Now, we get to the other features implemented in Ys X: Proud Nordics. First off, you’re allowed to transfer your clear data from Ys X: Nordics, and you may have caught me mentioning that earlier in the review. In addition, a new Infinity mode is available if you transfer your clear data. In this mode, enemies are rebalanced with the assumption you’re carrying over your levels, skills and equipment, among other things. So enemies will now start off in the mid to upper 80s and can even go higher than level 100. I appreciated both of these additions because one, it didn’t feel like I wasted my time playing the original game, I was rewarded for completing the original. Second, this meant that my playthrough of Proud Nordics, though I carried over my data, would still have a good amount of challenge and still be fun to play through.
Moving on from the clear data situation, there are four new challenges to tackle in Proud Nordics: Bergen Coliseum, Mana Ride Races, Ceaseless Sea, and Muspelheim. These were not available in the original Nordics. Bergen Coliseum, Mana Ride Races and Muspelheim are all accessed in Öland Island. Bergen Coliseum is accessible starting in Chapter V (when Öland Island is first available to visit), Mana Ride Races are accessible starting in Chapter IX, and Muspelheim is unlocked in Chapter X after completing the EX Scenario. In Bergen Coliseum, you can challenge different, powerful foes with both Adol and Karja, or each of them separately. You gain different rewards based on how well you do and who you complete the battle with. These rewards vary from Mana Seeds to treasure charts to mascots you can decorate the screen with and even empty bottles. In Mana Ride Races, you can tackle three modes: Race Mode, Score Attack, and Time Attack. In Race Mode, you control Adol and challenge Karja and Canute in a Gullinboard race. The first one to the finish line wins. In Score Attack and Time Attack, you’re trying to get the highest score and best time respectively. Each mode and their courses offer different rewards based on your rank, similar to Bergen Coliseum.
Muspelheim is a difficult dungeon where you have a limited time to explore. You can find treasure and fight many enemies as you explore, though you only have a three minute time limit starting out. Defeating enemies, opening treasure chests, and destroying crystals will give you more time to explore, but only a little bit. After your time runs out, you get Deepcrystal Shards based on how your exploration went. These can be used to unlock different modifiers for your next foray into Muspelheim, including a modifier to increase the time limit. Ceaseless Sea can be accessed in Chapter X and is located outside the final main story area. In this mode, you and the Sandras face hordes and hordes of Griegr ships until time runs out, or you’re defeated. It’s basically the Sandras portion of Reclamations, but it just keeps going on and on with no land portion, and there are Challenge Battles with boss ships sprinkled here and there. Again, depending on how well you do in this unending battle, you get rewards. It’s a massive challenge that tests your ability to control the Sandras and how well you built the ship throughout the game.
These four Proud Nordics additions are wonderful. They’re ways to challenge the player in my favorite aspects of the game: the Cross Action combat, the Mana Ride, and naval combat. For Muspelheim, you’re tested in not only your proficiency using Adol and Karja in battle, but also your time management and exploration prowess. It was just fun, and they all gave me something to look forward to challenging after beating the main story. Not to mention, I do like getting goodies as a reward for my efforts. My only complaint with these modes is that it takes a while until you unlock them all. Only the Bergen Coliseum is unlocked relatively early while the rest are closer to the end of the main story. These challenges were sorely missing in the original Nordics, and I greatly appreciate their implementation in Proud Nordics.
The visuals in Ys X: Proud Nordics still look great, especially the main characters and enemies like the Griegr. The character models really do toi8’s illustrations justice, and their movement is very fluid and appealing to the eye, especially during those special cutscenes that play when you perfect Duo guard certain boss attacks. Adol and Karja’s movements are so smooth, it’s incredible to watch. For the new characters introduced, I liked how very Norman Canute looked, big and powerful. In contrast, Astrid looked much more proper and intellectual, a good foil to Canute’s brawny look. The new bosses introduced in Proud Nordics look great too. They look like mechas, and I do love mechas. The main baddie in the EX Scenario looks unique and sinister, and my first reaction on seeing them was “woah.” As for the environments, many of the islands still look very samey, which may be unavoidable considering they’re just that, islands. But there were some islands like Öland Island and the Orlen Islands that were cool to explore due to the varied ruins scattered throughout the island or just because of the nice scenic views. The positives outweigh the negatives, and Ys X: Proud Nordics’ visuals are a strong point, just like with its predecessor.
Ys X: Proud Nordic’s audio is still as great as it was in the original game. The sound effects when you strike enemies and are able to perfect guard them have a lot of impact, and it’s really satisfying to listen to. This also extends to naval combat with the Sandras when you hit enemies with your different armaments. These sounds just make it more enjoyable to play through the game. The music is well done with memorable tracks like “Young Swordsman in the Eyes” and “Lila -Innocent Wish-.” “Young Swordsman in the Eyes” really gets your adventurer’s spirit hyped up while “Lila -Innocent Wish-” is more calm and serene, fitting the character it’s named after. The new tracks added for exploring Öland Island like “Viridian Blue” and “Proud NORMAN” and the new boss battle theme “Ironclad Onslaught” in the EX Scenario are wonderful to listen to too. The Ceaseless Sea battle theme known as “Swirling Resentment” is epic and a huge step up from the music that plays in normal sea battles. Really, all of the new music added in Proud Nordics was a treat for the ears.
As for the voice acting, like in the original Nordics, Proud Nordics has options for both English and Japanese voices. Since I played the original Nordics with English voices, I opted to play Proud Nordics with Japanese voices. After my playthrough of both games, I can confidently say that the voice actors for both languages nailed it. I particularly liked how Lynn voiced Karja in Japanese. She was really able to nail the tough and bashful sides of the tough Balta Seaforce princess. If I had an issue with the audio, it’s that sometimes, when listening to a Shipboard Conversations, characters not involved in the Shipboard Conversation would start talking at the same time, causing the voices to overlap and be muddled. But, that’s a minor complaint. Once again, Nihon Falcom provides another solid outing in the audio department.
The game’s localization was as solid as the original Nordics, even with the added text from the EX Scenario. I noticed very few errors which I could count on one hand. These were very minor such as putting a word twice in a sentence or ending a sentence with a comma. Overall, it was another solid effort and I don’t have much to complain about.
Ys X: Proud Nordics runs wonderfully on PC. There are four graphics presets (Performance, Default, High, Ultra) and multiple graphics options to tweak the game’s performance, including six traditional anti-aliasing (AA) methods (Default, Sharp TAA, Smooth TAA, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA, 8x MSAA) and NVIDIA DLSS (3, 4, 4.5) is implemented right off the bat. I combined 2.25x DLDSR (3840 x 2160, native resolution: 2560 x 1440) with DLSS 4.5 on Performance preset (50% in resolution scale) with all the other settings at the max setting and the game looked nice and ran very smoothly. The game ran at or above 120 fps the entire game. I did notice some minor stuttering when the camera slowly panned to the left or right during story scenes, but it’s only a minor inconvenience that rarely happened. On Steam Deck, the game ran just as smooth while using the Performance preset with the AA option changed to Sharp TAA. I was able to run the game at a smooth 60 fps in my short time playing it on the handheld, so it is definitely a viable option to play this game. And of course, I have to give a shoutout to the fact that you can choose what button icons to use in the PC port, an option I think all PC ports of games should have. All in all, this is another great PC port by PH3 Games and NIS America.
It took me around 55 hours to complete Ys X: Proud Nordics while completing the main story and EX Scenario. Thanks to the added Bergen Coliseum, Mana Ride Races, Ceaseless Sea, and Muspelheim, there’s plenty to do even after beating the game. Time Attack also returns where you can refight the bosses faced in both the main story and EX Scenario. New Game+ is also available after beating the game, allowing you to carry over many aspects of your clear data including your levels, skills, and equipment. Also, I should mention that all cosmetic DLC from the original Nordics is included in Proud Nordics. These can be added to your inventory by opening the bonus boxes in your inventory. These are nice freebies, especially if you liked some of the DLC costumes from the original game.
Ys X: Proud Nordics is the definitive edition of Ys X and a step above its predecessor. It’s a solid action RPG with fun combat, nice visuals, and great music. The new story is interesting and implemented well without interfering with the existing story. The newly added game modes are a great deal of fun and add much more replay value to the game. I highly recommend Proud Nordics to newcomers and those who played the original. The new additions and improvements made Adol’s adventure through Obelia Gulf a more enjoyable experience overall.
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
