4.5/5 ★ – Ishu's review of Ys: Book I & II.

Same as my chronicles review. Ys 1 is super fun with only a few issues here and there. These issues being some bosses just being extremely unfair like the bat boss and the twin heads. It's hard to figure out when it's safe to hit the bat boss, and if he hits you, you'll take a lot of damage. This is the same with the twin heads as their rotating projectiles will deal a lot of damage as well. My next complaint is that it can be hard to figure out where to go at times, but most of the time NPCs will tell you what you have to do. Ys 2 can be seen as a vast improvement to Ys 1 in many ways. The combat is a lot more diverse with the addition of a magic system, and the bosses are a lot better than they were in Ys 1. My only gripe with this game is that progression can feel extremely cryptic at times with how labyrinth-like the areas are, but you eventually figure out what to do and characters in game give you good hints to help you progress as well.