A Productive Plot Development

Worried about how to carry on an ongoing story? Have the main character or another major character grow wings. Think of the possibilities, and don't think of a justification, because nobody cares.

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.

The Definition of Fantasy

If it has a floating continent or at least a city, it's fantasy.

How to Make Your Characters Stand Out

I dunno, give them different eye colors or something. Who cares? We're here for floating continents and magic explosions.

Urban Planning

When King Sarmasso returned from his visit to his royal brother, he forthwith convened his magi.
"I am sick at heart," he told them. "I think of my brother's realm and my stomach trembles. How can it be that his city is grander than mine? How can it be that his home floats gently in the beautiful sky while mine is restricted to the ground? I ask you this in hopes you will alleviate my distress."
Magus Relo spoke. "My king, we have investigated these floating cities and how they are made. We can raise your city off the ground if you wish. However, your realm is exceedingly blessed by the wind. Your city will be buffeted violently and give you no pleasure."
"Then I enjoin you to accomplish one of two things. Either solve the problem and create a calmly floating city or devise some other alteration suitable for increasing prosperity." The magicians bowed.

Months later, King Sarmasso made an inspection of the atelier outside the city he had assigned the magi for their project. The building was not where he had ordered it, however. Instead of sitting on the ground it was on the side of a wall made of earth, showing its roof to the king.
"We have created an example, o lion among men," Magus Bemda told the king from above. All the magi's feet were firmly planted, keeping them sideways as though nothing were more natural. A cow and a chicken were performing the same feat. "It is safe to inspect from up here, if you like."
The king walked up a small earthen ramp. His stomach danced for a moment when he started up the sheer wall, but his legs carried him up the side without interruption . He surveyed the ground behind him and the sky all around, untroubled by the wild winds, and said, "I am gratified."

The city's buildings were soon rebuilt on great slabs of earth rising high in the sky. At first the slabs, later called districts, were set in a line with spaces between them so as not to block the west winds entirely. Further districts began curving to guard against the north winds as well, and soon the city assumed a quarter-ring shape.
Complaints about travel arose, since one could not walk from district to district without returning to the ground. To remedy this, the magi put up slats between districts where roads could be built. They further erected an outer ring of slabs covering the gaps between districts in the inner ring.
The city, so constituted, became prosperous. The districts freed most of the ground to be used for other purposes. Farms and orchards protected from strong winds sat at the bottom of the great slabs like supplicants at the feet of a kind master. The double ring calmed the winds that before made it difficult for ships to use the city's port, spurring a surge in commerce. Astrologers flocked to the one city where they could study the stars and planets at unusual angles.
King Sarmasso grew wealthy beyond all measure and beloved beyond all bounds. He invited kings and sages worthy of respect to tour his resplendent capital. One after another praised what he and his magi had done.

When King Saruesko returned from his visit to his royal brother, he forthwith convened his magi . . .

Of all the gods who bless mankind, the most beneficent must be Envy.