Nihon Falcom's Ys Origin is an JRPG gem for lovers of action RPGs

Ys Origin, released in 2006 for Windows PC, was designed as a starting point for Nihon Falcom’s long-running series and has since become a cult classic. It arrived 19 years after the original Ys and was localized for the West by XSEED Games six years later; it is now playable on every major platform.

The game serves as the series’ origin story, set 700 years before Ys 1. When demons threaten the land, goddesses Reah and Feena use the Black Pearl to lift a shrine into the sky, only for a tower built by demons to rise in pursuit. Players climb all 25 floors of that tower to search for the missing goddesses, choosing initially between Yunica Tovah, who cannot use magic and struggles with loss, and Hugo Fact, a brilliant but arrogant magic-user.

The two playable routes act as parallel realities rather than complementary chapters, each showing the same events from a different perspective and deepening the lore. A hidden third route reveals the full truth of Ys Origin.

ys origin, nihon falcom, jrpg, action rpg, xseed games, reah, feena, black pearl, yunica tovah, hugo fact