Last week, I attended a digital preview event for Ys X: Nordics from Nihon Falcom and NIS America ahead of the game’s full launch this October on Switch, PC, PS5, and PS4. In most situations, a preview event features a game I’ve not played yet, but I’ve actually already played quite a bit of the Switch version of Ys X: Nordics from its Japanese release last year. In today’s feature, I’m going to write up some preview impressions based on my time with the full game (Japanese release) on Switch and also brief thoughts on the English localization based on the gameplay footage shown in the preview event. I also had a chance to ask Alan from NIS America a few questions about the game and his work on the localization.

Ys X: Nordics Switch hands-on impressions

While I enjoyed Ys IX, it never really managed to reach the highs of Ys VIII. Ys VIII is one of my favorite games of all time, and I’ve played it multiple times on most platforms. I thought Ys VIII and IX were a fantastic set of action RPGs though. Ys X: Nordics on the other hand feels different, but still great. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the bright and colorful parts of Ys VIII, but it still has some annoyances. Falcom really needs to stop forcing players to do specific mini-games in the main story. I can’t comment on much of the story since I’m playing the Japanese release, but Ys X: Nordics feels excellent to play with its change to combat and its structure. Instead of the party system, you only really focus on Adol and Karja.

While the X in the name represents the 10th mainline game, the X also stands for cross with some of the mechanics at play here. You can swap between solo and duo mode in what Falcom calls “cross action”. Combat in general feels speedier and exploring the world is a breeze with the mana actions you have letting you glide or even use a grappling hook-like action. Aside from exploring and fighting on land, Ys X: Nordics lets you sail, and yes, this sadly means ship battles are included. These aren’t as annoying as the defense missions in Ys VIII and IX so far, but they are my least favorite aspect of Ys X: Nordics.

Ys X: Nordics is also a breath of fresh air for Ys in its visuals, and it helps that the Switch version plays very well after its day one patch. It is funny that Ys IX and to some degree Ys VIII run and look a lot worse on Switch than Ys X, but here we are. Ys X: Nordics is Falcom’s second internal Switch release following The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails. Falcom’s Ys games have gotten ports of varying quality on Switch, but I was curious to see how the first new Ys would feel on Switch with it being handled internally at Falcom. The answer is really good given the hardware, and better than both VIII and IX combined. Ys IX in particular is miserable on Switch. Ys X: Nordics on Switch is a port I can already safely recommend for those who were hoping to play it on the go.

Speaking of playing it on the go, I have not been able to play the PC version yet in any form, but I will definitely be covering it as the port has been done by PH3. If you’re not familiar with PH3, read my interview with Peter Thoman here.

Having also played the game on PS5 through the demo, it is definitely a big upgrade in image quality and performance, but the most notable improvement is near instant loading compared to Switch.

In a preview sense and with no idea of the story aside from rough translations while playing, I have no doubt Ys X: Nordics will end up in my game of the year list.

Ys X: Nordics localization impressions

Since I had already played Ys X: Nordics’ Japanese Switch release (full game) and even played a few hours of the PS5 demo, I wanted to focus on the localization and English voice acting during the preview. So far, the voice acting and localization are both very good. I need to experience both of those elements in the final English build to see how they carry the story, but at least during the gameplay we got to see during the preview event, I’m happy with the localization so far.

Ys X: Nordics interview with Alan Costa of NIS America

At the end of the preview session, I had a chance to ask Alan Costa a few questions about the localization of Ys X: Nordics and its upcoming release. I didn’t have a chance to ask everything I wanted to, and I will save that for a potential full interview in the future where I can cover more of NIS America’s localizations and releases.

TouchArcade: Will there be a save data bonus for having any Ys VIII or Ys IX saves on PC, PS5, PS4, or Switch? I don’t have the Japanese versions of those games on Switch to test with my own Japanese version of Ys X. Also can you comment on the DLC for Ys X?

Alan Costa: There is no save data bonus for Ys VIII or Ys IX. There will be some basic DLC, but there is no story DLC or anything like that.

TA: I really like the English dub so far.

AC: Thank you for enjoying the English dub. I actually worked on this game. I was a translator on it, and I was directly involved with the voice recording, so thank you for saying that. That means a lot. I also am quite pleased with how the voice recordings are now.

TA: Ys X has a French subtitle option, but will we ever see a French dub in an Ys release from NIS America?

AC: The French text, yes, has always been something that we’ve tried to do for the series. French dub is a little bit different. I can’t say no we never do a French dub at the moment. I don’t know how feasible it will be. Obviously, any localization that we do, any language beyond English, has a cost associated with it. And we also, you know, there’d be a cost associated with getting the game dubbed into French. To give you the really cold hard business answer, it kind of depends on sales.

TA: PH3’s recent Falcom game PC ports are incredible and the PC port for Ys X is being done by PH3. Can we expect a blog post on the port features from Peter pre-release?

AC: Yep, this is done by Peter and his team over at PH3 as well. I think we’ll have a blog post. Don’t quote me because I’m not part of the PC development side of things, but generally Peter likes to do that because he likes to keep players and fans apprised of the work that they’ve done on it. Yes, I would say you could expect to see that.

TA: Will the console versions ship with all patches included the Japanese release of Ys X has had since launch?

AC: Yes, this should be complete content-wise in terms of all the patches that you saw for the Japanese version. So this should come out pretty much the best date that it can.

I’d like to thank Alan Costa from NIS America as well as both Erica Enos and Mika Kelly from Clever Communications for their time here.

Both Shaun and myself are looking forward to playing the final English build of Ys X: Nordics when it releases on October 25th internationally for Switch, PC, PS5, and PS4 through NIS America. Check out the official website here. Until then, I’m going to continue playing the Japanese release on Switch.