When comparing Ys I & II Chronicles+ vs Hollow Knight, the Slant community recommends Hollow Knight for most people. In the question“What are the best PC games similar to the Zelda franchise?” Hollow Knight is ranked 3rd while Ys I & II Chronicles+ is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Hollow Knight is:
The visuals, music and sound effects are both quirky and charming. You may stay for the gameplay, but you come in for the lovable world.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Original combat
Ys I and II uses a combat system known as "bump combat" where the player just runs into their enemies in real time, bumping into enemies attacks with ones equipped weapon and has to be done repeatedly in order to defeat them.
Pro Updated features over the original
With new features like keyboard controls, user adjustable resolution and screen frame to go around the 4:3 viewing area make for the optimal release of the tile.
Pro Has character
The visuals, music and sound effects are both quirky and charming. You may stay for the gameplay, but you come in for the lovable world.
Pro Rewarding exploration
The game world is enormous, with a massive amount of secret areas that really reward you for sniffing them out.
Pro Amazing art and soundtrack
Has a very dedicated aesthetic that works beautifully.
Pro Fun, challenging boss fights
With a couple exceptions, the boss fights are challenging in a way that does not feel cheap. If you die, it is because you screwed up and not because the game didn't feel like keeping you alive anymore.
Pro Amazing story and lore
Pro Large amount of content
Over 30 hours of gameplay.
Pro Tight and fluid movement
Every movement in the game makes you feel like you are in control.
Pro Has free DLC
Three DLCs have been released, adding additional quests for free.
Pro Mysterious story/lore
Makes you wanna explore more to find out whats going on and you may find secrets with NPCs that will tell you more or add to the mystery. This keeps things interesting.
Pro Forces you to learn attack patterns
You won't get far just going in swinging. Learning enemy behavior is much more important than in any other Metroidvania and that feels very rewarding.
Pro Interesting puzzles
Cons
Con Tons of grinding
Like a lot of old school RPGs, Ys features a lot of grinding in order to defeat boss's. This can become tiresome after some time as it is just doing the same thing over and over again in order to progress.
Con Slow first 2 hours
Game feels slow until you acquire an important upgrade.
Con Choppy on certain hardware
A small percentage of users have issues with choppiness.
Con Too hard
Con Controller lag is an annoying issue
Deactivating VSync and lowering screen resolution did not resolve the problem. This issue has been widely reported by many players.
Con Map system
To get a map, you must find an NPC first for each area you visit. Map updates whenever you find a bench. You also get sent to your last-visited bench when you die. It does not update in real-time, but the map will update with wherever you have been when you find a bench. This is all assuming you have bought the base map from the NPC in that particular area.
Con Some glitches inside
Some speed runners use glitches to finish the game very fast, including glitches that cause you to go to some other area or glitches that make you fly, but you might find some by accident.
Con Hidden lore/story
The story and lore are revealed in a similar manner as Dark Souls. There is a lot of lore, but you have to piece it together on your own because they don't tell you much straight-up.
Con Unresolved crashing issues
A few users have reported that they get random crashes in between room loads and at startup.