally had this on PSP. I like the additions in this version like the exploding carts. This is just a fun little addicting game. Each game is typically in 10 minute lengths. There are varying strategies and approaches for how to play. It's fun just to play through, but there's a lot of replayability in trying to go for Gold on all the levels.

"You and I are alike. We’re both slowly being eaten away by the karma of others. We’ll never have the chance to die peacefully of old age. We have no tomorrow."

NOTE: I played this via Steam Link (the physical one, the little box from like 2015). Streaming from PC to Steam Link hard-wired on a big TV, and using a DualSense controller. Everything played well and was enjoyable with some mod tweaks. I am still figuring out Steam Deck for this game, the cloud saves transfer easily, but there's still some freezing issues even with some mods that are purely for fixes.

Have been a big Metal Gear series fan for a long time, since around the release of MGS1. I have played MGS3 an incredible number of times, including the original, re-releases, and emulated versions. I don't care what you have to say that these already exist in other forms. With this new Master Collection, and a more official way to play on Steam, with cloud saves keeping my saves for the future, and some achievements to earn, plus add-on bonus content like the Master Book and Screenplay, and ability to transfer between devices, this collection is worth it to me. This story has always been amazing to replay, is the best Metal gear story out there, and this game is arguably one of the best video games ever made in the context of its release. There's so many reasons to play the game, mainly around the depth of the story-telling and how this sets a new tone for the entire series, a whole new background for the series to rest upon. This expanded upon the play style of MGS2 and enhanced it all, gave you even more new things to do, new complexities to deal with, and in a new forest setting never done like this before at that time.

The replayability is high just like most Metal Gear games, to collect all special items, going after kerotan and all animals, finding all the little side areas and hidden items to collect, to mess with guards in different ways in different sections, to earn different end game codenames. While mostly linear, these Metal Gear games have always been a sandbox for fun if you're creative enough. While optional, be sure to call your codec contacts frequently, after every major story element or when you are doing or have done ridiculous things. The easter eggs run deep.

The Master Book and Screenplay included are incredible. I do wish the image quality on the Master Book was a little better when zooming in, but as a fan of the series, it's an awesome addition to just soak myself in the lore and enjoy what this series is all about. I would buy it physical if they sold them that way. The Screenplay is also fun as an alternate way to experience the game and story, and even for most hardcore fans, it's likely to reveal some hidden moments maybe you didn't know about.

This game is presented mostly in the HD collection format. For this game, I decided to take advantage of more mods. The most important of which are strictly visual enhancements and fixes. They were easy to install, and smoothed the game out a tad on larger screens, and on Steam Deck, making the entire game playable in a very smooth good-looking way. I'd argue the game is very playable on PC with the easy mod fixes, such as the HD Fix mod. Though if your PC can handle it, I'd look into the guide posted by Fonzie here for Mods to use to enhance the game. I'm very grateful to the modders for adding more value to this game. I'm still unsure about it for Steam Deck, even with mods.

I will also note that the Steam controller options overlaid on top make this so much more enjoyable and fun. You can do some cool things you otherwise mighty not have been able to do, and adapt the game to your needs. This I tend to especially like for my Steam Deck so I can use alternate rear buttons for some actions, but it remains to be seen how well this will work there. For now I can stream my PC to the Deck. The Steam controller customizability options and ease has always been a big reason I like to own games on Steam. Having them officially on Steam, having Steam save my games for the future (managing emulation saves can be a pain, so Steam adds value here), being able to seamlessly transfer from PC to Steam Link to Steam Deck adds value.

I will enjoy playing this way for a long time to come.

What a thrill...