Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
Adventurer Adol Christin has washed ashore in yet another mysterious, isolated new land, inhabited by a people who sport long ears and bushy tails...and are none too fond of humans. Experience the very first 3D Ys game as never before, with a whole new gameplay mode unique to this release!
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is a action, rpg and jrpg game
developed by Nihon Falcom
and published by XSEED Games, Marvelous USA and Inc..
Released on April 28th 2015 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 1,261 reviews of which 1,130 were positive and 131 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. đ
The game is currently priced at 4.49⏠on Steam and has a 75% discount.
The Steam community has classified Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
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Windows
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: Pentium III 800 MHz
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 32 MB VRAM, 3D accelerator compatible w/ DirectX 9.0c
- DirectX: Version 8.0
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: Compatible with DirectX 9.0c
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
It's an action-adventure RPG worth playing. Starts out great, with wonderful music and visuals. Some neat animated cutscenes here and there. The first time you load it, you'll want to choose the config option and set your button inputs (I played with an Xbox controller). Set them even if they look right, because some buttons still won't function. Then choose to save it before closing it out. For an RPG adventure the game is quite short. Its world is on a very small scale. I think there may have been 10-12 areas or so in total? This feels very sparse compared with other well known RPG's and it prevents the game from being as grandiose as it otherwise aspires to be. My playtime was certainly inflated by playing on Hard mode and spending some hours grinding XP. That said, as a shorter adventure, it was great. Not quite as polished as Ys Origin though. In Napishtim I ended up having to read a walkthrough and watch a youtube video to find out how to Dash Jump , which is an unexplained and wonky technique (and best done with a D-pad). It's not a mandatory technique, but the alternative is to have to make multiple pixel perfect jumps in some places that can be very frustrating to deal with. There were a few times where I had to talk to NPCs to progress the story. Rather than talking to every person until the next step of the story triggered for me, I'd tab out to a walkthrough so I could cut to the chase. There were a few optional quests, like returning 4 little piggies to their owner. These piggies got lost halfway through the game and I wasn't going to revisit every single screen of the game to look for them.. so again, a walkthrough seemed like the most reasonable course of action. The game sometimes lets you wander into places with enemies that will 1 shot you, which I liked. Sometimes I'd sneak in and manage to stunlock-kill one enemy by hitting it for 1 point of damage 100 times or I'd run by something nasty to find a treasure chest (containing expendable junk). I like when games give you a bit of freedom in this way. You know that you're not supposed to be here, so any small gain like that feels like a minor sneaky triumph. I like seeing things that you come back to later, it keeps the mind entertained and wondering. Having found Ys Origin a little bit easy on Normal, I chose Hard this time with Napishtim. I'm not sure if it was the right choice or not.. perhaps it just led to me grinding XP now and then, and gatekeeper'd me out of the late game super tough optional boss. There was too much of a repetitive XP grind required to raise my STR stat to reasonably face him. ..I even put in a couple of hours of grinding for it until I realised I would be here literally all day killing the same 5 blobs and eventually nope'd out of it. I found myself grinding XP whenever I first entered a dungeon too, because enemies can kill you quite easily. Grinding XP in this way felt like the path of least resistance because what would typically happen if I didn't do this, was I'd clear the same 2-8 rooms of a dungeon, Die.. and lose all of that progress. This cycle would keep repeating, so it was much less frustrating to just grind that XP at the start each time to raise my characters attack and defense to make everything more manageable. Grinding XP was not something I did in Ys Origin ever when playing it on Normal, so perhaps that's all that Hard difficulty changes about these Ys games? Who knows, this is just my speculation at this time. I actually didn't mind a bit of grinding for once, so I'm not really complaining outside of that optional late game boss that I missed out on. As for Ys games, I've determined that I hate the archaic bump style of combat in Ys 1-4, but I really enjoy what the series evolved into (starting with Ys V) and will probably continue to play every other one of these games (though I think the most recent Ys games changed up their combat system again, so will have to see how I find that to be). So far the Ys games from the Napishtim and Origin era have proven to be a really good time. They appear to be repeating the same item progressions in each game, where you get a fire, electric and wind sword that appear to do the same attacks (with minor variations and improvements to them in different games) ..this is something I'd like them to mix up and experiment with more. But otherwise, these games all have great tunes, locations to explore, items to collect, decent enough writing and good visuals, a great era for the series.
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Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is the first attempt in the series to create narrative ties between the previous games but thatâs not the only reason why itâs best fit for fans of the franchise Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim , originally released in 2003, is the sixth game in the series to play if youâre following the [url=https://www.digitalemelas.com/index_ys.php#order]DigitalEmelas story path and the first Ys game to introduce the subsequently named âNapishtimâ combat style that went on to serve as the basis for later titles like [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dreamylotus/recommended/207350/]Ys Origin and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dreamylotus/recommended/207320/]Ys III: The Oath in Felghana . Itâs also the first game in the series that attempts to create a larger narrative by directly referencing the events that took place in the previous games. While [url=https://www.digitalemelas.com/index_ys.php#order] DigitalEmelas calls it the âAvengersâ of the Ys series, saying new players âwould be less immersed compared to someone who had invested the time learning the origins of each characterâ, I personally wouldnât go that far despite agreeing with the basic idea: Even with the increased focus on storytelling, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is still an Ys game and thus mostly gameplay-oriented, so donât expect lengthy dialogues and/or cutscenes on the level of a Trails game for example. It should also be noted that the game has notable ties to Ys V , which never even made itâs way to the west. Overall speaking, while the direct references are certainly going to be appreciated by players familiar with the previous games, they just arenât big enough to make Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim non-recommendable for new players of the franchise for this reason alone. The main reason why I wouldnât recommend Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim to newcomers but to fans of the franchise instead boils down to the fact that there are simply even better games in the series to play and/or start out with. While Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is an enjoyable, straightforward action-RPG with little filler thatâs well worth playing, itâs also notably rougher around the edges than other Ys[/I] games. The âNapishtimâ combat in itâs first iteration is one of the main contributors here: While snappy and easy to pick it up, itâs also more simple than other Ys titles, offering only a few ways to attack and no way to block/parry attacks other than evading them through jumping or running away. Additionally, it also includes whatâs probably the most infuriating form of a long jump I ever had to perform in action-RPG. Even though the long jump is technically optional since itâs only needed for a few extra chests that arenât required for finishing the game, the items in these chests can be incredibly useful â like an accessory that decreases the charging time for powerful magic attacks. Speaking of combat, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is also another Ys title that can be a bit grindy at times: Basically requiring you to reach at least a certain level if you want to properly damage a boss but not telling you what level that is, something I already criticised during my playthroughs of previous titles in the franchise. However, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim goes even further when it comes to beating one of the optional bosses in the game â as even on normal difficulty, youâll have to spend an absurd amount of time grinding if you even want to damage the boss at all. As such, I once again recommended using a [url= https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/918567-ys-vi-the-ark-of-napishtim/faqs/71412?page=0#Introduction]guide such as this GameFaq one if you want to make sure youâre staying in the recommended level ranges. And as for the story, well, it shouldn't be surprising that it's a pretty standard affair and only really serves as a way to guide you to the various boss fights and environments. As mentioned, besides the ties to previous games in the series, the dialogues are short and the main plot points pretty predictable. While the increased focus on storytelling it's noticeable, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is all about getting you back to playing the game as soon as possible, only taking control away from you in select key moments. Same as with the previous titles in the series, you should play these games for their action-RPG gameplay and not for their story, otherwise you're going to end up disappointed. Overall, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is a decent Ys game that offers all one would expect from the franchise â little to no filler, a big focus on gameplay, interesting boss fights and a great soundtrack â but I also didnât find it to be particularly memorable apart from my frustrations with the long jump. Itâs enjoyable and itâs definitely a decent action-RPG but itâs also not much more than that, as it doesnât feature any standout mechanics, environments or story moments. As such, I would mainly recommend it to fans of the franchise who just want to play another Ys game. Itâs also great to play on the SteamDeck, as itâs not too long and runs flawless out of the box - just remember to adjust the resolution in the configuration tool first. But due to the lack of actually amazing moments, I wouldnât recommend it to newcomers of the franchise or those looking for a truly groundbreaking/outstanding action-RPG - Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is far from bad but simply lacking âsomething a little extraâ to reach that level.
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I enjoyed this JRPG classic immensely. Even in 2024, it's quite a good experience. There is some extensive end game grinding involved in order to complete the achievement for an end-game optional boss, but if you don't care about that then there is nothing whatsoever to complain about - the combat is snappy and fun, the graphics are gorgeous, and the exploration is excellent.
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A solid action-RPG that also respects your time. This is the beginning of what I consider to be the "modern" era of Ys games. Note that you control Adol only as the three party system of the more recent games was still a few entries off from this one. Pros: just enough story to keep things interesting, not a bunch of tutorials to bore you to tears, just figure things out and a couple of handy in-game instruction screens to clue you into some of the less obvious controls. This game is almost no filler which is very refreshing in a world of games that feel like they are padded out to hit 100 hours of playtime. The controls are good, combat feels good and you have three different sword types to switch between which also gives you a different type of magic to use depending on your sword. Just enough equipment and accessories to find and use to keep things interesting. The music is also killer just like every other entry in the series (also the music is included as ogg files and is worth a listen outside of playing the game). I also really enjoy the 2D Sprites as opposed to the full 3D of later games in the series. It gives this one its own very charming look. I also really appreciate that fast travel was added to this version (the early 2000s version lacked this). The game also runs great, no crashes and plays like a charm at native 4k. Though if you look closely there are a couple of odd effects since I assume this was originally not made with a 4k resolution in mind. Nothing big though and it only pops up in a couple of spots near the edge of the background/screen. Cons: the dash-jump breaks my brain. Seriously, I cannot reliably use it to save my life. Thankfully you really only need to use it in a couple of places so it isn't too big of a deal but it seriously sucks and is the biggest issue with the game. I get the impression though that Falcom knew it kind of sucked and minimized how much you had to use it. Something to do with how the button inputs are timed are very difficult and, in particular, I can only get it to work at all using the d-pad. One other very minor con is that the English dub from the PS2 version is gone and replaced with nothing. Not a giant loss as the game works fine without voice acting but still a little sad that there is no option to use it. Overall this is a nice brisk gem of a game and also a sad testament to the state of modern gaming that I'd take this any day of the week over 99% of what has been released in the last few years.
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After Playing Ys 8 and finding it fantastic, I thought I'd go back and play some of the older games in the series, to see if they're any good. This turned out to be another great game, which holds up very well despite me not being a "retro" game fan in general. It has a fun easy to follow story with some mystery in the background and really great fluid combat mechanics which surprised me. Only negative is that some areas seemed to require grinding for experience to level up so you can do any damage at all to enemies in the next area. It didn't happen too often, but just a minor criticism. But in general really happy I decided to check the game out.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 29 November 2024 00:31 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 18 December 2024 06:47 |
| Steam price | 24 December 2024 12:43 |
| Steam reviews | 22 December 2024 18:02 |
Online players
16
Developer
Nihon Falcom
Publisher
XSEED Games,
Marvelous USA, Inc.
Release
28 Apr 2015
Platforms