Bump Combat

When you talk about the original Ys games, the term "bump combat" is almost certainly the first thing you will hear.

Popularized (albeit briefly) in the 1980s by games like Rogue, our very own Ys: The Vanished Omens, and Hydlide, bump combat is a form of real-time combat where damage is dealt by running directly into an enemy instead of being thrust into a separate battle screen or manually choosing attack commands.

This system was utilized in the original Ys I & II (alongside a simple magic repertoire in II) before being dropped in YS III: Wanderers from Ys in favor of a side-scrolling platformer style much like that of Zelda II. Bump combat was brought back for Ys IV: Dawn of Ys and Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (although not in the eventual Ys: Memories of Celceta) before being dropped for good in the Japan-only Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand.

In the revitalized Ys I, upon leaving Barbado for the first time, you are given a single tutorial screen with instructions on how the bump system operates.

Initial in-game tutorial about bump combat
Many players find that the best way to handle this system is to actually come at enemies diagonally, as demonstrated in the image below. This allows you to more easily pin enemies in a corner or on a wall without them being able to turn around (like in a back attack) and hit you for damage of their own.



Although the system takes some getting used to, it can lead to a surprisingly zen form of RPG combat. I absolutely recommend that you give it a whirl for 15-20 minutes before passing a final verdict on it.