Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished

Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished, abbreviated to simply Ys (イース) in two versions (see the names section for other various published names), is the first installment of Ys, an action RPG series developed by Nihon Falcom in 1987.

Initially developed for the NEC PC-8801 by Masaya Hashimoto (director, programmer, designer) and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki (scenario writer), the game was soon ported to the Sharp X1, NEC PC-9801, FM-7, FM-77AV and MSX2 Japanese computer systems. Ancient Ys Vanished saw many subsequent releases, such as English-language versions for the Master System, MS-DOS, Apple IIGS, and TurboGrafx-16, and enhanced remakes for the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows systems.

The game was also released as part of a compilation, Ys I & II, for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-CD in 1989, along with Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished's 1988 sequel Ys II. Subsequent versions of Ys I & II were released, with new titles, for Windows (2000), PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PSP, and again for Windows (Vista/7).
 * Appearances in compilations

Story
The hero of Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished is an adventurous young swordsman named Adol Christin. As the original story begins, he has just arrived at the Town of Minea, in the land of Esteria. (In the enhanced remakes, he first wakes up in the port town of Barbado, south of Minea, after washing up on shore due to a shipwreck.) He is called upon by Sara, a fortuneteller, who tells him of a great evil that is sweeping the land.

Adol is informed that he must seek out the six Books of Ys. These books contain the history of the ancient land of Ys, and will give him the knowledge he needs to defeat the evil forces. Sara gives Adol a crystal for identification and instructs him to find her aunt in Zepik Village, who holds the key to retrieving one of the Books. With that, his quest begins.

Release history
Versions of this game have been released from 1987 to as recently as 2009. In many cases, the game was released independently from it's sequel. However, because the sequel Ys II begins literally moments after the first Ys ends, they have been released together on numerous occassions as a compilation.

Because of the multiple releases, as well as the various translations of the game that have been produced, the name of this game is often misspelled, rearranged, or simplified in various ways (officially and unofficially). Sources for these various names include the box artwork, the manuals, and the title screens. Surprisingly, many of the Japanese releases utilize English to display the title.

Below is an attempt to summarize the various releases and the titles they used. For more information about each version, please see the page.