Gaming In Ys X: Nordics, Adol And Boats Prove To Be A Match Made In Heaven

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If you've played an Ys game before, you know that our red-haired hero Adol Christin is pretty partial to a boat. He's also partial to a shipwreck or three. Adol's very first adventure in Ys I starts off with his boat being destroyed by a storm; Ark of Napishtim opens with Adol washed up on the beach; and in Lacrimosa of Dana, his ship is attacked by a sea serpent.

Adol is hit by sea disasters so frequently that it's joked about both in-game and by the community; there's no way we're getting on a boat with Adol, even if it's just a raft. But in Ys X: Nordics, that's exactly what you have to do — not just get on the boat with him, but enhance it, control it, and crew it. How did Nihon Falcom manage to go 35 years without giving us the helm of a ship?

NIS America didn't have the answer to that question, but the publisher did give us a chance to check out a gameplay showcase online. The 11th entry in the Ys series launched in Japan in September 2023 and sails onto Western shores this October. So, we thought of this preview event as a dip in the ocean, and a taster for what's to come from the high seas with Adol and his new companion, Karja Balta. (Don't worry Ys fans, Dogi is still there.)

Narratively, Ys X takes place after Ys II and before Ys: Memories of Celceta (which is Ys IV). That might sound alarm bells, particularly if you're trying to get into Falcom's other long-running RPG series Trails, but unlike the Zemurian epic, Ys doesn't rely on an interconnected story. And yes, Nordics is absolutely one big reference to the Normans and Normandy and the game is even set in a Gulf inspired heavily by the Bay of Biscay.

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With that all established, NIS America dropped us into the middle of chapter 4, which we were told was where exploration began to open up. But before we could get sailing, we started off with a tour of the Sandras, the ship which also acts as your base of operations. It's not just a mode of transportation; you'll get to live out a full RPG pirate's dream on the Sandras by forming your own crew, upgrading the boat, forging weapons, crafting potions, and cooking food.

Recruiting shipmates is done either through the story or by completing sidequests, and they have different uses. Some run shops, while others just offer fun flavor text, but every single crew member can affect your ship's stats, which is crucial in one of the game's newest features: ship battles. This is basically Skies of Arcadia, but for action RPG fans.

Sticking with the crew for now, these characters will also have requests for you to fulfill, some of which will get you items and rewards, while others will flesh out that character's backstory, which is recorded in a journal. Despite Ys X narrowing down its playable cast to two, Falcom is ensuring there are plenty of memorable interactions and personalities on board your ship. Even if, early on, many of those sidequests seem to be fetch quests, it sounds like they might be worth doing.

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If you really want to feel like a pirate, then upgrading your ship is probably the best way to do so. Not only can you customize the basic look of the vessel — from the color of the wood to the sails — but you can also upgrade elements to make it more powerful or resistant in combat. New cannons and different cannonballs can be equipped, and other artillery such as torpedoes will eventually be unlocked as you progress.

This is extremely important when diving into ship combat, which is encountered in one of two ways. You can randomly sail past an enemy ship and engage them in a fight, or you can fight one in a scripted battle. With the latter, we saw a fight which took place as part of a Recapture mission, a two-stage expedition which sees you saving an island from the Griegr, undead creatures that plague the Obelia Gulf.

For the first stage, you need to defeat all enemy ships and destroy the barrier shielding off the island within a time limit. Cannonballs are an unlimited resource, meaning you can fire away a handful of heavy artillery at a time, wait for them to recharge, and then start again. Other ammunition is limited; torpedoes, for instance, can only be used a certain number of times per engagement.

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Depending on who you have in your crew, however, you can also proc abilities during ship combat that will heal your or buff your attacks, for example. Plus, if you take the time to build up the Mess Hall and cook and eat meals there, you can also provide the boat with some temporary buffs to help you in combat. It's all pretty simple, but it builds upon the adventurous sea-faring foundations that Ys X: Nordics is laying out.

If you're worried that this is starting to sound rather unlike a Ys game, then don't worry — dungeons and exploration are still part of the mix. Ys X's standard combat marks a shift from what fans have dubbed the 'Seven Style' — a party-based system implemented, in different ways, in Seven, Celceta, VIII, and IX. Now, instead of a three-person party, there's only Adol and Karja: Solo Mode lets you control either character, with the ability to swap between each one at any point in the fight, while Duo Mode sees Adol and Karja quite literally linking up for dual attacks.

This 'link' (called a Mana Link) is a big part of the story, and while we didn't get a chance to dive into the narrative side of things, we did get to see Adol and Karja's skills be put to the test in the second part of the Recapture mission. NIS America took us through a cave-like dungeon full of monsters, and if you're familiar with the 3D Ys games, you'll instantly feel right at home. Adol is the faster of the duo, dealing high damage in quick bursts, while Karja specializes in heavy, slower attacks that deal 'break' damage, whittling away an enemy's shield to make them vulnerable.

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Swapping between the pair is key to victory, then, as both excel in different areas. Plus, with that stylish action combat, you can chain together skills — unlocked by levelling up — seamlessly, even when swapping. Duo Mode requires a little more planning, as it means you control both characters at the same time, and they move incredibly slowly, but using this means you build up the Revenge Gauge, which works like a counter gauge — guard to build it up, and the higher the gauge, the more damage you do with your next attack. It all gels together extremely well, though given our preference for faster combat, we might struggle to get used to Duo Mode.

The Mana Link does more than just give Adol some new combat moves. Mana Actions, while providing skills in combat, also give you some traversal options within dungeons. Mana Sense, for instance, will let you see hidden items outside of combat, but in combat you can use it to slow down time. We saw Adol mount a Mana-style surfboard to skate over large gaps in the cave. These unlock via the story and look to vary up exploration a lot while hopefully allowing you to revisit areas and find new secrets.

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The last feature NIS America showed us was the Release Line, which is a bit like a skill tree, but instead is used to apply permanent buffs to your character's stats. You'll collect Mana Seeds throughout the game, with each seed representing a different stat — defense, luck, attack, etc. Each seed can be equipped to the Release Line: seeds on the left affect Adol's stats, while those on the right are for Karja. Equipping seeds of the same colour and stat in a line will multiply the passive stat boost and effects of those seeds, so it's important to keep an eye on what seeds you're collecting and equipping. Fortunately, you can respec at any point.

The Ys series has gradually been getting bigger and bigger, and Ys X: Nordics might just be Falcom's biggest Ys adventure yet. While we got a taste of chapter 4 of 10 during the preview event, NIS emphasized that this wasn't the 50% mark of the game, meaning there's plenty of optional stuff to get lost in. Plus, given the larger parties of Lacrimosa of Dana and Monstrum Nox, spending time with just Adol and Karja feels refreshing.

Ys X: Nordics docks up on Nintendo Switch on 25th October 2024 in Europe and North America. Let us know below if you're ready to man the sails with Adol and crew.