Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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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 1,306 reviews of which 1,173 were positive and 133 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. đ
The game is currently priced at 17.99⏠on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
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
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is a fantastic 3D hack-and-slash action adventure RPG that features smooth, fast-paced, and exhilarating combat, an authentic sense of discovery of the locale, a wonderful soundtrack composed by the legendary Falcom Sound Team jdk that is sure to pump you up, and thought-provoking lore and world-building, all of which kept me glued to the game for a few days in a row for multiple hours at a time. Overall, I highly recommend it because the combat is extremely fun and satisfying, the graphics are delightful and nostalgic of an older era of video games, the music is simply amazing, the lore and world-building contains a conventional but well-crafted and very interesting premise, it comes with some extra goodies in the game files and a massive collection of artwork and assets in the form of a free DLC, and this definitive version is arguably the best and the most accessible way to experience it. S U M M A R Y - The gameplay is awesome as the combat is fluid and fast-paced but the platforming suffers due to its loose controls and unintuitive inputs for its version of a long jump; - The replay value is low because the game is linear and has one ending so after you've played through the game once then you've seen all that it has to offer but a boss rush mode is unlocked after beating the game once which has leaderboards; - The graphics are fantastic as they use polygonal sprites which look polished and clean while the artwork, portraits, and backgrounds are wonderfully drawn; - The soundtrack is standard for Ys games which entails relaxing and ambient adventure songs to the classic energetic rock songs that are analogous with the series; - The story is simple but executed well and sees you exploring the mysterious land in the first two-thirds of the game before introducing the villain and the real conflict, although the lore and world-building are what keep you engaged due to their fascinating and compelling premise which is slowly revealed as the game progresses; and - The game comes with extra goodies which are located in the "release" folder in the game files and includes full-motion videos for certain events in the game and a complete but clipped soundtrack where all of the songs are abruptly cut off at the end. If you're interested, you can find my review of the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/365010/Ys_VI__Material_C]Ys VI - Material Collection DLC artbook in the comments. A C H I E V E M E N T S The game has 16 achievements, most of which will be acquired throughout a casual playthrough while the most difficult ones will require a second and/or third playthrough if you want to make things as easy as possible. The game isn't very long so even three playthroughs should only take 20-25 hours to complete but if you want get all achievements in one playthrough then you will have to do quite a bit more grinding compared to completing the hardest one, Because It's There , on the easiest difficulty. R E V I E W Gameplay The gameplay is typical for 3D hack-and-slash games of the mid 2000s and is thrilling and fun, for the most part: while the combat is fluid, fast-paced, and exciting as you seamlessly cleave through swaths of enemies with a variety of swords and attacks at your disposal, the platforming is frustrating and poorly designed because the controls aren't very precise or tight which are absolutely required to make a solid and enjoyable platforming experience. Although the combat mitigates this by causing your attacks to automatically track the nearest enemy in the direction you are facing so you don't have to worry about being accurate, the platforming is thankfully only required for a number of optional items (and three achievements) in one dungeon so it isn't necessary to complete the game. The main tool that the game gives you for scaling large gaps is a long jump (called the "Dash Jump") whose required inputs are completely unintuitive, and awkward to learn as a result, but isn't nearly as difficult to execute as many reviewers and discussion posts would lead you to believe. When I first started playing the game, I spent about 20-30 minutes experimenting with this mechanic and was able to consistently pull it off with relative ease by the end of the practice session -- you just need to be willing to put in the time to learn it. In fact, I spent the rest of the game using it to move around because it's faster than running and could easily do upwards of 10 in a row before dropping an input. The leveling system is plain but extremely gratifying as I found that becoming slightly stronger with each new level or piece of equipment evoked a very tangible feeling that kept me engrossed for hours on end and even made grinding fun. In fact, I found the combat and small, incremental gains of leveling up so enjoyable and stimulating that I never used the fast-travel feature and walked wherever I could which resulted in plenty of unintended grinding and backtracking and probably inflated my playtime by a few hours. Graphics The graphics are nostalgic and reminiscent of the early 2000s since the character and monster models use pixel art sprites that make the game feel both retro and charming in this day and age; however, it doesn't translate very well to higher resolutions due to the inherent fuzziness that comes with stretching a lower-resolution asset. The artwork and portraits are superbly drawn and the main characters have a variety of full-body poses and stances which help breathe life into them and convey more emotion than text alone does. The few landscape backgrounds that you get to see are also beautifully drawn and evoke a sense of wonder and awe which makes the world seem almost larger than life. Sound The soundtrack is composed by the legendary Falcom Sound Team jdk who spared no effort in providing a range of songs from slower and more relaxing adventure songs to the classic Ys rock songs which are upbeat, energetic, and incredible to listen to even outside of the game. The sound effects are also very poignant as every attack and enemy death sounds (and feels) impactful. Story The crux of the story isn't presented until about two-thirds of the way through the game, which is also when the villain is introduced, and the journey up to that point instead has you slowly discover the world and its lore as you traverse its mysterious land. This makes the game feel more like an adventure of discovery and exploration of an unknown and vast land which I found to be quite novel and refreshing in this genre since there were no stakes at first and I could just enjoy the setting, characters, and interactions without being burdened with the thought of saving the world as you so often are in this genre. The world-building is revealed in small chunks that pique your interest in a compelling and intriguing manner and there is an abundance of lore to further dive into despite the game being self-contained from the rest of the Ys universe. In fact, these facets were a key part of the driving force behind keeping me hooked and playing the game for hours on end without taking breaks as I wanted to discover what the next location held and unraveling the mystery behind the entire setting, especially as I got further into the game. Conclusion Overall, I highly recommend it because it is simply a very engaging, captivating, and gratifying experience with a tremendously high production value that held my attention for numerous days in a row for multiple hours at a time -- I honestly couldn't put the controller down and didn't do anything else for an entire weekend. Although it's far from perfect and is only good for one playthrough, it is nevertheless very enjoyable, has no glaring weaknesses, and is well worth its base price.
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So far this is the most infuriating Ys game I've played. Coming from 1, 2, and Origin. Dash jump is THE worst mechanic ever... 10/10 great game
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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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Last Updates| Steam data | 12 April 2025 20:14 |
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| SteamSpy data | 09 April 2025 18:03 |
| Steam price | 15 April 2025 04:43 |
| Steam reviews | 13 April 2025 22:00 |
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Online players
7
Developer
Nihon Falcom
Publisher
XSEED Games,
Marvelous USA, Inc.
Release
28 Apr 2015
Platforms