Last week, I attended a digital preview event hosted by Nihon Falcom and NIS America for Ys X: Nordic, which will be fully released this October on Switch, PC, PS5, and PS4. Most of the time preview events feature games I haven’t played yet, but I’ve actually played quite a bit of Ys X: Nordic for Switch, which was released in Japan last year. In today’s feature, I’ll write up some preview impressions based on my experience playing the full version of the game (Japanese version) on Switch, and briefly reflect on the English localization based on the gameplay footage shown at the preview event. I also had the opportunity to ask Alan from NIS America some questions about the game and its localization efforts.
Ys X: Nordic Switch experience
While I enjoyed Ys IX, it never really reached the heights of Ys VIII. Ys VIII is one of my all-time favorite games and I’ve played it numerous times on most platforms. However, I think “Ys VIII” and “Ys IX” are excellent action role-playing games. Ys X: Nordic on the other hand feels different but still great. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the bright and colorful parts of Ys VIII, but it still has some annoyances. Falcom really needs to stop forcing players to play specific mini-games within the main story. Since I played the Japanese version, I can’t comment on much of the story, but the combat and structural changes in Ys X: Nordic made me feel great. You only focus on Adul and Kaja, not the party system.
While the X in the name represents the 10th mainline game, the X also represents crossover with some of the mechanics at play here. You can switch between single-player and two-player modes in what Falcom calls “cross-action.” Exploring and fighting on land, Ys X: Norse lets you sail, and yes, that means ship battles are included, too. These aren’t as annoying as the defense missions in Ys VIII and IX, but they’re me Least favorite aspect.
The visuals of Ys Interestingly, Ys IX and to some extent Ys VIII both work and look a lot worse on Switch than Ys X, but here we are. “Ys X: Nordic” is Falcom’s second in-house game released on Switch after “The Legend of Nayuta: Endless Trails”. The quality of ports of Falcom’s Ys games on Switch has been mixed, but I’m curious to see how the first new Ys game will feel on Switch since it’s being handled in-house by Falcom. Considering the hardware, the answer is really good, and better than VIII and IX combined. Ys IX performed particularly poorly on the Switch. I can already safely recommend the Switch version of “Ys X: Nordic” to players who want to play “Ys X: Nordic” on the go.
Speaking of playing it on the go, I haven’t been able to play the PC version in any form yet, but I’ll definitely have it covered now that the port has been completed by PH3. If you’re not familiar with PH3, read my interview with Peter Thoman.
I have also experienced this game through trial play on PS5. The image quality and performance are definitely a big improvement, but compared with Switch, the most significant improvement is the near-instant loading.
Judging from the preview, knowing nothing about the story other than a rough translation while playing the game, I have no doubt that Ys X: Nordics will end up on my list of games of the year.
Ys X: Nordic localization impression
Since I’ve already played the Japanese Switch version of Ys: Nordic (the full game) and even played a few hours of the PS5 demo, I wanted to focus on localization and English dubbing during the preview. So far, the voice acting and localization are very good. I’ll need to experience both elements in the final English version to see how they carry the story, but at least in the gameplay we saw during the preview event, I’m happy with the localization so far.
Ys X: Nordic interview with NIS America’s Alan Costa
At the end of the preview session, I had the opportunity to ask Alan Costa some questions about Ys X: Nordic and its upcoming localization. I didn’t get a chance to ask all the questions I wanted to, I’ll save that for a possible future full interview where I can cover more of NIS America’s localization and publishing content.
Touch Arcade: Are there any save data bonuses for saving Ys VIII or Ys IX on PC, PS5, PS4 or Switch? I don’t have the Japanese versions of these games on the Switch, so I couldn’t test them with my own Japanese version of Ys X.
Alan Costa: There are no save data bonuses for Ys VIII or Ys IX. There will be some basic DLC, but no story DLC or anything like that.
face: I really like the English dub so far.
AC: Thank you for liking the English dub. I’m actually in this game. I was its translator and I was directly involved in the recording, so thank you for saying that. This means a lot. I’m also very satisfied with the current recording effect.
face: Ys X has a French subtitle option, but will we see a French dub in NIS America’s release of Ys X?
AC: Yes, French text has always been something we tried to do for the series. The French dub is a little different. I can’t say no, we’ve never done a French dub now. I don’t know how feasible it is. Obviously, any localization we do, any language other than English, has costs associated with it. And, you know, dubbing the game into French also comes at a cost. To give you a very cold business answer, it depends somewhat on sales.
face: PH3 The recent PC ports of Falcom gaming have been incredible, and the PC port of Ys X was also done by PH3. Can we expect Peter’s blog post about port functionality in pre-release versions?
AC: Yes, this was also done by Peter and his PH3 team. I think we will have a blog post. Don’t quote me on that because I’m not involved in the PC development side of things, but in general Peter likes to do that because he likes to let gamers and fans know about the work they’re doing on it. Yeah, I’d say you can expect to see that.
face: Will the console version come with all the patches, including all the patches for the Japanese version of Ys X since its release?
AC: Yes, this should be complete as far as all the patches you see in the Japanese version go. So this should be the best date.
I want to thank Alan Costa of NIS America and Erica Enos and Mika Kelly of Clever Communications for being here.
Sean and I are looking forward to playing the final English version of Ys X: Nordic, which will be released globally on Switch, PC, PS5 and PS4 on October 25th via NIS America. Check out the official website here. Until then, I’ll continue to play the Japanese version on Switch.
