Despite being a fun experience, YS simply can't be recommended to everyone wholeheartely.
- Interesting storyline
- Plenty of challenging hack-and-slash combat
-A lot of upgrades
- One rare game that is full of voice acting
Negative
- Gets repetitive and at times tough
- Can get boring sometimes
YS: The Ark of Napishtim isn't a game that should be played by anyone, even those interested in the RPG genre, but it is still a fun game to play to those who don't have anything to do. Nonetheless this is a beautiful, entertaining game.
The story seems to start elsewhere. Unfortunately not a lot of history of what has gone before it is told here but the beginning is enough to understand what is going on. The story evolve around Adol, entitles the Red chats or something. After managing to escape the Roman Army, meeting a bunch of past friends they are later attacked again and Adol fells into the ocean, just to later be found by to female Rehdan.
There is a lot of walking to do, but that doesn't slow the pace. The gameplay is challenging but rewarding. Some time after the game you get a sword which you can upgrade by defeating monsters and getting emel. Not all enemies drop them though. Combat is straightforward and can get monotonous sometimes. Monster variety is decent, enemies change from place to place.
You rarely find a game that it full of voice acting, but this installment of YS is. Even when talking to common people, the dialogues are voiced. The voice acting is average, but not annoying which is a shame. The background music is good. Swords noise when fighting is a bit strange.
At save points you can recover health, which is a really helpful thing, since many enemies easily deal a lot of damage. Though most of the time you have to cover a lot of ground to find one and the camera doesn't show a lot ahead.
The Ark of Napishtim is an unremarkable hack-and-slash role-playing which can't be recommended to everyone. The difficulty isn't cheap only tough, the visuals aren't stellar, the fact that is fully voiced make the game pass. It is a rather unique game in some game 'cos you don't come across a game like this every month. It can make for a rental for those look for something entertaining but mostly this game is aimed at those who are already fans for these kinds of games.
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Graphics = 7.6
Doesn't look bad, the environments can get a bit repetitive though but they are colorful.
Sound = 8.4
It is fully voiced, the voice acting is decent enough and the soundtrack fits right.
Presentation = 8.2
The dialogues look great and some nice cutscenes add up nicely. Load times should bother.
Gameplay = 7.9
Challenging old-school hack-and-slash game with plenty of upgrade and places to explore.
Camera = 6.5
The sort of overhead camera shows short distances but it is not problematic.
Story = 7.4
It starts from previous YS games, it is developed rather well.
Difficulty = Hard
Doesn't become cheap, The Ark of Napishtim is just a tough game, though a game that can be managed by anyone.
OVERALL = 7.6 / 10
This installment of YS can't be recommended to anyone. Its challenging gameplay can't be justified well by anyone, but this shouldn't stop people from playing this. It is an underappreciated effort, because not always you find a game with a good story, fun gameplay and one with full voice acting.