Ancient? Complete? Eternal? Confused...

[darkbulb]

So I've read about Ys I and II and figured that the original ones were called Ancient-something and were released in the 1980's. Then a re-release happened about 8-10 years ago with improved graphics.

But, I'm still somewhat confused.

1) Were the ORIGINAL "Ancient" I and II released for the PC?

2) Is there one version called Eternal and one called Complete - and if so what are the differences?

3) Never having played them before and wanting to play through all of Ys which version should I play (Note: I only got a PC)?

Thanks in advance.

[darkbulb]

Hm, found an article on wikipedia that says:

"The original Windows PC remakes were Ys Eternal and Ys II Eternal. Later, there was a compiled rerelease, which bumped up Ys Eternal's visuals to Ys II Eternal's level (more color depth, primarily) and made the soundtrack sound more cohesive between the two. This was released as Ys I & II Complete.

Later, once this was out of print, Falcom began selling the two separately again, as Ys I Complete and Ys II Complete. Falcom complicated the issue by changing the "Eternal" to "Complete" on all external packaging and advertisements, but not in the actual games themselves.
In one of the English patches, the internal bitmaps are edited to reflect the external change for the packages."

So I guess that answered my question:
First were the Ancient releases (not for PC).
Then came a first port for PC named Eternal
Then came an upgraded version of Eternal named Complete

So...I should probably go looking for The Complete games for my PC.

:-)

[Incog Neato]

Nope, the best way to experience Ys I and II is to play all their versions on every single system.

:D

There is nothing called Ancient versions. Ys I and II were just known as Ancient Ys Vanished Omen and Ancient Ys Vanished The Final Chapter. If you put a colon or hyphen between the Vanished and Omen and The Final Chapter in there, I suppose it makes more sense -- like they're the first part (Omen) and last part of a story (Final Chapter).

Ys ETERNAL and Ys II ETERNAL were the first Windows remakes of the games. Then came Ys I.II Complete. They have many differences between Ys ETERNAL and Ys I Complete and were mentioned in other threads as well as a Web site that I have no time to look up because I'll be leaving work soon. (Note: Also too lazy to Google.)

Now we have Ys I & II Chronicles for Windows as well. XD

[Red Hairdo]

They also changed gameplay from Ys ETERNAL in Ys I COMPLETE. And also took off some little neat things, but nothing big.

Anyway, yeah, you should play Ys I & II COMPLETE. An awesome english patch awaits you.

[Red Hairdo]

Yup, I didn't mean to discourage as well. xD Which is why I wrote that last sentence: go for Ys I-II COMPLETE, as it is definitely the best option in your case.

[darkbulb]

Thanks for all the help and comments (really friendly community this!) - and the screen-shot comparison video was very insightful.

A bit of a different question: Where do you guys buy your Ys games - and is there a link to that store from this site so that at least some ad money goes back here?

[Incog Neato]

I buy mine direct from Falcom. You can too!

seldane.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=falcom&action=display&thread=1163

Also! Not only are we a friendly bunch but we're pretty insane too! XD

[Ashurei]

Aye, definitely go with Falcom direct. What you have to do for it may seem a bit daunting at first, but we've all done it here with no issues whatsoever.

What's more, going through import sites is likely to cost you a great deal more. Falcom does use EMS shipping, which is a bit costly, but in the end it's generally a fair amount less than some import shops want for the game alone; definitely much less if you buy more than one game.