[Mini-Review] Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
Falcom's cutesy action RPG finally arrives on the PSP, but not without a few glaring issues.
Published: April 4, 2006
The Good
Here at TPS, we pride ourselves on bringing our visitors some of the most in-depth coverage of games that we can. No, we can't cover every game, and chances are you'll read a review a good week or so after most of the other guys have put theirs up, but you can count on it being a solid, informative review.
Which is why it's so hard to do a mini-review on Ys, but saying much more than "it's a near-carbon copy of the PS2 game" we reviewed over a year ago just sums it up so nicely. By all means, read that review, because we're just as happy to see the game on the PSP as we were to get it on the PS2 -- even more so because it's the perfect type of game for the RPG-starved portable.
That's not to say the game hasn't undergone a few changes during its trip to the PSP, though. Konami originally opted to replace the 2D hand-drawn sprites of the Japanese PC version of the game with full polygons when they moved it to the PS2, but with the PSP release, Nihon Falcom's original intended look and feel for the game has been preserved. Though it's a small change, it does help the characters meld more readily with the 3D backgrounds, and it's a more natural fit for the PSP's lovely little screen.
Konami also took the time to include a handful of mini-games that are unlocked as you play through the single-player experience. They are multi-player-friendly, but in all honesty, they aren't terribly engaging. The most entertaining of them is something of an obstacle course, and it's actually a good way to practice some of the more advanced moves that the hero, Adol, has at his disposal like the dash jump. Things like weeding out monsters cloaked as villagers and a game of memory on the beach certainly aren't bad, but they're not good enough to sell the game over.
Konami also reformatted the anime introduction to fill the PSPs 16:9 screen, which was a nice touch. It does, of course, look awesome, but then it's hard for a well compressed video with lots of color and smooth motion to not look good on the screen.
The Bad
No matter how good everything looks (and it does still look good, even shrunk down a bit), there's no avoiding the one problem the game picked up on its trip from PS2 to PSP: load times. The poor PSP starts choking on UMD data almost instantly, and chugs when loading menus, changing screens, starting a conversation, and just about everything else that's requires button input.
It's not that the load times are especially terrible, they're just frequent, and they add up to a fair amount of waiting, and that pulls you away from what is a fairly slow storyline in the beginning of the game. I shudder to think what the load times would have been like had the voice acting been included too, though that was never so amazing that I really miss it, per se, but it clearly had enough of an impact that I can still hear the characters' voices when I play the PSP version.
The Verdict
Given that The Ark of Napishtim has already been out on the PS2 for a year, and probably goes for less than the PSP version, it's hard to call the game an instant buy, especially with the loading time problem. Thing is, the PSP is still in need of a good RPG, and loading screens or not, this is a very, very good, old-school action RPG. It's the exact kind of game -- if not the presentation of it -- that the PSP is hurting for so much right now, and in all honesty, once you're a few hours in to the game, it's fairly easy to overlook the loading screens and lose yourself in the action.
Is the loading annoying? Sure, but does it ruin the game experience? Not especially. It might change it, slow the whole thing down, but then this wasn't really a briskly-paced game in the first place. It hampers the experience, but doesn't kill it, and that means Ys can still be, well, Ys, a back-to-basics approach to an action RPG that just plain fun.
Here at TPS, we pride ourselves on bringing our visitors some of the most in-depth coverage of games that we can. No, we can't cover every game, and chances are you'll read a review a good week or so after most of the other guys have put theirs up, but you can count on it being a solid, informative review.
Which is why it's so hard to do a mini-review on Ys, but saying much more than "it's a near-carbon copy of the PS2 game" we reviewed over a year ago just sums it up so nicely. By all means, read that review, because we're just as happy to see the game on the PSP as we were to get it on the PS2 -- even more so because it's the perfect type of game for the RPG-starved portable.
That's not to say the game hasn't undergone a few changes during its trip to the PSP, though. Konami originally opted to replace the 2D hand-drawn sprites of the Japanese PC version of the game with full polygons when they moved it to the PS2, but with the PSP release, Nihon Falcom's original intended look and feel for the game has been preserved. Though it's a small change, it does help the characters meld more readily with the 3D backgrounds, and it's a more natural fit for the PSP's lovely little screen.
Konami also took the time to include a handful of mini-games that are unlocked as you play through the single-player experience. They are multi-player-friendly, but in all honesty, they aren't terribly engaging. The most entertaining of them is something of an obstacle course, and it's actually a good way to practice some of the more advanced moves that the hero, Adol, has at his disposal like the dash jump. Things like weeding out monsters cloaked as villagers and a game of memory on the beach certainly aren't bad, but they're not good enough to sell the game over.
Konami also reformatted the anime introduction to fill the PSPs 16:9 screen, which was a nice touch. It does, of course, look awesome, but then it's hard for a well compressed video with lots of color and smooth motion to not look good on the screen.
The Bad
No matter how good everything looks (and it does still look good, even shrunk down a bit), there's no avoiding the one problem the game picked up on its trip from PS2 to PSP: load times. The poor PSP starts choking on UMD data almost instantly, and chugs when loading menus, changing screens, starting a conversation, and just about everything else that's requires button input.
It's not that the load times are especially terrible, they're just frequent, and they add up to a fair amount of waiting, and that pulls you away from what is a fairly slow storyline in the beginning of the game. I shudder to think what the load times would have been like had the voice acting been included too, though that was never so amazing that I really miss it, per se, but it clearly had enough of an impact that I can still hear the characters' voices when I play the PSP version.
The Verdict
Given that The Ark of Napishtim has already been out on the PS2 for a year, and probably goes for less than the PSP version, it's hard to call the game an instant buy, especially with the loading time problem. Thing is, the PSP is still in need of a good RPG, and loading screens or not, this is a very, very good, old-school action RPG. It's the exact kind of game -- if not the presentation of it -- that the PSP is hurting for so much right now, and in all honesty, once you're a few hours in to the game, it's fairly easy to overlook the loading screens and lose yourself in the action.
Is the loading annoying? Sure, but does it ruin the game experience? Not especially. It might change it, slow the whole thing down, but then this wasn't really a briskly-paced game in the first place. It hampers the experience, but doesn't kill it, and that means Ys can still be, well, Ys, a back-to-basics approach to an action RPG that just plain fun.