Ys VI Ark of Napishtim

My gateway to the great classics.

This is my first game that i played for Ys Series. I played PSP version of this game which is not really good adaptation series compared to the PC/PS2 version. I could say Ys is one of the hidden jewel that Japan has kept hidden for a long time. Ys series tells about the adventure of Adol Christin around the world. and the Ark of Napishtim cover his adventure to Canaan island. Ys VI offer fast paced action RPG games and the first of Ys series that offer its kind of gameplay. Ys series is well known for its challenging difficulties and AoN is one of the harder one.

The main character of this series is Adol Christin who is the star of most Ys series and a silent protagonist . Adol is one of the best role model for classic RPG heroes considering he is one of the oldest RPG character that still appear from time to time. In his world Adol is very well known as he had defeated some of the toughest villain and saved the world several times during his adventure. He is very skilled with his sword and apparently seems to be a "chosen one" since he is always blessed by deities to defeat the villains in his adventure. In Ark of Naphistim, Adol end up in Canaan island after being washed to the shore from his escape of Romun Empire fleet.

AoN is the series that connect all of the earlier Ys Titles since you will find alot of the Lore behind Eldeen Civilization which become the central of the plot from Ys 1 to 5.

Each Ys series always feature main Heroine who usually interested with Adol and play Damsel in Distress role. This time the main heroine is Olha who is a Rehdan which is some sort of Hybrid between Beastmen and Elves. She is the one who found Adol along with her little sister and treated him to full recovery. She is the priestess of her tribe which play a huge role in the game since she is the one who communicate with the deity of the tribe due to her bloodline which happen to be an Eldeen.

Since this game is action oriented, the number of the equipment in this game are not many. There are only 3 weapons in this game and 6 armors and shield each. While there are 25 acessories which are really important to keep surviving. In Ps2/PC version the equipment does affect the appearance of Adol though PSP doesn't have that feature for some reason.

 The weapons that Adol use in this game is rather special compared to other weapons he used before. Throughout his adventure in Canaan Island, Adol will find 3 Emelas swords which corresponds to Wind, Fire and Thunder Element. The weapons can be upgraded by Emels which are found from enemies and act as 2nd currency other than Gold. As you upgrade your weapon, you will unlock the poweful magic attack and additional weapon skills. It is really necessary to upgrade the weapon constantly since you won't be able to damage some of the opponents in your quest if the weapon has not been upgraded properly which makes your life harder than it is supposed to be. By the end of this you could upgrade one of your weapon to full at least.

The main badguy in Ark of Napishtim is Ernst, one of the Romun Empire commander that invades Canaan island. He plays one of the stereotype villain who doesn't show himself until near the end of the game just having his ass to be kicked. Ernst is the descendant of Dark Tribe that who used to sought power to overthrow the Eldeen race by controlling Black Emelas. He actually had good intention but the way he did is wrong and it turns up that his plan turns up the worst possible outcome.

The final boss in this game is Napishtim which turns out to be an Ancient Relic that able to control the weather. Adol had to fight this thing since Ernst reactivate the Napishtim and unable to control it which makes the system goes berserk and plan to destroy the world by unleashing great tidal wave. The boss fight is not that hard as long as you had high level since there is one miniboss which is much tougher than Napishtim.

Overall impression for this game is relatively good since the game is quite fun while the game is quite short. What makes me decided to continue this game is that the music of this game is really amazing which are probably on par with Final Fantasy or Tales series. One of the aspect that i hate in this game is that you need to backtrack the place you went before quite a lot in order to do some sidequest in the game which is fixed in the future installment. Currently i am playing YS 1 & 2 in Chronicles version which seems to be harder than this game. If you are interested with other Ys series i would recommend to start with Ys Seven first considering it is the most beginner friendly one.