Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand

Overview

Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand is a 1995 action role-playing game developed and published by Nihon Falcom for the Super Famicom. The fifth numbered installment in the Ys series, it follows adventurer Adol Christin as he investigates Kefin, a kingdom that prospered through alchemy before disappearing into the desert five centuries earlier.

The game represented a significant redesign of the series. It replaced the contact-based attacks of several earlier entries with a dedicated sword-attack button and added jumping, shield-based defense, terrain at different elevations, and an alchemy system through which elemental materials are combined into magical stones. Falcom later described it as the first entirely original Ys game created for the Super Famicom, while retrospective coverage has characterized its systems as an early foundation for the combat used in Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim and subsequent games.

Falcom released a revised version, Ys V Expert, in March 1996 through Koei. It increased the difficulty and added other adjustments following criticism that the original release was too easy. A substantially reworked three-dimensional remake was developed for the PlayStation 2 and published by Taito in March 2006. It revised the scenario, added characters and connections to the wider series mythology, and replaced the original combat and alchemy systems with new versions.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Role-playing (RPG), Adventure

Developer

Arc System Works

Publisher

Taito

Series

Ys

Platforms

PlayStation 2

Modes

Single player

No

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Release dates

Playable today

Credits

Publisher

Taito

Developer

Arc System Works

Released

2006-03-30

Region

US

Time to beat

about 7.2 hours