History YMMV / Ys

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ0U9C6lxas "A Great Ordeal"]] from ''Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys'' is lifted straight from [[Music/YngwieMalmsteen Yngwie Malmsteen's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6MSnZdFmkE "Far Beyond the Sun'']], being practically note-for-note at several points.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ0U9C6lxas "A Great Ordeal"]] from ''Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys'' is a blatant copy of [[Music/YngwieMalmsteen Yngwie Malmsteen's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6MSnZdFmkE "Far Beyond the Sun'']].

** Ernst's {{Leitmotif}} in ''Ys VI'' is suspiciously similar to "Moon Over the Castle" from the ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'' series.

* ClicheStorm: The plots for each installment often face accusations of this. When the franchise was new, the accusations didn't have as much teeth (since the entire medium, let alone [[EasternRPG the genre]], was still in its infancy), but most people agree it slowly got less predictable with ''Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand'' and ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'', whereas the older games suffer from it too much. As for ''VideoGame/YsSEVEN'', much like the game-play is significantly changed up from its predecessors, the story deliberately sets up an apparently cliche experience, only to turn player expectations completely on their ear on just about every front, such as [[spoiler:TheReveal of a party member being EvilAllAlong, friendly {{Non Player Character}}s who were deemed allies are actually in cahoots with the BigBad and deconstructing tropes regarding TheChosenOne]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Dogi in ''Ys I''; due to his popularity, he has became a BreakOutCharacter.

* SnarkBait: The fiasco with NIS America over the localization of ''Ys VIII'' and its delayed PC port has seen no end of mockery by the greater Falcom fan community.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZFhK1zUWI item acquisition fanfare]] used throughout the ''Ys'' series is a blatant copy of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgjLtJLw6I item fanfare]] from ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', as admitted by Yuzo Koshiro in his [[https://web.archive.org/web/20181108020351/www.geocities.jp/yzymo_matan/yuzo_koshiro/yuzo/avg_rpg3.html liner notes]]. Note that the fanfare cribs from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgjLtJLw6I Famicom Disk System version]] of ''Metroid'' specifically, which was the only version released in Japan, and was the basis for later iterations.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZFhK1zUWI item acquisition fanfare]] used throughout the ''Ys'' series is a blatant copy of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgjLtJLw6I item fanfare]] from ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', as admitted by Yuzo Koshiro in his [[http://www.geocities.jp/yzymo_matan/yuzo_koshiro/yuzo/avg_rpg3.html liner notes]]. Note that the fanfare cribs from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgjLtJLw6I Famicom Disk System version]] of ''Metroid'' specifically, which was the only version released in Japan, and was the basis for later iterations.

* ThatOneBoss
** Vagullion in all versions of ''Ys I'': this boss appears initially as a swarm of bats that can't be hurt, all the while chasing players around the boss arena to damage them. Every once in a while, these bats coalesce into a gargoyle, Vagullion's true form, and players have but a split second to hit Vagullion without taking damage themselves, else the boss turns back into bats, forcing players to redo the entire thing over again.
** Dark Fact at the end of ''Ys I'' is a complete son-of-a-bitch; the fight is a BulletHell challenge with non-stop fireballs tracking you everywhere you run at a rate of one every half-second and [[SpreadShot exploding in a spray of smaller fireballs when they hit the ground]], meaning you simply ''cannot'' avoid them all and putting an effective time limit on the fight before your HP inevitably runs out, you have to chase Dark Fact around as he dashes from one corner of the arena to the other, [[HitboxDissonance his hitbox is smaller than it looks]], and even if you can track his (honestly rather simple) movement pattern, every time you hit him ''the ground below you explodes'', not only ''massively'' reducing the amount of actual space you have to maneuver on as you draw closer to beating him (both making it harder to avoid the fireballs ''and'' harder to intercept his movements) but if you don't get off the ground fast enough as it explodes you instantly ''[[OneHitKill plummet to your doom]]''. Matters are made even ''worse'' by a bug in some versions which causes the fireballs to bombard you at an ''insanely'' high rate if you don't manually cap the refresh rate to [=60Hz=], making it all but ''physically impossible'' to win.
** Gruda's OneWingedAngel transformation in ''Mask of the Sun'': not only is this the hardest boss in the game, but it doesn't help that players have to go through a long unskippable dialogue before the battle.
** Karion and Jabir's OneWingedAngel form in ''Ys V'', particularly in ''Ys V Expert'': both are battles of attrition, where players will need plenty of healing items.
** Khonsclard in ''Ys I'' was largely a LuckBasedMission, but its appearance in ''Ys Origin'' takes the cake: multiple targets, both its main body and several cacti-like {{Mook}}s spawning throughout the arena, the latter of which restore Khonsclard's {{Hit Point}}s if they're not destroyed first. Khonsclard itself fires off plenty of projectiles, all incredibly hard to dodge, the number of cacti-{{Mook}}s increases as the battle progresses, and since the arena is sitting atop of shifting sands that pulls players towards Khonsclard's body, players also have to contend with limited movement options for the duration of the fight. Not even FinalBoss Dalles is as difficult compared to this.
** Nygtilger in ''Origin'': most players won't beat it on their first try. Since it's a SegmentedSerpent, each segment must be destroyed one-by-one first at it moves around the circular arena. The easiest method is to hop onto its back and hack away, but there's only a few scant seconds to do so before it barrels around and charges at players with a hard-hitting electrical attack. Making this worse is every time a segment is destroyed, that part of its body begins spewing timed bombs that have a ludicrously big AreaOfEffect with knockback capabilities, inflicting [[StandardStatusEffect poison]]. Before long, the entire arena will be littered with these bombs, such that players will barely have enough time to swat them away before they explode. Finally, once Nygtilger 's {{Hit Points}} reach less than 50%, it starts rolling around the arena in a lightning-fast motion, a maneuver almost impossible to dodge due to how unpredictable its path is.

** Although the titular Dana in ''Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana'' is the {{Deuteragonist}} of the game, Laxia von Roswell is the one whom most players desire to see paired with Adol, being the most prominent party member in the game, obvious BelligerentSexualTension for Adol and heavy promotion by NIS America in marketing and DownloadableContent.

* ClicheStorm: The plots for each installment often face accusations of this. When the franchise was new, the accusations didn't have as much teeth (since the entire medium, let alone [[EasternRPG the genre]], was still in its infancy), but most people agree it slowly got less predictable with ''Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand'' and ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'', whereas the older games suffer from it too much. As for ''VideoGame/YsSEVEN'', much like the game-play is significantly changed up from its predecessors, the story deliberately sets up an apparently cliche experience, only to turn player expectations completely on their ear on just about every front, such as [[spoiler:TheReveal of certain party members being EvilAllAlong and deconstructing tropes regarding TheChosenOne]].

* CounterpartComparison: ''Ys'' is to Japan what ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' is in many western countries - a solo protagonist's adventures through a large, colorful world with ActionRPG elements and an emphasis on dungeon-crawling and exploration that tends to start out in a new location for every installment. While both franchises originate in Japan, the latter receives greater popularity and acclaim in English-speaking countries while in its native country, the opposite holds true.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Enough that it has [[AwesomeMusic/{{Ys}} its own page]].

* FriendlyFandoms: In spite of occupying the polar opposites in the StoryToGameplayRatio and being a more traditional EasternRPG compared to ''Ys'' and its ActionRPG stance, expect ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails]]'' fans to also be ''Ys'' fans. This is likely because they share the same developer, art style, and are localized and published by XSEED Games, except for ''Ys VIII'' (NIS America is the one doing it).

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the ''Ys'' franchise has always been well respected and popular in its home country, Falcom's financial earnings consistently show the games sell more in North America, whereas the Japanese market prefer the ''Trails'' series, though there are certainly fans of both (see FriendlyFandoms). To English-speaking players, ''Ys'' is the more popular title from the company due to its obscurity and infrequent release schedule with their older works.

* MainstreamObscurity: ''Ys'' is one of the oldest and most-distinguished JRPG series of all time, in company with (if not on ''nearly'' the same level as) series like ''Franchise/FinalFantasy, Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' and ''VideoGame/DragonQuest.'' But until ''Ark of Napishtim'' was released in English on the [=PS2=], the games were practically unknown outside of Japan, and it has still mostly remained a CultClassic series ever since.

* ObviousJudas: In Hugo's route in ''Origin'', a flashback shows that [[spoiler:Cain Fact]] groomed Hugo to be disloyal to his goddesses, told him that power is everything, and played on his inferiority complex towards his brother. Even if Hugo's route is skipped, [[spoiler:Toal's route indicates that Cain somehow knew of Toal's survival and defection to the Darklings before the search party did]]. This makes the reveal of [[spoiler:Cain being the true BigBad in Toal's route]] less surprising.

** Several ports of ''Ys I'' and ''Ys II'' are this: the [[UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 TurboGrafx-CD]] version included excellent voice acting, CD audio, {{Anime}} cutscenes and character portraits, combined both games into a single campaign and kept player stats, which all subsequent ports would follow up on, and fine-grained movement when the UsefulNotes/PC88 version only had FM audio and movement restricted to one tile at a time. The [=PlayStation=] Portable version that was subsequently ported to Steam has some expanded areas, significantly upgraded visuals with high-resolution sprites, a more expansive, colorful script, and allows players to pick between the ''Ys Complete'' midi arrangements, the PC-88 originals with unused tracks or a remixed symphonic rock score with live band and orchestra (though it lacks voice acting).

** In general, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 ports are pretty shoddy: their versions of ''Ys I'', ''Ys II'' and ''Ys IV: Mask of the Sun'' use polygonal graphics and voice acting, but textures are blocky and appear sub-par, while music has been downgraded to midi, and the art coloring isn't improved. Its attempts at revamping combat only leads to sluggish controls. The only exception is the Konami port of ''The Ark of Napishtim''.
** The ''UsefulNotes/NintendoDS'' versions of ''Ys I'' and ''Ys II'' has awkward polygons, another stiff attempt at melee combat, the bottom screen map is distracting from the top's game-play. While the bump-based combat can be used, it can only be done via touch controls that are choppy and unresponsive. These ports might have had some unique additions (CoOpMultiplayer), they don't make up for their lack of quality. However, its music arrangements are very solid, as it uses ''Ys Eternal'' as a basis.
** ''Ys Origin'' was ported to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita by Dot Emu, yet the former came with a lot of glitches that weren't present in the original PC version during launch: the game could crash at any moment, persistent frame-rate and sound issues, with certain boss fights being plagued by these glitches. Thankfully, Dot Emu fixed most of the problems with patches, but some issues remain. Meanwhile, the Vita port was free from the bugs seen in the initial [=PlayStation 4=] release, but still suffers from lower frame-rates, missing sound effects, unresponsive controls and long loading times post-launch. Speaking of frame-rate, some boss fights in the Vita version, particularly against Zava, can drop to '''single digits''' as a result of her on-screen attacks, turning the game into an unplayable slideshow. In fact, playing as The Claw and fighting the TrueFinalBoss, the present issues may wind up turning the game into an {{Unwinnable}} scenario. Dot Emu has yet to release a patch to fix the Vita version.

** ''Ys Origin'' has Toal's version of the Devil's Corridor, which requires him to use Boost in order to avoid taking damage. Unfortunately, Nightmare cuts down the duration of Boost mode, meaning Toal has to spend most of the trip in his normal form. Defeating all the red enemies in one attempt becomes a LuckBasedMission because Toal will be relying on enemy herb drops to stay alive, as his Thunder Claw won't be able to heal him quicker than the corridor can damage him.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Velagunder in the [=TurboGrafx-CD=] version of ''Ys II'' - without properly leveling up, this boss can OneHitKill Adol with any of its shots.

* EarlyBirdBoss: Jenocres, the first boss in ''Ys I'', a teleporting wizard who uses mounted flamethrowers on the sides of the boss arena, is this in the {{Android|Games}}, {{iOS|Games}}, UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} versions for players who are at level four or below. If players decide to LevelGrind to level five and has bought mid-level equipment in the shops, the boss will fall after taking three hits. The primary reason most players for the Android and [=iOS=] versions do the grind is they can earn the "God Mode On" achievement, which require [[NoDamageRun beating Jenocres without taking any damage whatsoever]].

* CounterpartComparison: ''Ys'' is to Japan what ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' is in the West - a solo protagonist's adventures through a large, colorful world with ActionRPG elements and an emphasis on dungeon-crawling and exploration that tends to start out in a new location for every installment. While both franchises originate in Japan, the latter receives greater popularity and acclaim in English-speaking countries while in its native country, the opposite holds true.

* MainstreamObscurity: ''Ys'' is one of the oldest and most-distinguished JRPG series of all time, in company with (if not on ''nearly'' the same level as) series like ''Franchise/FinalFantasy, Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' and ''VideoGame/DragonQuest.'' But until ''Ark of Napishtim'' was released in the West on the [=PS2=], the games were practically unknown outside of Japan, and it has still mostly remained a CultClassic series ever since.

** Another attempted example Hudson Soft did was change the name "loo" to "quay" because the former is used in British English slang to mean "toilet". However, it didn't stick, and subsequent localizations changed the name to "roo".

** XSEED Games is not alone in using this trope, however: Falcom's own translation to English for the "Shrine of Solomon" in the Android/[=iOS=] versions by [=DotEmu=] that use Nihon Falcom's original title cards instead of localized title cards reveal Nihon Falcom's English name of this place is actuall the "Shrine of Salmon". Hudson Soft renamed it to Solomon Shrine in the English localization of the [=TurboGrafx-CD=] version, and the altter has stuck for almost every other English localization since.

* MostWonderfulSound: The sound that bosses make as they're defeated and dissolve away in the early games (and kept in the remakes of ''Ys I'' and ''Ys II''), especially if it's ThatOneBoss.

* GameBreaker: "Flash Guard" and "Flash Move" - successfully blocking just as an enemy attack hits and the former activates, wherein ''[[NoSell all damage is negated]]'', and {{Critical Hit}}s are guaranteed for a period of time; similarly, the latter triggers upon dodging at the right moment before an enemy attack lands, slowing down ''all enemy movement'' for a duration, just like "Witch Time" from ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. Combined with accessories in certain games that either restore {{Hit Point}}s when Flash Guard occurs or lengthen the time of Flash Move slowing down enemies, alongside players being able to pull off both mechanics with ease after practice, it's possible to not get hit in a play-through at all, nor is the level of difficulty a concern anymore.

* ThatOneLevel: The "Tower of Darm" in ''Ys I'', a [[MarathonLevel 24-floor tall structure]] taking up a good half of the game, even if it's not a particularly long segment, has a confusing maze-like environment that's easy to get lost in, features a gratuitous instance of back-tracking at the very end (such as a mandatory traversal ''back down the tower'' to collect the "Blue Armlet" accessory), contains several GuideDangIt moments, and is full of DemonicSpiders. This is before mentioning Adol loses his best equipment six floors in due to in-game events.

* FanPreferredCouple: Inevitably, FlameBait ensues when there have been plenty of {{Ship Teas|e}}ing between Adol and the heroine of each game, even though there's never any confirmation.