The Y's series is one that's been around a long time and one that I've always been curious about, going back to the Turbographx-16. I was interested in trying this out for the PS2, and when the price went down to $20 I grabbed a copy.

GAMEPLAY - Well, it's pretty basic. You only have the protagonist, Adol, no party members here. During the course of the game Adol will acquire three different elemental swords (wind, fire and lightning) which he can power up with stones that are found after defeating enemies. As the swords are powered up they will achieve magic attacks, and this is the only magic in the game. Of your four main buttons, one will be used for attacks, one for jumps, one for sword magic and one for item (usually healing items, since there is no healing magic) usage. Rather simple. Reminded me of the NES and SNES Zelda games. Adol will level up as he acquires experience, and this only affects his strength and defense. Adol can acquire more powerful armor and shields through shops but strangely cannot sell back his old ones, which was disappointing. Adol's most common attack is the jump attack, which is simply jumping and then pushing the attack button to give a devastating attack on top of an enemy. Not much strategy for basic battles, but still fun and satisfying. The Boss battles do take some thought, as some of them will have specific weak areas that have to be taken advantage of for victory. There is some platforming in the game, but thankfully the areas that are difficult to reach are also not necessary, they just contain some nice items that you can still finish the game without going to.

GRAPHICS - This can be a bit deceiving. The first impression people may get from screen shots is that the people are small and squat, like the old SNES era RPGs. I can't argue with that, and there's no question they are using an old-school style that isn't going to make the PS2 break a sweat, probably not the PS1 either! However, after playing a few minutes I really started to enjoy the look. Maybe some of it was nostalgia, but the fact is that the game does have very colorful backgrounds and the characters do have nice anime style portraits that show up when they are talking. There are also some impressive CGI scenes as well.

SOUND - Perhaps the strongest attribute for me. Unlike many games, every person Adol talks to in the game will use speech, as opposed to only major characters using speech and everyone else using text. Now many have complained over the English voices, and I will admit that some are annoying. This actually brings up another strong point - you can use the Japanese voices with English subtitles, which as I've mentioned in other reviews is an attribute I think is great, as I enjoy hearing the Japanese language and they seem to use a more appropriate range of emotions. The music was also better than average. While it was not an overpowering orchestra like God of War, the tunes were very pleasant and never annoying. This is a soundtrack i would like to own.

Value - Compared to RPGs this game is a bit on the short side. I do not know exactly how long it took to complete this, but I would estimate somewhere between 20-25 hours. After completion the game can be played again on a more difficult level, and there is also a Boss-Rush mode that I haven't tried but looks interesting. From what I could tell this game did not really offer too much in terms of sidequests, you'll pretty much be sticking with completing the main story. I feel that as long as you can purchase this game for $20 or less it is worthwhile.

SUMMARY - In my reviews I generally don't spend time discussing the story, as that can easily be found out in the main review. In this case the story isn't anything that will astound you, and you aren't going to see any major character development. It's simply a straight forward action RPG that was a pleasant experience for me and I would recommend this to just about anyone that keeps their expectations to a reasonable level.