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Ys Strategy
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Walkthrough
Equipment & Items
Enemies & Bosses
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Maia-128 Maia: "This is just another dream of mine..."
This story sits outside of the timeline.
The content of this article is not canon to the timeline of the Ys world.

"Long ago, a race of winged beings was revered by humans who lived under their protection. However, endless wars summoned the evil Ildivise. To contain him, the winged beings created the Lunar Mirror, but Ildivise's power overflowed, forming five miraculous gems.

Wars erupted over these gems, leading the winged ones to entrust them and the Mirror to six priests before departing from the earth. The Lunar Mirror and the gems faded into legend, but they have now been rediscovered by the Romun Empire, marking the beginning of a dark new era." ~ Ys Strategy's Prologue (Adapted)

Ys Strategy (イース ストラテジ?) is a real-time strategy game developed by Future Creates exclusive to the Nintendo DS. It was published by Marvelous Interactive in Japan and Rising Star Games in Europe.

Preface[]

Long ago there lived a race of winged beings.

Human beings worshiped them and lived under their protection.

But endless wars plunged the people into despair, and this was what brought Ildivise.

The winged beings created the Lunar Mirror to imprison the evil Ildivise and went to catch his reflection in the mirror.

But the Ildivise's power was too much and spilled out of the mirror, creating 5 gems.

These 5 gems, each containing part of the Ildivise's magic, had the power to cause miracles.

Wars were fought over the gems and the power they held.

Finally the winged beings gave the gems and the Mirror to 6 of their most trusted oracles.

Time passed and eventually the winged beings left the earth.

The Moon Mirror and the 5 gems faded into legend.

But the legendary Lunar Mirror has once again been discovered by the Romun Empire.

And that was the beginning of the end...

Plot[]

The story centers around a young, red-haired swordsman named Abel Renford, who forms an alliance with the kingdom of Esteria. Teaming up with Princess Reonea, players must lead their army to protect the neighboring territories from the encroaching Romun Empire.

Gameplay[]

The game closely resembles Warcraft, allowing players to command peasants to gather three key resources: food, wood, and Cleria. Players build their towns, train soldiers, and eventually launch attacks. There is a fair amount of depth, featuring three main types of foot soldiers (swordsmen, archers, and spearmen), along with magicians, monsters, and hero characters. Players can also upgrade structures and abilities. The action unfolds on the lower screen, controlled entirely with the stylus, while the upper screen displays a map and various unit information. Multiplayer options are available for up to four players, though each participant must have their own copy of the game, and customization options are limited.

However, the game suffers from sluggishness. Peasants move slowly about their tasks, and soldiers wander aimlessly across the battlefield. The action becomes even more choppy when many characters are on screen, making it challenging to issue orders amid the chaos of battle, as distinguishing individual units is difficult. While players can manually control hero characters using the d-pad, this method feels clunky. On the upside, taking direct control of a hero grants a significant boost in strength and speed, which disrupts the game's difficulty balance. Additionally, the storyline is presented through lengthy, unskippable cutscenes.

Music[]

The music leans more towards the style of Fire Emblem than that of traditional Ys, predominantly utilizing a limited selection of orchestral and electric guitar samples across nearly all tracks. An official soundtrack CD was offered as a pre-order bonus.[1].

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