Welcome to Esteria!

One Word: Prolific

If you've been playing video games or watching cartoons for any length of time, chances are you've heard the voice-acting talents of Michael Bell. Perhaps the names Duke, Major Bludd, Prowl, and Sideswipe mean something to you. You guessed it--that's Michael Bell. If you've played Eidos' Legacy of Kain series, you'll know him as the voice of Raziel. He also supplied the voice for the main source of evil in Ys, Dark Fact. At the time, voices in video games were such a rare thing that Bell's performance as Dark Fact was pretty unforgettable. Taking one look at the listing of his work on IMDB will make your head spin. If there's one thing for sure, Michael Bell is a busy, busy man.

Ys' combat was more action-oriented than most of its contemporaries' combat.

If you've ever heard these words resonate through your television's speakers, chances are that you've experienced one of the greatest games of all time. While the Ys (pronounced "ease") games had previously kicked around on several other platforms, they didn't get the full treatment they deserved until they appeared in the form of Ys Book I & II on the TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM system in 1989.

Fifteen years ago, the CD-ROM format was the hot buzz in the video game industry, promising full-motion video and animation, huge amounts of storage space, and all the benefits that a standard audio CD would have. The technology certainly was expensive at the time, but anyone who actually bought the TurboGrafx-16 CD would have a hard time not agreeing that it was the future of console gaming.

While the series had made its debut on several Japanese consoles and computers years before, the PC-Engine CD version (that's TurboGrafx-16 to you and me) offered something that all the other versions simply couldn't--a full-on anime intro movie, voice acting, and an unforgettable soundtrack. Playing this game back in 1989 was a genuine shock to the system. Games simply weren't meant to sound this good, to speak to you, or to have animated cutscenes. If there's one thing for sure, when you finally finished the game, you were definitely left wishing more games could be just like it.

In Ys, you played the role of Adol Christian, a young hero on a mission to save the land of Esteria, reunite the ancient books of Ys, and generally save the day. Like in any other RPG, you could gain levels, collect powerful weapons and mysterious items, fetch items, and rescue damsels in distress. While it might sound just like any other RPG, something made Ys different from the other popular series at the time (Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy). While those games were often slow-paced, with turn-based combat, Ys had such a simple combat system that anyone could pick it up and play it. The game took place in real time, as you guided Adol around the playfield, running into enemies and trying to hit them from behind or slightly off center. If you took damage, sitting still for a short period of time would regenerate your health. Of course, as the game drew on, enemies would get tougher, so you'd have to spend some time leveling up. For some reason, doing so didn't seem like as much of a pain as it did with other RPGs of the day.

Hardcore RPG fans might have turned their nose up at the simplicity, but their disdain didn't stop Ys from delivering a great (albeit somewhat typical) story and fast-paced gameplay that was aided by an equally fast soundtrack. It all came together in a way that made Ys hard to put down once you started playing it. Sure, the game had previously appeared in the US on the Sega Master System, but when you played it on the TurboGrafx-16, it was a complete package, an onslaught of audio and video that you were in no way prepared to experience. Say what you will about the game itself, but if you've played any RPG since, you cannot deny that Ys Book I & II laid the groundwork for the epic experience that is so commonplace in RPGs today.

Way back when, my good friend Ryan Mac Donald purchased a TurboGrafx-16 CD. We'd been dying to play Ys Book I & II. It looked like nothing else we'd ever played, and he finally got his hands on a copy. I'd have to imagine that we wasted weeks sitting there in his room playing that game as loud as it possibly could go. I can still remember the absolute shock that came over me when we first booted the game up. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and all I knew was that I wanted more.