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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  • On the off chance you get around to reading this, I was wondering if you knew what the file size of this games will be on PSN? A nice small file size would make the difference between me getting the UMD and the digital version. Brave Story is a mere 147mb and that’s a full fledged rpg, which gives me hope this game may be on the small side since it has only minimal voice overs. So like if its south of 600mb I’ll nuke my amazon pre-order and go digital! :D

    • We don’t have an exact size just yet, but it looks like it WILL be larger than 600 MB — probably somewhere in the 700-800 range. Sorry!

  • I’m listening to Ys Seven’s music for 3 days in a row. This game got me really excited and (unfortunately) i’m new to the series. Good work guys.
    The EU release is the same as the US release right?
    only 10 more days, i should get some cash on my psn account :)

    • Should be. If not the same day, then like, the NEXT day. But I’m pretty sure it’s the same day!

    • Ack, sorry. Guess I should’ve double-checked to be sure, rather than going by what I THOUGHT I’d heard! I’m going to quote directly from the XSEED Facebook:

      “We are working on the Ys Seven digital version for Europe’s PSN store now, but not sure when exactly it will be ready to go live. It won’t be on the same date as the US release, but hopefully not too far behind.”

      Sorry for my prior misleading response!

  • @ Tom Lipschultz:
    Thanks for answering :)
    Just so I know I don’t have to break my ps3 and pc in a rage for not finding Ys in the store. I hope it’ll come soon!
    Are there any minor differences?
    It’s probably just the legal crap for releasing it in Europe I guess. We should have a system that makes great games available to everyone in the world the moment they are finished!

    • That I can say with certainty: There are no differences between the North American and European releases of the game. They will be completely identical, save for one being rated by PEGI and the other by the ESRB. ;)

  • Thanks Tom, will get for sure

  • Ordered the limited edition a few days back, can’t wait.

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