I have a love-hate relationship with Nihon Falcom. I ploughed over 500 hours of my life into The Legend of Heroes series, only to get to the end of the saga with one of the most underwhelming endings ever. I would have gotten a great ending if I had 100% completed the last area, but I didn’t know that at the time. That bad experience, plus another niggle I have with their writing style, put me off playing any of their games again. Until now.
The Ys series (pronounced “yease”) is different from The Legend of Heroes series in its game mechanics as the Ys series is a real-time hack and slash (that happens to be my favourite genre). So, could Ys X: Proud Nordics, despite the above, win me over?
This game is a blast to play! Ys X: Proud Nordics is a revamped version of Ys X: Nordics, which is barely over a year old. Although it sounds ridiculous to re-release a game that soon, the Switch has had a new console release within that time, and Ys X: Proud Nordics capitalizes on the new hardware power. It also takes the time to add a decent amount of additional content and upgrades.
It is, however, hugely disappointing that any owners of the previous game don’t have an upgrade path to play the new version. Not only that, if they do buy the new version at full price, they can’t transfer their save files either. Come on, NIS/Falcom. Do the right thing for your fans!
Set in a faux mediaeval Europe with slight changes to correct spellings of where they come from (Ispanards, Romuns, Danmark, Briti), you play as an adventurer named Adol, who quite literally ends up handcuffed to a Norman Princess of the Balta Seaforce named Karja.
Adol, Karja and their friends are set upon by a horde of monsters called Griegr, with Adol and Karja barely escaping with their lives. They escape back to the Balta Seaforce homebase onboard a worn-out ship. All their friends are lost except one, and therein the adventure really kicks off in trying to defeat the Griegr and find all their friends.
There are a lot more mysteries to unravel in the excellent story, and part of the new version of the game woven into the narrative is a whole new large island to discover and explore.
Visually, it’s a mixed bag. The downside is that Nihon Falcom still has visuals stuck in the late PS3/PS4 era rather than modern day graphics. There is little in the way of outstanding fidelity, detail and effects. However, the clean look of the game, coupled with the 60 to 120 fps gameplay, was excellent.
The artwork, especially character designs, is excellent. Each character looks superb in whatever outfit you put them in. Character models are fun, as are the visual effects during battles. The “clean and simple” look of the graphics in 60fps really helps the player monitor what’s happening during combat to be able to react to it.
Oddly enough, in the game’s two graphics modes (Performance or Quality), I felt that Performance mode (that targets 120 fps and lower detail) wasn’t as smooth as the Quality mode (60fps and better fidelity). At 120 fps, the game seems to chug ever so slightly.
The game’s lighting is one of the best I’ve seen in a Nihon Falcom game. The difference in shading of colours really popped to give more definition and clarity. It is easily the best looking, best running Nihon Falcom game I’ve played. Saying that, though, it’s still not much of a technical showcase compared to other JRGs on the market. But what the game lacks in graphical power, it makes up for in many other areas.
The most outstanding examples are the character building, narrative and voice acting. As much as I dislike Nihon Falcom for what they did to me with the Legends series, it wasn’t long into playing this game that I remembered WHY I stuck with their Legends series for so long.
The characters, due to the expertly crafted dialogue and narrative, really shine. The development arcs felt natural and real, which makes them interesting and well rounded. For example, and trying to keep things spoiler-free, Karja starts off as a hard-nosed enemy of Adol, but over time, softens up to start to like him. It’s not long before the banter between Karja and Adol becomes the star of the show and a highlight of the game.
The RPG elements are standard, as through a skill tree upgrade, you can tinker with your character builds to your heart’s content. The builds can be focused deliberately into the playstyle of your choice, with meaningful consequences if you get it right.
The combat, especially if you just watch videos of it, is far more nuanced than it looks. There is more going on than just a fast-paced, button-mashing frenzy. Both characters have attack traits. Adol is fast and elusive, and Karja is slower but more powerful. You can switch between the two instantly. Each character has a particular set of skills to use (that use mana) with the press of RB and an accompanying button. The more you use one particular skill, the more powerful options you can get.
Each combat scenario can be played as a singular character, or you can instant play in DUO mode. This mode highlights the tether between Adol and Karja, allowing you to launch duo attacks, which are much more powerful (and more fun) to play with but use up more mana points in the process. What the game doesn’t tell you, but is important to know, is that playing the game as a single character means the other character will slowly recover health. This doesn’t happen in DUO mode.
The game’s combat also makes the player learn and get comfortable with defending and parrying attacks. Some attacks can’t be parried, so you have to dodge, but you can launch a powerful attack from it if you time the dodge correctly. The enemies clearly mark what type of attack is incoming, so the clean visuals shine to help the player here.
The Ys X: Proud Nordic‘s difficulty can be challenging thanks to its enemies. Some boss fights are challenging even on standard difficulty, so learning what you can and can’t do, reading enemy attack patterns, etc., is key. However, the game is also very friendly in that if you are beaten, you have options to retry again or lower the difficulty a little. This is a really nice touch to keep the frustration away and encourage the player to keep playing.
So, no, it’s not just run around and button mash, there is quite a lot more actually going on. Decide which skills to use and when, single or double attacks. Go for parries or dodge. I was pleased and surprised at how much thought I was having to put into fights, especially boss fights.
My only real criticism of the combat was down to the game’s lack of graphical fidelity. This was a problem because sword swings, skills, and enemy attacks all had similar visual effects that made the screen occasionally look a little cluttered and messy.
The game also surprised me in that it has some fun traversal and gameplay moments. You have a tether that can get you over big gaps but also a rudimentary surfboard! Another plus point is that the size of the text to read is a perfectly comfortable size that even someone who struggles to read on-screen can see it. I’ve lost count of the number of games I’ve played now where the size of the screen text you are supposed to read, be that dialogue or menu systems, is conversely too small. Why some developers put tiny writing that even on a 43-inch tv you can barely see is beyond me. Not so here, though, as with most things the developers have done with this game, they absolutely nailed it. It’s details like these that really separate the average developers from the excellent ones.
As you have a ship and are part of the Balta Seaforce, you use that vessel to traverse the map and start missions and generally explore. Not only that, though, but you also get to participate in sea battles as well. In a mirror image of the melee combat mentioned above, it doesn’t look particularly stunning in a video, and the graphics here, again, look basic at best. There is a lot more going on than you think, however. Different types of ammunition, positioning, using the wind to gain an advantage, and boarding stunned ships to fight hand-to-hand on deck!
Your ship can be upgraded in many ways, and you can also explore your own ship and use it as a mobile base to craft, make items, talk to friends and have meals.
The only real downside of naval combat is that it looks so basic. Heck, there aren’t even waves to worry about and only minimal water effects of your ship’s movement. Even so, it was actually more fun to play than I thought it would be. One criticism of the sailing is that it does take a long time to sail anywhere, but to be honest, I kind of enjoyed the downtime of getting from point A to point B.
Finally, the audio was excellent. Battle effects all felt powerful and exciting. Background noises were authentic and enveloping. The background music was also pleasant too. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, the voice acting and line delivery was the standout, though. I know this will sound weird and something that shouldn’t need commenting about, but the audio levels of all the characters was excellent, and I could hear them all perfectly.
Why am I mentioning that? Well, it’s come to my attention with some of the recent games I’ve played just how hard, how uneven, it is for some game developers to mix audio levels so that the player can hear everyone speak (looking straight at you God of War: Sons of Sparta)! It’s refreshing to play this game knowing I won’t have to constantly turn the game volume up and down, depending on who is speaking. Everyone is consistently loud enough here in Ys X: Proud Nordics.
So, the new features of the game include:
- New Story Thread
- New Characters (Non-Playable)
- Expanded Map (Orland Island)
- New Mana Actions
- Arena Battles
- Muspelheim Shrine (End-Game Dungeon)
- All DLC Included
- New Naval Battles
- Faster Ocean Travel (Really?)
- More Details On Screen
- Larger Maps With More Activities
- And Finally Better Engine Performance.
As I didn’t play the original version of the game, I can’t comment on the new details much as I’m not 100% certain what I was playing was new content or not.
All I can really comment on is that the above is a hefty new list of content over the base game. If you can sell the old version of the game to recover some of the cost of getting the new one, I would highly recommend doing so. It is the best way to play the game (obviously) and has a lot of new content.
So, the overall experience is an outstanding one. If you can get over the dated visuals, even for an updated version, you will really enjoy Ys X: Proud Nordics. It hits the mark where it counts. Excellent story, exciting and varied gameplay, character development that makes you care about the cast, and a deep world of lore to dive into.
It’s cliche, but it’s true. I felt like I was putting on a familiar pair of comfy slippers when I played this game. I looked forward to every gaming session when I knew I was going to sit down and play this. I’ve recently found that quite hard to do, but Nihon Falcom has me hooked on a game again. It’s been a while since I’ve smiled, chilled, and lost myself in a game like this. This is what gaming is supposed to be about. Pure, wonderful, simple escapism and adventure.
Developer: Nihon Falcom Corporation
Publisher: NIS America
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, PC
Release Date: 20th February 2026
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Ys X: Proud Nordics was provided by the publisher.
