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| Illusion of Gaia (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete @NintendoComplete | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
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Illusion of Gaia (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete @NintendoComplete
![Dragon Warrior II (NES) Playthrough [1 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/onNy0JlNgi4/hqdefault.jpg "Dragon Warrior II (NES) Playthrough [1 of 2]
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![Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SNES) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q7-3NVjT2EU/hqdefault.jpg "Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SNES) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Tonkin Houses 1993 action-RPG for the Super Famicom, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun.
Since the game was only released in Japanese, I played the game with a fan translation patch applied. You can find the patch at https://www.romhacking.net/translations/498/
Ys IV came about at a rough time in Falcoms history. Most of the companys creative staff, including the creators of the Ys series, left in search of greener pastures as work was wrapping up on Ys III. Without the manpower or talent in place to create the game themselves, Falcom offered the job to two companies - Tonkin House (publisher of Ys III on the Super Famicom) and Hudson (co-developer and publisher of Ys I-III on the PC Engine) - and provided both with a rough design document and a soundtrack.
In hopes of beating Hudson to the punch and snapping up sales, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun was rushed out the door in November 1993, landing a full month ahead of Ys IV: Dawn of Ys for the PC Engine (https://youtu.be/UOdseUvKsT0).
Ys IV is a direct sequel to Ys II, in terms of both story and gameplay. After saving the land of Esteria, Adol Christin is once again feeling the itch for adventure. Conveniently enough, he finds a plea for help stuffed inside a glass bottle that has washed up on the beach and immediately books himself passage on a ship to Celceta.
Ditching the side-scrolling platforming action of Ys III, Ys IV brings back the top-down, bump-combat driven system from the first two games. Instead of rings, magic spells are now tied to Adols swords, but the mechanics are otherwise all quite familiar.
The SNES game was created by Advance Communication (the same people responsible for the NES ports of Ys I-III and the SNES version of Ys III), and it shows. The quality of their Ys ports had been steadily improving with each new release, but when they took on the task of creating a new game from scratch, it seems as though they bit off more than they could chew.
It looks, sounds, and plays enough like an Ys game to get the job done, but its not terribly convincing, and it never approaches the quality of Falcoms own work. The controls are overly rigid, the enemies erratic behavior patterns are difficult to read, the level design relies too much on giant mazes to pad things out, the game provides little in the way of direction, and the plot is a string of ridiculous contrivances. (How does being struck by lightning suddenly teleport Adol to an enemy hideout?) The problems grow increasingly obvious as things progress, and its clear that the game was taken out of the oven before it was ready.
As a random one-off, Mask of the Sun would be an enjoyable but heavily flawed and ultimately forgettable game. However, as a numbered entry in the Ys series, it simply isnt good enough.
I liked Mask of the Sun in spite of its issues, but would I recommend it? No way. Not when Dawn of Ys exists.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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