Ys Seven Comes to PSP in August

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Greetings from well beyond the “dangerous sea area” west of Canaan! I’m XSEED’s resident Falcom nut and one of their localization specialists. I’ve been bugging Ken at XSEED via email for years now to localize games from Falcom’s extensive catalogue of awesomeness, and was always really pleased with the detailed responses he’d send back. Our emails bloomed into entire conversation threads, and eventually, once XSEED and Falcom established their partnership, Ken offered me a job — which I gladly accepted! Now all your Falcom scripts are belong to me. Mwa ha ha!

Ys SEVEN for PSP

Ys Seven will be the first game released as part of the XSEED/Falcom partnership (aka the GREATEST TEAM-UP EVER), and is currently scheduled to ship on August 17th, 2010. In North America, three versions of the game will be available: the UMD version ($29.99), the PSN download version (also $29.99), and of course, the faaaaabulous limited edition box-set version ($49.99), which will include the game on UMD, a ludicrously gorgeous cloth map of Europe (the Ys series Europe, which is pronounced “eh-ROH-pay”), a one-disc “Ys Seven Musical Selections” CD, and a 60+ page art book containing various works from Ys Seven, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and Ys I & II (as well as a brief cameo by some Ys VI characters).

Ys Seven for PSPYs Seven for PSP

Ys Seven will also be available in Europe, but only as a PSN download, and I’m afraid the price is yet to be determined. Sorry, European fans! (Europan fans?)

Now, the all-important question: Why should you buy the game?

Well, how about because it’s AWESOME?!?! Seriously, if you’ve never played a Falcom game before, you’re about to be blown away by this one. Falcom games, and especially Ys games, are generally characterized by three things:

  • Insanely fast-paced, action-packed gameplay. Turn-based? HA! Ys eats turn-based RPGs for breakfast, then regurgitates them and launches them at beings of ancient evil just because it can.
  • 80s power rock- and metal-inspired soundtracks. These are often performed in the studio by Falcom’s in-house band. I dare anyone to hear the riff at the beginning of Ys Seven’s main boss theme “Vacant Interference” and NOT get totally pumped for the battle ahead!
  • “Less is more” storylines. This means a greater focus on fun gameplay and interesting, well-developed settings than on plot twists and epic ironies (Going along with the music, think of Ys as the rock opera to every other RPG series’ novella!)

Ys Seven for PSPYs Seven for PSP

With nine playable characters (in parties of three at a time), 98 unique skills (84 of which have unique variations apiece — and these skills aren’t just for show), a robust crafting system (that will keep you searching every nook and cranny of every dungeon), and a story that will last you anywhere from 30 to 90 hours (my final playtime was 72 hours, but I’ve been playing a lot since then to level up my skills and craft the best armor for everyone, putting me well over the 80-hour mark, with tons more yet to do), Ys Seven is easily the best portable game on the market… or will be, once it ships in North America on August 17th.

Get yourself ready to finally play an Ys game straight from Falcom’s own studio rather than a third-party interpretation of an Ys game, which is all we’ve ever gotten in English until now). And put in your orders for the LE box ASAP, since they may sell out once everyone in the world realizes this game is awesomeness incarnate and rushes out to buy it.

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104 Comments

49 Author Replies

  • Sweet! I love the Y’s series. I look forward to getting this one. I hope it has sweet trophies.

    • Sorry, no trophies in Ys SEVEN. But lots of rare in-game items to get and show off — those are kinda LIKE trophies!

  • I’m not at all interested in this particular game, but it’s nice to see something being planned for digital release from the get-go, as we PSP Go users have pretty much been left out in the cold in many respects for months now.

  • Got my limited edition box-set edition pre-ordered already, luv the Ys series and my PSP could use a little luv.

  • I’m very excited about this. Definitely preordering the LE.

  • “Now all your Falcom scripts are belong to me.”

    Well, not ALL of them…

    • Hopefully it will be, though, in time. ;)

      This is Tom, by the way. I am on hand to respond to questions, so if anyone has anything they’d like to ask, feel free! Can’t guarantee I’ll respond right away, but I’ll try to get back to as many of you as I can, as soon as I can.

    • Oh, whoa, I just realized who this is. And now I “get” your comment. ;)

  • I’ve never played the series before, but that part of “less is more” strikes me as PR-spin, at the base of which I’m hearing “a plot thinner than the paper it was printed on.”

    Still, RPGs are a good thing in my book. Hopefully, given that this game doesn’t seem to be revolutionizing anything, the formula behind the gameplay elements has been trial-and-errored to near-perfection.

  • Awesome, August 17th! Perfect Birthday gift.

    I was thinking this was another serious RPG thing with people talking eth like this eth, but this has convinced me other wise.

    1st day buy <3

  • $30 for the PSN version?
    Awesome

    I love it now that more RPGs are hitting state-side. THANK YOU

  • YS is my first “RPGs” and is one of the oldie goldies that not much people give credit too, i love you guys at XSeed first you brought Lunar and now this! thank you =]

    • The first Ys game, on the TG16? If so, keep an eye out next year for Ys I & II Chronicles, Falcom’s PSP remake of it. It’s pretty much the definitive version of the game, far surpassing any others… and we’ve got it. It’s gonna be awesome!

  • Hmmm, I’ve never tried this series before. I may give this a go! Thanks for the heads up!!

  • Been waiting for this one for quite a while, actually got a few LE’s pre-ordered!

    Congrats on the job with XSEED Tom, they’re one of the most quality companies I’ve seen in a long time, and you seem like a pretty upstanding guy. Thanks for the push to bring Falcom games over, and thanks for the amount of care I’m sure all you guys will be putting into each release. Here’s hoping Ys & Sora no Kiseki will do well enough to maybe bring Brandish, Ys vs. Sora, and Zero no Kiseki over at some point. Really looking forward to your first Falcom outing with Ys SEVEN.

    Also, if you could put in a localization suggestion for the just announced Half-Minute Hero sequel that would be much appreciated ;-)

    • We just found out about the sequel today, ourselves. We’ll look into it. In the meantime, tell all your friends to go buy non-used copies of the first game — THOUSANDS of them — so our number-crunchers can make up their minds on the second. ;)

  • Tom – you’ve done an amazing job getting Ys Seven in the minds of gamers. Videos of you putting Ys 7 through its paces at E3 showed to gamers that hey, this guy is REALLY into his product and is super knowledgeable.

    Great to see you put a post on the PSBlog.

    Oh, and day 1 digital download for me :)

  • Can you please, I beg you, please explain why A digital download game. Cost the same as a UmD disc.

    • Because our UMD partners would beat us to the brink of mild discomfort with pool noodles if we didn’t!

      …Seriously, though, we just decided to make the price of the game nice and low for everyone, not just downloaders. It’s a good $10 lower than the price of most new PSP titles, after all! This way, everyone gets to play nice, and we don’t have to pick favorites — we love ALL our customers equally, be they downloaders or physical media enthusiasts.

  • Thank you for making the price reasonable.

    Good news about 1&2 from Falcom.

  • I am getting the game, simply because I need some RPG’s for PSP!

    Thanks for localizing it, I know a lot of gamers that wanted this to get localized

  • Amazing, cant wait, thanks guys :)

  • I’m looking forward to this one, and look at those graphics, nice. The Ys 1 & 2 remake sounds good too. Thanks Tom.

  • Already pre-ordered.

    12

  • Isn’t Ys the series where you ram yourself into the enemies to attack them?
    Is the combat like that in this, or is it more like Zelda where you actually swing a sword around?

    • That’s only Ys I, II, and IV. Every other Ys game has had an actual attack button, while still retaining the high-speed funfactor of that original “bump system.”

      So yeah, Ys SEVEN isn’t like that. But it’s also not like Zelda! It’s very much its own thing. Nothing else feels quite like Ys SEVEN. When you play it, you’ll see what I mean — the controls are smooth and responsive, and give you a LOT of freedom. Multi-hit combos, a dodge/roll maneuver, three different attack types, around a hundred unique skills… it’s pretty diverse.

  • Now, on the music CD that comes with the Premium Edition, does it have the full or game version of Innocent Primeval Breaker?

    • Full version, of course. That’s track #1. ;)

      And the CD closes with the short version of “Rush Out!”, Falcom’s vocal interpretation of Innocent Primeval Breaker. Consider it a bonus track, of sorts.

  • Question: is there any english voice acting? (not sure if the original had any being a psp game either)

    and it definitely looks awesome :)

    already preordered the limited edition.

    Thanks Tom!

    • Only battle voices. A short snippet when you switch characters, and short little grunts or voice snippets when you attack or use skills.

      If it’s voice-acting you want, though, our next Falcom title, “Ys: The Oath in Felghana,” has it in spades: over 1,900 lines of voice-acting, covering every story-advancing dialogue scene in the entire game. So for that one, you can definitely look forward to some added vocal awesomeness.

  • how big is the downloadable one gunna be

  • THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! I have been waiting for the release date. I love Falcom games, please bring over Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki to the psp… Also Y’s 1 and 2, and Brandish: The Dark Revenant.. I will buy all the falcom games you can dish out… hell I’ll even buy them twice!!! Seriously I love Falcom games. I am super excited to hear this news. I can’t wait will be picking this up day 1. Any info you have on other falcom or rpg releases would be welcome!

    • You’re in luck on at least two of those, as Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki (now Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky) and Ys I & II Chronicles are both on our release schedule for sometime in 2011 (along with Ys: The Oath in Felghana toward the end of 2010).

      As for Brandish: The Dark Revenant, we ARE fans of that game here, and we ARE looking into it for a possible English release. No guarantees on that front, but you know you’ve got a die-hard Falcom fan here pushing for it, so we’ll definitely try our best to bring you guys as many Falcom games as we possibly can. Cross your fingers!

  • I first played this series in Ys III: Wanderers from Ys – don’t know that it is a highly appreciated entry in the series but I loved it and played the heck out of it many many times over (and still revisit it at times).

    To Tom I just want to say your detailed description of Ys VII and entusiasm for the product, added to how great a job XSEED did with Lunar has convinced me that this game belongs in my PSP collection. Thanks and You’re Welcome at the same time!

    • If you liked Ys III, you’ll also love Ys: The Oath in Felghana, the next game in our lineup. It’s a full-on remake of Ys III, but it’s unlike any other game remake EVER, in that it’s so heavily improved in every regard that it’s pretty much an entirely different game.

      It’s amazing, and any fans of Ys III should DEFINITELY check it out. And even people who hated Ys III should check it out, as I can guarantee you any and all flaws you encountered with the original have been completely done away with.

  • Looking forward to grabbing this.

  • Also, given that I loved Ys III so much and I think others should experience it, can’t you just go ahead and add that to next year’s release for a full Trilogy on PSP?

    • Ah, didn’t see this when I replied to your above comment. As you may have noticed, it’s already there – Ys: The Oath in Felghana = Ys III remake. And it’s amazing. And it’s coming, along with Ys SEVEN and Ys I & II Chronicles, for a full PSP trilogy.

  • Again Best news I’ve heard all month!! You guys did a spectacular job on bring Lunar over here. I never got to play that in the PS1 era (there were so many jrpgs back then.. not like today:( ) and I loved it. Thanks again. I can’t stress enough though how cool an official english version of Brandish: The Dark Revenant would be!!!! PlayStation owners are hardcore gamers.. look at the love we showed Demons Souls.. Brandish is supposed to be hard, thats no reason not to release it stateside (PLEASE!!!).

    • Don’t worry, your pleas are not going unnoticed. We’re looking into Brandish. I’ve put a good 15 hours into it, myself, and absolutely love the game. Keep your fingers crossed for good news on that front!

  • @midnightshade: Agreed!

  • in case there is ad-hoc mode, add online multiplayer mode, add downloadable theme inside please :)

    • No multiplayer in Ys SEVEN, I’m afraid. Ys has always been a one-player experience. But man, what an experience it is…

  • Thank you for delivering this great looking PSP game! I pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition. Were the winners for the in-game character names selected?? THANKS!!! :))))))))))

    • Yep, 14 people have been selected, and all of them have had their names placed in-game. I just hope the winners like their character choices, because some of the quest-giver NPCs are… shall we say, quirky? ;)

  • Thank you so much for bringing the Ys games to North America! I hope we could get Ys on the PS3 some day, too.

    Also, please get all over the Half-Minute Hero sequel! :)

  • After visiting your awesome website! I decided I’m getting the PSN version. Gotta admit this one snuck up on me.

  • I loved PS2 YS was it called 7?

    • The PS2 game was called Ys: The Ark of Napishtim, and is actually Ys VI. Konami published that one, not us, but we are fans of it here, and Konami did a really excellent job with their localization. If anyone hasn’t played Ark of Napishtim, I would highly recommend checking it out, as it is a really cool game. And it also introduces the character Geis, and the three fairies Xisa, Jue and Sera, who all make an appearance in Ys SEVEN (though if you’ve never played Ys VI, don’t worry about it – Ys SEVEN fills you in on everything you need to know).

      A disclaimer, though: Ys VI is a very different game from Ys SEVEN… and Ys: The Oath in Felghana… and Ys I & II Chronicles. So if anyone plays it and DOESN’T like it, please don’t let it sour you to the series. Falcom is very good at keeping their Ys titles fresh and new, with each installment representing a wholly unique experience. That’s part of what makes it such an awesome series.

      Though again… I love them all, VI included. The Ys series is awesome!

  • No I remember now Arc of Naphistim…YS rawks!

  • AWESOME

  • I’ve been wanting a good RPG for a while now (WKC was a huge flop imo, even though Level 5 is one of my favorite developers evar) and this looks to be it. Even better that it’s on the PSP, mine hasn’t been used for anything more than music for months.

  • An entry about Ys on the Playstation Blog… by Tom! Never thought I would see the day.

    CONGRATULATIONS XSEED! Not just on your sweet sweet Falcom deal but on hiring the best possible guy for the job. Already preordered Ys Seven LE.

    Now how about showing some love for Brandish PSP???

    • Heh, don’t worry, we’re looking into it. And you KNOW I’m being an annoying little pest about it. Imagine I were a rhino, constantly ramming all my coworkers and yelling, “BRANDISH! BRANDISH! BRANDISH!”, over and over again until their arms started bleeding from all those horn marks. And that’s kinda like what I’ve been doing, except without being a rhino.

  • I have Ys Book I and II for the Turbo Grafix CD, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys on SNES and Ys: The Ark of Napishtim on the PS2. Every Ys game I have played, both Top down and Sidescrolling have been nothing but pure quality. Its one of my all time favorite Action RPGs and it ranks up there with Square Enix’s Mana Series, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda, Atlus’ Crusader of Centy, Sega’s Landstalker and the TG 16’s Neutopia. Thank you for bringing Ys Seven to the US and within a timely manner.

    One thing I want to know: Is this game going to have voice overs or are they being taken out in favor of all text like they did with the PS2 to PSP Conversion of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim.

    Either way,I’m sure I’ll enjoy this game. Ys has never failed me. For those of you who are into Action RPGs and haven’t played Ys yet, give this one a try. Its fast paced and worth your cash especially at $29.99

    • Ys SEVEN has no voice-overs for anything but combat (short lines when you switch characters, grunts and call-outs when you attack or use skills, etc.), but we didn’t take anything out — they were just never there to begin with.

      Fortunately, Ys: The Oath in Felghana — our next Falcom title — restores the voice-overs you know and love, with over 1,900 lines of spoken dialogue. On the PSP, no less. And with pretty much *NO* load times.

  • Hey Thomas! It’s James from Ironstar! Great to see you posting on the PS Blog.

    For all you guys who want more Ys info, here’s 30 minutes of Thomas and I discussing the Ys PSP games at E3.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ulMFi48h8

  • Thanks for bringing these games to North America. I hope you guys sell a lot of copies.

  • Sweet mother of whaaaaat?! A handheld rpg for $30… no “rpg tax”?!

    “# Insanely fast-paced, action-packed gameplay. Turn-based? HA! Ys eats turn-based RPGs for breakfast, then regurgitates them and launches them at beings of ancient evil just because it can.”

    Oh… it’s not really an rpg, just a hack ‘n slasher? Not that those are necessarily bad or anything :) I’ve never played a Ys games before (maybe, maayyyybe I did way back on the nes or whatever, I can’t remember) but anythings worth a chance. There wouldn’t happen to be a demo would there?

    On an unrelated note, I got Lunar SSH special edition UMD back when it launched and the PSN version yesterday. How’s that for faithful? Now about getting Lunar 2 remade……. and localize Half Minute Hero 2 while you’re at it :o

    • It’s not a hack-and-slasher, per se — it’s still got a JRPG-style linear storyline, character development, towns, villagers, dungeons, bosses, equipment, unique weapons and skills, plot twists, side-quests, etc. — but it plays in real-time, so the gameplay is akin to what you’d find in a hack-and-slasher (only WAY more polished and fast-paced, in my opinion). It’s really the best of both worlds. I’m trying to get a new slogan to catch on for it, in fact: “Action RPG? More like *POWER* RPG!” ;)

      No demo, I’m afraid. But lots of gameplay videos, if you visit the official website! Check the “System” section to see what the game’s like in action.

      Regarding Lunar 2, remember, we’re just a publisher. We don’t actually MAKE the games, we just translate and publish them. Game Arts needs to develop a Lunar 2 remake for PSP, at which point, you can bet we’ll do everything we can to get our hands on it! But until they create the game, we can’t translate and release it. So just keep your fingers crossed, and hope that Game Arts comes through! We’d love to work with them again.

      As for Half-Minute Hero, we’re looking into it.

  • from the seconds the music started on the ys7 website i got sucked in. It’s a shame i never tried an Ys game before! it has always been on my fictional MaybeIShoulcCheckThisOut list.
    This one has a chance of becoming my favourite rpg (if i count disgaea out of rpg). It even has better music than disgaea! to bad we only get the psn version in europe, but at least we’ll get that :)
    really looking forward to it. This game will keep me away from disgaea for a while.
    thx for being awesome, keep up the good work

  • Don’t suppose you guys at XSeed would be up for localizing the Tales of series releases for PSP that were only released in Japan would you? lol

    • Might be hard to pry those away from Bandai Namco. But we can try, I guess! We’ll look into it. Just keep your fingers crossed.

  • lol@myself. In my haste be “first” i managed to completely miss the fact that this is a PSP game and not a PSN game. /slaps himself. trophies, indeed. can i get a trophy for being a dummy?

    either way, i’m still getting it.

    • Actually, it IS a PSN game, as well as a UMD game. ;) But yes, I get what you mean. It’s OK — happens to us all!

  • @Tom Lipschultz
    It plays kind of like the Star Ocean series then? I’ll be sure to check out those videos and more info on this. Always up for more PSP gaming goodness!

    Ah, and I understand you’re just a publisher but I mean, its not like Game Arts is doing anything else right now. You could probably persuade them with a few wet noodles to the head =D They’re owed a few whacks after Lunar Legend…

    On the matter of Bandai Namco games, they’ve been quiet about releasing .hack//Link in the west. Too quite much to the dismay of many a .hack fans. Feel free to look into localizing that if you feel like it… :(

    • Kinda like Star Ocean, but without separate battle screens – you attack enemies right on the map. Think Zelda, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Alundra, etc… except even those don’t really do it justice, as they’re all pretty slow-paced games, and Ys SEVEN is *super-duper* fast-paced. Like, I can’t stress enough how fast-paced it is. Check out the System videos on the website (http://www.worldofys.com) — you’ll see what I mean.

      Regarding Game Arts, we’ll break out our best noodles, get them as wet as possible, and see about doing as you ask. ;)

      As for Bandai Namco, it’s always tough to license from a Japanese publisher that actually has its own American branch, but we’ll continue to look into all possibilities.

  • Im really pleased for this and am getting the limited edition day 1! tho if possible small question :P.. seeing how you guys are great in bringing great games isnt possible for XSEED to maybe bring out Tales of Vesperia or the new tales for PS3?? or maybe the PSP Tales?? Namco for some odd reason are not doing anything and the series has a big number of fans. please consider it we PS fans love JRPGs

    • Man, lots of Tales love in here! Well, as I said above, it’s always tough to license from a Japanese publisher that actually has its own American branch, but we’ll definitely continue to look into all possibilities.

  • First of all I wanna say that I have my copy of the Ys Seven LE pre-ordered and plan to do the same with the rest of the Falcom releases. I’m a relative newcomer to the series (only played 1&2 for DS and Ark for PSP), but I thoroughly enjoy it and hope the next releases bring me just as much fun and nostalgia goodness.

    I had a few questions.

    Will the other Falcom releases have LEs as well? I wouldn’t mind an OST with my copy of Oath, 1&2 and Trails as well.

    Speaking of Trails, is the whole trilogy slated for release next year or just FC? How far behind the release of FC should we expect SC and the 3rd?

    Thank you for your time and keep up the good work!

    • Officially, we don’t know if there will be LEs for the other Ys games. But c’mon, you know I’m gonna push for them! I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I spend as much of XSEED’s money as I possibly can to give you guys all the stuff you want. But they might cut me off sooner or later, so no guarantees! ;)

      As for Trails, only the first game is on the horizon at this point. We’ve announced all three, but these games have an *insane* amount of text. Like, so much text that one chapter of just the story-advancing dialogue = the entirety of one of our other games, and THEN some. So getting all three released in one year is pretty much impossible! It’s going to be a little while between the first and second chapters, and then another little while between the second and third. I couldn’t even really BEGIN to estimate exact timeframes! Just know that we’re doing our best to get you all three titles as soon as we can, and any delays between titles are just to ensure that the game’s dialogue is as good as it possibly can be. ;)

  • Hmmm… Not a fan of these types of games… Don’t know why this is the most popular… I’d rather see some other types of games get released for the PSP every once in a while…

  • I will get all those Ys games on release day. Here’s a question:Any interest in bringing Coded Souls: Uketsugareshi Idea for the PSP here? Thanks.

    • I’m impressed you’ve even heard of that game! I actually quite like it, personally, and have been trying to garner interest in it here as well. I think it got lost in the Falcom shuffle, but now that you’ve reminded me, I’ll make sure to pester my coworkers some more, and try to get them interested in it too. ;)

      As with any other game suggestion, though, there are no guarantees. But you do have a fan on your side!

  • Wow that IS fast! Looks like a blast! And your party members on standby gain exp! All “rpgs” should do that! I’ll just be heading off to amazon to pre-order this now!

    @APVangeliLHS
    What types of games would you like to see on the PSP? More generic military shooters? Handhelds are the last line of defense for quirky games and rpgs and the like. Don’t wish to take that away from us!

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