Ys



""In my life, I've wandered everywhere... Around this world, hope would always be there.""

- Excerpt from the opening of the English translation of Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Ys (typically pronounced "ees", though "yees" was used instead in the English localization of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim) is an action RPG series developed by Nihon Falcom and published by its developer in Japan and nowadays internally developed games are published by XSEED Games in North America and Europe, with various companies localizing licensed ports such as the TurboGrafx-CD version in the past, that has spanned over twenty years and thirteen consoles. The games chronicle the adventures of Adol Christin, a wandering swordsman with fiery red hair who always seems to be in the right place at the wrong time as far as world-threatening disasters are concerned. The eponymous Ys is a mythical island floating in the sky, which is visited in some games and merely referenced in others.

The games have a few recurring characters (leaving aside Adol, who is the main playable character in every game except for the prequel Ys Origin and Ys Strategy) and take place in the same world and continuity, but otherwise keep things fresh by introducing a brand new cast, location, and scenario each game, not unlike fellow traveling swordsman-starring series The Legend of Zelda. Games are generally played with a top-down perspective, with early games requiring Adol to "ram" into enemies in just the right spot to kill them and later installments having a Hack and Slash style of gameplay (Hack and Slash combat was present since Ys V) The Eternal/Complete remakes of I & II still have ramming combat, which carried over to the PSP version of those games, Ys I & II Chronicles. The games themselves have gotten multiple remakes and "re-imaginings" in order to fit them better into the series' ever-expanding mythology.

The games are also famous for their power-rock soundtracks composed by various members of Falcom's JDK Sound Team (most famously by Yuzo Koshiro (Ys I-Ys II) and Mieko Ishikawa (Ys II-Ys III)) and performed by Ryo Yonemitsu (music for the TurboGrafx-16 versions and the Perfect Collections) and more recently Yukihiro Jingo (arrangments of The Oath in Felghana and Ys I & II Chronicles). In addition to standalone soundtrack CDs, the TurboGrafx-16 games have much of their in-game soundtracks encoded in the same standardized Red Book format as a typical audio CD, allowing the game discs themselves to double as soundtrack CDs when placed into a CD player or optical disc drive (combined with a media player program in the latter's case) while the Windows games store their audio files in the open, patent-free Ogg Vorbis format that can be found by digging through the game's files and getting the .ogg files from the music folder. Ys I & II Chronicles for the PSP and and the port of Ys: The Oath in Felghana to the same system have the option to choose between multiple versions of the games' soundtracks within the games themselves (specifically, Chronicles contains the original PC-88 soundtracks from the first two games as well as the newer Eternal/Complete versions, both in addition to the the JDK-performed remixes (the other two options are synthesized) new to Chronicles, while Oath contains the soundtracks from the PC-88 and Sharp X68000 versions of the original Ys III in addition to the soundtrack present in both versions of Oath).

The games long suffered from extensive No Export for You syndrome after the series' lackluster initial release push in the very early 90s, which is the primary reason the series was practically unheard of outside of Japan for so long. Beginning with the release of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, Ys: Book I & II on the Wii Virtual Console, and Legacy of Ys: Books I & II for the Nintendo DS, the games started to reach a much wider audience, and the American video game publishing and localization company XSEED Games announced an exclusive partnership with Nihon Falcom in 2010 that included the localization of Ys Seven, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and Ys I & II Chronicles for the PSP for the North American market, in that order. As of March 2012, XSEED and Falcom have also begun to release Ys games on Valve's Steam service starting with the original Windows version of Oath and the long-Japan-only Origin; as that will result in the most recent versions of every game in the franchise bar Ys IV and Ys V being easily available in English, it seems the series' No Export for You tendencies are well and truly over, especially if (or when) someone, likely XSEED, is able to pick up Ys: Celceta, the Sea of Trees for localization, which would leave Ys V as the last gap.

The main games in the series (excluding mobile phone games and compilations) are:


 * Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished: Omen (1987, 1998)
 * Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter (1988, 2000)
 * Remakes of the first two games are generally packaged together (known as the Complete compilation), most recently with 2009's Ys I & II Chronicles for the PlayStation Portable, which was released in English in North America in February 2011.
 * Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (1989, 1991, and a re-imagining in 2005 in Japan and in North America and Europe in 2012 as Ys: Oath in Felghana, whose PSP version was released in Japan in 2010, and November the same year for North America. Released on Steam in 2012)
 * Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (1993) & Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (1993, 2005)
 * Interestingly, neither of these titles was developed by Falcom directly; Hudson Soft developed Dawn of Ys, while Tonkin House handled Mask of the Sun. Both followed guidelines laid out by Falcom, but ultimately had multiple significant differences.
 * Another version, Ys: Celceta, the Sea of Trees, is scheduled for the Play Station Vita, finally giving fans a Falcom-developed version of IV. Originally Mask of the Sun was the canon game, but it looks like it'll be pushed into Canon Discontinuity with The Dawn of Ys with the newer, internally developed version.
 * Ys V: Kefin, The Lost City of Sand (1995, 2006)
 * Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim in Japan) (2003)
 * Ys Origin (2006 (Japan), May 2012 (North America and Europe))
 * Ys Strategy (2006)
 * Ys Seven (2009 (Japan), 2010 (North America))

There are also manga adaptations of Ys I-Ys II and Ys IV, though they diverge from the games considerably. There is also a series of novels based on the games including two side-stories with no game equivalents: 'Record of the Destroyed' set between Ys II and Ys IV, and 'Crusade of Blood and Sand' set immediately after Ys V. Of course, none of these are available in English, except for the OVA versions of Ys I and Ys II.

And the last but not least, the music itself.

XSEED Games has announced that it plans to release the PC versions of the Ys games worldwide through Steam. As of this writing, both The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin are readily available. Only time will tell if more games will be released.

Do not confuse with Joanna Newsom's second album of the same name.

Also, to be distinguished from the mythological city of Ys (or Ker Ys) from which the game takes its name.

"Dogi:I wonder if maybe... hmmm, she does have that "childhood friend" thing goin' on... aww, but who am I kidding, she'll go for you if anyone."
 * Abusive Parents:.
 * Action Girl: Karna in Dawn of Ys, Yunica Tovah in Ys Origin, Aisha, who fights with bows along with her teacher Sigroon, and later in the game the melee fighter, all three in Ys Seven.
 * Active Royalty: Aisha in Ys Seven.
 * Adaptation Distillation: The OVA version of Ys II tightens things up considerably and adds a few interesting elements like a twist on the in-game reliance on magic.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: In the original version of Wanderers from Ys, Elena and Chester had bright blond hair and blue eyes with maybe a hint of purple in the art (though generally not ingame due to palette restrictions of the era's hardware). In The Oath in Felghana, they're now flaxen-haired, notably fairer in complexion than any other Redmont residents (or nearly anyone else in the franchise), and they now have prominent violet eyes, also basically unique to them. This might be a bit of Foreshadowing on the artists' part to hint at the fact that . The new coloration has been carried forward into every appearance the Stoddart siblings have made since, most obviously Ys vs. Trails in The Sky.
 * Aerith and Bob: Lots of towns feature characters with a mishmash of European-sounding names with a couple oddballs thrown in. For example, Xandria in Ys V features Neina and Rije.
 * Although ...
 * Ys: The Oath in Felghana is better about this. Characters other than villains (aside from Count McGuire having a real last name) tend to have normal names such as the sibling duo of Elena and Chester, Mayor Edgar, and even a miner who has recently died in a mining accident named Bob.
 * Ys Seven gives us two sibling characters. The older one is a young man named Mustafa: a real Arabic name and thus one that works for someone from a location based on part of North Africa. His younger sister Cruxie, however, has a name that doesn't sound like something someone from North Africa would have.
 * All in a Row: In Ys Seven, all current party members are displayed.
 * All There in the Manual: Perfect Data of Ys contains a whole lot of interesting information about the world. The plotline for Ys Seven has been hinted at for at least a decade quite literally in manuals and the loading screen of Ys Eternal.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Several of the games have their main town occupied by the enemy at some point and/or the residents captured. The Oath in Felghana has the town of Redmont attacked instead of occupied with everyone getting close to losing hope, but things get better when Dogi's trainer Berhardt gets everyone's spirits up and has the women and children take shelter while the men heavily guard the town, complete with more upbeat music starting up.
 * Aloof Big Brother: Toal to Hugo in Ys Origin..
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: [[media:ys3-genesis.jpg|This]] is American box art for Ys III for Sega Genesis. Just compare Adol with the picture above. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System version just took Falcom's own appearance of Adol and slightly modified it to have more of a Western art style and the TurboGrafx-16 version depicts Genos instead of Adol, so they avert this.
 * An Axe to Grind: Yunica Tovah wields a battleaxe in Ys Origin. Mustafa and from Ys Seven do as well.
 * Anti-Grinding: Early games decreased enemy EXP with each level you earned. Once you started getting 1 EXP per enemy, it was a good sign that the designers wanted you to get on with the plot. Later games just raise the amount needed to level up. Either way, Falcom is good at this trope.
 * Anti-Hero: Geis.
 * Anti-Villain:.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: In Ys Seven, only three characters can participate in a battle.
 * The Archer: Olha in Ys VI, and Aisha and Sigroon in Ys Seven.
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: Count McGuire in The Oath in Felghana, and Chester refers to him as Lord McGuire..
 * Art Evolution: The series's art style varies between games, though one example of a change in art style is Ys Seven having Adol and Dogi looking older than in the first game (which they both debuted in), but since several years passed between those games, it actually makes more sense than a lot of examples of the trope and ends up being less noticeable. Notably, Ys I & II Chronicles introduces new in-game artwork different from the Eternal/Complete versions Chronicles is based on while also including an option to use the artwork from those versions (however, unlike the soundtrack options, this has to be chosen when starting the game and cannot be changed on the fly in the options menu).
 * Artifact of Doom: . The four statues that house the power of Galbalan in The Oath in Felghana count as well.
 * Artistic License Engineering: Rado's Annex (a two story tower that is connected to the 16th floor of Darm Tower by a bridge that is only anchored to the ground on one side) is pretty much structurally impossible. Yunica actually points this out when she first sees it in Ys Origin.
 * Ascended Extra:
 * Dogi, the Wall-Crusher! Witness how in Ys I, he's little more than a guy who busts Adol out of prison... and in Ys III (as well as its remake, The Oath in Felghana), he's Adol's best friend and travelling partner. This got to a point where he's playable in Ys Seven (and the first member of Adol's party, for reasons made obvious in Ys III and The Oath in Felghana), in which he pilots a boat under the name of Dogi the Wave-Crusher.
 * Each of the playable characters in Ys Origin can be considered this from the perspective of the other routes.
 * Also, in The Oath in Felghana, Dularn and Garland. In the original Wanderers from Ys, both barely counted as characters (Dularn got one line, if that, depending the version). In The Oath in Felghana, both have vastly expanded roles. Specifically,.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:.
 * Atlantis: The 'Atlas Continent' . To a lesser extent, the titular Ys.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Magic in Mask of the Sun and Ys V.
 * Back from the Dead:.
 * Badass: Adol.
 * Badass Normal: Adol again. There's nothing obviously supernatural about him, he's just a dude who decided to wander a bit, and yet he pretty much eats gods for breakfast as a living. And even though he can use magic in some games, it's always for plot-related reasons (such as the bracelets in The Oath in Felghana) and not innate ability (as we said, there's nothing obviously supernatural about him), and he loses it after the journey's over. His best friend Dogi is pretty much a Badass Normal as well.
 * In Ys Origin, Yunica Tovah also has no innate magical abilities and requires her axe to fight until, like Adol, she gains magical artifacts that make up for it.
 * Badass Family: The Fact family is this and Big Screwed-Up Family.
 * Badass Grandpa/Retired Badass: Berhardt in The Oath in Felghana.
 * Bad Future: Inverted: Ys Origin shows Esteria's bad past. The surface below Ys has craggy rocks, lava flows, and noxious gas everywhere, except near the Roda Tree, which is essentially an oasis of lushness in the ruined land. Contrast how it looks 700 years later when Adol arrives, when the surface had recovered and become a small country called Esteria whose fields are lush and near the ocean is a port town, and some descendants of the priests of Ys live there, with Goban (a Tovah descendant) assisting with Adol's raid on Darm Tower and Luta Gemma assisting with the same thing within the tower. In addition, after Adol visits Ys in the second game, after he finishes his journey there,.
 * Bag of Spilling: Adol tends to lose pretty much all his equipment in between adventures; somewhat justified in that he tends to get in massive shipwrecks to start each adventure.
 * Baleful Polymorph: Bammy's favorite hobby is to transform humans into monsters. This includes Adol. Dalles did it at least once himself.
 * Becoming the Mask: Subverted in Ys Seven with . They only acted kind and helpful as part of their disguise, while not to avert suspicion, it was to ensure no one saw the warning signs of the Winds Of Destruction outside of the Slowly growing Titanos attacks. When Alicia tries to imply this, she gets coldly laughed at for thinking so.
 * Beef Gate: The Abandoned Mine in Ys I, the area beyond the barricade on Quatera in Ys VI, etc, as well as many bosses. When they tell you "don't go there until you're strong enough", they ain't kidding.
 * BFS: Almarion, the Black Key and The Tovah family's Crimson Lotusblade. A couple of Adol's weapons in Ys Seven are also pretty big.
 * Bifauxnen: Karna.
 * Big Bad:
 * Ys I: Dark Fact.
 * Ys II: The Black Pearl/Darm.
 * Ys III/Ys: The Oath in Felghana: Galbalan.
 * Ys IV: Mask of the Sun: Eldeel.
 * Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys: Arem.
 * Ys V: Jabir.
 * Ys VI: Ernst.
 * Ys Origin:.
 * Ys Seven: luna.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The NPCs of the search party, in the final section of Darm Tower in Ys Origin.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Look no further than the Fact family.
 * Bishonen Line: Karna in Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys. Subverted in Ys: Memories of Celceta where she looks decidedly feminine.
 * Black Sheep: Among the games, a few have been or are considered major stumbling blocks for the franchise:
 * The first is the original Ys III: Wanderers From Ys. This one generated a fairly significant Broken Base; the music was awesome and people liked the story and art, but the sudden shift to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link-ish side scrolling was deeply unpopular. The Oath in Felghana more or less fixed all the problems people had with the game though, and The Oath in Felghana is considered a contender for "best Ys game ever". The merits of the original Wanderers from Ys remains a point of contention though.
 * Interestingly, Ys III was also chosen to essentially "headline" the series' original Western push in the early 90's, once Falcom was interested in that market and since it was at that point the newest game. The game ended up being just as divisive here as in Japan, and so the original Ys push fizzled, leading to us missing Ys IV and Ys V. On that note...
 * The much more obvious dark-colored ewe of the family is Ys V: Kefin, The Lost City of Sand. On the surface, it sounded great, elaborating on a relatively unexplored portion of the world and backstory. But it was only released for the Super Famicom in its first release (taking the series completely away from its PC roots and even from its TurboGrafx-16 following), was hugely limited graphically as a result of being cartridge-based (with many complaining that "it looks like every other Super Famicom RPG ever, but blander", which is particularly impressive given the intended exoticism of the game's particular setting), and worst by far, the music was all synth and pseudo-orchestral rather than the Red Book audio rock tracks the series had become famous for!
 * Although Ys V did establish some things that would later become standard procedure in later games (jumping, fast-paced button-mashing as opposed to just running into dudes, etc), ultimately the single (non-PC) platform and comparatively awful music caused a full-blown fan revolt in Japan as former fans absolutely despised the game. Ys III may have taken some heat but Kefin just about killed the franchise stone dead. Falcom had to spend the next seven years developing other games and remakes of the first two games just to repair their reputation before daring to try and release another new Ys game. To this day, Kefin ranks pretty squarely at the bottom of polls when the games are ranked; only the pretty cool story prevents it from becoming a nearly unanimous Fanon Discontinuity.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: There are many instances.
 * Falcom's own official romanization for the Fact family is Fukt. Feel free to start laughing any time.
 * The DS version of Ys I and Ys II translates Shrine of Solomon (that being the translation used in XSEED Games's translation of the PSP version, previously worded as Solomon Shrine in the TurboGrafx-16 version) as Palace of Salmon. One implies wisdom. The other implies fish. The weird thing is that Atlus USA did the DS version's translation and didn't do terribly bad with the rest of the game, but Atlus and XSEED Games both try to go for natural-sounding English text, with XSEED being the one to do so with its translation.
 * Blind Seer: Mishera in Ys Seven.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Dark Fact had blond hair before he transformed into a demon (as seen in his artwork on the English Web site for Ys I & II Chronicles.
 * Blood Knight: Kishgal in Ys Origin.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Dogi, the Wallcrusher!
 * Bonus Boss: Several in 3D Ys games.
 * Including the Nigh-invulnerable Majunun, which is kind of an uber-Boss in Mook Clothing. Its attacks kill you instantly the first time you are able to reach it.
 * Boss Rush: An extra featured in Ys I & II Chronicles and The Oath in Felghana; suprisingly absent from Ys Seven, however.
 * The Black Pikkard is essentially a Boss Rush in a boss fight, pitting you against three previous bosses along with the Black Pikkard itself at the same time.
 * Boss Subtitles: In the Japanese versions of the games, Glorious Engrish subtitles began with Ys VI and continued in The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin, giving us such wonders as 'Garland - Mind Broken of the Darkness'. The accompanying Japanese subtext tended to make a lot more sense but wasn't half as fun. Ys Seven has only Japanese titles. XSEED Games's translations translate these, and had fun with at least one in Ys Seven, with one boss having the subtitle "big bug beast".
 * Falcom actually started doing this with Ys Eternal, where the titles all went [Boss Name] - [Ys Priest Name]'s Redemption of [Priest's power]. This was dropped in Ys II Eternal and removed from the original entirely in Chronicles.
 * But Now I Must Go: Adol is the king of this trope. Also, at the end of Ys II.
 * Call Back: In terms of release order, not chronological order (considering it's the first chronologically) Ys Origin is loaded with them, such as the fact that the setting is Darm Tower.
 * Canon Discontinuity: Ys VI follows the two Super Famicom sequels (Ys IV: Mask of the Sun and Ys V) and relegates the PC Engine version of Ys IV (The Dawn of Ys) to an alternate continuity. Mask of the Sun will likely be retconned into canon discontinuity after Celceta, the Sea of Trees is released, as it was not outsourced like the previous two Ys IVs, and the plot and gameplay will thus be 100% Falcom this time.
 * Canon Immigrant: Several characters and locations hinted at in manuals or introduced in the OVA made their way into the games proper with the release of Ys Eternal.
 * Cap: With the exception of the TurboGrafx-16 version, which has a cap of 55 in both Ys I and Ys II with the endgame level of Ys I carrying over to Ys II, Ys I typically has a very low level cap which you'll reach long before the final dungeon. That the enemies keep getting stronger while Adol doesn't aside from some new equipment is the main source of difficulty in the game's second half.
 * Chaste Hero: Adol. One can even say Adol is a Celibate Hero since his job description says "After saving beautiful women and making them swoon all over for you, leave for another adventure."
 * The TG-16 version of Ys II may be the only game in the series where he goes so far as to kiss one of the girls.
 * Check Point Starvation: In the Very Definitely Final Dungeon of Ys V, you have to fight three very tough bosses, with no save points in between. Unlike previous games where you could save anywhere, this one only allows you to save at inns in town.
 * Chessmaster: in The Oath in Felghana. Also,  in Ys Origin.
 * Chick Magnet: Adol.
 * The Chosen One: Adol is a rare combination of this and The Unchosen One. In most cases, The Chosen One becomes Badass because they were chosen. Adol, by contrast, didn't even Jump At The Call: he set out looking for calls. In the OVA of Ys I, it turns out he has the same name as the prophesized hero, but this is Lampshaded when the seer's superior reminds her that Adol Christin is a common name, and the last one that came to town was a little girl. It turns out that the prophecy is in fact talking about him, but instead of him becoming a hero because he was chosen by the prophecy, it just correctly predicted that he'd show up and save the place. Adol's reputation begins preceeding him as early as the first game. It's generally because of who he is and what he's done that he's given any powers or ancient artifacts that he doesn't get himself: if you need a hero to save your land, it's only sensible to choose someone with job experience. In the sixth game, the daughter of Alma running the trials is not impressed with this random man who just showed up out of nowhere, but after he begins passing them, she asks around about who this 'Adol Christin' guy thinks he is. She gets much more impressed and respectful after that.
 * Christianity Is Catholic: Felghana's monotheistic religion, which as pointed out below is centered around a benevolent deity referred to as God rather than a Crystal Dragon Jesus, seems very much like the Ys world's equivalent of Catholocism, since it has priests, nuns, bishops, etc.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Adol. An interesting case where the Chronic Hero Syndrome isn't because he can't say no when someone's in trouble and keeps running into problems, but a deliberate lifestyle choice by a character who set out to look for problems and people in need of saving. He's far less hapless than most examples of the trope.
 * Climax Boss: Vagullion in Ys I, Zava in Ys II, Gildias in Ys III, Gadis in The Dawn of Ys, Dorman in Ys V, Orjugan in The Ark of Napishtim.
 * Clipped-Wing Angel: Darm's second form in Ys II Eternal (winged Black Pearl), and Arrem's final Blob Monster form in The Dawn of Ys ("mind-numbingly easy" according to a GameFAQs walkthrough).
 * Collision Damage: Played straight and inverted in the earlier games: Adol gets hurt when enemies hit him and enemies get hurt when Adol runs into them.
 * Colon Cancer: The first two games are titled Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished: Omen and Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter, at least in the English translation of the recent PSP versions.
 * Critical Existence Failure: Enemies explode into Ludicrous Gibs when killed in the 3D games and Eternal remakes. Not Adol though. Although enemies can "critical attack" you on Nightmare difficulty, possibly delivering a One-Hit Kill.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: Subverted with the religion practiced in Felghana (and implied to be so elsewhere with the explicit mention of a Felghana diocese), as it is a monotheistic religion centered around a benevolent deity explicitly referred to as God.
 * Cute Mute: Maya in Ys Seven who hasn't spoken since the death of her parents though she's still capable of uttering sounds. She communicates through gestures and facial expressions.
 * Damsel in Distress: Multiple cases, but the worst offender has to be Elena in The Oath in Felghana, whom you have to rescue at LEAST three times.
 * Adol himself qualifies, getting captured or trapped and requiring Dogi to break him out of jail/a cave-in at least once per game.
 * Reah and Feena each have to be rescued once in Ys I, Ys II and Ys Origin (in each path).
 * Dating Catwoman: 's relationship in the nutshell in Ys Origin.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Hugo Fact in Ys Origin tends to be one when talking to his enemies.
 * Death Ray: Orjugan, and Napishtim's second form use this type of attack.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Adol's rival in The Ark of Napishtim and Ys Seven, Geis, joins the party in the latter after losing a duel. Of course, in this case, it's more like "defeat means becoming willing to provide assistance defeating a common enemy" since Geis was never terribly fond of Adol.
 * Determinator: Nothing can stop Adol from uncovering mysteries behind ancient ruins and destroying whatever abominations that were sealed in there.
 * Did Not Get the Girl: Normally this is inverted, as in most games the female lead doesn't get the guy (as Adol leaves on another adventure). But it is played straight in Ys Origin, where in Hugo's route, he fails to get, and in Toal's route, he fails to get . In both cases, it's because the girl isn't available for romance by the end of the game. This also arguably applies with Adol and Feena in Ys II.
 * Died in Your Arms Tonight: Twice in Ys Origin., in Yunica's route, and , in Hugo's route.
 * Disappears Into Light:.
 * Disc One Final Dungeon: The Abandoned Mine in Ys I, after which is the Point of No Return and the Evil Tower of Ominousness that takes up the entire second half of the game. Also, the Moat of Burnedbless in Ys II, the Eldam Mountains in Ys III (last Fetch Quest item), and the Xandria underground in Ys V, where you fight the Climax Boss, the One-Winged Angel of The Dragon Dorman, and Ruins Island in Ys Seven.
 * Disney Death: in Ys Seven.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The English-language intro to The Ark of Napishtim. "I'm Dogi, the Wallcrusher. Wanna get your walls crushed?"
 * Doomed by Canon: . In fact, this applies to all three routes of Origin, because the demons aren't defeated permanently until Adol arrives 700 years later.
 * The Dragon: Dalles to Darm in Ys II, Garland to Galbalan in Ys III/The Oath in Felghana (and in The Oath in Felghana, Dularn explicitly serves as this to Garland), Eldeel to Arrem in The Dawn of Ys, Gruder to Eldeel in Mask of the Sun, Dorman and Rije to Jabir in Ys V, Admiral Agares to Ernst in Ys VI, in Ys Seven''.
 * The Drifter: Adol defines this trope.
 * Drop the Hammer: Mustafa in Ys Seven.
 * Dual-Wielding: In his second boss fight in The Oath in Felghana, Chester fights with both his original sword and the Brave Sword.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Somewhat subverted since Adol becomes more popular as he goes through many adventures. However, that still doesn't stop lazy townspeople from asking him to do some menial tasks.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Adol for every single female in the series..
 * Easter Egg: Ys I and Ys II Eternal were loaded with these, ranging from a developer's room to fun but pointless tricks with various items to a cutscene that lets you check out Feena's measurements . Most of these were removed from the DS games that were combined and then released overseas as Legacy of Ys. They were restored for Falcom's own handheld version, Ys I-II Chronicles for the PSP.
 * Easy Mode Mockery: Starting a game on the very easy difficulty of the North American and European version of the Windows version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana gives the unlocks the achievement "More Like Adol the Yellow."
 * Elemental Powers: Generally ignored until Ys VI, even though several games possessed weapons that look elemental. Ys Seven has taken this trope even further with each playable character having their own element.
 * Light'Em Up: Adol.
 * Dishing Out Dirt Given Dogi's habit of crushing boulders barehanded, this isn't terribly surprising.
 * An Ice Person: Aisha.
 * Dark Is Edgy: Geis.
 * Green Thumb: Elk.
 * Playing with Fire: Mustafa and.
 * Blow You Away: Mishera.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The harder difficulties of The Ark of Napishtim feature color-coded enemies, which can only be damaged with the same color sword, as well as the occasional black ones that are Invincible Minor Minions.
 * In Ys Seven, Ys: Memories of Celceta and Lacrimosa of Dana, you have blunt, slashing, and piercing weapon types. Some enemies are vulnerable to one while resistant to others.
 * The Empire: The Romun Empire, which resembles the ancient Roman Empire.
 * Empty Room Psych: Quite a few areas exist purely to show off the pretty graphics and make players wonder what they're missing. Subverted with the empty room at the bottom of the mines in Ys I. It's just an empty room at first, then in Ys II when the titular land is restored to its place, it becomes the doorway to the Core.
 * Also, some of the dead ends in the mines in Ys I and Ys II make more sense once you realize that you're looking at two halves of what used to be one structure. In fact, both mines are named Rastin/Rasteenie.
 * Everything Fades: Even main characters' bodies fade or blink out of existence upon death. A notable example is Ernst in The Ark of Napishtim, where his body seems to vaporize or sublimate.
 * Everything Trying to Kill You
 * Evil All Along:, kinda...
 * Evil Counterpart: Gruder to Adol in Ys IV. They are both fearsome swordsmen with mastery of magic.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Darm Tower and The Ark of Napishtim.
 * Fallen Angel: Eldeel in Dawn of Ys and Mask of the Sun.
 * Fallen Hero: Toal in Ys Origin,.
 * Feelies: Atlus released a soundtrack CD with the DS compilation of the first two games and XSEED Games released soundtrack CDs and various other items (such as a cloth map of part of the series's world) with the premium editions of Ys Seven and The Oath in Felghana and the initial release of Ys I & II Chronicles.
 * Fight in The Nude: Played entirely straight in Ys I-Ys V where your appearance does not change based on equipment. Partially averted in Ys VI where your weapon changes (and completely averted in the PlayStation 2 port where everything changes). The Oath in Felghana has your appearance change whenever you have a full set of matching equipment and only a full set. Appearance in Ys Seven only changes based on weapon and shield. Yunica's model in Ys Origin changes slightly when she changes between using her axe and her sword, but strangely, Toal's model does not change when.
 * Fire Wind Lightning: The Emelas swords in Ys VI.
 * Five-Bad Band:
 * Ys I & II:
 * The Big Bad: Darm.
 * The Dragon: Dalles.
 * The Evil Genius: Dark Fact.
 * The Brute: Druegar.
 * The Dark Chick: Zava.
 * The Dawn of Ys:
 * The Big Bad: Arem.
 * The Dragon: Eldeel.
 * The Brute: Gadis.
 * The Evil Genius: Gruda.
 * The Dark Chick: Bammy.
 * Ys V:
 * The Big Bad: Jabir.
 * The Dragon: Karion.
 * The Brute: Dorman.
 * The Evil Genius: Baruk.
 * The Dark Chick: Rije.
 * Sixth Ranger: Abis.
 * Ys Origin:
 * The Big Bad:.
 * The Dragon: Dalles. Zava can also be seen as one to Dalles.
 * The Brute: Kishgal.
 * The Dark Chick: Epona and Zava.
 * The Evil Genius: Dalles serves this role in addition to the one above.
 * Five-Man Band: Adol and his party in Ys Seven:
 * The Hero: Adol.
 * The Lancer: Dogi The Wallcrusher.
 * The Big Guy: Mustafa (later replaced by ).
 * The Chick: Aisha and Mishera share this role.
 * Tagalong Kid: Elk. Doesn't mean he's useless though.
 * The Sixth Ranger: Geis.
 * Floating Continent: The eponymous Ys.
 * Forced Level Grinding: In earlier games, this is pretty much required if you want to be able to hurt a boss even slightly. Fortunately, reaching the level caps in earlier games is easier than in later ones (in the more recent remakes of the first one, the level cap is just 10, though the TurboGrafx CD version goes higher than this).
 * Fragile Speedster/Glass Cannon: Adol tends to be this during boss fights in The Oath in Felghana, being taken down by the bosses in 10 hits at most (as opposed to the 30 at least needed for some bosses).
 * Funny Animal: Roos.
 * Gaia's Vengeance/Diabolus Ex Machina: The Ark summons a tidal wave to wipe out Eresia, this is shortly after countered by a Deus Ex Machina. Also,.
 * Genre Blind: Adol.
 * Genre Savvy: By the time of Ys Seven, Dogi is getting this way and occasionally hangs a lampshade on some of the slightly predictable things that happen to he and Adol. He also has some moments like this in The Oath in Felghana, especially when discussing Elena.


 * Chester in Ys III. He knows that.
 * Get on the Boat: Odd usage: all of Adol's adventures start with him getting on a boat... but gameplay doesn't start until the boat sinks, leaving him stranded at the site of his current adventure. Adol has never set foot on a boat that has not later sunk.
 * Subverted in The Ark of Napishitim where the boat does not sink, but.
 * Subverted in Ys Seven where the boat ACTUALLY makes it to the harbor. Dogi was so surprised by this he actually pointed it out, saying "I'm surprised we made it, considering your luck with boats."
 * The boat also makes it intact in Ys IV and Ys V.
 * Also, in Ys III/The Oath in Felghana, the boat (raft, more like) Dogi and Adol arrive in Felghana with is not only untouched, but is also used later (twice!) and it survives both uses.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Lots of the bosses have no connection with the storyline, although they may guard a Plot Coupon, eg many of the bosses in Wanderers from Ys/The Oath in Felghana, or fit with the dungeon theme, such as the Ice Golem in Mask of the Sun. One of the most out-of-place bosses is that one centaur boss you fight on Minea Plains in Mask of the Sun.
 * Girl of the Week: Ys heroines are known as "the Bond Girls of videogaming" for a reason: Adol seems to end up with at least one love interest per game. Lilia is the most "solid" love interest Adol's ever had but even she's been AWOL for three games now. Elena is (very arguably) the most popular one with the fans. And, as per its wont,.
 * A God Am I:
 * The goal of most major villains in the series.
 * In general, the Eldeen attitude towards to humanity, though there are benevolent ones like Alma.
 * God Is Good: Felghana's monotheistic religion worships him and he does not turn out to be evil as with too many other JRPGs to count.
 * Gotterdammerung: Adol's gotten involved in this several times now.
 * Guest Star Party Member: In Ys Seven, Sigroon replaces Aisha for some time in the latter's absense and fights the same way, and the same thing, down to weapon usage, happens with.
 * Guide Dang It: Many examples:
 * To give one, the Gold Tabulas in The Ark of Napishtim (and by extension the Winged God Emblem) is definitely one of these. Various third-party titles like Taito's port of Ys IV also have loads of these. The Korean Ys II Special is an entire game of Guide Dang It moments.
 * The Black Tabulas is worse, you have to use a certain item that allows you to see invisible platforms, with no hint that it does so, and you don't obtain it until after completing the dungeon that contains said tabulas.
 * There's a tree in Minea Field that does nothing the first time you see it..
 * Both puzzles involving the Evil Bell, to some degree.
 * The puzzle to regain your form after your Involuntary Transformation by Dalles is more of a Moon Logic Puzzle in the Turbografx CD version, but you get almost no hints about it in Eternal.
 * Goban tells you that the Mask of Eyes allows you to see hidden passages, and in the Turbografx CD version there's the hints of, but in other versions, there's nothing remotely hinting at the hidden doorway in the shrine basement.
 * Hair Colors: Every color has representation somewhere in the franchise. Several characters even rotate through the rainbow in different installments: Lilia's hair is red in most older games, dark brown in the OVA, and light brown in newer games. Karna goes all the way from dirty blonde to black depending on which version of the story you're looking at.
 * Healing Checkpoint
 * Heroic BSOD: Yunika enters one after.
 * Heroic Mime: Adol.
 * Averted in Wanderers from Ys and Mask of the Sun.
 * Subverted in The Ark of Napishtim, Complete/Chronicles and Ys Seven, where his words are described from a third-person point of view (i.e. "Adol tells so-and-so about so-and-so").
 * Also subverted once in Ys II, where he tries to tell the refugees that he Was Once a Man, as well as the opening cinematic when he speaks to Lilia (though she's voiced; his responses are subtitled text).
 * And once in Ys I, when he meets Feena for the first time.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:.
 * In Yunica's arc in Ys Origin, does one to save the former from a trap set up by Zava.
 * A sizable part of Toal's arc in Ys Origin is each trying to make one on behalf of the other..
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Adol and Dogi, of course.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: The first and third phases of the Final Boss in Mask of the Sun..
 * A more literal example: the battle with the possessed Keith Fact atop Darm Tower in The Dawn of Ys. Failure Is the Only Option here.
 * The first fight with in Ys Seven. You can knock down his health a little bit, but once you reach a certain point all your attacks stop doing damage and you just have to let him kill you. Hope you didn't waste your healing items.
 * The first fight with in The Oath in Felghana. It is literally impossible to break his defensive barrier without the game's Sword of Plot Advancement, which you don't get until after the fight.
 * The mid-level boss fights of Guilty Fire level of Ys Origin for Yunica and Hugo's route's are intended to be unbeatable. You can beat them if you level up enough, but all you get out of it is an achievement slightly different scene after the battle (which has the same net effect on the plot).
 * I Am Who?:.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:.
 * Done to in The Dawn of Ys.
 * Impossible Item Drop/Money Spider: Played straight in all games but Ys V. Dead enemies drop money and occasionally things like Emel and Raval. Enemies in The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin also drop instant-use healing items and temporary stat boosts, and enemies in Ys Seven drop synthesis items. In Ys V, the enemies don't drop money, instead they drop gems that you exchange for cash. Don't ask why the literal spiders are carrying around topaz though.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Flame Sword in Ys I and Leo's Sword in The Dawn of Ys. Both are the strongest weapons in the game, both are entirely optional (Leo's Sword requiring a bit of lateral thinking to acquire) and attempting to use either against the final boss will result in you seeing the Game Over screen. As a bonus, these games also include Infinity Plus One Armor and Shields which are equally worthless against the Big Bad.
 * The Violent Light Sword and armor in Mask of the Sun, again useless against the Big Bad Eldeel.
 * Infinity-1 Sword: The Silver Sword/Armor/Shield in Ys I. You can get all of them by around the halfway point of the game, and even scratching Dark Fact requires you to equip the full set.
 * Instant Runes: Falcom really, really loves their insanely high detailed magic circles, runes, pentagrams etc. whenever someone casts a spell. Just take a look at Origins, the last level is basically Scenery Porn made of magic circles.
 * Item Crafting: You can boost the power of your swords in Ys VI and all your equipment in Oath by gathering enough Emel or Raval. Ys SEVEN also allows you to create certain equipment and items by gathering the right synthesis materials. Ys Origin has weapons getting enhanced with Cleria, and armor getting blessed with Spiritual Power.
 * Intercontinuity Crossover: Alternative Saga crosses over Ys with Sora no Kiseki using Ys Seven's engine and includes support characters from Gurumin, Zwei, Brandish, Legend of Heroes III and Zero no Kiseki.
 * Invincible Minor Minion: Black enemies in Ys VI on Nightmare, which are usually Goddamned Bats (one of the Mini Bosses is guarded by these), and the Goddamned Bats in the cave, until you get the Bell.
 * It's All Upstairs From Here: Darm Tower in Ys I, The Dawn of Ys and Ys Origin.
 * I Want to Be a Real Man: Dogi's motivation for leaving Felghana and setting out for adventure.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Notably averted. Adol's swords based on real-world weapons have taken inspiration from Europe, Africa, India and Persia, but never Japan. Scias in Ys Seven is the first character in the series to have something recognizable as a katana.
 * Killed Off for Real: Sara in most versions of the story, including the one Falcom considers canonical.
 * Killer Rabbit: The Black Pikkard in The Oath in Felghana, which can only be fought after beating the game on Inferno.
 * Knight Errant: Adol, who is Walking the Earth looking for people in need of saving. He's good at both.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Adol.
 * Large Ham: in The Oath in Felghana.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Adol qualifies. He will charge blindly head-on no matter how dangerous the place is.
 * Leitmotif: "Theme of Adol" (used in pretty much every game except Ys VI and Origin, sometimes in Musical Pastiche form), "Feena", "Lilia", "Termination" (Darm), "Karna", "The Clan of Darkness", "Leeza", Eldeel's theme ("Eldeel" and "A Kiss from Eldeel"), "Niena", "Theme of Lovers" (Stoker's theme in Ys V), "Theme of Kefin", "Turning Death Spiral" (the Quirky Miniboss Squad Boss Battle theme in Ys V), Olha's theme, "The Successor of Almarion"(Ernst's theme), Napishtim's theme (heard in Revival of The Great Ark, Defend and Escape, The Depth Napishtim, Collapse of the Ark, and Zeme's Protection), etc.
 * Lethal Lava Land: The Moat of Burnedbless in Ys II, the Fire Mountain in Mask of the Sun or Nergal in Dawn of Ys, the Zone of Lava below Illburns Ruins in Ys III, parts of the Ruins of Amnesia in Ys VI... played only for visual effect until The Oath in Felghana and Ys VI respectively made the last two straight examples.
 * Literary Agent Hypothesis: According to Ys Eternal's loading screen and the opening movie of Ys II Eternal, the games are actually 'novels' translated from Adol's own journals. This serves as a nice handwave for things like the blatant differences between Mask of the Sun and The Dawn of Ys. This conceit was carried forward into The Oath in Felghana, though oddly enough not into Ys Seven.
 * Little Bit Beastly: The Rehda in The Ark of Napishitim.
 * Loads and Loads of Loading: The PSP port of Ys VI is an exercise in patience due to its load times: 5-10 seconds for every screen (this gets especially annoying when trying to do jumping puzzles).
 * Lost Forever: The Starlight Medal in Ys VI will be lost if you don't grab it on your one chance to infiltrate the Romun fleet. Similarly, you have a limited timeframe to accept the sidequest leading to the Augite Brooch in The Oath in Felghana. Also, a number of quests in Ys Seven must be completed before a certain event in the story renders them unfinishable.
 * Ludicrous Gibs: Ever since Ys Eternal, mook monsters have had a tendency to explode into these; bosses can vary. They are particularly spectacular in Ys I & II Chronicles. Mercifully, this does not apply to our heroes being on the receiving end of a beatdown.
 * MacGuffin: Emelas.
 * MacGuffin Delivery Service: Happens in The Oath in Felghana. See the Unwitting Pawn entry below.
 * Made of Iron: Adol. When you survive getting shipwrecked several times and thrown off the cliff, you deserve the title.
 * The Magic Goes Away: Happens at the end of many installments due to Adol's defeating Sealed Evil in a Can.
 * Ys II: the destruction of the Black Pearl leads to the magic disappearing from Ys with the floating continent's coming back down.
 * Ys IV: Eldeel's sealing himeslf (the last of the Eldeen civilization) and the destruction of the Mask of the Sun result in the complete end of the Eldeen civilization and the Akashic Records being lost to the world.
 * Ys V: the defeat of Jabir and the destruction of the philosopher's stone cause the end of the mythical kingdom of Kefin and its alchemy.
 * Ys Seven: dragon energy goes away after Adol destroys Rul-Ende to keep Altago from being destroyed. Unfortunately, the dragons' existence is tied to Rul-Ende's existence, so dragon energy no longer exists because it uses the dragons as their source.
 * Magic Knight: Adol, Chester and Gruder.
 * Magitek: It's heavily implied that the Eldeen civilization was based on this. It's never outright stated, but dungeons strongly associated with them tend to look suspiciously high-tech, sometimes going so far as to include apparently-robotic enemies..
 * The Man Behind the Man: behind.
 * Also, behind  in Ys Origin. Which makes.
 * behind in The Oath in Felghana.
 * behind in Ys V.
 * Manipulative Bastard: in The Oath in Felghana. In both versions of Ys IV, Gruder who is mainly responsible for Eldeel's fall to evil.
 * Marathon Boss: the final bosses of Ys I(excluding the TurboGrafx-16 version), Ys II, The Dawn of Ys, The Oath in Felghana and Ys V. The final boss of Ys Seven consists of four phases, all but the first of which take a long time. The entire battle can easily last upwards of an hour.
 * Market-Based Title: The sixth main game's number was removed outside of Japan to avoid confusion due to a lack of an official translation for Ys IV and Ys V.
 * The Maze: The warp mirror mazes in Darm Tower (the second one of which is full of Demonic Spiders), and in Iris Tower in Mask of the Sun.
 * Mercy Kill: In Taito's port of Ys IV, people transformed into monsters by Bammy can't be saved, they can only be killed, briefly returning them to human form before they die. Karna was angry with Adol for killing Lemnos until she saw another victim thank Adol for freeing him and allowing him to die as a man, after which she apologized.
 * Missing Secret: Generally averted as there's one item or piece of equipment to fill every inventory spot so if you've missed something, you'll know. Played straight in Mask of the Sun where there are more inventory slots than items. Dawn of Ys looks like it has this but there are some rare items and post-game bonuses that fill the gaps.
 * Toyed with as a bug in the Korean Ys II Special. After beating the first boss, you will lose any sword in your inventory. There's a second sword you can gain before the boss, not picking it up right away gets you a better weapon later but the inventory system is balanced on the assumption that you grabbed it earlier and lost it forever along with the first sword.
 * Also in Interchannel's port of Ys I (a.k.a. Legacy of Ys), where they added a new sword, shield and armor but forgot to add a new ring, leaving your inventory permanently unbalanced and leading new players to wonder where the non-existent sixth ring was.
 * Money for Nothing: Ys I has this in two forms. First, most items that you can buy can also be found for free. The only things the game requires you to purchase are one armor and one shield of any kind so Sara will talk to you and give you the Coupon of Plot Advancement. Also, once you enter Darm Tower you will still receive money for killing enemies even though there is absolutely nothing you can do with it.
 * Mook Maker: Several of the bosses, including Zomplus, Orjugan, and Napishtim (second form) in Ys VI, and Druegar in Ys II Eternal, do this.
 * Mysterious Waif: Feena, Reah and Niena.
 * Myth Arc: Ys I, Ys II and Ys IV originally. Ys VI continued the arc and it, plus The Oath in Felghan, serve to tie Ys III in as well, leaving Ys V the only unconnected one (save for the fact that it introduced recurring character Terra).
 * Name Of Cain Kain:.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Dark Fact. You know a guy's bad news when his first name is Dark.
 * New Game+: The Dawn of Ys gives you the option of starting a new game Silver and Gold Rings after beating the game. These let you earn double EXP and Gold respectively. The PSP port of The Oath in Felghana lets you choose from a series of bonus options including starting your next game with free gold and Raval, being able to upgrade equipment to higher levels or beginning with certain abilities already learned.
 * Obviously Evil: Most villains..
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: Used during the "Revival of the Ark" cutscene in Ys VI.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Galbalan in The Oath in Felghana, and Arem in The Dawn of Ys. They both declare that they will destroy everything before engaging Adol in the Final Boss battle.
 * One-Man Army: Adol.
 * One-Winged Angel: Garland in The Oath in Felghana, Gadis and Arem in The Dawn of Ys, Gruder in Mask of the Sun, Dorman and Jabir in Ys V, Ernst in Ys VI, Dalles in Ys Origin.
 * Our Angels Are Different: The Eldeen.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: . However, this is recently subverted in Ys Seven where the five dragons of Altago, which are worshipped as gods, have no connection to the Emelas and the Eldeen civilization.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: sports these in Ys Seven.
 * Physical God: The Eldeen race. They are even worshipped as gods by humans and the Rheda. However, subverted with Felghana's religion, which worships God and seems to be the Ys world's equivalent of the Roman Catholic Church, and anyone familiar with the main religions in real life worshiping him know that he isn't a Physical God.
 * Pirate Girl: Terra.
 * Point of No Return: Darm Tower in Ys I (with another one after defeating Dark Fact in the TurboGrafx-16 version that ends up with Adol in Ys and no way to get back to Darm Tower, as that game merges Ys I and Ys II into one game), Kefin and The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in Ys V (at least you can't save after the second one), and the Ark in The Ark of Napishtim. At least in the first and last examples, they warn you beforehand (and in Ys I, it's impossible to be underleveled or underequipped). Averted in Mask of the Sun where you can still use the Wing to warp out of the Golden Temple.
 * In some cases, a certain location will be rendered inaccessable after the completion of a quest objective, causing any missed objects there to be Lost Forever, for example, the Flame Cave in Mask of the Sun (destroyed by the raising of the ancient city), and the town of Felt in Ys V (buried by a sandstorm after the return of Kefin).
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child:.
 * Power Glows In The Dawn of Ys, your Cleria equipment gets enhanced into the Eldoran equipment, causing it to glow gold.
 * In Ys Eternal, chests containing Silver items had a distinct blue glow around them.
 * Purple Eyes: Extremely prominent on the new designs for the Stoddart siblings introduced in The Oath in Felghana.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Kishgal and Epona in Ys Origin, Gadeis, Bammy, Gruder and Eldeel in Ys IV, Karion, Abis and Baruk in Ys V.
 * Rain of Arrows: Aisha and Sigroon have a skill that does this.
 * Really 700 Years Old: are at least 700, given that.
 * Real Time Weapon Change: In Ys VI, you can rotate through your Emelas swords during combat. The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin allow you to do the same thing with your magic-granting items.
 * Rebellious Princess:.
 * Recurring Riff: Recurring (non-Leitmotif) themes include the treasure box and game over jingles, "Termination" (reused in the recap of the Darm battle during the intro of The Dawn of Ys), "Beat of the Terror" (remixed as Overwater Drive in Ys VI), "Tower of the Shadow of Death" (returns in Dawn of Ys and Ys Origin), "Battle Ground"(redone in Over Drive, Sanctuary, and Armored Bane), "The Dawn of Ys" (remixed as Temple of the Sun later in the game), and "Selceta, The Sea of Trees" (sort of the main theme of Ys IV).
 * "Ernst", in addition to using the beat of "Final Battle", also Jimmy Hart-ifies the tune of "Moon Over the Castle", the theme of the Japanese versions of the Gran Turismo series.
 * The Boss Battle themes Holders of Power, Protectors, and Shock Of The Death God use a common riff during their "refrain" sections.
 * Lava Field, Battle 58 and The Heat In The Blaze (main guitar riff).
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: In The Oath in Felghana, . In Ys Origin, 's eyes become red when they activate their demon seeds.
 * Redheaded Hero: Just look at the image above.
 * Regional Bonus: When the Windows version of The Oath in Felghana was released internationally, it gained an achievement system and has Inferno difficulty unlockable without a patch. Since it's distributed through Steam, updates would also be easier and the game is downloaded after it's paid for instead of needing a disc.
 * Retcon: Oath in Felghana made a few of these to tie the plot of Ys III further into the rest of the series. Ys Origin made a few more. None are particularly Egregious.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: The pikkards, which not only appear in every game, but also represent the series in Alternative Saga.
 * The Rival: Chester, in The Oath in Felghana only, as he's not a boss in the original Ys III; Geis in The Ark of Napishtim and Ys SEVEN. Geis joins Adol's party after losing a duel with him in his latter appearance.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: goes on this after learning the truth about.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: Ys is supposed to be an city swallowed by the ocean. It's the floating island in the game.
 * There is a sunken city in The Ark of Napishtim, though, more based on Atlantis. Legend also tells of the "Atlas Continent".
 * Samus Is a Girl:.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Adol dons one in The Oath in Felghana, and in most games which take place canonically after The Oath in Felghana, he still has it. Chester's redesign for The Oath in Felghana also includes one so you know he means business.
 * Screw Destiny: The latter half of.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Darm in Ys II, Galbalan in Ys III and The Oath in Felghana, Arem in The Dawn of Ys, Jabir in Ys V and in Ys VI.
 * Sequence Breaking: In Ys Eternal (but not in later versions), it was possible to get the Silver Armor while you were still at Level 1 by entering the Mine, running away from everything and hoping you could get to the chest and back before something killed you. As the second best armor in the game, it made the beginning much easier. Later versions removed this by requiring the Treasure Box Key obtained in the Shrine Depths before you could open the chest.
 * It's possible to do the same thing in Ys VI (in fact, given the similarities it could be an intentional Shout-Out) by entering the Limewater Cave as soon as you reach Canaan Island. Provided you're good at running away, this lets you get the Galba Armor and Shield (second best in the game) much earlier than you're supposed to.
 * Sequential Boss: in Ys Seven.
 * She's All Grown Up: Terra, who told Adol she'd do just this.
 * Shrouded in Myth: A thousand years after the events of Adol's life, stories of his exploits can be found throughout the entire world. Some branded him as a just and virtuous hero, and others as an agent of chaos and discord.
 * Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Feena is the most prominent example (and a probable Trope Codifier in Japan, given how famous the game is). Tia in Ys Seven also has many of these elements..
 * Single Line of Descent: The ending of Ys II implies that the six people (who are not Lilia and the Goddesses) who speak with Adol after Darm's defeat are the only people with the bloodline of the six Priests left after 700 years (which would also imply that Jevah Tovah died shortly after Adol entered Darm Tower). Possibly justified by the fact that the demons were going out of their way to eliminate as many of the Priest's descendants that they could find.
 * Smug Snake: Again, most villains..
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Played straight with mooks, not necessarily true of bosses.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: For example, the "Valley of Quicksand" theme is a laid-back Latin style "beach" or "surf" tune, played while, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, you're in a harsh desert ridden with killer quicksand pits. And "Quatera Woods" sounds like the soundtrack for a peaceful walk in the park with your special someone, but the woods of Quatera are anything but a nature walk, with Everything Trying to Kill You, even squirrels. And one of the worst offenders is "Crimson Wings", the Ice Mountain theme, which sounds like elevator jazz/muzak in the Turbografx CD version, clashing with the song title as well, although in the SFC version, and on the Perfect Collection album, it's much more upbeat.
 * "Defend and Escape" from The Ark of Napishtim, while musically a Tear Jerker, is played during a heated Escort Mission sequence.
 * The song "Anxiety" is anything but anxious-sounding.
 * The Southpaw: Chester is left-handed.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Between fan translations, multiple official translations and Falcom's own official English names there are few characters or places that don't fit this trope. An example would be the name of the crater in Esteria where Ys used to be before it rose into the sky. In Atlus's translation, it has the vaguely French-sounding name Vageux-Vardette, but XSEED Games's translation gives it the more unusual-sounding name Bagyu Ba'dead. Also see Blind Idiot Translation above.
 * Squishy Wizard: Mishera in Ys Seven can deal good damage but cannot take much punishment, especially in higher diffulties.
 * Standard Status Effects: Poison, Dazed, Heavy, etc. in Ys IV and later games.
 * Stripperific: Zalem, the weapon shopkeeper in Ys II Etneral. Epona's outfit in Ys Origins. Olha and Crevia in the PlayStation 2 version of Ys VI have hidden Stripperific moments. And Rose, the armor shopkeeper in The Ark of Napishtim. Ursa and in Ys Seven.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: If your last name is Fact, then you definitely have one.
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity Every time you see a Crystal in front of a Path in Ys Seven you know a boss is coming up.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement: The Silver Sword in Ys I requires a sidequest (Guide Dang It!) to obtain and the game won't let you into Darm Tower until you have it and the accompanying shield and armor. The Hero's Sword in Mask of the Sun and all three Emelas swords in Ys VI perform a similar role in their stories.
 * The Cleria equipment in The Dawn of Ys also qualifies. It gets upgraded to the Eldoran equipment which you need to damage Arem despite it not being the strongest gear.
 * The Emelas swords in Ys VI are required not only to fight with and use magic but are the keys that open certain doors around the islands.
 * The Brave Sword in The Oath in Felghana is the only weapon capable of harming The Dragon. Fortunately, it's impossible to miss.
 * The Cleria Sword in Ys Origin (which the ending reveals to be the Silver Sword that appears in Ys I) is the only weapon that can defeat the final boss in Toal's route. Fortunately, it's given to you automatically right before that battle.
 * Taken for Granite: Dalles does this in Ys II and its prequel Ys Origin.
 * A Taste of Power: In The Dawn of Ys, Adol starts with the best equipment from the (chronologically) previous game. With it, he can one-hit kill everything and nothing can really hurt him. Naturally, he loses it very quickly and doesn't get it back until much later.
 * Token Mini-Moe: At least one in every game.
 * Too Awesome to Use: The resurrection items, the Timestop magic, the sword magics in Mask of the Sun (except for the Hero's Sword).
 * Took a Level in Badass: Chester takes a massive one in the transition from Ys III to The Oath in Felghana, going from a story-only antagonist to That One Boss. Also, Elena, at least in secondary materials. She appears in promotional materials and in Alternative Saga with the Brave Sword and a knight's outfit not unlike her brother's. This leave a lot of people pining for What Could Have Been (and begging Falcom to explore the idea further in Ys VIII or something).
 * Tragic Monster: Dark Fact in Ys I, who became a monster after, and Keith Fact in Ys II, who became a monster after Dead Little Sister. This is explained in Ys Origin where.
 * Twenty Bear Asses: Nearly all of the quests in Ys Seven require you to fetch a certain number of a particular type of item. Somewhat justified in that you're being asked to fetch things for researchers and merchants who want to study Altago or have good representing each region or tribe.
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Sara and Goban Tovah share their ancestor Yunica's hair color (and Jeba presumably had the same hair color before her hair turned gray), and Dark Fact had the same color hair as Hugo Fact before he ended up becoming more demonic (as seen in the artwork of him on XSEED's site for Chronicles, in which he is fully human).
 * The Unfought: isn't fought at all; after his master is defeated he just comes to term with what he was done and has a Heel Face Turn.
 * Unobtainium: Cleria in Ys I, Ys II and Ys IV, Raval in The Oath in Felghana and Emel/Emelas in The Ark of Napishtim.
 * Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Painfully subverted in Ys Origin. Toal's plan will mean his certain death. Reah's plan  will cause her and Feena to lose their powers and slumber for centuries. Partway through the game, Toal finds a third option that doesn't require one of them to make a Heroic Sacrifice for the sake of the other, but doesn't explains what it is. After the final battle,, leaving the third option forever unspoken and unexecuted.
 * Unwitting Pawn: In Ys III/The Oath in Felghana, Adol gathers all statues containing the essence of Galbalan. Of course, this ineviably leads to Adol's handing those statues over to villains, who then use them to unseal Galbalan. Also, Eldeel in The Dawn of Ys.
 * The Vamp: Zava in Ys Origin and Bammy in both versions of Ys IV.
 * Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Every Ys game has one of these except Ys Origin, where the entire game is one of these.
 * Vicious Cycle:.
 * Video Game Remake: The first two games have been remade multiple times, and the third game was re-imagined as a top-down game as Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which was ported to the PSP finally got an official translation on that system after the PC version got the typical No Export for You treatment (the PSP port of Ys I & II Eternal, Ys I & II Chronicles, will get the same treatment in early 2011).
 * Waif Prophet: Isha in Ys VI, whose visions terrify her.
 * Walking the Earth: Ys in general is kind of surprising about this. You'll do a lot of wandering around the various locales of the games, sure, but the actual distances tend to be moderately realistic and you never wander the whole planet in any game (because such journeys would take months). You never go from Altago to Romun and then take a brief jaunt to Kefin, for example; you're always limited to a geographical area that can realistically be traversed by foot. Most of the games start with Adol on a ship or other conveyance after a long voyage to his new destination, in fact (Dogi likes to point out how this rarely ends well for either of them).
 * Wallet of Holding: Adol can carry gold and ores in the tens or hundreds of thousands of units. It gets lampshaded in The Oath in Felghana, where people wonder where you managed to store the large amounts of Raval ore you give them (in one case, the amount is explicitly mentioned as being more than is normally taken from the local mine in a month).
 * Wasted Song: The rather awesome song "The Boy Who Had Wings" is only played at the entrances of dungeons in Ys III. "Prelude to Adventure" plays on the world map. And "Theme of Chester" only plays in the last corridor of the Ilvern Ruins, and only in certain versions. The Wasted Song status of the three is inverted in the remake The Oath in Felghana, which gave "The Boy Who Had Wings" more respect by making it the main overworld theme, but "Prelude to Adventure" can only be heard by stepping outside of town before it's time to set out for the first dungeon (which is after introducing oneself to the villagers), after which "The Boy Who Had Wings" plays there instead, and "Theme of Chester" is actually used as Chester's Leitmotif.
 * Ys Origin has a jazzy remix of the song "Tension" that played in the upper parts of Darm Tower in the first game. As opposed to how the original game used it instead of "Tower of the Shadow of Death" further up the tower (thus giving it plenty of usage), Ys Origin has its version used for a single boss fight.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: The Infinity+1 Sword is often useless against the Big Bad, forcing you to switch to a certain lesser set of equipment.
 * Weather Control Machine:.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You: Should Feena die while being escorted in Eternal and all remakes therein? That's it, you're done,.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: in Ys Seven.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: in Ys Origin.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: In Yunica and Hugo's routes in Ys Origin, the ultimate fate of some characters is never mentioned (Toal and Epona in Yunica's, Zishgal in Hugo's).
 * Where The Hell Is Felghana: A bit odd in that we have a map of Felghana in-game... but it doesn't appear on various world maps that have been put out over the years. Given the various parallelisms with the real world in the Ys setting and a few sparse hints in The Oath in Felghana, the best guess most people have is that Felghana is meant to be an equivalent to Flanders or Switzerland (the former being properly placed near the sea and close to the real-life equivalent of Esteria, making the trip not too distant; the latter's Alps seems to have served as inspiration for the Elderm Mountains), and one point for Switzerland is the fact that it has a town named Rougemont, which Redmont is basically an Anglicized version of. Although it's ultimately still conjecture and nobody is exactly sure where one of the best-selling stories in the franchise actually takes place.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: In Ys Origin, Dalles's hair color's slightly blue but he has the personality down pat. Also, in Ys Seven, Scias.
 * Winged Humanoid: Eldian civilization.
 * With This Herring: Played straight in most games (it wasn't until Ys VI that you actually started with anything), but averted in The Dawn of Ys (you start with the Cleria equipment) and all the games since Ys VI have given Adol a sword at the very least.
 * You Are Too Late: No matter how fast you climb the bell tower, it is impossible to reach the top of the bell tower before Dalles is ready to complete the sacrificial ritual..
 * You Killed My Father: Unusually for this trope, Yunica didn't know about this until Zishgal told her that he had killed her father.
 * You Shall Not Pass
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Elena in her Badass look for Alternative Saga.
 * Reah's outfit in Ys Origin is a high Grade B.
 * Reah's outfit in Ys Origin is a high Grade B.