leaving a positive review because recent reviews are mixed for some reason? dont know whats up with that

Never played a Ys game before. And what better place to start than the one called Origin.
What attracts me to this game? I like the gameplay and the aesthetics.

Ys Origin is fun to play and fun to look at.
Combat looks simple but its more than just button-mash hack&slash. That strategy will only get you so far. Positioning is also important.
Enemies are fun to grind to a degree. And its worth the effort to make your character stronger.

Bosses are the biggest challenge. You may get your butt kicked at first. But once you understand the boss's patterns the strategy becomes simple enough.

You are able to unlock and strengthen weapons and abilities as you progress through the game.
You find keys/items to progress through areas.
You can run, dash and jump. You can even jump over enemies and not bother to fight them.

As you progress through the tower you encounter different and more challenging enemies with different attacks and defenses. Some enemies are best attacked from the front. Some the side. Some the back.

When you start a new game you are able to choose from 2 characters (with a 3rd character being unlocked after beating the game):
Yunica a female apprentice knight who wields an axe. She specializes in close range combat.
Hugo the spellcaster who uses ranged magic attacks.
Yunica is best gameplaywise. Her combat is much more satisfying. She cant use magic but that doesnt matter since she can still unlock special abilities.
Yunica and Hugo's campaign are pretty much the same so i see no point in playing as Hugo.
The third character offers a more unique perspective. However its still the same levels you'll be going through for the most part.

The game can be pretty tedious and repetitive.
The entire game you're just going up this one tower so its pretty much the same scenery over and over. Yes the levels have different themes like water or fire, but its still the same architecture over and over.
And you are stuck with the same weapon for such a long time. Even when you do unlock other weapons they are gimmicky for the most part. Your primary axe is reliable all through the game.

Your goal is to rescue these 2 goddesses, but the setup doesnt do a good job at motivating you. You the player never interacted with these goddesses or even seen them at any point until later in the game, and yet you the player is supposed to be motivated to save them.
So the story overall is pretty weak.

The port is nothing special. Its what you'd expect from a JRPG port. Graphics can only be changed in the launcher.
My biggest issue is that sounds are not separated properly. You have SFX volume and BGM volume. I typically dont like the fast background music of JRPGs, they tend to irritate and stress me out. So i mute the BGM volume. Problem is this also mutes the intro movies. And also disables certain sounds in game, like when you have to play the harmonica that sound is disabled.

giant armor worm kicked my ass

Nice OG

Just beat the game as Yunica was pretty good was worth the money will be playing as the other characters shortly I imagine