Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (1995)

Beat the standard game. I was going to play the Expert version but the english translation does not work for it. I started off by blowing my starting money on the 2nd sword and going around without any shield or armor for quite some time. It was after getting killed by the 2nd boss that I decided to backtrack to the forest town and buy the 2nd tier shield and armor, because they have better prices.

I tried out the 1st magic spell and decided that it sucked. I neglected magic for a while because I wanted to collect more elements and see if I could get some better spells, like healing or protect or hit harder with sword. I ended up making spells from 3 fire and 3 water because logically using 3 of the same should make something better. Those 2 spells did huge damage to all enemies on screen, most often one shotting them. Ok I can live with that. I trained my magic up to 10 but never found the enemies hard enough to need it. 1 boss allowed use of magic and was the easiest of the game because I put on the magic ring and by the time I ran out of mana he died from a single sword poke and never hit me. I later made a 3 wind spell but never used it.

I mostly used the shield ring. Once I found the healing ring I used it to stay healthy in dungeons while wrecking with the power ring. I only used about 2 healing potions for the entire game but that was with save states. Some bosses were fairly challenging, at least trying to beat them without using any healing. I did have to check a walkthrough to get through the desert because I had no idea you could equip those special items. That also meant the desert cloak was a waste of money because I did not put it on. Shortly after this I finally bought a new sword, and new armor and shield since farming money was easy at that point. I got the best purchasable set and used it until finding the end game stuff.

I liked this game much better than 4 and found it to be a great experience. I most liked the story and characters and least liked the magic system. Might play Expert at some point.