Ys Is Simple Though

There's a redhead with a sword. Maybe he swings it, maybe he doesn't, but there's adventure either way.

Thoughts on Ys IV Dawn of Ys

Spoilers!

Not only is Dawn of Ys better than Mask of the Sun, it's better than the earlier and the next Ys game to the extent that I start to wonder if maybe Falcom stunk.
HP regeneration is too slow for the higher levels. MP regeneration is too slow, but only if you make multiple stops with Warp. Warp should be free.
It's a bit of a problem that in boss fights you don't know if you can or cannot use magic before you go in them. Still, it isn't as bad as it could be since dying puts you right outside and skips the cutscene.
Putting a generic evil dude in at the end makes your story better? Strange but true. The motivations of the villains are clearer in this than in Mask of the Sun because of it.
Exciting music, wild bosses, reasonably personable characters even if Karna doesn't really do anything in either version, dungeon variety (straightforward or twisty, plain or puzzley, dense or sparse enemies, flat or vertical). The experience gives a real sense of adventure.
There's a sense of place, too. It still has inexplicable dungeon layouts, but the way dungeons relate such as the one becoming a tower later, as well as the relative sanity of the evil empire's castle make you feel like you're going places instead of running on a treadmill while a fire background and an ice background are rotated behind you.
Freeze magic doesn't really have much of a purpose. Half the spells don't, really. You only use Shield when the boss is immune to magic, and Seeker simply replaces the mask.
what do the Ruby and Necklace do? Two shops sell those. One's a secret shop. And the other gems. What's the deal?
Ys IV Dawn of Ys is a fantastic game. I give it my Ysiest rating: Ten Dogis through ten walls.

Old Ys Power Ranking

1. Ys IV Dawn of Ys
2. Ys I
3. Ys V Desert Kingdom of Bad Times
4. Ys IV Mask of the Sun
5. Ys II
6. Wanderers from Ys

More Ys II

Also the way monsters can spawn right in front of you is messed up. Most of your equipment does so little there doesn't seem much point in buying it except that money isn't good for anything else. The final boss is the sort that requires some luck to beat, at least for most players, which means we go into the final credits thinking about how lucky we got instead of what a fun fight or game it was.

Some Thoughts on Ys II

Spoilers!

Now there's a game with ambition far beyond its competence. It adds shooting action to the good old bump combat, but the way enemies are knocked back based on their facing rather than where they're hit and the fact that you have to wait a million years to fire again if your fireball has to pass off the screen whereas you can machine-gun anyone in seconds if you hit make it unsatisfying. It tries to dial up the adventure aspects with little gimmicks you might use once or twice and endless backtracking across a senseless mass of buildings and sewers.
Ys itself is an unsatisfying land for adventure. That ancient vanished land of magic and mystery turns out to be three villages with a bunch of monsters all over. What have the monsters been doing for all those centuries before Adol showed up? Chilling, I guess. What have the Ysians been doing? Inbreeding, probably.
The game lacks a sense of place and, therefore, a sense of progress. Where is Solomon Shrine in relation to the rest of the island? I dunno, over there. It's not like you climb to it or anything. Why do you have to go through a lava area? Who knows? What are those tiny rooms in Solomon Shrine for? Adol feels like he's passing through unrelated areas, not making his way toward an ultimate destination.
The characters aren't really characters and the story isn't really a story. The way cleria relates to everything else is weird. It seems as if it's just thrown in sometimes. "You have to defeat the demons, and also, cleria. The magic created demons, even though Darm says he's ten thousand years old, so we have to take away the magic, and also people mined silver, which did something. Maybe." The whole thing, for all the backstory put into it, feels less satisfying and less real than killing some jerk who's doing something bad for more power.
I'm going to be entirely honest and admit that no, I did not remember Feena. That wasn't really much of a moment. They knew each other for approximately forty minutes.
The slow text is bad, and forcing you to sit through it every time you check up with old NPCs or want to restore your MP. Little moments like how the initial conversation with the goddesses triggers both when you enter the room and when you leave it waste your time and make the game feel sloppy.
All in all I give Ys II my knockbackinest rating, bird in a platformer/10.

Character Motivations

Nothing is more important in a story than for the protagonist to have goals the audience can understand. If you're having trouble coming up with one, here are some examples:

1. Adventure
2. Adventure
3. Adventure

Addendum

Also, Dogi was barely in it and Adol barely has muscles. That's no way to keep up with the times, fellas.