For whoever reads it, I'm gonna start a little section of this here blog where I ramble on about games I've played recently. They really won't be "reviews" per se, but rather just bits of info I feel like talking about, like my feelings on the game, whether it's worth buying and playing, etc. With that said...

The Ys series is one that I, sadly, have only recently gotten into. I heard about it, but never got around to trying it. Then one day I did, and realized I was missing out on the best RPGs I have played. It dethroned Dragon Quest, though I still keep Dragon Quest on a pedestal for turn-based RPGs, and Ys on a pedestal for action RPGs. Still, I like Ys better.

Which is why I'm gonna say, if you can buy any of the games, do so. While Ys I and II are hard to get hold of for a PC gamer (you'll have to turn to fan translations and such), there's a PSP version, and I believe Ys I and II are on the Wii's Virtual Console as well. However, Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Ys III remake), as well as Ys Origin (prequel to I and II) are much easier to get. They're on Steam, and well worth the cost (Oath in Felghana is 14.99$ while Origin is 19.99$) if you ask me. You get a lot of game for your money, and if you can't play I and II, you shouldn't feel alienated, really, since, while there is a continuity, you won't feel like like you haven't got a clue what the heck's going on because of how the story is. If you buy them, though, be prepared for some epic ARPG action, with fittingly epic boss battles.

Now, with that out of the way, I'll go onto talking about the game this entry is title is named after. I picked up the PS2 version of AoN a while back, for a reasonable price, but I put off playing the game for a while. However, recently I picked it up, and the first thing I noticed is that the controls were really good. Once I got into the game and unlocked more functions, I realized that the controls felt right. It's hard to talk about controls because the only way to know if a game controls right is to play it firsthand. Might seem like an odd thing for me to mention, but for any games, especially ones of this genre, the control has to be good, or the greatest game can be a POS. This game gets controls right. There is a certain kind of jump, however, that gave me a hard time. Essentially, you let go of the control pad/stick, and with proper timing, slash, then jump, which flings you a wide distance. This is necessary in some spots. It didn't give me major problems, but it was annoying because I had a hard time pulling it off right. Don't know if it's a control problem, or just me failing to grasp a simple concept. Either way, it doesn't drag the game down.

Mechanics are typical Ys fare. Slashing is there (obviously), jumping's there, the works. Magic is in the form of three swords you obtain, that you cycle through with L1 and R1. You've got wind, in the form of a spinning cyclone that you can use to ram through enemies, dealing many hits. You've got fire, in the form of a line of fire that deals heavy damage, the heaviest of all the magic. Then, you've got electricity, in the form of a bolt of electricity that arcs from enemy to enemy. Great for some bosses, this is the one you'll probably use most when you're running around on the field, because you can take out groups of weaker enemies with it effortlessly.

The music. Well, it's Falcom, so of course it's amazing.

The bosses. Well, I'll admit, the bosses seemed kinda... weak when compared to the other games in the series I've played. I've only touched normal difficulty for AoN, but even then, I can say without a doubt they were less of a challenge to me then the previous games' bosses. Seems like, once I figured out what to do when fighting each boss, many of them went down quickly. Even the final boss. Maybe I overleveled, I dunno. Either way, the boss fights are still really fun, and they were still challenging enough to be entertaining and hold my attention.

Art's great, story's good. Don't want to elaborate more because I'm trying to keep this fairly spoiler-free. Is the game worth getting? Yes. While the main story of this game may be rather short (can't remember specifically how much time I spent playing it, but it's no Blue Dragon, that's for sure), the game's got a lot of meat to it, in the form of sidequests, levels, upgrades, and people to talk to. All dialogue has voice acting, and while a couple voices may make you cringe, most of them are pretty good. You'll spend quite a few hours exploring, killing enemies, bosses, talking with characters, furthering the story, there's just a lot of stuff to do. Definitely a good game to add to your PS2 library. If you like action RPGs, hunt this game down. You will not regret it.