Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim coming to PC in just over a week

Ys VI

I'm a latecomer to the Ys series, but after playing, and enjoying, the original game for the first time a few months ago, I've become quite excited to play the rest. They're like much faster, much more action-packed takes on the Zelda formula, at least from what I've played and seen of the series. Ys I, II, III: The Oath in Felghana, and prequel Ys Origin finally came to Western PCs (to GOG, the Humble store and Steam) a while ago, and now publisher XSEED has announced that another is on the way.

It's Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, which originally came out on PC back in 2003, Alas, it too didn't release in the West originally, but that grievous oversight is to be fixed on April 28th. Ys VI will set you back $19.99/€17.99/£13.99 from the aforementioned stores, and it comes with a whole host of changes and improvements over the original game, and over the console and handheld versions that came out later.

There's a new translation, as detailed here, along with controller and widescreen support, checkpoint warping (one of the common complaints of Ys VI was that it featured too much backtracking), and a new Catastrophe mode that won't let you pack healing items for later.

Here's the typically hyperactive PC announcement trailer (thanks, Destructoid):

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.