The first Ys game consists only of two towns, a tiny overworld and three dungeons, one of which is so gigantic that it occupies about half of the game. The second game is much longer and more involved, sending Adol through lands of ice and fire before reaching the shrine to defeat the evil Darm.

Like many early Japanese Action RPGs, you fight enemies by bumping into them, where your rate of success is based on your experience level. However, your power is much greater if you hit the enemy at an off-angle. The second game introduces a magic system that allows Adol to throw fireballs, which is much easier to deal with. Amidst other combat spells, there's also a spell that turns you into a monster, allowing you to talk to other bad guys, whose various musings are not only funny but provide valuable hints.

It may all sound overly simplistic, considering much of what one does is to roam the landscape, ramming into every enemy in sight, but that's really part of the fun. Ys doesn't bog itself down with puzzles or aimless wandering. For the most part, they're straightforward adventures that are fairly short, but full of the same sense of wonder and adventure that made the Zelda games so consistently popular.

Ys was originally released on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1987, but was ported to several home computer and consoles. It was released internationally on various platforms, first on the SEGA Master System, then on the MS-DOS and Apple IIGS.

These were OK conversions, though the PC ports butchered the excellent soundtrack. They had limited success, but the TurboGrafx-16 version was included as a pack-in for the US TurboDuo console, leading to much greater exposure. This version also included new cinematics, professional voice acting and incredible redbook arrangements of the music.