Ys X was a pretty decent entry in the long-running series when it was originally released in 2024. While nothing blockbuster or anything, it checks all the boxes when it comes to a Ys entry: colorful visuals, a nice excuse to get Adol on another adventure, and some breezy gameplay. Stacked up with the more recent entries in the franchise, however, X wasn’t the best among them, with that title falling to Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.
Even so, all the issues I had with the game at the time, I was surprised to hear of a re-release coming out in the form of Ys X: Proud Nordics. So much so that up until I had a chance to play it, I was quite skeptical as to why it needed to exist in the first place, and now, having spent a few hours with it, that feeling is even stronger. Simply put, Proud Nordics feels superfluous, its unneeded existence simply there to fill a void between the previous version and an actual new entry in the series, a release that I find difficult to justify recommending to anyone but a newcomer to Ys X, and even then, why do so when that’s already been a thing for nearly two years to begin with?
Ys X has protagonist Adol and his trusty partner Dogi out on the sea, travelling to Celceta when their trip is cut short by attacking marauders who murder the captain and force the rest of the passengers to be stranded on the island which they call their home. It doesn’t take long before Adol finds a reason to mess with the locals’ affairs, and after hearing a mysterious voice begging for him to help, Celceta decidedly takes a raincheck in favor of this new adventure instead.
The main problems I had with Ys X initially was its pacing and overall lukewarm story, and those are still ever present in Proud Nordics since everything it adds to the core experience comes at the postgame, with an extra location, Öland Island, to explore and do things at in the form of a new dungeon and new bosses. During the entirety of the base content, though, it’s the same as it’s been. Surely, the idea of having a permanent partner for Adol to fight alongside of is captivating, and the combat itself is fun, but when the comings and goings are this slow, it hurts the game as a whole.
Even worse, the progress from the previous entry doesn’t carry over into this, unless it’s a clear save file in order to thrust you to new game+. So if you happened to have started but dropped Ys X at any point, you’re gonna have to play it all again from the top, which is an extra annoying factor to Ys X: Proud Nordics that simply cannot be avoided.
As with similar re-releases, Proud Nordics adds some stuff that could be considered “quality of life” improvements, but in its case, it only serves to point out how flawed some of its core features are to begin with. Piloting the boat is made easier now thanks to new currents that were included and streamlining of leveling skills help alleviate what could’ve been areas where the developers worked on to make it more enjoyable.
Now, for the technical improvements. Yeah, the same now runs at a higher resolution and framerate, but honestly, it’s hard to notice any of this when the base game was already running quite well to begin with. There’s nothing particularly shiny to this new stab at the game since it’s under the same treatment as most modern Falcom games, where character models are simply put together, textured, and animated, with the world, albeit saturated with colors, lacking a whole lot of detail to begin with.
For what it is, Ys X: Proud Nordics is going to be a tough pill to swallow for Ys fans looking for anything particularly new. That’s even more so considering that it’s releasing as a full game under a full price tag. Sure, it includes all of the DLC from the original run, but for those looking to upgrade their old copy, there’s no discount whatsoever, and with the additional frustration of not being able to carry over an old save unless it’s a clear file, only compounds the pricing even further. It’s hard to justify picking this up unless you’re a truly hardcore completionist.
