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Ys (series)
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Ys (series)
Ys is a Japanese series of action role-playing games developed by Nihon Falcom. Created by game designer and programmer Masaya Hashimoto and scenario writer Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the series began with Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, released for the NEC PC-8801 in June 1987. Contemporary and retrospective histories have identified the original game as an important early refinement of the Japanese action role-playing genre, particularly for its accessible real-time combat and rapid pacing.
The series is one of the longest running video game franchises featuring a single protagonist in a consistent game canon. Most games are presented as reconstructions of the travel journals of Adol Christin, a red-haired adventurer who is said within the series' framing narrative to have recorded more than one hundred journeys during his lifetime. Individual installments generally follow one of those journeys and can be understood independently, although recurring characters, civilizations, artifacts, and historical events connect the games.
The games are known for real-time combat, rapid movement, large boss encounters, and prominent music. Its gameplay has been redesigned several times. The first games used contact-based combat in which Adol attacks by colliding with enemies at an angle; later groups of games used manual sword attacks and jumping, three-character parties with instantaneous character switching, and two-character combination combat.
The series has remained active across nearly four decades and has appeared on Japanese personal computers, home consoles, handheld systems, Windows, mobile devices, and cloud-gaming services. Its latest release is the expanded action role-playing game Ys X: Proud Nordics, first released for the Nintendo Switch 2 in Japan in July 2025 and internationally for Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Windows in February 2026.
Most numbered games follow the travels of Adol Christin, who leaves his home village at the age of 16 and begins his first major adventure at 17. The stories are framed as later adaptations or translations of the travel journals he wrote during his life. Falcom states that Adol left more than one hundred such records, allowing the company to depict his adventures in an order different from their internal chronology.
The numbered titles are not arranged entirely in chronological order. For example, Ys X: Nordics, the tenth numbered game, takes place shortly after Ys II, while Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana occurs before Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. Falcom selects settings according to the story and gameplay concept under development rather than advancing continuously through Adol's life.
The following table lists the Falcom-recognized chronological order of the main adventures currently depicted in the games. The English journal names are descriptive translations of the Japanese titles shown on Falcom's series portal.
Ys Origin is set approximately 700 years before Ys I and does not depict one of Adol's journeys; it instead follows events in the ancient kingdom of Ys involving the twin goddesses and their search party.
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Ys (series)
Ys is a Japanese series of action role-playing games developed by Nihon Falcom. Created by game designer and programmer Masaya Hashimoto and scenario writer Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, the series began with Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, released for the NEC PC-8801 in June 1987. Contemporary and retrospective histories have identified the original game as an important early refinement of the Japanese action role-playing genre, particularly for its accessible real-time combat and rapid pacing.
The series is one of the longest running video game franchises featuring a single protagonist in a consistent game canon. Most games are presented as reconstructions of the travel journals of Adol Christin, a red-haired adventurer who is said within the series' framing narrative to have recorded more than one hundred journeys during his lifetime. Individual installments generally follow one of those journeys and can be understood independently, although recurring characters, civilizations, artifacts, and historical events connect the games.
The games are known for real-time combat, rapid movement, large boss encounters, and prominent music. Its gameplay has been redesigned several times. The first games used contact-based combat in which Adol attacks by colliding with enemies at an angle; later groups of games used manual sword attacks and jumping, three-character parties with instantaneous character switching, and two-character combination combat.
The series has remained active across nearly four decades and has appeared on Japanese personal computers, home consoles, handheld systems, Windows, mobile devices, and cloud-gaming services. Its latest release is the expanded action role-playing game Ys X: Proud Nordics, first released for the Nintendo Switch 2 in Japan in July 2025 and internationally for Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Windows in February 2026.
Most numbered games follow the travels of Adol Christin, who leaves his home village at the age of 16 and begins his first major adventure at 17. The stories are framed as later adaptations or translations of the travel journals he wrote during his life. Falcom states that Adol left more than one hundred such records, allowing the company to depict his adventures in an order different from their internal chronology.
The numbered titles are not arranged entirely in chronological order. For example, Ys X: Nordics, the tenth numbered game, takes place shortly after Ys II, while Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana occurs before Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. Falcom selects settings according to the story and gameplay concept under development rather than advancing continuously through Adol's life.
The following table lists the Falcom-recognized chronological order of the main adventures currently depicted in the games. The English journal names are descriptive translations of the Japanese titles shown on Falcom's series portal.
Ys Origin is set approximately 700 years before Ys I and does not depict one of Adol's journeys; it instead follows events in the ancient kingdom of Ys involving the twin goddesses and their search party.