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Nihon Falcom, one of Japan's oldest RPG developers, rose to fame in 1984-85 with Dragon Slayer and Xanadu. In 1987, they launched another RPG series which has continued in tandem with the Dragon Slayer/Legend of Heroes to this day, using a more action-driven style of gameplay. That series is the Ys (pronounced "eese") series.

Much like Link with the Zelda series, Ys primarily focuses on a single protagonist, Adol Christin. Adol is a young man who seeks adventure around the world of Ys. He records his adventures as he explores the world and battles enemies. Adol's defining physical feature is his red hair, as he seems to be the only redhead in the world of Ys. Adol often travels with his best-friend, "Dogi the Wall-Crusher," a big, powerful former thief who breaks him out of a dungeon in the first game and becomes a steadfast companion after that. Adol also meets many other friends and enemies as he journeys. Adol's adventures, starting from the very first game, frequently begin with shipwrecks, which makes one wonder why any ship would take him on as a passenger. Ys IX even addresses this issue in-story.  The games in the Ys series represent Adol's own chronicles of his adventures over a 50-year period until his death at age 64. Adol is a silent protagonist (except for battle shouts in the later games), to the point where everything Adol says is described in the third person even when other characters might have voice dialogue. 

The world of Ys is heavily based on the real world, unlike Hyrule. Ys is primarily set in the Romun Empire, which is a composite of the classical Roman Empire and the later Holy Roman Empire. Each game is set in a different realm based loosely on real-world locations. Ys itself takes its name from the mythical city of Ys in the region of Brittany, in present-day France, which supposedly sank into the ocean. The world of Ys essentially began when a once-benevolent priest of the Kingdom of Ys named Cain Fact was corrupted by an Eldean artifact known as the Black Pearl and became the Demon King, Darm. (Fun fact: Cain/Darm's family is named "Fukt" in the original Japanese, which was possibly a deliberate choice of the designers knowing exactly what this name sounds like in English.) Since then, the world has repeatedly been menaced by the Clan of Darkness, the descendants of humans who had been entrusted by the Eldeans to make holy relics. Meanwhile, life in the Ys world continues to grind on under the fist of the Romuns. 

Since 1987, the Ys franchise has expanded into ten mainline games, multiple spinoffs and remakes, and a number of OVAs.  Its release track record in the US has been somewhat spotty. Falcom relies on outside publishers to sell its games outside of Japan, and the series itself has jumped from platform to platform. However, since Ys VI, it has had a much more steady stream of releases, and Falcom notes that Ys sells better in the United States than in Japan, where Legend of Heroes is more popular. 

My knowledge of the series prior to Ys Seven is sadly incomplete, so some games are likely to be abbreviated in their descriptions.

Ys I: Ancient Vanished Ys

This game debuted in 1987 in Japan on almost every platform available in the country. In March 1989, Sega of America localized and released the Master System version in the United States as Y's (sic), The Vanished Omen. It was the first Falcom game to be localized in the US, beating Legacy of the Wizard on the NES to market by a month. It also made its US debut before both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Ys originally played somewhat differently than the more recent entries. It originally used "bump attacks," where Adol would attack enemies simply by running into them, similar to early roguelikes, Hydlide, and Falcom's own Dragon Slayer games.

Adol travels to the land of Esteria, which is based on the Brittany region of France where the city of Ys was supposedly located in legends that date back for centuries in the real world. He is set on a quest to find the Six Books of Ys to defeat Dark Fact in the Tower of Darm. At some point, Adol finds himself in a seemingly unescapable cell, where he is rescued by a huge thief who simply smashes through the wall. From that point forward, Adol has a steadfast traveling companion - Dogi the Wall-Crusher.  

Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter

Released in 1988 for Japanese PC platforms. It directly picks up the story from Ys I. Adol finally journeys to the floating island of Ys after being rescued by a young woman named Liiia. He must now defeat Dark Fact's ancestor, Cain, who has merged himself with the Black Pearl to form the demon Darm, the supreme evil being of the Ys world.

Because Ys I & II form a two-part story arc, almost all subsequent releases package both games together. A compilation of the two games was released for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 by Hudson Soft in 1989, which was the first English version of Ys II. An enhanced version, Ys I & II Chronicles, was released for PC and PSP in 2011, and remains available through Steam.

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

This entry in the series takes Adol and Dogi to the Felghana Valley in Garman (Germany), which is Dogi's homeland. In his home town of Redmont, the boys meet up with Elena, Dogi's childhood friend. who develops a crush on Adol. The boys soon find out that the local baron is tormenting the town. Naturally, Adol decides to jump in and help. This game, which appeared on Japanese computers as well as both the Super NES and the Genesis, was a major departure by being a side-scrolling action RPG, similar to Falcom's earlier Faxanadu. It was also localized for the US by Sammy Corporation, and is reasonably priced for a SNES RPG. 

In 2005, Falcom remade this game as Ys: The Oath in Felghana, using the engine they made for Ys VI on the PC. This meant that the game was now set in a 3-D world with 2-D sprites, and was more of an overhead adventure like Zelda instead of a side-scroller.  It was localized in 2012 and is still available on Steam.

Ys IV

Ys IV, set in the realm of Celceta (real-life Spain, specifically the areas settled by Celtic migrants), has had an interesting history. There were originally not one, but two Ys games named Ys IV - neither of which was made by Falcom.  The company gave the rights to make Ys IV to two different developers, Hudson Soft and Tonkin House.

Tonkin House's version, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, was released for the Super Famicom. It starts with Adol setting off for the land of Celceta in search of adventure. Hudson's version, Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, was released for Hudson's PC Engine CD-ROM platform, starting with an additional scene in Minea, the town where the first Ys game began, and featuring Redbook audio. Hudson took a lot more liberties with the storyline than Tonkin House did, so Tonkin House's version became the canon Ys. Both games returned to the overhead style of the first two games, complete with the "bump" combat.

In 2012, Ys IV was remade as Memories of Celceta for the PS Vita, later ported to PS4 and PC, using a full 3-D engine similar to the recently releaed Ys Seven. Adol arrives in Celceta with his memories wiped. In addition, he is sent on a cartography quest by the Romun governor of Celceta. So he must map the region and regain his memories while fighting the evil threatening the Celcetans.  This game has become the definitive "canon" version of Ys IV.

Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand

In this Super Famicom installment, Adol and Dogi leave fantasy Europe for the first time and visit the desert kingdom of Kefin in North Afroca, based on the Egyptian city of Alexandria. This game is unique in that, to date, it is the only Ys which has never been localized in English in any form. It also marked the end of "bump" combat for the series. From this game going forward, players would be required to actively attack enemies with button presses. Adol also had the abilithy to defend himself with a shield and to jump.  Ys V was later ported to the PS2. Compared to other games in the series, it's gotten very few re-releases and no remakes.  

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim

After the ship he's on is attacked by the Romun military, Adol finds himself shipwrecked in the Canaan Islands, which are believed to be the Ys world's analogue to either the Canary Islands, an island group off the coast of Africa which is currently under Portuguese rule, or perhapsn the Caribbean Islands, which would be Adol's first visit to the Americas.  This game was originally released for PC in 2003. In 2005, it became the first Ys to be localized in the US in 14 years, courtesy of Konami. Konami also upgraded the character sprites to 3-D in-game models, which allowed Adol's appearance to change based on his equipment, and the game featured full dual-audio English and Japanese voice acting.  However, Konami also removed the blood and gore from the game to avoid a M rating (a lot of Ys games do feature blood and gore.) The game was ported to PSP, which was more of a straight port than the PS2 version. It is available in English through Steam.

Ys Origin

A prequel to the series' storyline, set 700 years before the first game. This is the only Ys game in which Adol does not appear. Instead, three heroes, Yunica, Hugo, and Toal, are entering the Devil Tower in search of the twin goddesses of Ys. Each of these heroes has a different story and abilities - both Hugo and Toal are of the Fact Family, same as Cain Fact/Darm, the overriding villain of the series. Yunica, who wields a giant axe, has a playstyle that is more physical and is more like Adol's familiar fighting style, while Hugo and Toal are magic users.  This game is more of a dungeon crawl than it is a story-driven RPG. It was originally released for PC in 2006, localized for Steam in 2012, and eventually ported to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. I was fortunate enough to snag a limited edition cartridge copy of Ys Origin for the Switch when it went on sale at a local Best Buy.

Ys Seven

Adol and Dogi travel to the city of Altago in North Afroca, which is an analogue of the real-life city of Carthage, a rival to Rome during the Punic Wars. Unfortunately, they run afoul of law enforcement due to trying to save a pair of sisters and end up in jail. In this game, which was in full 3-D, Adol gained the ability to have up to two AI-controlled party members, his choice of weapon determines how much damage he does to specific monsters, and he gained the ability to flash guard, conventions which would be carried through to further sequels and remakes. It was originally released in 2008 for the PSP, which had become the plaform of choice for many Japanese RPG developers thanks to the PSP's popularity in Japan and its lower cost of development compared to the PS3. It wss localized with a special edition in 2010 by Xseed, which had bought the rights to both Ys and The Legend of Heroes around that time. 

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

Adol and Dogi are serving as a crew members aboard the Lombardia, a ship carrying various Eresian dignitaries. A giant kraken attacks and sinks the Lombardia. They awaken on an uncharted tropical island called Seiren, along with a spoiled Garmun princess named Laxia and a boisterous yet wise Greek fisherman named Sahad. Adol and his crew must chart the island of Seiren and rescue the other castaways, who contribute their own unique skills into building a settlement on Seiren, which will eventually include shops to upgrade weapons and medicines using materials scrounged from the island. It's basically Gilligan's Island: The RPG, where Sahad is the Skipper and Laxia is a composite of the Howells and Ginger.  There's even a defense minigame where the castaways have to defend their settlement. They later discover a mysterious woman named Dana, who tells them of a catastrophe that threatens all life on Earth. It was originally released for the PS4 and Vita, later ported to PC and Nintendo Switch. The Switch port, the first new Ys game to appear on a Nntendo system since the never-localized Ys V, was courtesy of NIS America, which had obtained the rights to the Ys and Legend of Heroes games. NIS's original localization was a mess, and NIS had to redo the whole thing after the game's release. 

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Adol finds himself in Balduq, home of the infamous Balduq Prison fortress (real life: Paris and the Bastille). He is immediately arrested by the Romun authorities, who lean on the fourth wall as they question him about things like why he's involved in so many shipwrecks. Adol finds out he's been turned into a Monstrum, people who possess superhuman powers and animalistic traits who are seen as both heroes and outcasts by the people of Balduq. These Monstrums are recruited/enslaved by Aprilis, a mysterious woman who charges them with fighting an army of demons that constantly menaces Balduq. Adol, the Crimson Knight, and his friends Dogi, White Cat, Hawk, Doll, Raging Bull, and Renegade, plot their adventures from a bar on the outskirts of Balduq. Interspersed with the main game are sequences where Adol is imprisoned in Balduq, and with the help of mysterious allies, he makes brief escapes from his cell to learn the layout and history of Balduq.

In addition to the main games, there were spinoffs. There was a RTS game, Ys Strategy, released for the Nintendo DS, and a Korean-made MMORPG which was shut down in 2012. There was even a Smash Bros style crossover fighting game with The Legend of Heroes series, which featured playable characters from Ys such as Adol and Dogi, and characters from LoH such as Joshua and Estelle. 

Despite a rather inconsistent release record outside of Japan, Ys has slowly been becoming more and more well-known, especially since its return to the US with Ys VI. As with the Legend of Heroes series, here's hoping that there will be many more adventures to come for Adol and Dogi.