About twelve years ago, a relatively small company named Falcom, created a masterpiece called Ys for the MSX computer. The game became extremely popular in Japan, and Falcom decided that it would make another port for the game, which lead to Ys for Sega Master System in 1988. Again, Ys turned out to be extremely popular, and, once again, Falcom decided that it would, once more, make another port, only this time, it would be for the new NEC PC-Engine. Only this time, thanks to the tremendous storage power of the CD, Falcom thought it would be in their best interest to use a real band for the soundtrack, instead of the lowly FM midis and PCM which were currently being used by most videogames at the time. Only it didn't stop there; instead, Falcom also decided that it would add animation, as well as voice overs to give Ys a more realistic atmosphere. When the finished product was released to the public, it hit the charts in Japan like wildfire - unfortunately, however, that was not the case for the US market. Ys was relatively unknown in the states, which was one of the main reasons why 'Ys 4 - The Dawn of Ys' never reached our shores, which is enough to make any fan of the series weep.

Thankfully, after all these years, Falcom is still producing games, and in late 1997, they released Ys Eternal for the PC. Though Ys Eternal is a rehash of Ys book I and II for the Turbo Duo, it is a 32 bit counterpart compared to the inferior 8 bit game of the ancient past. There are many changes in Ys Eternal, as well. For instance, Ys book I and II consisted of Japanese animation stills, but Ys Eternal uses complete animation sequences which usually last about a minute or longer, which, in my book, is a gift from the heavens. Ys Eternal also consists of animation stills, which are usually shown when meeting an important character in the game, which also is a thing to drool at, considering the animation is about 100 times better than it was with original Ys Book I and II. However, the best thing about Ys Eternal is the soundtrack. Ys has, by far, the best soundtrack you will ever hear in ANY videogame to date. The Falcom JDK is the best music maker in the world, and in this game it clearly sticks out. The music alone is enough to buy the game.

As for complaints about the gameplay and control, there are none. The mistakes which existed in the original Ys Book I and II, no longer exist. For instance, Adol, the main character, is drawn with great detail, and so is most of the other characters and monsters in the game. Also, the layout of is a lot bigger than the original was.

Ys Eternal, as well as the Ys series, in general, are the best RPG's ever made. I know many people would say that they can't be the best RPG's ever made because they are 'Action/RPGs', but to say such crap would be complete ignorance. The Ys series completely destroys the competition with the overwhelmingly pathetic Final Fantasy series, as well as most of the rest of the RPG redundant crap which seems to be floating around the market these days. If you never played the Ys series, my suggestion is you buy it, after Working Designs gets the license from Falcom and translates it. Afterwords, you might just agree with me that Ys is the best game ever made.