Ys X Nordics preview: Come sail away with Adol

Some smart evolutions for the long-running RPG franchise

NIS America

Nihon Falcom’s Ys series is setting sail once more this fall with Ys X: Nordics, and despite Adol adventuring around the world for over 35 years, it seems like he’s still got some fresh tricks up his sleeves. GLHF had the chance to see an hour of Ys X in action during a recent hands-off preview, including a big shake-up for the RPG's combat system and a deeper emphasis on character customization. There’s also a lot of boat travel, but I’m not quite as sold on that part yet.

Ys X takes place just after Ys II, though like with most Ys games, the only reason chronology matters is to explain why Adol looks so much different now compared to his last adventure. Ys X’s story is a standalone one, so even though it has some nice little Easter eggs for longtime fans, you can play it without knowing anything about the rest of the series.

This time, Adol’s off to the land of the Normans – yes, those Normans, the Vikings who settled in France. NIS America didn’t share much of the story, but the gist is that Normans have power over Mana, which they use to interact with the world around them, and are locked in combat with Griegers, a mysterious group of creatures whose Mana went out of control and turned them into monsters.

Adol's out to beat the allegations about his sailing ability / NIS America

When I spoke with Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo during Anime Expo 2024 – where he also gave me a deep dive into the making of Trails through Daybreak – he said Obelia Gulf was a character in itself, full of mysteries, hidden encounters, secret treasures, and lost islands to uncover. Extended periods of travel over long distances in video games can get pretty dull, and even though Ys’ zones usually exist for combat, rather than spelunking, there’s always been visual variety in each game. I’m not sure how well just sailing around will hold up after a few hours, even with as many secrets as NIS America says Obelia Gulf has in store.

Your ship in Ys X is a lot like the castaway village in Ys VIII, except it’s not floating and not a village. Some of the people Adol helps during his journey decide to travel with him and Karja and offer their help onboard. There’s a grocery vendor, a blacksmith – all the specialists you’d need to stay afloat for a long time, and most of them have some kind of special ability to help with naval combat. Costa tells me that every crew member has a personal quest that expands their background and makes them more than just a shopkeeper, so if you’re keen on story, it’s worth getting close to everyone.

Your floating base turns into a battleship when you encounter Grieger vessels. These battles are back-and-forth affairs where you launch cannon volleys and other special attacks until someone wins, but it looks more interesting than it sounds. Skills have cooldown timers, so you have to plan shots and special buffs carefully. I’m not usually a fan of naval combat and am still on the fence about whether Ys X may change my opinion, but it’s worth completing these battles when you find them. Victory gives Adol a special set of combat buffs when he sets out to reclaim nearby land from the Griegers.

It pays to help people out / NIS America

Back on land is where some of Falcom’s bigger changes to the recent Ys formula become apparent. Ys X ditches the party system Falcom introduced in 2009’s Ys 7 and gives Adol a single traveling companion: Karja, pirate princess of the Normans. Kondo told me during Anime Expo that they realized in Ys IX, players were sticking with the same few characters. Asking the design team to spend time and resources creating field moves and unique battle styles for characters no one would use was unfeasible, Kondo said, so Falcom decided to do something different and double down on the idea of dual styles.

Karja and Adol have separate fighting methods – she’s good at breaking armored enemies, he’s faster and takes foes down quickly – but you can also activate a link between them and unlock a new set of much more powerful abilities. This link also lets them block incoming attacks if you time the block well, but the downside is you move slower while the link is active. Combined skills use skill points from both characters, so Ys X expects you to get into a rhythm of building up skill points in regular combat or through smart blocking and unleashing linked abilities at the right time. 

Omg it's the X in Ys X / NIS America

Older Ys games require a bit more strategy than your usual button-mashy action games, but between switching styles and managing break meters, it looks like there’s a lot more than usual to think about in Ys X’s battles. That goes for character building as well. NIS America showed a bit of Ys X’s character customization, done via Mana Seeds you slot into nodes to activate certain buffs. The portion of the character tree we saw was small, but even that had enough nodes for you to make Adol and Karja feel distinctly different depending on how you decide to customize them.

It looks like there’s still a lot about Ys X NIS America is keeping close for now, but we don’t have long to wait to see more. Ys X launches for PC, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on October 25, 2024.