Completed guide for Ys I now on StrategyWiki

[procyon]

Hello.  As the most dedicated forum to all things Ys, I thought this would be the best place to announce that a guide for Ys I has just been completed at StrategyWiki.  Please visit it at strategywiki.org/wiki/Ys:_Ancient_Ys_Vanished .  It covers the game in great detail, including aspects of both the original releases, as well as modifications made for the remakes.  There's even an entire page dedicated just to the changes which were unique to the Famicom version.  While a tremendous effort was made to make this guide accurate and complete, there's always the chance that some details are wrong, or some useful piece of information is missing.  I invite those of you who are experts at the game to comb through it and find any mistakes or omissions that might be present.  Thanks very much for letting me share this here.  Enjoy the guide.

[korzic]

Looks pretty good! Far less wordy than my own (link - seriously, I need to clear up some of the grammar/sentence structure in that at some point to make it more easily readable ), while touching on a lot of important details, though I'll have to read it more in-depth at a later date.

I did notice a couple of omissions. First, I didn't see any mention of bargaining with Pim. When buying or selling, refuse his offer 9 times in a row, and he'll give you a 10% discount/bonus. It has to be done once when buying, as well as selling, but the discount/bonus is applicable to all further transactions with him.

Jenocres is best faced at level 4 with Long Sword; finding the Golden Vase and doing the Sapphire Ring sidequest makes the equipment easy to purchase (Pim haggling isn't needed, either). That brings me to the other omission. The Luta Gemma sidequest does indeed have a more useful purpose, but only in Complete on upwards, not in Eternal (and probably not in earlier versions, as well). It rewards 500 EXP, and is best done very early on. Couple the 500 EXP reward from this quest with the 150 from returning the Sapphire Ring, and the automatic 100 from obtaining Sara's Crystal, and you're only 50 EXP away from level 4 (well, 46 if one counts that Curloid kill saving Luta). Very minimal grinding, especially as level 5 is a bit much this early on.

Actually, the above is true for Complete and Chronicles, but Eternal (and other, earlier versions maybe?) actually lets you reasonably face Jenocres at level 3 with the Long Sword, 4 with the Short Sword. Presumably because no Luta sidequest EXP reward yet to minimize grinding somewhat. The downside is, the Plains/Mountain enemies (Oakrots excluded, I think) give slightly less EXP in Eternal as well. An example being the Mountain enemies: they give 4 in Eternal, 8 in Complete on up.

EDIT: Oh, I see you mention armor for Jenocres. Actually, both Jenocres and Khonsclard do fixed damage in Eternal on up (not sure of previous releases); the amount of damage he does only changes with the difficulty setting. So, armor or lack thereof doesn't make a bit of difference in these two cases, but your mention of the Plate Mail is still a reasonable one for exploring the rest of the Shrine.

[procyon]

Hi Korzic, thanks very much for your feedback.  The bargaining with Pim bit is mentioned in the Minea page in a sidebar on the right side of the page below the first image.  Granted, it doesn't stand out very well, and it's probably lacking some detail.  Your guide is indeed incredibly detailed, you did an incredible job with it.  Thanks for the other information about Jenocres and Luta.  I'm moving on to some other games, but if I have a chance, I'll edit in the details.  On the other hand, since StrategyWiki is a wiki, I do invite you to edit the guide and make as many contributions to the guide as you like. The whole point of SW is collaboration, so don't hesitate to dive in and make some edits.  Thanks again!

[korzic]

Ah, you're right about the bargaining bit. It stands out well enough, I was just skimming and also tired at the time, so I didn't notice it. I'll hold off on editing, as I'm pre-occupied with other stuff, plus I don't want to interfere with your writing style or switch things around (while the Luta sidequest is preferable to do early, it's also convenient to do when you mentioned it - not sure what you want to do about that). I might do a few small edits sometime, but probably nothing major.