Ys X: Nordics

Ys X: Nordics was provided by NIS America for review. Thank you!

This month has been back-to-back with amazing JRPGs. Metaphor: ReFantazio started us off with a strong opening, followed by Romancing SaGa 2, another fantastic non-linear experience. And following that, we have Ys X: Nordics, the newest entry in the Ys series. While I have always enjoyed the Ys series and its previous entries, Ys X spices things up and feels like a fantastic addition to the series and a worthwhile JRPG to play on the Steam Deck.

In Ys X: Nordics, we follow the series protagonist, Adol Christin, as he embarks on another adventure. He travels to an island city, where he gets intertwined with magic called Mana, which binds you to Karja, a prominent Norman pirate. They are then forced to work together to fend off the attacks from the Griegr and save the Obelia Gulf.

It's a solid story with some interesting moments, but I wouldn't say it breaks any molds. It's a step above some of the other Ys games, and I am a fan of the Viking-esque aesthetic and setting, but the tale never really held me completely. It starts a bit slow, with the first couple of hours feeling more like a slog, and the story doesn't ramp up until near the end. It never got to the point where I disliked the story, and I still found interesting moments throughout, but most of the questions I wanted answered or was curious about didn't get answered until near the end.

However, the cast of characters carries the parts of the story I didn't like. The biggest highlight is Karja and her dynamic with Adol. I love her personality, which never really falls into the stereotypes I usually see in JRPGs. She is dependable, grounded, and caring, and this is a nice change of pace from the damsel in distress or overly clumsy archetypes I am used to seeing. I also appreciate that Falcom made their relationship based on mutual respect and genuine care for each other that extends beyond the romantic realm, making the pairing feel so much more genuine. It feels like a natural evolution as they become "Shield Brother" and "Shield Sister" based on their interactions.

Other than them, I felt each crew member you save has a distinct personality and charm when interacting with each other. I enjoyed learning the characters' back stories when giving them gifts, even if they felt a bit generic. They never reached the heights of Karja, which is completely fine since she is essentially the speaking protagonist due to Adol mostly staying silent, but they were entertaining to interact with.

When it comes to gameplay, Ys X stays very similar to the series, with a couple of very welcoming changes. We still have real-time action combat where you will run, dodge, and slash down enemies, along with skills that drain your SP and can be used whenever you want. You get more skills when you level up and unlock nodes on the skill tree, and you can choose between four to equip at any time. As you kill enemies, you will gain EXP and level up, increasing your stats and giving you Mana Spheres to unlock nodes on your skill tree.

This presents a couple of big changes I found wonderful. Most modern Ys games have you controlling multiple people and building them out, but we will only control Adol and Karja in Ys X: Nordics. While having multiple characters you can switch to is cool, I enjoyed this system much more. Because there are only two characters to play, the combat is fleshed out to tailor to them. Both characters stay on the screen and fight, and while you can switch between them with the press of a button, you can also hold down the right trigger to control both of them at once for some cool tandem attacks in Duo Mode.

Duo Mode sacrifices mobility but allows you to maximize damage by attacking enemies with both Adol and Karja at the same time. You will have access to new skills that do much more damage, and you can block some enemy attacks that you wouldn't have been able to before. This also fills up your Revenge Gauge, which can increase your skill attack's damage by up to 2 times more and can be upgraded later on to go up to 5 times more!

Going in and out of Duo Mode and swapping between characters is essential for survival and makes fights feel less like a button-mashing romp. Playing as a single character gives you speed, allows you to dodge, and the character that isn't selected slowly heals, while Duo Mode gives you more power and the ability to block some attacks. And with each character having their skill tree, skills, and equipment, it becomes essential to surviving tough encounters by swapping at the right time.

The skill tree is a bit of a hit-or-miss for me at times. As you level up, you will get points that unlock nodes on each character's tree. From there, you will insert orbs that augment your abilities. Each orb has a color with it, and while it also enhances your stats, it can provide other buffs depending on how many color lanes it fills. So, using a yellow orb to increase Luck and fill one color lane could also reduce SP consumption. On the one hand, I like the general system, but on the other, I feel like it doesn't impact my stats as much as regular leveling-up does. It's still cool to play around with, but the impact of strategically placing orbs isn't where I would like it to be.

The other big change is getting rid of the old enemy weakness system and replacing it with a Break Bar. In the older games, some characters did specific types of damage that would kill enemies faster, but in this game, we instead have a break bar for the bigger enemies and bosses. I think of it like armor, and Duo Mode is great at chipping it away. Once it is gone, you can attack the enemy directly and drain their health. I like the simplistic change to the Break Bar over the old weakness system, as I didn't have to remember to swap to a new character each time I wanted to deal big damage.

This combat is one of Ys X: Nordics greatest strengths, and I found it to be a great combination of flashy, strategic, and action-packed. However, naval combat gave me the opposite feeling. Going around the ocean in your slow ship and trying to line up your cannons to shoot ships felt more like a chore rather than a fun time. You can board some ships to fight off waves of enemies on the ship, but it doesn't feel as great as just running around the islands to take them down.

Exploring the sea with your ship wasn't the greatest time either. I often wished my ship would go faster and for my dash to recharge so I could get to my destination faster. I did enjoy the little side conversations I could trigger while sailing, which felt a lot like the side conversations from the "Tales Of" games. It's nice that the new crew members you get can provide different services on the ship, like selling gear and crafting potions. There are also some events to spice up ship combat, like liberating occupied islands, but being on the ship and moving around still feels like a chore.

Visually, Ys X has a great, vibrant color scheme I really loved. It pops on the OLED screen of the Steam Deck, making those flashy moves look especially colorful. I did find the islands and some caves looking quite familiar, but it was never too much that it took me out of the experience. It does get a little more varied towards the end of the game, though, and I do appreciate that.

The game also has a solid soundtrack and great voice acting, though the latter is not utilized as much as I would like. There are parts in the game where characters have no voices and a couple where one character has voiced lines while another doesn't. Falcom does this in their games, and I did make note of it in Trails Through Daybreak. It does bother me a bit, but it didn't take away from the game much.

Luckily, you will be able to enjoy this fully on the Steam Deck.

Ys X: Nordics - Steam Deck Performance

Ys X: Nordics is a fantastically optimized game that is near perfect on the Steam Deck. It doesn't take much to run and could run right out of the box without changes, but if you want to play with the best battery life or at 60 FPS, settings need to be changed. So, I have three different settings to show for this game and get the most out of it.

I will note that you can turn on anti-aliasing to 2X MSAA and Transparency Multisampling if desired, but I did not like how it looked and felt default was better.

Recommended Settings

For my recommended settings, I wanted to balance high framerate, solid battery life, and good-looking visuals. With most settings on high, resolution scale at 95%, TDP limit at 10, and framerate set to 45 FPS, I found it. The game doesn't drain above 16W, keeps a solid 45 FPS even in the areas that are draining on the system and looks wonderful. It isn't 60 FPS, but it still feels extremely smooth and is my favorite way to play without really draining the system.

There may still be some drops during cutscenes and minor stutters, but they don't stay for long and won't affect general gameplay.

Quality Settings

Ys X can be pushed pretty hard on the visual front before it starts to fall below 30 FPS. I noticed that the Shadow Resolution setting was one of the biggest perpetrators of performance dropping, yet it doesn't have a huge impact on the visual quality of the world, especially on the smaller screen. So, keeping this at Medium, I was able to bring up every other quality setting to almost max with 30 FPS stable. There are some cutscenes that drop, but the gameplay itself will stay stable. There's no TDP limit here, as some areas in the game will push the device and battery drain to 21W.

I wouldn't recommend this personally due to the game feeling amazing at higher framerates, but if 30 FPS doesn't bother you, this will make your game look beautiful.

60 FPS Settings

And finally, I wanted to create a group of settings for those who want to play at 60 FPS. There aren't a lot of changes that need to be made for this, but it's still going to need some changes to keep it stable in high-action scenes. With most settings set to medium and the Resolution scale at 100%, we can keep a solid 60 FPS that holds up in almost every scenario (not counting cutscenes). It doesn't drain as much battery as I was expecting it to, but there are still moments where it will need extra power, so I would keep the TDP unlocked.

Accessibility

There are a ton of different options to change for Ys X. You can change languages, toggle sea battle assists and additional footholds, increase display and autoplay speed, change autosave options and whether overlay is paused, and change priority for locking on, Duo Mode method, and steering mode for the ship. There are a lot of options to change for all different elements of the game, including UI, so there should be a little something for everyone.

The game supports 16:10 resolutions, controllers, and cloud saves! There are HDR settings here and it can be turned on, which is awesome.

Conclusion

Ys X: Nordics is an enjoyable JRPG. I had a blast with it, and it succeeds where it counts. The on-foot combat is fantastic, and I like the changes Falcom made here. The story is passable, while the characters are fantastic, especially Karja and her dynamic with Adol. I also like how the visuals look, even if there are a lot of similar-looking locations. I wish the skill tree system had made more of an impact and the story had been a bit deeper, but the pros outweigh the cons. This is easily one of the best entries in the series.

As for Steam Deck performance, Ys X: Nordics delivers some great optimization. We can play with almost the highest settings, and can play at 60 FPS, with little compromise regardless of your choice. It's a fantastic portable experience, and I highly recommend adding it to your library if you're a fan of JRPGs.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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