Alternative Saga Review – Ambitious Arena Brawler for the Faithful

Ys vs. Footprints in the Sky: Alternative Saga Review

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky has been a PSP exclusive since 2010, which didn't leave Japan until 2025. This is a 3D arena fighting game crossover between the Ys and Trails in the Sky series. There are sixteen characters in total, all from Yes seven And Paths in the sky. This crossover fighter doesn't cover any series other than these two games. Since the release of the original game, both series have grown in popularity in North America, so Nihon Falcom ported the original game to modern consoles under the title Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has a pretty robust story mode. The story is about a land called Xanadu, which is being terrorized by a Dragon King named Galsis. He summons warriors from the Ys and Trails in the Sky universes to do his bidding. There are five different paths in the story mode, differing from the perspectives of Adol, Estella, Geis, Chloe and Tita. While the player's chosen hero travels through Xanadu, he fights other brainwashed characters. When they are defeated, they come to their senses and look for other characters to free, with the goal of overthrowing Galsis. It's a pretty weak story, but I applaud Nihom Falcom for coming up with some reason for this crossover. The story justifies the game's structure, but it's definitely not the main attraction or strength of Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga.

Da Boy

Combat system Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is taken straight from the Ys series. The camera zooms out and characters move freely through 3D arena scenes. The face buttons attack, jump, dash and defend. The player can hold down the attack button for a charge attack. Airborne attacks change depending on whether the character is ascending or descending. Characters will not take damage while defending, and defending right before an incoming attack pushes the enemy back and grants temporary critical hits. Each character has a stamina bar that is depleted when charging and defending. If the stamina bar runs out, the player is temporarily stunned.

By holding R2 and then pressing the face button you use the equipped skill. Skills are basically special attacks that consume SP. SP is replenished through normal attacks or taking damage. Behind each character portrait is a diamond-shaped “Additional Gauge”. Once filled, the player can activate the powerful “Extra Skill” by pressing L1. Once per battle, the player can hold L1 and press R1 to summon a support character who will fight alongside them for a limited time. Pressing both face buttons at the same time uses 20% of the character's remaining health to perform an explosive knockback attack.

Status ailments

As in JRPGs, characters can suffer from status ailments. There are ten status ailments in total, including poison, burn, freeze, petrify, confusion, heaviness, paralysis, blindness, rage, and defense reduction. They all have the expected effects and debuffs and disappear over time. Stages contain breakable items such as chests, pots, and statues. Broken items drop items that replenish HP, SP, stamina and extra gauges. They may also drop the Leaf of Roda, which removes status ailments.

Characters gain experience points in battles and increase their level, which leads to increased characteristics. Experience points can also be obtained in arcade and free modes. Players also receive Mona Points, which can be spent in the Mona Store. Mona's shop sells skills, weapons, and collectibles. The player can also level up skills and equipment by spending Mona points. The store levels up as you spend points, opening up more unlockables. After each battle in story mode, the player is sent to the world map. The world map allows the player to choose whether to fight their next opponent or outplay an already defeated one. The player also has several options between battles. They can customize the selected character's skills and equipment, make purchases, save, go to options, and check out tutorials.

Not a deep fighting game

Great fight Ys action JRPG. However, there isn't much depth here for a fighting game. Due to the JRPG elements of Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has a ton of content. I love the idea of ​​integrating experience points, equipment, status effects, etc. into a fighting game. But the mechanics are not at all complicated by modern fighting game standards. Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is fan service for Ys and Trails fans, but it really only provides gameplay to Ys fans who really like fighting. The entire game feels like a multiplayer mode that could easily be added to Ys Seven.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has many modes and options in addition to the main story mode. There is an arcade mode where the player can simply fight through many sequential battles. Multiplayer mode allows 2-4 players to fight online. Free mode is similar to versus mode for 1-4 players. All Free Mode battles involve 4 characters, who can be combined into 2-4 different teams. The main menu has a customization section where characters can be pre-equipped with their gear, skills, and support characters obtained in story mode. Access to Mona's store is available to all unlocked characters.

Lots of options

There is a Collection section where players can view unlocked wallpapers and game screensavers, as well as listen to unlocked music. Finally, there is a system menu with game options, training cards, gameplay recordings, saving, loading and deleting files. The options menu allows players to customize autosave, camera, text speed, etc. There are five difficulty options. I found Normal to be the perfect challenge for me. Players can adjust the latency of network frames. There are voice options in English and Japanese, as well as volume settings.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: The Alternative Saga's story is told through static character portraits against a static background. It has a strong visual novel feel. Obviously this is a budget presentation, but the design looks great. The English voice acting is very bad. I like most of the voice acting in the Ys series, but the performances in Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is gritty and clearly feels like reading lines. The music is really phenomenal though. The Ys series has some of the best video game soundtracks of all time, and I recently discovered that the music for Trails in the Sky is pretty good too. There's a ton of it, and the sound test section in the collection menu is very deep. Fans of Sega arcade games from the 80s and 90s and traditional JRPGs are in for a real treat.

In conclusion

In Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has a lot of content, but it's still not a very deep game. It was created for fans of the Ys and Trails series. Its release coincides with the release of Trails in the Sky: 1.^st. Chapter. But Ys Seven is stuck on the PSP, and the only modern access is a crappy PC port. It's amazing that Nihon Falcom released Ys vs. for their fans. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga. But longtime fans of Trails and Ys will find that many of their favorite characters are missing. Hopefully Nihon Falcom will release a full modern console port for Ys Seven soon.

***PS5 code provided by publisher***