Ys:Ark of Napishtim is the 6th entry in the Ys series, which had its first game out in 1987, but it certainly isn’t one of the most famous series around, especially because there haven’t been any of the series games out since 1995.

Ark of Napishtim features Adol Christin, the red-haired hero of the other Ys games. As a small curiosity (or not), if you add an “a” just after “Christi” you have Christian, one of the many “links” the game have with real history. Adol, who became a famous adventurer throughout the series starts the game in a tavern with his long time friend Dogi, when they are approached by two guys, and right after that two Romun soldiers (notice that Romun is directly related to Roman), in order to escape from them, Adol and Dogi are brought to a pirate ship, where the two guys reveal themselves to be Sera (who has already participated of another adventure with Adol, when she was younger) and his father, a renowned pirate. The pirate ship is then chased by a Romun fleet, which attacks using cannons; one of these attacks makes Adol fall from the ship, being then sucked by the so called “Great Vortex”. Adol ends up in an island, where he’s rescued by two young girls who happen to be the priestesses of the Rehdan, a tailed people who have always lived in that island and don’t get along very well with the Eresians, humans who have also been sucked by the Great Vortex and can’t get out of the island. In order to leave the island Adol must solve the puzzle involving the Great Vortex, but he’ll get involved in much more dangerous adventures as he tries to solve the mystery involving the island.

Ark of Napishtim doesn’t require a good comprehension of the series’ story, even though it’ll help a little to know what had happened before the events in Ark of Napishtim took place, once some references are made. Its story is short, but interesting enough to keep you playing in order to level Adol up, so that you can know what is going to happen.

The anime portraits of each character help a lot to know how exactly they are, once they are not very detailed in the game itself. Also, when some important dialogue comes up, those pictures show almost the full body of the character, emphasizing the importance of the event. Each character also features its own voice, something really nice that helps to detail each character (it’s important to notice that there are only a few characters in the games), although it isn’t very well made. The game’s music is also nice, but it isn’t anything that you will keep in mind for days.

The game’s graphics fit well with the game itself – they’re very simple. The only graphically nice parts are the intro and ending movies, leaving the remaining of the game with average graphics. Its characters are also very small (something that is not totally solved by the anime portraits).

Adol can have basically 3 kinds of sword, each of them corresponding to fire, wind and thunder, which of them having basically 3 kinds of attacks and one special technique that gets stronger as you upgrade the swords. There are also few armor and items options, making its gameplay really simpler. Slashing monsters is something that you will hardly get annoyed with (presuming that you didn’t get annoyed by just slashing them a few times), once you won’t need much time to level Adol up, but leveling him up will only increase the damage caused by Adol’s attacks (in other words, he doesn’t learn any special technique or ability during the game).

After beating the game, you will be able to fight against any boss you beat during the game, something that does add to its value, once you will be able to try to beat your best time over and over if you are not interested in playing the game all over one more time in a harder level.

The game is easy, and may not be a great challenge for those who are more experienced with RPG games, even in harder levels. If you are just an occasional player you will find Ys:Ark of Napishtim really enjoyable, especially because of its simple hack n’ slash gameplay, added to an interesting story that’ll probably keep you playing the game up to its finish, something that won’t be that hard.

---Velociguardian---