Well, here is my "report" for Ys I in 'Ys I & II Chronicles':
=========================================================
Cons:
- It is pretty much Ys I COMPLETE, there is nothing
actually new;
- You choose which artwork style you want right when you start a new game. However, once you do, you can't change it, EVER (and I must say some characters look pretty stupid and bad, though some look very good);
- The framerate is not as big. It is somewhat bothersome at the beginning, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Also there are some occasional, minor slow-downs;
- There is an annoying bug that only happens if you use the Analog Rub to move Adol (it's also difficult to accurately describe it, but I'll try): If you are between two walls, and very close to them both, and you are going down while keeping the Analog Rub pushed to a down-diagonal direction, once one of the walls isn't on the way anymore, Adol will still keep moving down straightly instead of moving diagonally to the direction you desired. Until you either stop moving him or move him either to one side or backward. This can cause you involuntary deaths as stupid this may sound. This is most noticeable when fighting Dark Fact with the Analog Rub, especially on Nightmare (because the holes also work as walls around you);
- I have yet to see if this is also present in the other Ys I remakes but there's also another bug which is slightly bad: when you move from a screen to another, Adol will freeze. The thing is, the enemies WON'T. This can get you killed in the higher difficulties, because the enemies run very fast. So, say, let's suppose you went out to the fields to get the Gold Pedestal, then a Rheboll started chasing you. He almost has your speed in Nightmare. So you run away and he follows you. You exit the screen,... but since Adol stops moving and the Rheboll doesn't, he hits you. This is what happened to me, and more than twice, and I died in most of the cases. xD Note that Adol dies in the next screen, where there are no enemies (I THINK the difference there from the remakes is that Adol does not freeze when the screen starts fading away, and the new one loads. I will test it later);
- It's neat that you can change the Ring you are wearing just by pressing the "R" button. However, why the hell can't you change it with "L", to choose a previous Ring? If you have the first 4 Rings, and i.e. you are wearing the Healing Ring, and want to wear the Time Ring instead as soon as possible, you have to press "R" three times. Plus, if you press it TOO fast, the game will think you held the button, and the Ring will be changed only once. I think I should also say that in the PS2 port, you could also do that with R2, but you could also use L2 to choose a previous ring. (You could also do the same with the swords using R1 and L1, which was extremely useful, as each sword has its own skill.) I also should mention that in Ys II, the "L" button is used in the same way as the "R" button, but one is for Magic, and the other one is for Accessory. I think that "programming-wise", it would be kind of difficult to make it one way in Ys I and another in Ys II, so they did it all simply: do in a way for Ys II, and copy said way for Ys I, except that "L" is disabled. (Though don't worry: In both versions, you can't equip the Evil Ring that way, or else you could get yourself killed accidentally.)
=========================================================
And now, the pros:
- The soundtrack is INCREDIBLE. AMAZING. Try listening to "Dreaming", for example. That music in particular always made my jaw hit the floor with the PS2 remix, and especially the Ys ETERNAL CD-DA one, but the Chronicles remix for this one in particular... is outright divine. All I say is:
do look forward to listening to this soundtrack. Also it's always a plus you can also choose the PC-88 ST and the WAVE Ys I COMPLETE ST (worded as "Original" in the game);
- Even though it's annoying you can't change between the artworks styles at will, well, you still are getting an EXTRA. As I said, some characters looked terrible, but others also looked
great;
- As I previously said, it's Ys I COMPLETE in your own hands, to easily carry around and take with you wherever you go;
- They DID add something aside the new soundtrack and artworks: once you press Start in-game, you will see a "NOTE" option. In it, you can see all the people and monsters you had any contact with, as well as their descriptions. This already was present in the Ys II remakes such as Ys II COMPLETE, however, this is new for any Ys I remake. Also, note that you get the info about monsters once you acquire and drink the Bestiary Potion, and keep killing them. Originally, you could only see their names, HP, STR and DEF. Actually it still shows only those if you press Select on a "normal" screen, but in the "NOTE", you can also see how much GOLD and EXP they give, though you have to kill them enough for the NOTE to show those;
- This is something quite minor, but, a very brief new CG (3 seconds or so) was added, which is played once you deliver the Silver Harmonica to Reah;
- Pressing the Square button brings the "Item Menu". It's a bit useful, and said shortcut isn't present in every Ys I/II remake;
- There is a bug present in every Ys I remake (not sure about the DS and PS2 ones) in which you can't use the Mirror more than once without having to re-equip it. This bug isn't present anymore. Good thing, I guess;
- You can skip the talk with both Roda Trees by pressing Start, even if it's the first time you talk to them. Thank God. @_@
=========================================================
Also, here are a few interesting notes, that aren't either bad or good:
- You can't use or even do anything during a Wing animation, including pause. This could be done in Ys I COMPLETE at least (I know it can't be done in Ys ETERNAL). There was a minor exploitable thing that korzic found out in Ys I COMPLETE, but it can no longer be done (However, since you can always skip the Roda Tree conversations, it doesn't really matter anyway =p);
- Both Ys I and Ys II are still regarded as "Ys ETERNAL" and "Ys II ETERNAL". I'm just waiting to see when some people will start calling this game "Ys I & II Eternal Chronicles"
;
- In Solomon Shrine of Ys I, there's a treasure chest guarded by a Looter (skull engulfed in blue fire), which contains the key to open the prison cells. In Ys ETERNAL, you can only open chest from their front, while in Ys I COMPLETE, you could open them from any direction. The thing is, as korzic observed, when Falcom made Ys I COMPLETE, they didn't change the position of the Looter: he still stands in front of the chest, so you could sneak from behind and easily open it that way. Funnily enough, in Ys I Chronicles (or Chronicle?), that Looter isn't standing still anymore, so therefore he is finally guarding the chest again... somewhat. =p He's running everywhere like crazy.
Though, also funnily enough, the chest containing the Silver Armor in Darm Tower is still being guarded by a still monster. However, that chest can only be opened from the front.
Weird stuff. It's also weird the former case was fixed only now;
- Maximum acquirable EXP was changed to 99999 (in Ys I COMPLETE, it was 100001 or 100002 or something). Maximum acquirable Gold is also 99999, but I'm also pretty confident it was some other value in all or most of the remakes;
- When you do the Luta side-quest, where he sleepwalks and you have to eventually save him from a Curloyd, you could see Luta's statuses and items if you had press Select at some point to keep your own statuses visible. Anyway, when I did said quest in Ys I Chronicles, his statuses did not show up. I
think they may have been shown for a moment or so, but I can be wrong, Either way, it's not like how it was;
- Before, as korzic also had found out, you could use the Mirror right when the battle against Yogmun & Ohrlhan (I have NO idea how they are called, or how to spell their names.
I mean the two flying-heads boss) started. The only effect from this is that the Mirror animation plays during the beginning of the fight. Anyway, this can't be done anymore, because when you enter the battle against them (or any other boss), the screen zooms out, and you also don't have control over Adol or anything else until the battle starts;
- In both Ys ETERNAL and Ys I COMPLETE (and likely in other Ys I remakes), after defeating the two flying-heads boss, if you entered the mirror to the right instead of going into the corridor that takes you to floor 25, you would see no enemies and no music would be playing. (Also if you entered the corridor at some point and left from it, music would return playing, though there would still be no enemies.) In Ys I Chronicles, however, the music returns playing;
- In both Ys ETERNAL and Ys I COMPLETE, if you wear the Evil Ring without the Blue Necklace, then tried getting it off, you would get a message saying you can't take it off. In those versions, after the message showed up, you could press "E" on the keyboard, the shortcut for the Equip Menu, and die with that message on. After loading back to the point you last saved, the box would still be there. (Depending of what you did later, you wouldn't be able to open chests with that message on.)
Anyway, the message still appears, but there is no way you can close the Equip Menu without closing the message box. So that bug and all the bugs that branched from it have been removed.
=========================================================
That's it. I will start Ys II now, and eventually do a similar monstruosity as above.