Today's breakfast: Hot coffee and delicious EXP.

Having brutally murdered (and occasionally been brutally murdered by) quite a few of the game's bosses by this point, I feel the need to point out one gripe I have (really always had) with the TGCD version of the game... why do the Ys II bosses keep using the Ys I boss music? Was there not enough space on the disc for it, or did Hudson and Falcom just not have enough of a budget to pay Yonemitsu for a Protectors arrangement?

Whatever the case, we technically DO have a TGCD-style arrangement of the theme in Perfect Collection Ys II by the man himself - you could think of it like a sound of what could've been: https://youtu.be/eSVBY5o0zbc

Both of these images were taken moments before different (but very much connected) disasters.

TIER 5 ARSENAL... and a few levels.

Endgame is basically around the corner - just need to find the Cleria gear and see if I can't work a few more levels out of the tiny handful of viable grinding spots I have left.

Forgetting to save after gaining levels during a grind and carelessly letting yourself get killed once or twice certainly adds to the amount of time you spend fucking around in the game...

...anyway, this scene always manages to deliver some chills.

The fated duel with Dalles... yeah, I'm basically set for the end of the game at this point, though I'm feeling more like going back and wrapping up my EXP grinding - I know my stats really aren't going to get any better than this, but they're giving me the option to max out my EXP, sooo...

Won't be long until the Darm fight, at least.

There we go - didn't take too terribly long at all.

ALL the Cleria gear.
ALL the magic power.

We're set.

LET'S UTTERLY HUMILIATE DARM!

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR-- oh... well, that went horribly...

CERTIFIED DSP MOMENT: Silly me, I forgot to equip the Goddess Ring to my item slot, so I marched into battle armed with... the Silver Harmonica.

How embarrassing.

Anyway. THE DARM HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DEALT HARM.

Two Goddesses...
Six Priests...

...

And one presumed-canonical love interest (especially given how excited she is to see Adol again when he returns to Esteria during Dawn of Ys - she's also supposedly chasing him across Celceta during Mask of the Sun).

One final chat with Feena... you know, between her and Lilia, you gotta admit that Adol just has this magical ability to catch women like Pokémon (hell, he's STILL picking up chicks by the time Ys III and IV roll around).

And since I did it for the start of Ys Book II... here's what I'm assuming is the equivalent scene in Ys II Special.

Visible tears - she knows this is the last time we'll see each other (not so much the case in the TGCD games... Dawn of Ys says hi).

And now we get this scene... they really do sort of flip-flop with the whole "who does he get with in the end" thing, but I'd say this outcome is pretty definitive.

I can't actually find an equivalent of this in the graphics rips from Special, so this scene is either presented with small sprites or just isn't replicated in any form at all.

After this, there's an aerial view of Esteria and Ys, but I didn't think to snap that before the credits roll.

And there we go.

Ys Books I & II for the TurboGrafx-CD, done.

There's two directions I could potentially go from here: The numerical route, which would take me directly into Ys III: Wanderers from Ys... or the (as far as the TG-CD/PCE-CD games go) canonical route, which sandwiches Ys IV: Dawn of Ys between II and III.

Decisions, decisions... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.