Ys II Special - The Forgotten Ys Game!

[niki]

May 17, 2011 12:22:05 GMT -5 - said:

There's a unique pleasure that comes from playing an obtuse and esoteric game which relies on a community of knowledge to progress.

Reminds me of playing Japanese RPGs in the 90s before the dawn of internet. There was a small community of "experts" scattered around my country ranging from other nerdy kids to video game shop owners and magazine reviewers, everyone sharing their info about unlocking this or that quest or making this or that import game work on a home console. Truly felt like an adventure way beyond simply playing a game. My strongest memories from that time still revolve around Tengai Makyou II. ^^

[GS]

I cant seem to beat the end boss. Is there anything after him?
Anyway, I still cant fully complete waterway west, so I'm going to upload it as it is (i cant wait) with the rest of the maps.
As for any unmapped secrets, (if there is any) they will have to be uploaded another time (whenever I have the time).

[Groenegel]

You need to equip all Clelia gear (stuff that has better stats like Bachmood's armour will not work), possibly the ring Lilia gave you. Being at max level and activating the Shield magic before teleporting to the fight helps too.

[GS]

The maps will be up soon I am told at vgmaps.com

[GS]

I see no one has found anything new (like secrets or new aria to map)
Anyway, until anybody fiends anything I am doing a new map project that needs some translating.
Hears a hint.

Attachments:

[Deleted]

Ys V Maps!

[GS]

I think we should move the YsV project to its proper thread. How about "Ys V English SNES Translation"

[Deleted]

I just noticed you joined this forum in 2004

I played through Ys V once, and I believe that was back in 2001. I would definitely play through this game again once it's translated. I can't wait to see the maps:)

[GS]

This is my second time playing through this game (would have like the 2nd time to be translated, but cant wait for that) so I can map it.
I want these maps to come out the same time as the translation but that's up to Gideon Zhi. Any way see you on "Ys V English SNES Translation" thread.

PS: PLEAS fined me the Ys II Special secrets. there's still a map that's not fully completed. (I hope one day some one picks this game for translation)

[SkyeWelse]

Hi Everyone,

So late last night I was looking through my Ys collection and something hit me... I've never actually seen what the Ys II Special Box looks like in case I ever sought to get a copy one day and went adventuring on the internet in hopes to find images of these. I'm not sure if some of these have been shared before, but in case they had not and if anyone is curious to see what they look like, here they are!

<- Ys II Special Original Box ->









<- Ys II Special CD Version ->



<- Ys II Special Promotional Flyers ->





<- Game World Magazine(s) - Featuring Ys II Special ->



and




Enjoy! Still looking forward to hopefully playing this in English one of these days. And, out of curiosity, what is the version of Ys II Special that has been distributed here at the forum? Is it the original Diskette version or the CD version?

-Thomas

[schlagwerk]

lol 5.25" floppies

...and Darm's face reminds me of Unicron in that one image...

[Red Hairdo]

HOW ****!!!!!!!!!! Seldane would LOVE seeing those as much as I am right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing these with us SkyeWelse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



.... By the way.
How and where did you find all those pictures?! Many of us have tried SO hard in finding them...


... Ahem. Also, the version distributed here (and probably everywhere else within the English-speaking communities out there) is probably the Floppy ones. That version might not be the very first version either, because I heard older versions had a bug that prevented one from entering Solomon Shrine, however that wasn't true for the version distributed here.

Also, Seldane once suspected the CD version featured in-game voice acting. But I think someone somewhere said that didn't go past the plans, and thus, isn't true. But I don't know about that.

[Kimimi]

If the CD version is genuine it's probably identical to the floppy version apart from the format - I've got several genuine Korean games like that. I went Googling trying to find out if it was, I still can't say for sure either way, but I did find some more photos -

blogand.net/i/entry/2689653 (Notice the other "CDpia" marked games in this one)

winbee.egloos.com/5093156 (An ex-staff members blog?)

[SkyeWelse]

I've found a few more images of note, 1. A second image of the Ys II Special CD set with a shot of what the manual inside looks like. 2. I believe a higher quality promotional ad of one displayed earlier.




Oh and I actually found most of these images just by doing a search on the following Korean titles for the game:

*You might need to adjust your Character Encoding to Korean UHC to view these.

1. 이스 2 스페셜 - Ys II Special
2. 이스 2 스페셜 패치
3. 이스 II 천공의 신전 THE GAME (Ys II OVA THE GAME)

Ys II Special Korean Wikipedia Entry

Google Image Search for Ys II Special

Site with Ys II Special CD

Site with Ys II Special CD and Manual

Ys II Special FAQ/Walkthrough in Korean - May need to adjust Character Encoding To View

Ys II Special Ending Screenshots

Korean Download Site with 3 Files Related to Ys II Special

Regarding that last one, I tried creating a login to see if I can access the download link(s) but haven't been able to figure that part out yet.

Enjoy! : )

Edit:

Interesting that the version that we have which is around 63k zipped, comes from the floppy disk version. There was that patch I found awhile back that supposedly updated the game which was 830k zipped. Here's the link to those again:

Ys II Special - 63k
Ys II Special Patch - 830k

Did we ever find out what that Patch was supposed to do exactly?

And Kimimi is probably right about the CD versions being the same, but it is a bit odd that the CD version was sold for more than the Floppy version based on the pricing sheets found in the Promotional Ads... Would be great to confirm this one day if and when one of us can find a copy of the CD version for comparison...

-Thomas

[Kimimi]

According to Derboo the CD version was planned but never released -

Advertisements for the game announced also a music pack, a speech pack and a CD-ROM version, none of which was ever released. The same goes for the promised remake of Ys 4.

Source

So even if one of us was able to get our hands on the CD version in these photos it'll either be a straight copy of the floppies or anything extra will be unofficial anyway.

[Red Hairdo]

That CD release is as "official" as it can get, though there might be a chance it might be 100% like the floppy one indeed, but not necessarily: perhaps the released CD version just has the latest patches applied when compared to the Floppy version? Or the opposite? (That is, the floppy one being pre-patched.)

Also, yes, at least ONE patch was already known to us: according to Seldane, they released "a few" patches, but while they corrected some bugs, they also caused others to happen.
I'm assuming that patch you linked us to likely makes it possible to finish the game, because AFAIK the very first version of Ys II Special did not allow the player to get into Solomon Shrine, no matter what, preventing the player from finishing the game. So I guess that patch probably fixes that. As in mentioned in my previous post, the version distributed earlier in this thread must have been patched already, whichever version it was (CD or Floppy), because some in ALoY managed to enter Solomon Shrine and thus finish the game.

Also, yeah, it seems SOME other CD version that would feature voice-acting was bound to come, but got cancelled, along with their own Ys IV remake (for which they didn't know what story to use for it: their own Ys II Special's or the regular Ys IIs').


And, once again, amazing pictures!!!!!!!!

[Kimimi]

That CD release is as "official" as it can get...

The angle I'm coming from is this -

1) South Korea is riddled with pirate software, sold openly - much like China.
2) Derboo speaks/reads Korean, has lived in Korea, and is responsible for 99% of information about Korean games in English on the web today.
3) I have yet to find any proof that "CDpia" is a legitimate company, or any reason why they would have a genuine link to Mantra.

Basically I'm saying let's not all jump to conclusions.

[Red Hairdo]

I'm not sure about that "CDpia", but I'm certain the game was released in a CD along with some magazine, as well, which by itself rules items 1 and probably 3 out. (I think it was that Game World magazine SkyeWelse linked us to up there that released it.)

Also, in one of the promotional Ys II Special flyers SkyeWelse posted, it seems to at least mention "CD" in it, as well, if that means anything.

[Kimimi]

Pirate games getting released with magazines in retail or retail-like packaging also happens in China - I own a few of those myself. That flyer referencing the CD version is what I was addressing in my previous post; that it was announced, and then cancelled. The Korean wiki makes no mention of a CD version either. Also, Mantra had an official license from Falcom and produced several Korean ports of Falcom games - including their CD re-releases - there's no logical reason why this one game would suddenly switch from an official licensed company to a no-name who's only other games have appeared in a photo of a CD binder on a Korean blog.

[Red Hairdo]

That CDpia one is indeed suspicious, especially for mostly reusing Ys artworks (like the anime's) instead of all the unique official artworks exclusive to Ys II Special. I also don't "trust" that CD much.

Eitherway, non-CD games being sold on CDs that come along with official magazines (owned by actual companies - meaning that for releasing a game as a free bonus, the actual company must have been given the permission to do so, kind of like GROUPON and Falcom regarding the recent and temporary Ys ORIGIN/Ys VI PC downloads) was a common practice in the 90s for PC games such as that one. Sometimes bundled together with other games as well.

But yeah, to speak the truth, it's hard to be actually certain about the veracity of this. Perhaps Groenegel would know something? (Awesome korean ALoY member who played Ys II Special back in the day and has been helping everyone out in this thread for many years now.)