Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga

Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga[lower-alpha 1] is a crossover fighting game developed and published by Nihon Falcom. Similar to the concept of Super Smash Bros. and Dissidia Final Fantasy, the game involves players choosing a character and participating in two- to four-player fights against other characters sourced from Falcom's Ys and Trails series of video games. It was released in Japan for the PlayStation Portable on July 29, 2010.

Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga
Japanese box art
Developer(s)Nihon Falcom
Publisher(s)Nihon Falcom
Composer(s)
  • Hayato Sonoda
  • Takahiro Unisuga
  • Saki Momiyama
  • Masanori Osaki
Series
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable
Release
  • JP: July 29, 2010
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

Alternative Saga plays as a crossover fighting game, similar in concept the Super Smash Bros., Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Tales of VS, in which the player chooses characters taken from a JRPG series and directs them in a fight against other characters from the same franchise.[1][2] Alternative Saga takes its roster from two of Nihon Falcom's series, Ys and Trails (mainly Trails in the Sky trilogy), and is played from a top-down perspective.[2][3][4]

The game contains a "Story Mode", where a single player may play through a series of battles, while experience story sequence in between battles.[3] Five separate difficulty settings are available.[5] Additionally, local multiplayer between two and four players is also available via an ad hoc connection between PlayStation Portable systems.[5] Battles may be played both competitively and cooperatively.[6]

Characters

The game's roster of playable characters consists of characters from the Ys and Trails series.[7][8] From the Ys side, there is Adol Christin,[9] Dogi,[9] Elk, Mishera, Aisha,[9] Geis,[9] Cruxie, and Chester Stoddart.[10] From the Trails side, there is Estelle Bright,[7] Joshua Astray,[7] Tita Russell,[9] Agate Crosner,[9] Olivier Lenheim,[9] Kloe Rinz,[11] Renne,[12] Leonhardt, and Lloyd Bannings.[8]

The game also employees a "support character" system, which entails choosing a computer controlled assist character who temporarily assists the character.[11] These characters not only come from Ys and Trails games, but also from the other The Legend of Heroes titles and also other Falcom developed games.[1][11] Some examples include Jurio and Chris from The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch,[11] Dela from Brandish,[1] and Gurumins from Gurumin.[1]

Development

The game was first announced in an issue of Dengeki PlayStation in November 2009.[4] The game was created due to Nihon Falcom's desire to make use of the PlayStation Portable's wireless ad hoc local multiplayer function, something they had not been able to work into prior JRPG titles.[3] They also felt that both series, Trails in the Sky and Ys, while JRPGs, both had many themes in them related to fighting, that they felt lent to a natural transition to a fighting game.[3] Further details the following month showed that the game's engine was based on Ys Seven.[13] In March 2010, it was announced that the game would have full voice acting.[2] Additionally, the game's music was a combination of original compositions and new arrangements of songs from prior Ys and Trails games.[14]

The game was released on July 29, 2010 in Japan.[14] In addition to the standard version, a special limited edition was also released, which in addition to the game, contained the game's soundtrack, a Falcom "greatest hits" soundtrack of selected music from their game library, a special booklet of game information, and special card for a promotional Victory Spark trading card game.[14] Website Siliconera had speculated that the game would be a likely title for an English localization due to Xseed Games's relationship with Falcom, Falcom's stated intention to focus further on Western markets around 2010, and the fact that the game would be a smaller undertaking to translate than the typical text-heavy JRPG.[15] A fan translation, under the title of Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga, was announced in April 2020.[16]

Reception and sales

The game debuted eighth on the Media Create Japanese video game charts, selling 30,047 copies in its opening week,[17] and seventh on the Famitsu charts.[18] The game was one of many in the release week that IGN cited as being drivers in PSP hardware as well, with the system itself doubling the sales of its prior week.[19] The game sold well enough to warrant a "Sony the Best" themed budget re-release in July 2011.[20]

References
  1. Īsu vs. Sora no Kiseki: Orutanatibu Sāga (イースvs.空の軌跡 オルタナティブ・サーガ) in Japanese
  1. "Brandish Sorceress Guest Stars In Ys vs. Sora No Kiseki". Siliconera. 15 July 2010.
  2. "First Ys Vs. Sora no Kiseki Screenshots". Siliconera. 12 March 2010.
  3. "The Crossover Action RPG Nobody Asked For: Ys vs Legend of Heroes". Andriasang.
  4. "Falcom Making Ys vs. Legend of the Heroes Fighting Game". Siliconera. 25 November 2009.
  5. "Blurry, But Actual Ys Vs. Sora No Kiseki Gameplay". Siliconera. 25 May 2010.
  6. "Date Set for Ys VS Legend of Heroes". Andriasang.
  7. "The Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki Roster Thus Far". Siliconera. 30 April 2010.
  8. "Zero No Kiseki Leads Make Their First Appearance In Ys Vs. Sora No Kiseki". Siliconera. 2 June 2010.
  9. "Falcom Presents This Ys Vs. Sora No Kiseki Trailer". Siliconera. 29 June 2010.
  10. "Ys Vs. Sora No Kiseki Trailer Hints At More Characters". Siliconera. 12 May 2010.
  11. "Two More Ys Vs. Sora No Kiseki Characters Revealed". Siliconera. 6 May 2010.
  12. "Ys VS. Sora no Kiseki Screenshots". Andriasang.
  13. "Falcom Shares Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki Illustrations". Siliconera. 17 December 2009.
  14. "New Ys VS Sora no Kiseki PV". Andriasang.
  15. "Are Xseed Publishing Falcom's PSP Games?". Siliconera. 21 March 2010.
  16. White, Lucas. "Ys vs Trails in the Sky Fan Translation Is 'Officially' a Geofront Project". Siliconera. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  17. "Big in Japan July 26-August 1: Sengoku Basara 3, Project Diva 2". GameSpot.
  18. "Hatsune Miku Project Diva Tops the Charts". Andriasang.
  19. Gantayat, By Anoop. "PS3, PSP Surge in Japan". IGN.
  20. "Soul Calibur, Tekken, White Knight, Ys and more go budget next month". Andriasang.
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