The Entire Ys Series - RANKED WORST TO BEST!! 

It's so great that one of the ogs of rpgs is not only still going, but constantly evolving and improving

I played the entire modernized Ys series this year starting from Ys I & II Chronicles and ending with Ys IX. It was impressive to me how fast and fluid these games were, especially for their time. I loved how they managed to pack a nice self-contained fast-paced adventure full of exploring and leveling up, but always with a little room to hang out and talk to other characters, all into an 8-10 hour experience. It feels like this balance has been lost though once they hit Ys VIII, started focusing on story and cutscenes more, and ballooning out playtime to 50+ hours. I normally like big meaty RPGs, like I'm about to start Cold Steel IV soon, but I think Ys had hit a very special niche in its earlier titles, with Ys Seven's satisfying sweet spot at around 30 hours... One thing I love about the series is how they keep experimenting and refining aspects to make combat faster and more aggressive. Whether it's adding a charge attack, or an exp multiplier if you can keep up an attack streak, or revising the charge attack so that you can do it without even holding a button, then onward with flash guards and flash moves, there are so many little iterations. Right when I think they can't possibly get much more out of their combat system they do something wild like using Ys IX's Crimson Line to warpstrike enemies! I think one of the biggest downsides to the games getting more ambitious is how absolutely noisy combat has gotten, with everyone's fully voiced attacks screaming all over the music. Let me enjoy those amazing field themes, damn! I guess my takeaway is that the series is great but it feels like it's losing focus, or maybe focusing on things I didn't think needed attention, instead of what makes Ys unique and appealing.

I’ve been slowly working my way through the Ys games catalogue since the start of this year and I love them all so far. The music is just phenomenal and i find myself listening to the soundtracks in my truck or at the gym all the time.

One small correction the original YS was developed for the PC-8801, it was part of a computer line created by NEC, the same company that produced the TG16. The NES version actually came out a year later.

Yes! Love these ranked videos! Never played a Ys game, but it’s good to hear that you think all but one of them is good! Keep it up my dude!

Love this video. And I’m so glad I gave Y’s a chance and I hope other people play some of the series’ games too!!

You clearly read my mind, because a few weeks ago I was thinking of getting into Ys and thought I'd look to see if you'd made a ranking video for the series to get an idea of where to start!

Great video! I've been working through the Ys games for my channel, and I'm kind of heartened to see that the two best games are also the two latest ones. I'm especially looking forward to getting to Ys 9, the mobility Adol has just looks like so much fun.

great vid man! Glad i subbed

Solid ranking! I've played all of the games and Ys IX is also my favourite. It just feels amazing to move around in that game.

It's strange to play as a soulless protagonist, what with Adol being a red-head and all...

Definitely love the bulk of the entries for this series. I did play ys3 for super nes and I had a strategy for beating the final boss using the mirror as a death blow. Looking forward to Wednesday night stream and final fantasy 6 romhack. Have a great day David and Ken.

Great list, I actually got into the Ys series last year based on your videos and have now beaten all of them. I am now working my way through the Trails series and am wondering why I had never heard of Falcom before as they have quickly become one of my favorite developers.

ys 7 was such an amazing experience at the time, will always remember that first playthrough, up there with memories of playing half life and hl2 for the first time

I did a ranking of the ones on steam and am refreshed to see IX as number 1. Great vid!

I recently got into the Ys series with Ys Origin and I'm hooked! Definitely going to pick up Ys VIII and IX for the Switch. Loved the video and had to drop a sub. Thank you!

Played Celceta and Lacrimosa and liked both. You convinced me to give Monstrum a go! Thanks David!!!

After playing through most of them, I would rank them as: 1. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana 2. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox 3. Ys Memories of Celceta 4. Ys Origins 5. Ys Seven I have played most of the older ones except for Dawn of Ys. A great series.

Your favorites among the Ys series are pretty much identical to my own. Earlier this year I binged on the entire Ys series and it was one of the best experiences I've had in gaming. I had previously only played Ys I on the Master System, Ys Books I & II on the Turbo CD, and Ys III: Wanderers from Ys on the Genesis and I got curious about the rest of the series when seeing announcements about Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. This brought back some fond memories of those games and inspired me to investigate the rest of the series, which is one of the best gaming decisions I have ever made. Now I am a huge fan of the entire series and consider it to be among my all time favorites. Ys IX is also one of the best games released this year and it is a shame that it is not getting the praise and publicity that it deserves.

I'm just so happy and glad that not only the Ys series is still going so strong for almost 40 years, but it's finally getting known as a great JRPG series as it is. It's such an underrated series in my opinion, cause it get so passed up by other series like Final Fantasy, The Tales of series, and the like. Ys 8 is my absolute favorite out of the all. 2nd is Ys Seven and 3rd is The Oath to Felgahna. I've played the original Ys 3, but I just prefer this one more. I'm definitely gonna play Ys IX once I have the chance. Hopefully if Falcom makes another remake, I hope soon enough.

Ys III was actually pretty good on other systems like TurboGrafx CD and Genesis. I enjoyed it for what it is despite not being like other Ys games.

Thanks, also my favorite game in the series is Ys IX. I love the characters, mechanics and the exploration. My top 3 are: 1. Ys IX, 2. Ys VIII, 3. Ys M. of celceta.

Let's get this party bumpin'! There's never Adol moment with the Ys series! Okay, okay, I'll stop xD But ye, I remember being blown away when downloaded Ys Book I&II on Wii Virtual Console. I wasn't expecting a 16 bit game from 1990 to have a fully voiced intro or excellent, crystal clear sound quality! That really kick-started my love of the series, and while I haven't played them all (I really need to pick up IX, especially) that just means I have a lot to look forward to!

I have to admit I was a late adopter to the Ys series. It really wasn't until VIII that I really took notice. Only a few Action RPG's really got my attention and for a long time I lumped this series with the Arc of the Lad series in what I thought of was B roll RPG's. I still can't get myself to go back to the "bump" era of Ys games but I'm game for the modern versions. I kick myself for not buying the ones on PSP that were cheap back at GameExchange in the early 2000's. Thanks for the great video that really broke down the timeline / remake order.

we need more of this than those dungeon ranking videos.

I just started messing with this series. I beat Origin with all characters and now I’m playing Ys I and II Chronicles. Probably finish part 1 today.

Now this is a video I'm happy to wake up to!

I absolutely love the Ys series. This video is just what I needed today.

Hey David. Love the Ys series, been one of my favourites for about 10 years now. Great list. I had a question for you. I recently watched 2 of your let's plays, Chrono Trigger and the modded FF4. I was curios what is your favourite let's play you have done?

That thumbnail is pristine Edit: I played through the whole series in the last past years. One of my favorite gaming series ever. Love how they made wanderers from one of the worst to one of the best with the remake.

Ys is a series I've had my eye on and was already set on venturing through it more soon once I clear more of my backlog! (already own origins & 8) Played a bit of the first and like it

Plot Summary of Ys Games: Adol falls off a boat and has to fight monsters until someone comes to pick him up

Hey David as a newcomer to the series I have a question about Ys 6 As you said it was released on PS2, PSP, PC Aside from graphics is there any significant difference in the version you play? Also in regard to Ys 5 was it ever released here in the west?

The only problem I have with this is that I'd put YS I&II Chronicles at number 4. The rest of the ranking is basically the same way as mine with only YS VIII as number 1 and IX as 2.

I can’t believe it’s 2024 and I actually never heard of this game ever 😫 I’m definitely buying it for my switch and going to try it out

I'm sorry and I know this is irrelevant to this video but I'm getting a ps3 soon for the first time ever and I was hoping you could suggest what RPG games I should get that are similar to Final Fantasy/Tales series. Hope to hear from you and sorry again.

Nice list. Adol would be proud.

Bro, Ys 3 was amazing man. I remember it on the SNES, and it had an amazing soundtrack.

Fantastic list of games and I do agree with number 1 for sure! Tales of Arise is a masterpiece of a game. I did want to give a quick shout out to a couple of Koei Tecmo entries for this year: Atelier Ryza 2 and Blue Reflection: Second Light. They are not everyone’s cup of tea but they are great RPGs as well.

Great video :) I've played (and therefore rank) only 6 of them: 1. Ys VIII 2. Ys Memories of Celceta 3. Ys Origin 4 Ys IX 5. Ark of Napishtim 6. Ys III

What's the best entry point? I’ve been looking at Ys 8.

I LOVE this series SO MUCH I only played 3 games 1&2,Felgahna and Seven All On PSP And that's Enough for me to say that the series was just wholesome. for me experiencing the 3 main combat systems. bump System,Ark of Napishtim System and Party System was just the best thing I EVER Grinding was Actually Fun They were short adventures that Were Just So awesome I Hope I Get To Play 8&9 Someday Love This Franchise So much

As for Ys IV, there are 4 released versions of it. Dawn of Ys(which ranks up there as one of my favorite in the entire series), Mask of the Sun(which ranks somewhere at the bottom with Ys V), Memories of Celceta(which is a good fun game, but disapointing as a remake), and Mask of the Sun: A New Theory for PS2 by Taito(who also did III and V on PS2). There was almost a 5th Ys IV game on Mega CD, called Mask of the Sun, but it went unreleased and no known prototype exists yet.

I absolutely loved Ys 8, if you're saying Monstrum Nox is even better I am positively thrilled to actually go through it!

So I have a question, I’ve been wanting to play the series. The question is, do I need to play them in numerical order? Or is it like the Final fantasy series? Where you can just pick up a random one and enjoy it to the fullest?

Been playing the games recently and I’m having tons of fun. Only played the first 4 so far (4 as in Mask of the Sun) but I’m hyped for the others. My rank so far 4. Mask of the Sun 3. Ys 2: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter 2. Wanderers from Ys 1. Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished

Starting to love the ys series and adol!! Lol. I decided to play them backwards so I completed monstrum nox and now on ys 8.. such a fantastic soundtrack..

I'm watching/listening to this while unboxing the PS Vita physical copy of Ys Origin (and Dragon's Crown) I got recently.

Since YS Seven was my first game this is my top Ys game :D second is Ys vs Trails in the Sky : Alternative Saga ~ will play the other series when not busy and stream it here on YT and also thank you David on ur Ys Seven Walkthrough i am using ur videos make through on the hardest dungeons and also sidequests on the game :D

Ys VI was my first game in the series on psp and have loved it ever since.

Hi David, nice video as always. Did you play Monstrum nox on the Switch? I'm kinda worried about those performance issues...

Oath in Felghana, Ys 8 and Dawn of Ys are my favorites.

Ys IX is definitely my fave as well. I never paid much attention to the series until I bought Ys VIII and Memories of Celceta on a whim. And now? I've finished pretty much every single one of the modern games barring Ys I and II. It is up there as one of my all-time favorites, and Ys IX is within my top ten favorite games ever, if not top 5 or even 3.

Funny thing, I found out about the Ys universe through Wanderers of Ys III lmao, and I loved it as a kid! Thank god for Oath in Felghana though

Ys 8 my fave ❤❤❤

I would say that Ys VIII is my favorite in the series. The story and characters were so memorable, especially Dana (pronounced like Mana btw). I still listen to Ys VIII soundtracks every now and then, that's how much this game means to me.

Ys III on SNES was the first one I ever played as a kid. It traumatized me so I never played another one again. Looks like I need to give the series another try!

Never got into the series before. I bought most of them on GOG because they go on sale frequently. I tried playing ys origins earlier this year and couldnt really get into it! I figured it would be the best place to start because the timeline starts there. Maybe I should give ys 1 and 2 a shot first.

i wanna give a shotout to all 4 pc engine cd games. they may not have gameplay that hold up today but the soundtrack still does. I still can honestly say that Wanderers of Ys for the pc engine cd is the best soundtrack in the whole series. Dawn of Ys also holds up extremely well. 'be careful' from wanderers of ys and 'a great ordeal' from dawn of ys are the best representations, i highly implore you to listen

ys viii is a very funny entry imo as a jrpg it's probably the best of the series even by a margin but as an ys (the ys atmosphere) it's pretty close from (if not in) the bottom.

The Ys game that use the YS VI engine were actually developed for Micrsoft Windows first. Falcom was the few developers making retail game for the PC Market in Japan until they started porting their title to console and PSP(From 1998 to 2008 everything they developed was released for Windows first). IIRC YS VII was when Falcom started developing exclusively for handhelds before XSeed published their titles on Steam. YS IV was developed by Tonkin House for the Super Famicom and Hudson for the PC Engine CD. Until Memories of Celceta was releaseed the Super Famicom game considered the Canon version due to following the outline Falcom gave the devs much more closely which was about how much work Falcom actually did for YS IV in the 90s.

Off topic, but damn you look great with facial hair! ❤️

I'm on of those strange people that like Ys 3 but I prefer the Genesis version as the SNES version has hit detection issues. It's also on the TB16 but apparently it runs at 15FPS and it really looks like a slide show but that version has incredible music. My top 3 are probably 1. Lacrimosa Of Dana 2. Monstrum Nox 3. Memories Of Celceta If you can get Celceta on PC you can run at an uncapped frame rate and it's so amazing playing it at 240FPS.

Agree with pretty much everything except Lacrimos, which is my #1 by far and one of my top 10 fav games of all time

Solid listing.

I'm also in the Ys IX > Ys VIII camp, but Oath in Felghana and Origin beat out both of them on my list. So my ranking is a little like: Oath in Felghana > Origin > Monstrum Nox > Lacrimosa of Dana > Ark of Napishtim > Seven > Memories of Celceta > I & II

My ranking is very similar to yours, but I still like VIII more than IX. Might be because VIII's OST is so. damned. good. Also, I find it really hard to enjoy the 'bump' Ys nowadays, even if some are classics. Very satisfied with the current direction they are going. Feels like the series is really close to a modern smash hit.

I will say I picked up Y's VIII and Y's IX after playing through a LOT of the trails games. While the y's games stories are more self contained, and doesn't interconnect as much as the trails series, i admit they were a breath of fresh air after so many Trails games with reoccurring characters who we would just see over and over and it felt like after several games, that the story doesn't progress (Trails of cold steel kind of fixed this but by IV it felt too......self congratulatory?) I really liked VIII (though felt the ending was a bit lacking) and I really have liked IX so far!

Couldn't agree more

I have been an Ys fan since the Turbografx-16 CD which was basically a pioneer for cutscenes, voice acting, and music well beyond the chip tune music that was all that really existed before it. Ys Book1 and 2 on the TG-16 always be my favorite. Only Ys 4 I played was Memories of Celceta as I don't think there was an official western release of Ys 4 for SNES or TG-16. Also not sure Ys 5 ever got an official western release either. Ys 3 on TG-16 CD has some of the best music in any Ys game, it had choppy parallex and was a short sidescroller adventure, but I found it fun.

Was Ys IV really released on the Wii?

The first Ys I play was Ys origin. It was on sale, I had never heard of the Ys series but it looked nice. Boy, did that sell me into the series right away. The thing I think Ys does exceptionally right is that the ai of your party members feel so good. You always feel like they are party if the fight and not just to die or heal you, *cough kingdom hearts cough* Also what are the odds of us getting a Ys character ranked list?

Genesis version of y’s 3 is pretty dope

I've been trying to do the series in order, and holy shit are the first two games hard.

The only problem I got with Memories of Celceta is that it brought back very few tracks from the SNES/PC-Engine versions, and a few of those aren't great remixes (like Battle #58). Doesn't help there are actually new tracks. My favorite pieces were Karna's theme, or A Great Ordeal, and those weren't even included.

Personally feel like Ys 1 and 2 should be a TAD higher because they've aged pretty well this is still a damn good list

Ys Seven is still one of my favorite PSP games to date.

Isn't there a rumor that at one of the game shows Falcom is going to announce the next Ys game because it's the anniversary? If they are making an anniversary game, I hope it's a remake of Ys 5.

I don't understand why you specifically only mentioned the SNES version of Ys 3 when, like Ys 1&2 it was released on many, many different platforms. Also, this is just a nitpick, but it's "Eeess", not "Ease". Other than that, nice video!

Only games I've played were 3 and the PS2 one. And yes the 3rd game is difficult so much that it wasn't until I played it on my phone's emulator with cheats that I was finally able to beat the last boss. 😜

You know, I really like the “Y’s” series, having played the originals as a child and then got back into the series with “Oath in Felghana”. But “Y’s 8”, I have just not been able to get into so far. Now, I’m still very early in the game, I’ve only had one brief vision of Dana. But I’ve been so frustrated with the maps and areas and constantly getting lost. But I’m going to give it another chance based on your praise! (My lukewarm feelings toward “Y’s 8” are why I haven’t picked up “Y’s 9” yet)

YS VI is my first and best YS game so far lol

I wanted to get into the series and even though I know people say you don't need to play every game,I feel like for me I do.so unless I can get all of im out lol.im currently playing trials of cold steel and im obsessed.i bought them all on the ps4 sale this month.so far on the 1st and reminds me of ps2 era persona but less time wasting.i say check it out

I got a top 10 for you. Top 10 RPGs that take forever to get to the point of the the story. Example. Final Fantasy IX, Dragon Quest VII, Kingdom Hearts II. These games can take hours before you even start to get into the story. Like FFIX does not get into the story until Lindenblum, DQVII takes almost untill 1/3 into the game before you even know what is going on with the broken world and KHII take 4 hours just before you get the story started with after all that Roxas stuff.

Ys Origins was my first Ys game.

I liked Oath more than Orgin. Imo it has better exploration (since you arent stuck in a tower) and harder difficulty.

I agree 100%

You did this in the bathroom while in the Caribbean while ken was snoozing, didn't you?

Mazy and long dungeons aren't "dated", they're challenging and fun.

1. Ys 8 2. Ys 9 3. Ys: Memories of Celceta 4. Ys 7 5. Ys: Oath in Felghana 6. Ys: Origin 7. Ys: Ark of Napishtim 8. Ys 5 9. Ys Chronicles: 1 & 2

Let me say this straight out... I never played any of the Ys-games at all. The first Ys game to released in Europe was Ys: Memories of Celceta, otherwise the earlier titles weren't released in Europe. It could also be due to the fact that Ys was an obscure series that not everyone have heard of

The top 6 are all worth to play

Ys III is my favorite, largely for the story and how it continued the series in a believable way after the intense drama of the first two games. There was an obvious background romance between Elena and Adol, and it's disappointing but similarly believable that story would be lost in the series. If you give it a bit of time in the beginning, you can beat the game in only a couple hours and leave the second dungeon at max level. When you find the cave with the endless free medical herb and the fire birds you can reach max level in no time. The Steam remake of Ys III is superb and I loved that version as well. Steam and Falcom are on great terms with each other, with Steam having expressed a desire for all of Falcom's games. We'll see Ys for years to come. :)

Half way through this all I'm thinking is, okay so what you're saying is that each title is better than it's predecessor

Dogi being sexy one game to a mess the next is a hate crime

My ranking of the cannon games except V: 1. Lacrimosa of DANA 2. Origin 3. The Oath in Felghana 4. Monstrum Nox 5. Memories of Celceta 6. The Ark of Napishtim 7. Seven 8. I & II Chronicles

I have played Ys 6 the ark of naphistim Ys 7 Ys origin Ys the oath of felgana Ys memories of celceta Ys chronicles 1 and 2 Still have to play Ys 8 and 9 someday

I'm a weirdo, it seems. My first Ys game was #3 on the SNES, and I liked it. I'd never go back and play it. Too much jank to work around. Hey, I was a kid and didn't know any better! Cut me some slack! Can't really comment on the rest of the series until 8 and 9. I liked 8, but the switching between the past and present segments kinda put me off. It felt like padding with how you had to level up Dana in two eras and explore a whole separate dungeon. 9, however, managed to take everything I disliked about 8 and make it fun. The separate hero segments were short and you didnt have to level your character to get through them (in fact, you couldn't as they were more stealth akin to missions). I know this would kinda sour the experience for some people, but my brother (a massive Ys fan) and I have been hoping for some grand sendoff for the series at some point (not now; the series is just gaining a lot of traction). All these adventures, and all these different characters Adol and Dogi encounter; there's a lot of support they could call on, should a worldwide situation occur. How fun would it be to play an Ys game where every character they met along the way joined up to take on some cataclysmic evil? A Musou/Warriors style game could work, but that might be a bit cheap as a final game. I dunno... Just a wayward thought.

I've only played Seven, Celceta, Dana and Nox. And out of those 4, Nox is the worst. It bored me to no end.

Oath is the best IMO, but 7, 8, 9, and Celceta are all fantastic as well. I grew up on Ys 3 so I do enjoy it a lot despite it being pretty awful. The SNES version is the hardest version as well. The PS2 remake is pretty neat for weirdos like me.