We return to the world of Ys as Adol Christin begins an all-new adventure. However, as so often happens for Adol, things are about to take an unexpected turn in Ys X: Proud Nordics.
This “Proud” edition is the definitive version of the story and includes a bunch of performance upgrades, DLC, and new content in one awesome package. The new additions were implemented so naturally that they were practically indistinguishable from the main story. But was it all smooth sailing? Or were there dark clouds on the horizon?
A New Adventure Calls
Falcom has set a high bar with the Ys and The Legend of Heroes series. Each game I enter, I have high expectations for drama, adventure, and twists. In Ys X, Adol faces Ys Vikings, becomes cursed, and leads the fight against demonic grieger.
Joined by his good friend Dogi on the way to Celceta, Adol finds himself diverted to the town of Carnac, where the locals are being impeded by the Balta Seaforce. Here, he and Dogi take refuge in a local inn and get jobs to tide them over while they wait for another ship. Which is when the grieger attack.
From here, things get a bit wild as Adol becomes bound to a Norman named Karja, effectively forcing him to get involved with the rapidly evolving circumstances. There’s an epic plot that naturally amps up over the 60-odd hours it takes to complete, with three demon generals, interpersonal dramas and ample side-quests and exploring to fill in any additional world-building.
As with previous entries, there are nods to the larger story, but no knowledge of past games is needed to understand Adol’s journey.
This has to be the most ambitious Ys setting I have ever seen, with a huge cast. There are multiple villages and dungeons on each map, and there are real stakes added into each story, no matter how small. It’s gripping, emotive, and I was fully invested to the very end.
It’s So Shiny!
Ys X has a softer graphic style than previous entries, but still leans into the anime realism. Between the finishing move animations and sound effects, it feels like you’re playing an anime and imparts the same emotional highs and lows as the story unfolds.
The story is presented through 3D cut scenes with voice acting and visual novel-style subtitles. Often, the voice acting is only for the main story beats, but I never really felt bogged down by the amount of reading. The lip sync is not the greatest and often is just the mouth opening and closing until the voice acting stops. There were also some character models that clipped through themselves in places, but nothing egregious enough to break immersion.
Fighting Heroes
Ys X uses a hack-and-slash mechanic that is pretty heavy on button-bashing. You can drop it down to easy mode, but even on easy, enemies require a good couple of hits to take down unless you’re very overpowered. It includes a dodge and counter mechanic, which, when executed, initiates a QTE for some enemies. These can cause massive damage and look super cool, especially the end-boss animations.
You use normal attacks to build up SP and use SP to unleash your skills. These skills are upgraded by use or spending shards gained from defeating tough enemies. There are a huge number of these, and you have to master some earlier ones to unlock the later ones.
The SP cost increases exponentially, but so does the damage and the area of effect. If executed quickly enough, this can turn the Ys combat system into somewhat of a spectacle fighter at lower levels. However, in more difficult encounters, enemies soak up so much damage that it becomes far more gruelling and challenging for those who want to test themselves. Even on easy, there’s a tactical element to which skills you trigger and when.
Although these mechanics are pretty standard for the Ys series, there are some new additions to the formula. These are largely platforming tools, such as the board or mana string. However, you can use them in battle and upgrade them to cause more damage and faster.
You also don’t act alone, which is a first as far as I am aware. Up to this point, Ys games had multiple party characters, but here, there are only two as opposed to six. Joined by their mana, only Adol and Karja have the ability to defeat the greiger, but can team up to do joint attacks and counters. It’s a fun mechanic that makes blocking much easier than in previous games.
Sea Combat
The Ys X story takes you to open waters aboard your own boat. This works as your home base for the most part. The crew slowly expands, adding utilities such as a forge and a shop to your cabin. There are even story events and crew member quests for you to uncover, which increase your affinity with said character.
The ship itself was really easy to control. I’m not a fan of boat mechanics in general, and I really didn’t enjoy games such as TLOZ: The Wind Waker; however, this just felt like an extension of the regular combat mechanics, but with a lower firing rate. Upgrading the ship wasn’t too difficult, and I really felt the difference between the different ammo types.
My biggest gripe with this section is that there were story events that you could only trigger when on the boat. This in itself isn’t an issue, but if you strolled into another story mission, it would either cancel or suspend the conversation and put it in your journal. I appreciate that it saved these things so they were easy to find, but I couldn’t skip through the dialogue to finish it before going on to the next mission. This meant I was often left waiting for the dialogue to finish so I could get the whole story before moving on, which felt inefficient.
There is a lot to explore, however, and I had a lot of fun clearing out each map. There are red and gold rings on the water that trigger battles with rewards that open up new winds for faster travel. Being able to catch a wind current and speed through each zone to the next target was really fun, and I would often sail when I could simply fast-travel.
Recapture Missions
Reclaiming the seas from grieger includes missions to recapture islands. We’ve seen this kind of mission in previous Ys entries, but the combination of land and sea battles makes a refreshing change to the formula.
Starting on water, you have to take down the enemy defences. Here, your crew will offer different bonuses depending on your affinity with them until you clear the way to the island. On land, Adol and Karja fight through several waves of enemies in a dungeon setting. Some of these rooms even had small puzzles for you to uncover.
The added timer does give some sense of urgency, but I never felt like it was too mean. These recapture missions are also largely optional, but they unlock some useful items and give high rewards. I also appreciated the ability to purchase items to skip the sea portions and go straight to the boss.
A New Levelling System
This new levelling system is more of an equipment bonus mechanic than an actual levelling system, but it was quite fun to fill out. Adol and Karja can place mana seeds into slots on something they call “release lines”. These lines are unlocked as you level up or find more runestones for quick travel and are used to boost stats.
Mana seeds come in three levels (1, 2, and 3) and five colours. Each type of seed can be combined to strengthen or broken down for parts to make more. Some even have negative effects, so you have to decide how best to place them to suit your play style.
Equipped For Success
Equipping Adol and Karja was a pretty standard affair. Grinding enemies for upgrade materials never felt like a slog, and I usually upgraded everything before finding the next. This did cause me some issues, as fully upgraded weapons can be better than the next level unlocks, so I wasn’t always sure it was worth upgrading. But the plethora of accessories I collected naturally made up for this and then some.
The addition of the mana string and other “antiques” made platforming fun and rewarding, while also encouraging me to revisit past areas. This Proud edition of Ys X added the hoverboard for quicker traversal and happy hunting, and I hope they keep it in for future entries.
Bonus Round
Ys X includes so much side content and questing that it’s hard to highlight it all in one review. There’s cooking, fishing and different character events to uncover, each with its own boons and bonuses. The maps and quest trackers are pretty comprehensive, but there are still plenty of hidden objectives and difficult bosses to uncover.
The included DLC spans a huge island with literal hours of content per mission, plus an arena for endless battles. Its story doesn’t directly impact the main plot, but does enhance it and give more context. This edition also comes with a multitude of cosmetic options, which were pretty fun.
A Proud Nordic
Ys X: Proud Nordics is the culmination of almost forty years of video game excellence. Since his first adventure in Ys I in 1987, Adol Christin has been at the forefront of adventure, and this latest entry only seeks to improve on the formula. The world is bigger. Boss battles are more cinematic, with epic finishers and genuinely devastating plot twists. Even the quieter lore-building aspects carried emotional weight and contributed to the greater whole.
The only thing I found to be missing would be accessibility tools, which can be difficult with such games. There are many game settings and customisations, but they don’t make the game fully accessible. I’ve seen things like in Nier Automata where you get attack assists to make combat less button-heavy, but I can’t imagine they are easy to implement.
While some series feel like they are losing the essence of what they once were, this feels more like they are maturing alongside our leading man. I’m still a little salty that Adol is getting more voice lines as the silent protagonist trope dies out, but I understand and appreciate the character growth we get from it.
I have always praised the Falcom team for their writing and world-building, and Ys X is no different. They continue to outdo themselves, providing effortless world-building and a compelling narrative. Proud Nordics is everything I want from my JRPGs and more. If you’ve not dipped your toes into the series, this is an excellent starting point.
Platform: PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Microsoft Windows
Developers: Nihon Falcom, PH3 GmbH
Publishers: Clouded Leopard Entertainment, NIS America
Played On: PS5
Code Provided By: Keymailer
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