marurun wrote:Bone, please enlighten us as to WHY we should love bump-combat.
Well first of all not all bumps are created equal. The bumping in Ys is way better than the bumping in Hydlide, for instance. Ys is the gold standard of bumping, truly.
As for why you should like it - well, that's like asking "why" we should like the gun mechanics of Contra and Metal Slug. In the case of the Ys I & II bump I'd say that it's simply an extremely well-programmed mechanic and a nice change of pace from the "usual" forms of combat.
Xeogred wrote:And I went in expecting Secret of Mana or Crystalis... yikes.
Those are console action-RPGs. Ys is a retro
computer action-RPG (PC-88 originally), not to mention the fact that it was first released in '87. Ys is way more similar to Hydlide, Xak, and Lagoon than Zelda, Seiken Densetsu, Soul Blazer...
Not to be a smart ass, but are you sure you're playing the game correctly? You should be striking enemies off-center, from a diagonal, or from behind to maximize damage to them and minimize damage to you. (When you level up you'll be able to take on weaker enemies head on). Ys I (I assume you're playing on Steam or GOG?) is pretty quick and streamlined and you shouldn't get bogged down too much with grinding. It's fine if you don't like the game, I just want to make sure you're not missing anything.
Oh, and to reiterate, play Ys Origin. It was released during (what I think is) your favorite era of gaming and has more traditional action combat. It's really fast-paced and almost Symphony of the Night-esque as the entire game world is contained within one large tower.