Back in 1987 Nihon Falcom created a little game called Ys: The Vanished Omens for the NEC PC-8801. Today, almost 25 years later, Ys has grown into one of the largest RPG franchises out there, being only second to Final Fantasy.
Ys ended up on dozens of systems and one of those systems was the Sega Master System, I remember it well, this was one of my first games for the system and I still remember it fondly. Ys: The Vanished Omens was one of the most intriguing games I had seen, it featured a unique battle mechanism that had you run head first into the enemy, there was no turn-based battles like in Final Fantasy, nor did you have to smash buttons to swing your blade. You just ran into them like a suicidal maniac on speed. But I'm not here to write about the Sega Master System port, I'm going to be focusing on the TurboGrafx CD version.
Ys: Book I & II was actually the first 2 games on one CD, Ys: The Vanished Omens and Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter, but it plays as one game, you start out as a traveling swordsman arriving in Minea where you meet a fortune teller called Sarah who has a quest for you. This quest is to find the 6 legendary books of Ys. This simple quest sets in motion an adventure taking you through demon infested mines, mountains, dungeons and many more. Ys: Book I & II was one of the first games ever to be released on a CD, and it shows, the whole game is littered with beautiful artwork, portraits and even cut scenes. There is voice acting and what probably is the best game soundtrack ever
So how can you enjoy this classic game? There are 3 options. You could get hold of a TurboGrafx CD (expensive old console), you could go the Wii Virtual Console route, or you can go the emulation route and just pick up the game on eBay, whichever you chose, you will not regret it!