izigame.me

This was my first Ys game and it was definitely godlike.
+Music is godlike. Falcom just does not miss with soundtracks it is unreal. The menu theme is phenomenal and all the tracks in the different areas add to the world. The Lacrimosa of Dana track is by far my favorite track in the game.
+The world is full of life, the npcs are all important and none of them are left behind as the story progresses. Really feels like the community in a deserted island really comes close to try and survive very good world-building. Falcom just doesn't miss when it comes to world-building and npcs it seems.
+The story from chapter 3 onwards is very very captivating. They really go ham with the writing and the twists and turns along the way are nice. Don't want to go particular on the details to avoid spoilers but the way the way the island changes along with the story is very nice. I think it helps that Adol and Dana are such sick characters with an excellent dynamic despite Adol being a silent protagonist
+The characters are really nice. Adol is up there among my favorite silent protagonists of all time. Their interactions with one another is fun and honestly they add to the story really well. Dana is a really well-written character as a special mention. Sahad may seem boring but honestly he does add to the dynamic of the cast pretty well. Honestly all the characters together have a fun dynamic and each of them round up the cast well.
+New upgrades to adventurer gear really makes sense in terms of map expansion and it is done well. Even places right beside you feel new when you have new adventurer gear so it's a real nice way to feel like you are progressing in terms of story. Map exploration is just so dam fun in this game.
+The gameplay is amazing. The movement feels so nice. Flash guarding/moving feels very satisfying. The skills feel really nice to use and leveling them was a treat honestly. The freedom with how you want to play and who you want to play is very nice. There is no powercreep at all between the playable characters and you can just play whoever you want. This game truly is up there among the most fluid of action RPGs to play.
+Mashing the skills and hearing the sfx that comes with them was very satisfying. The extra moves were really fun to use and the animations were again very satisfying. Ricotta's extra move was definitely my favorite to use.
+The gameplay loop is so fun I found myself grinding all the character skills for every single character even if I can't use all 6 concurrently anyway. The unique characters really makes all of them so so so fun to use. I found myself constantly attacking this huge ass herbivore dinosaur looking thing over and over just to get tons of xp and I didn't grow tired of doing that again and again since the characters just feel so dam fun to play and the gameplay is just so dam fire.
+The world being so nice and different in the areas is just a bonus to the gameplay. Traversing the world and killing everything wasn't a chore and even the Dana dungeon portion was really really fun. In fact I went out of my way to even perfect the map. The exploring aspect was so dam fun in this game.
+The game is so fun I even finished the fishing log of this game. This game actually has fun fishing. I tried to go for all the collectibles in this game really since again the exploring is really fun but I wasn't able to do it in one go. Maybe one day I will go back since this game is really good and it got me to be a fan of the series.
-Adventurer gear upgrades may be nice but the way you get new adventurer gear just doesn't make sense.... Why is a random ass monster dropping you boots that let you walk on water for example.
-The characters are ugly. When I press the menu and see the 2d art of each character I feel really hyped since it looks really good. Seeing these characters when I leave the menu feels terrible since they are ugly. Why are the 3d models so ugly I don't understand.
-I said the story is good chapter 3 onwards but honestly the story before that is so boring and it feels like nothing is happening. I dropped the game many times before chapter 3 because of the boring story and how ugly the 3d models are but honestly don't let this dissuade you.
I am sorry Falcom for dropping your game a few times in the start. I should never have doubted Falcom.