Ys: The Ark of Napishtim: Hands-On

Ys hero Adol Christin is back, in a Konami action RPG for the PSP that takes players to a fantastic world where a great mystery awaits.

So, after boarding a pirate ship with his pal Dogi, Adol begins his latest adventure, setting sail for the far reaches of the sea, towards the great Vortex of Canaan, where many a ships has been lost. Standard stuff so far. Upon nearing the Vortex, their ship is attacked and Adol is knocked overboard and swallowed up by the swirling Vortex. Later, washing ashore on Quatera Island, he sets out on his latest adventure in a somewhat inhospitable town setting. This is Ys: The Ark of Napishtim - and it's on the PSP.

We had an opportunity to try out the PSP version of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim, which was first released for Japanese PCs last year and made its PS2 debut earlier this year. We've been anxiously awaiting the PSP version - and we're happy to see that it certainly retains the look and gameplay of its console counterpart.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Ys series has always been its real-time gameplay mechanics. There isn't a turn-based mechanic to be found anywhere, just the way many players like things. Taking control of Adol, we navigated him through the forests and plains of Quatera Island, hacking n' slashing our way through the various enemies, ranging from simple land dwellers, poisonous plant-like creatures to airborne pests.

The controls are pretty solid, the action is fast-paced and the game features your usual RPG elements such as building up Adol's levels and experience points by killing off enemies.

During his adventure, Adol will also be armed with three magical swords, each containing different elemental powers that can be powered-up along the way in order to gain special abilities, as well as allow him to perform different types of deadly combo attacks and spells.

This particular closed build of the game came to an end after battling a giant boss monster that we defeated with relative ease by dodging its powerful attacks and laying waste to its body with repeated sword slashes. Rinse and repeat...

Graphically, Ys: The Ark of Napishtim for the PSP looked almost identical to the PlayStation 2 version in every way except for its framerate. The PSP version was a bit framey when we played it, but then again, so are many PSP offerings in earlier forms. The gaming environments are nicely rendered with some detailed looking town settings and characters - but the bosses stood out as the most impressive.

One of the most pleasant aspects of the demo was definitely the audio. Rocking to a very nice, fantasy-styled BGM track that played on as we hacked and slashed our way through enemy infested fields, the music certainly had a pretty nice Falcom JDK Band quality to it, and we can't wait to check out the full soundtrack of the game to see what's new. We didn't encounter any speech just yet, but we expect the final version to contain at least some voice-acting for the various characters in the game - except for the eternally mute Adol, that is.

Ys: The Ark of Napishtim will sport a variety of new mini-games for PSP - nine in total - featuring characters from the game. Players will also be able to check out character profiles and jam to the game's entire soundtrack via a special Jukebox mode - excellent!

With the delays the game has experienced so far, it's hard to tell when it will finally grace our portable gaming screens, but you can keep it tuned here for any updates.

Joseph Jackson
Executive Editor, Kikizo Games