Action role-playing game
An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure, "The Legend of Zelda", which served as the template for many future action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as "Dragon Slayer" and "Hydlide," which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, "The Legend of Zelda" featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since.
Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished
"The Games Machine" compared the game to "The Legend of Zelda", stating that "in many respects, the character detail and all-round presentation make it the better game visually," and concludes that "Ys" is "one of the top-rank RPGs around," giving it a score of 90%. "Computer Gaming World"s Scorpia in 1993 called the computer version of "Ys" "a fairly simple entry with a few puzzles to solve ... interesting mainly for seeing what the Japanese do in terms of lightweight CRPGs".