Ys IV: Mask of the Sun |
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Maia: "This is just another dream of mine..." The story of this game has been retold in Ys: Memories of Celceta. The content of this article is not canon to the timeline of the Ys world. |
- For the PlayStation 2 game, see Ys IV: Mask of the Sun: A New Theory.
"Adol stood alone on Whitefawn beach silently pondering his adventures in Esteria from two years ago. A message in a bottle had made its way to shore, it was a call for help from the land of Celceta. Adol dutifully answered the summons, and so his adventures continue ever onward..." ~ Excerpt from "Mask of the Sun"
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (イースIV -MASK OF THE SUN- Īsu 4: MASK OF THE SUN ) is an action role-playing game developed for the Super Famicom, and is the fourth game in the Ys video game series. Ys series creators Nihon Falcom Corporation licensed its development to Tonkin House.
Mask of the Sun was released in 1993 and was one of two games released under the title of "Ys IV", the other being Hudson Soft's Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys for the PC Engine. The two games share the same basic story, but many changes were made in the Hudson-produced Dawn of Ys.
Initially Dawn of Ys was considered to be the canonical Ys IV but after the release of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Mask of the Sun was instead chosen as the canonical 4th entry in the series, with the release of Ys: Memories of Celceta both games were made non-canon.
Originally a version of "Mask of the Sun" was also planned by Sega for Mega Drive and later Mega-CD under the Sega-Falcom joint development agreement, but this version was ultimately canceled.
In 2005, Taito Corporation developed a remake/reimagining of Mask of the Sun for the PlayStation 2, titled Ys IV: Mask of the Sun: A New Theory.
No official English version was ever released, however, a fan translation is available, courtesy of Aeon Genesis.
Plot[]
Ys IV is an interquel which takes place in between the events of Ys II and Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.
After returning to the town of Minea, Adol comes across a message in a bottle. The message is from the far-off land of Celceta, asking for help. Adol decides to take the offer and boards a ship to the land of Celceta.
In this version of Ys IV, Adol's departure occurs immediately at the start of the game; there are no initial events occurring in the actual town of Minea, as there were in The Dawn of Ys.
Gameplay[]
Ys IV returns to the style of play used in Ys I and II. Adol is viewed from a top-down perspective, and he attacks enemies by running into them to cause damage. Adol gains experience from defeating enemies, and gaining experience serves to raise his strength, as in the previous games. A new Magic system is introduced as well, in which Adol can equip elemental swords to cast various types of attack spells.
Music[]
The original Ys IV music was composed by Atsushi Shirakawa, Masaru Nakajima, Naoki Kaneda and Takahiro Tsunashima of Falcom Sound Team jdk, and was arranged for the Super Famicom by the Cube Corporation sound team. Mask of the Sun generally draws from the same source music as The Dawn of Ys, though much of it is used differently between the two games. In addition, there are a number of new compositions which are used exclusively in Mask of the Sun.
No soundtrack releases exist for Mask of the Sun, as all Ys IV music releases were published under the The Dawn of Ys title.
Other media[]
A novel prequel was written by Waku Ōba and two different manga versions were done by Hitoshi Okuda and Nozomu Tamaki (see Ys Taiyou no Kamen).
Concept Art[]
Video[]
TV commercial