Ys SEVEN

Ys Seven is a Japanese action role-playing game developed and published by the Nihon Falcom Corporation and the seventh installment in the Ys video game series. It was released in Japan during 2009 for the Sony PlayStation Portable and was released by XSEED Games in North America on August 17, 2010 and in Europe (only on PlayStation Network) on December 29, 2010. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in China on June 20, 2012; a new Windows version of the game will be released in English in 2017.

Adol and Dogi reach the Capital of Altago in an attempt to find more adventure. While exploring the town, they get into trouble trying to save two sisters who were being harassed by the local Dragon Knights, which is the army force of Altago. They are thrown into the cells but thanks to their reputation as adventurers, they get a request from the king to help him investigate some strange earthquakes going on lately, as his men have not been able to find anything. On their way, they find out the Five Dragons are awakening once again to prevent a great catastrophe, lending their power to Adol to help stop it.

In previous Ys titles, players had to switch between elemental weapons to damage monsters and bosses. In this game, weapon types are used to determine whether damage is enhanced or minimized. Slashing weapons deal enhanced damage to soft enemies but fail against hard enemies. Striking weapons deal enhanced damage to hard and armored enemies but fail against soft enemies. Piercing weapons deal enhanced damage to flying enemies and other agile enemies but fail against armored enemies. A party can have up to three characters in it with the player controlling one of them. The two other members are controlled by the AI while in combat and it is possible to set how they attack. All playable characters except for Adol are able to use weapons that fit a damage type assigned to that character, while Adol uses swords that can be classified to any damage type. For example, Dogi can only use punching weapons which all deal striking damage. Hitting enemies with charged attacks fills a skill point meter that allows characters to perform skills. Skills are taught by using different weapons. Once a character uses a skill enough, he or she can use the skill with any weapon. Further use of a skill allows the user to enhance the skill. There is also an extra meter that when filled, allows the character the player controls to perform a super attack. Using skills is needed to fill the extra meter.

Players can also block attacks in order to reduce damage. If the attack is blocked at the same time an attack connects, that hit in the attack is nullified, the SP and extra meters are significantly filled, and the next attack will be a guaranteed critical hit. This is known as a flash guard. Getting the timing wrong in a flash guard attempt will result in the player taking more damage than if the player does not attempt to block.