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Ys: The Art Book
Celebrating over 25 years of Ys, the flagship series of Japanese RPG publisher Nihon Falcom! Ys: The Art Book collects the fantastic artwork of more than a dozen titles in the Ys franchise, from the original game all the way up to the brand-new Ys: Memories of Celceta. Includes pinups, character designs, rare concept art, and more!
- GenresArt
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 2013
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August 10, 2020
I feel like a herb for reviewing an art book. Worse still that it apparently took me a year and a half to "read."
So this art book for the Ys video game franchise is somewhat strange since it seems to have come out shortly after the Playstation Vita release of Memories of Celceta, when by the time I bought the book Ys VIII had already been out for a little while, and by the time of finishing the book Ys XI has been out in Japan for almost a year. The oddity is that there seems to be an effort not to "spoil" much of MoC, and as such the section for that game's art is bloated by the storyboards for the game's opening cutscene. Ys Origin seems to get the most love, unless we count every re-release of Ys I & II as a single body, at which point those two games take up about half of the page-count.
The book presents the games' art in reverse chronological order, starting from Memories of Celceta, going back in time to the PSP releases of the crossover with Falcom's other large franchise, Legend of Heroes, and then back to Ys Seven, carrying along accordingly. Each new version of the original two Ys games is presented where their release date would fit accordingly (Chronicles, Complete, Eternal, and the original releases, going in reverse chronological order). The first two versions of Ys IV are omitted in favor of allowing MoC the position of being the only "canon" form of that story. The original Ys III is kept despite Oath in Felghana overwriting it in canon. The Super Famicom Ys V is preserved despite assumption that will will be overwritten by an eventual remake, though I suppose it makes sense to include simply because there is no other telling of the Ys V story at the moment.
With the reverse chronology, it appears at first that the franchise lost its charm over time. I say "it appears" because I'm speaking from the position of a person born in 1994, a year before the franchise's fifth mainline entry was released (as the 1993 games are omitted from this book), many years before anyone in the West would give a shit about the franchise, and some more years before I would get into it myself (being 2013). I like the artwork for Ys Eternal more than the artwork for Memories of Celceta, because my brain would say that MoC looks too "generic" and that Eternal looks like Gunbuster whose art I love. The truth, which is hard for me to keep in mind, is that the late '80s games really just look the same as any anime-styled art from the late '80s, and that I'm too used firstly to '90s stuff, and secondly to contemporary seasonal stuff, that "generic" '80s ends up being a minority and so things like Fist of the North Star or Ghost in the Shell or the aforementioned Gunbuster seem "fresh" because I haven't seen too many '80s anime. Ys games from the same era look different from Amano's Final Fantasy art or Toriyama's Dragon Quest art, both of which are "timeless" in their respective ways, so early Ys art feels at first similarly "timeless." But it should also be noted that I do still like contemporary Ys art, and that I may go further to say I enjoy how Memories of Celceta looks versus e.g. Persona 5, but in so saying I come to the realization that '10s Ys art appeals to me because it actually looks like '00s anime, or something, so it's still quasi-nostalgic.
A downside to this book is that most versions of Ys I & II seem to focus more on the Ys I side. I believe sections for Ys II Eternal and the original Ys II both show too much of the Darm Tower, by which point in the story Adol would have already been transported to the floating continent of Ys, having left Darm after defeating Dark Fact in the first game. What's humorous is I'm brainfarting hard on who was the antagonist of Ys II and the art book doesn't help jog my memory since there's more wanking of Feena and Reah than there is anything to do with the other denizens of Ys, or the foes terrorizing the continent.
A more minor downside is that the "Heroines Calendar" at the end does not include Frieda from MoC despite showing the other girls from that game, and even given villainess Bami a place in the second illustration of the so-called Heroines Calendar (though Bami would be my second-favorite from MoC, I guess). It's foolish to complain, since while I thought Frieda was cute in the game I barely played as her because the "rock-paper-scissors" weapon system made it so Frieda had the same attack type as Adol ("slash weapons" - swords) and she joins the party so late in the game and I find it difficult to swap the main character out of my party in JRPGs and and and....
Anyway, I'll patiently wait for a new art book to include Ys VIII and IX and hopefully the original IVs.
So this art book for the Ys video game franchise is somewhat strange since it seems to have come out shortly after the Playstation Vita release of Memories of Celceta, when by the time I bought the book Ys VIII had already been out for a little while, and by the time of finishing the book Ys XI has been out in Japan for almost a year. The oddity is that there seems to be an effort not to "spoil" much of MoC, and as such the section for that game's art is bloated by the storyboards for the game's opening cutscene. Ys Origin seems to get the most love, unless we count every re-release of Ys I & II as a single body, at which point those two games take up about half of the page-count.
The book presents the games' art in reverse chronological order, starting from Memories of Celceta, going back in time to the PSP releases of the crossover with Falcom's other large franchise, Legend of Heroes, and then back to Ys Seven, carrying along accordingly. Each new version of the original two Ys games is presented where their release date would fit accordingly (Chronicles, Complete, Eternal, and the original releases, going in reverse chronological order). The first two versions of Ys IV are omitted in favor of allowing MoC the position of being the only "canon" form of that story. The original Ys III is kept despite Oath in Felghana overwriting it in canon. The Super Famicom Ys V is preserved despite assumption that will will be overwritten by an eventual remake, though I suppose it makes sense to include simply because there is no other telling of the Ys V story at the moment.
With the reverse chronology, it appears at first that the franchise lost its charm over time. I say "it appears" because I'm speaking from the position of a person born in 1994, a year before the franchise's fifth mainline entry was released (as the 1993 games are omitted from this book), many years before anyone in the West would give a shit about the franchise, and some more years before I would get into it myself (being 2013). I like the artwork for Ys Eternal more than the artwork for Memories of Celceta, because my brain would say that MoC looks too "generic" and that Eternal looks like Gunbuster whose art I love. The truth, which is hard for me to keep in mind, is that the late '80s games really just look the same as any anime-styled art from the late '80s, and that I'm too used firstly to '90s stuff, and secondly to contemporary seasonal stuff, that "generic" '80s ends up being a minority and so things like Fist of the North Star or Ghost in the Shell or the aforementioned Gunbuster seem "fresh" because I haven't seen too many '80s anime. Ys games from the same era look different from Amano's Final Fantasy art or Toriyama's Dragon Quest art, both of which are "timeless" in their respective ways, so early Ys art feels at first similarly "timeless." But it should also be noted that I do still like contemporary Ys art, and that I may go further to say I enjoy how Memories of Celceta looks versus e.g. Persona 5, but in so saying I come to the realization that '10s Ys art appeals to me because it actually looks like '00s anime, or something, so it's still quasi-nostalgic.
A downside to this book is that most versions of Ys I & II seem to focus more on the Ys I side. I believe sections for Ys II Eternal and the original Ys II both show too much of the Darm Tower, by which point in the story Adol would have already been transported to the floating continent of Ys, having left Darm after defeating Dark Fact in the first game. What's humorous is I'm brainfarting hard on who was the antagonist of Ys II and the art book doesn't help jog my memory since there's more wanking of Feena and Reah than there is anything to do with the other denizens of Ys, or the foes terrorizing the continent.
A more minor downside is that the "Heroines Calendar" at the end does not include Frieda from MoC despite showing the other girls from that game, and even given villainess Bami a place in the second illustration of the so-called Heroines Calendar (though Bami would be my second-favorite from MoC, I guess). It's foolish to complain, since while I thought Frieda was cute in the game I barely played as her because the "rock-paper-scissors" weapon system made it so Frieda had the same attack type as Adol ("slash weapons" - swords) and she joins the party so late in the game and I find it difficult to swap the main character out of my party in JRPGs and and and....
Anyway, I'll patiently wait for a new art book to include Ys VIII and IX and hopefully the original IVs.
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