2024 is the year of the JRPG, with outstanding games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth leading the charge for the one of the most exciting eras the genre's ever seen. Those games are big, flashy, and exciting, but I didn't realize how much I'd been missing good old-fashioned JRPG comfort food of the sort we used to get back in the PS2 era until I fired up the Steam Next Fest demo for Ys X: Nordics. Folks, this is the video game equivalent of a piping hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, and I can't get enough.
Ys never got the recognition that series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy did, but the series has been running nearly as long as those titans and it's downright legendary among JRPG enthusiasts. I've only dabbled with Ys here and there, but I've always been impressed by its breezy pacing, rock-solid action-RPG mechanics, and adventuresome stories which see a familiar band of characters continually taking on standalone exploits.
