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Ys Online soundtrack now free download
If you're anything like some of us at Massively, the music in your games really adds something to the experience. While Ys Online may not snag the headlines here very much, it's an MMO based off of a series of Japanese RPGs that reaches back into the 1980s. The Ys IP has also been spun off into two anime series produced in the late 80's and early 90s. Ys Online is still in open beta in Europe, but they're already making the game's soundtrack available for free download. You can preview the tracks on the Ys Online Europe site and download each track individually, or just grab the whole soundtrack as a zip file. The Ys Online soundtrack is composed by the same people behind the score of the various Ys titles in the past -- Yuzo Koshiro; Mieko Ishikawa and Hideya Nagata.
Ys Online heads into open beta
Ys Online has entered its open beta phase of testing, but for now, the game is still only available to European countries (The full list can be found here. Countries not found on the list are IP blocked). This open beta is a little different to most in that there won't be a character wipe when testing comes to a close, meaning that characters will carry over to the game's launch. Those interested in playing just need to create a Key to Play account, download the client, and log in -- no special key necessary, despite any confusion caused by the name of the game's portal.According to the Ys Online forums, Key to Play is working on opening up access for more countries to play. Perhaps another publisher will come to the rescue and bring the game to the rest of the Ys-starved world?
YS Online wants you to bomb botters
Botters can be a hassle. Trust us, we know. We too have felt the sting of automatic programming when waiting for that quest monster to spawn, or for that rare monster pops up on the battlefield. Sure, we can report the problem to Game Masters for them to fix, but that's not even a full guarantee that the problem will be taken care of. Plus, don't you always love the satisifaction of dealing with botters yourself?Now you can take matters into your own hands in YS Online, the currently Europe only MMO based off of the popular YS series of RPGs. YS offers all players the ability to carry items known as Auto Bombs, which are available from all vendors for 1 copper a piece. All one has to do is simply take the bomb and throw it at the supposed botter. Once it hits, they'll have a small window to complete a simple captcha -- a word shown in picture format that they have to type into the box below the picture. If they fail to complete the captcha, they'll gain a debuff where they can't do anything for 30 minutes. Painful, no?
Ys to return in MMO form
According to a press release picked up on Neoseeker, there's a brand new Ys game on the way -- and we're not talking about the Nintendo DS remake that is coming out next month. In a move that we can't help but compare to the evolution of the Final Fantasy series and FFXI, an upcoming Ys' title will stray from series' classic JRPG roots into the MMO world. The full name for the game looks to be Ys Online: Call of Solum at this time. The embedded Youtube video was posted back in May of last year so there's probably a lot more information already out there in Japanese, but this is really the first we've heard of it.From what Neoseeker translated of the press release, Ys Online is going to be free-to-play, and will be published by Key To Play and developed by Nihon Falcom, the creators of the original Ys games. Nihon Falcom has been in the business of making games for over two decades, but as far as we know, this will be their first crack at an MMO. We should be able to see how it's coming along shortly with a closed beta that is scheduled to begin this month -- we'll be keeping an eye on the game's website for sign-up information.
