More franchises that I've somewhat played. This time Dragon Quest, Ys, and Metal Gear Solid!
Letās continue where we left off!
These are some more videogame series Iāve been following. These ones arenāt really games I got into during my childhood (although I knew about some of them), but I actually discovered or played them for the first time during my teenage years!
This is a long time running franchise that I absolutely love. I discovered it much later in my life, and I appreciate what it does quite a bit.
I got started with Ys Seven on my PSP. I saw it in a YouTube video recommending hidden gems for the handheld, before I even knew it was a franchise, and I was just amazed by it. It had some awesome attacks, skills and animation, great boss battles and a lot of playable characters I could switch between to do different kinds of attacks. itās one of the few games I completed in 2023.
Basically, it follows the life of Adol, a hero who helps whoever is in need. The games are all action RPGs, in the style of The Legend of Zelda, but with more focus on combat and less in puzzles. It also borrows some Metroidvania elements, like locked pathways under certain abilities or equipment, and backtracking to completed dungeons to get new items.
Once I got my Nintendo Switch, I also acquired Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and Ys Origins. I also plan to buy Ys X: Nordics sometime soon. I have not even played many of these games, but I just trust the people behind the series with my life for some reason
I am currently playing Ys: The Oath in Felghana, a remake of the 3rd game of the franchise for the PSP. This one lacks combo moves and a character party, but it manages to perfect the essentials of an action rpg, have a pretty decent story, fun characters and a lot of tough as nails boss fights! I am about to face the final boss, and will do so after I upgrade my equipment one last time!
There are a lot of differences between the games, the first two feature bump combat, later on they used hack and slash aerial view combat (like Oath and Seven) and then they went fully 3D, in 3rd person view from VIII onwards. I am yet to play the bumping combat style of the originals, and I have only played a bit of the demo of Ys X for the 3D ones, I really think any game of this franchise is a good starting point, except for IX, which is very different in setting from the rest.
Metal Gear Solid
I always loved spy and secret agent stories, the Max Steel animated movies from the early 2000s were absolutely my childhood (apparently a failure in the US, but beloved in Mexico and Latin America!) so when I learned about this franchise, I was into it! I didnāt even know that it also featured giant mecha robots sometimes, so that was cool too.
This is a series I havenāt followed that much. I have played Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 on my PSP, and I made quite a bit of progress on it. However, this is one save file I did lose, right before the fight against Psycho Mantis.
On the PSP I also had Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a fantastic game that is simply unbelievable to think that itās made for a handheld, it was a joy to play. However, for some reason, I abandoned it, I think it was a boss I couldnāt beat, the game was designed with co-op multiplayer in mind, and some of the bosses can be a bit difficult for that reason.
So I started the PS1 original again, over on my RG35XX SP handheld, and had a bit of fun, but I havenāt reached the same point as on my PSP yet, because of other games stealing the spotlight right now.
Nowadays I think the original trilogy is available almost everywhere. The original title for PS1 holds up quite well compared to other PS1 titles. Iād say itās a great starting point, but I havenāt played the others so, your mileage may varyā¦ I think the timeline of this one is rather convoluted, so I would stick with playing them in release order, but I donāt care that much.
Dragon Quest
I will admit, once again, that I was a bit of a snob when I got into JRPGs, and even though I would say āFinal Fantasy is better than Fire Emblem because it came firstā, I could not think that āDragon Quest came before Final Fantasy so it must be better tooā.
In fact, I was kind of ignorant and didnāt even know about this franchise until much, much later.
The first time I tried it was with Dragon Quest III for the SNES, playing with a translation patch. I wanted to participate in a certain challenge where you are assigned a random party to play with, but I forgot the hashtag (all I know is it was happening around March of 2023, in case you know let me know!). I ended up dropping the game as soon as I selected my party members, I donāt even remember doing a battle on it for some reason.
After listening to Into The Aether for quite a while, I saw the love they had for Dragon Quest as a franchise, and since I usually like the games they recommend, I decided I would pick up Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definite Edition for Switch at some point.
The game is incredibly expensive when compared to other Switch titles, so as soon as I saw it on discount in Mercado Libre, I pulled the trigger at once.
I have played it for more than 20 hours now, on and off, from time to time, and I am absolutely in love with this game. It really is like playing your own fairy tale in the truest sense.
Now that the HD-2D remake for DQ3 exists, and the remake for 1+2 is coming soon, I believe those would be better ways to get into the franchise. Simply because XI apparently has lots of references for long time players. I am personally unaffected by this, but if you donāt wanna miss out, consider the original trilogy. I heard the original titles ported to the Game Boy Color have a lot of charm as well! As far as I could tell, any game except VI is good to get into this series.
To be continued!
This is not it yet! I still have a few more franchises I kind of want to talk about. So, yeah! See you on later posts.
