Tag Archives: Ys

MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: Ten Years, Ten Games

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of β€œalternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups!Β Find out more hereΒ β€” and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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It is, as we’ve already said, the end of a decade. And, as you know, this makes it an ideal time to look back over the last ten years and figure out what experiences were the “best”.

Once again, like the awards for the last decade of visual novels, I’m not interested in the games that were the most critically acclaimed, the ones that sold the most or indeed the ones that are most commonly agreed to be “games of the year” for their respective year of release.

Instead, I’m going to pick out one game for each year of (English language) release that I found personally significant for one reason or another. I’d love to hear your own feelings on this, too, so feel free to share in the comments!

And the winners are…

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Announcements

Special Announcement: The MoeGamer Compendium, Volume 1

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Good morning, everyone! Today I wanted to share a very special announcement with you.

I made a book! Yes, for those who would like to remove the “always-online” DRM requirement from MoeGamer’s Cover Game features, I now present to you the ideal solution for all your reading needs: The MoeGamer Compendium, Volume 1, collecting together all of the Cover Game features originally published on the site in 2016.

Hit the jump for some more details, photos and links.

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Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 16 – Welcome to 2019!

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Hello! Welcome back to the first episode of The MoeGamer Podcast for 2019, featuring my good self and my good friend Chris Caskie ofΒ MrGilderPixels.

The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You canΒ subscribe to my channel on YouTubeΒ to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos; you canΒ follow on SoundcloudΒ for the audio-only version of the podcast; you canΒ subscribe via RSSΒ to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you canΒ subscribe via iTunes. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Or you can hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.

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Community

The One-Liner Challenge

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Time for a Community tag post! This one looked like a particularly fun one, and after the lovely Irina from I Drink and Watch Anime specifically requested me to do one about games, who was I to refuse?

The original tag came from The Awkward Book Blogger and was based around, as you might expect, books — but it has since expanded to encompass anime and now, thanks to my contribution, games as well.

So let’s jump right in. After the jump. Jumpy jumpy jump.

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GameCast

The MoeGamer GameCast: Episode 3

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In this episode, Midori, Yumi, Penelope and I talk about why so many modern JRPGs are flat-out ignored, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon MaidΒ and more.

Midori also has a quiz for you if you want to try and prove you know more than your average Western games journalist about the JRPG genre in general.

Screenshot 2017-02-15 14.13.16.png

The original music, as before, is by watson of MusMus, and the font is the work of Style64. Pieces of music from the various games and shows used in this episode remain the copyright of theirΒ respective owners.

Download for Windows (126MB)
Download for Mac (130MB)
Download for browser (98MB)

“Yamato” pointed out in the comments that the game window had the incorrect episode number. This should now be fixed. Please let me know if you encounter any other bugs, this episode was a lot more complex under the hood than the previous ones!

If you’re having trouble running the browser version, take a look at the TyranoBuilder FAQ, which explains how to run browser games locally — though be aware there can be some security risks involved, so only follow its recommendations when you want to run a browser-based episode of the GameCast.

When I have a bit more money floating around, I’ll sort out some proper hosting for browser versions so you don’t have to go through this process. If you’d like to help out with that, please consider making a pledge to my Patreon!

If you’re new to the GameCast, start from the beginning.

Cover Games, Ys

Ys: Sights and Sounds

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous

Much like its gameplay, the overall aesthetic of the Ys series has evolved considerably over time.

As technology has improved with each new generation of games consoles and computer hardware, theΒ YsΒ series hasΒ adaptedΒ and changed. And with its longstanding nature — not to mention itsΒ numerous remakes over the years —Β it’s fascinating not only from the perspective of examining how Falcom has improved the series over time, but as a means of showing how games in general have grown and changed.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how the sights and sounds of the series have changed over time, and their relevance to gaming’s evolution as a whole.

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Cover Games, Ys

Ys: Building a World, One Game at a Time

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>

One of the things Ys developer Falcom is most consistently praised for is its ability to craft convincing, well-realised game worlds.

It’s not just theΒ YsΒ series where Falcom demonstrates this; itsΒ The Legend of HeroesΒ series is also acclaimed for that, particularly in the more recentΒ TrailsΒ subseries, each component of which deals with one part of a coherent whole.

It’s perhapsΒ YsΒ that provides the most interesting example of Falcom’s approach to worldbuilding, though, because it’s an ongoing process — the complete work that isΒ YsΒ is continually growing, evolving and changing, and there’s no end in sight just yet.

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Cover Games, Ys

Ys: Evolution of an Action RPG

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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Alongside Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, Falcom’s Ys was instrumental in helping to establish and refine the Japanese take on the action RPG genre.

Both were designed with accessibility and ease of understanding in mind —Β ZeldaΒ through stripping out complicated RPG mechanics like statistics, experience levels and dice-based mechanics, andΒ YsΒ through simple, straightforward implementation of these mechanics — but both very quickly diverged in their own distinctive directions.

Let’s take a closer look at how the mechanics of theΒ YsΒ series have evolved and changed over the years.

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Cover Games, Ys

Ys: Introduction and History

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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TheΒ YsΒ series is one of the longest running franchises in gaming — yet it’s not nearly as well known as theΒ Final FantasiesΒ andΒ ZeldasΒ of this world.

ThisΒ is a shame, because not only does YsΒ represent developer Falcom arguably at its finest, the series as a whole hasΒ also been key in the development of the action RPG as a subgenre.

It also holds the dubious honour of being one of the most remade series of all time, refreshing and rewriting its various installments long before the concept of the HD remake ever reared its head.

Let’s take a look at the main series’ various releases in chronological order and see how it’s developed.

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