Guide #103: Ys Book I & II: FAQ/Walkthrough
Version 00 (11/10/99) (More of a groundbreaking than anything else; Covers up
to getting the Volume Hadal)
By "Emptyeye" (emptyeye@juno.com)

There are X Sections, several of which will be divided into subsections
I: Intro
II: Basic Controls
III: Book I Walkthrough
(00)   A: Getting Started
         1. Absolute Beginning
         2. To Zeptic and the Mountains
         3. The Shrine Entrance
         4. Getting the Volume Hadal

Section I: Intro
Hello again! And welcome to my third in a trilogy of guides to the game Ys
Book I & II for the Turbo-Grafx-CD/TurboDuo! This will be a change from the
previous Boss Guides you're used to seeing from me, in that it will guide 
you, step by step, through the entire game. It won't be unlike a mother 
helping her child across the street; I'll try to be as detailed as possible 
throughout this guide. HOWEVER, be warned that while I'll try to avoid 
spoilers, because of the nature of the guide I may accidentally let a few 
slip in. I will include rewards and such for doing tasks, so don't get mad
if you see those in the guide (They should be there after all), but I'll try 
to avoid giving away the plot. Also, I WILL NOT be giving boss strategies 
other than Equipment and Levels, because I've already written a guide for that
and to repeat it would be redundant. Rather than writing a Version History, 
I'm just going to put the Version number a section was instated next to that
section. 
This guide goes out to my cousin Jamie, who left Connecticut today to go to
Colorado for a few years, in the process leaving me the system and game with
which I will write this guide. Hope it works out for you dude.

Section II: Basic Controls
In this game, you kill enemies by simply walking into them with the Control
Pad. Button I selects choices in menus (And uses Magic in Book II), and 
Button II cancels these choices and uses Items in your inventory. The Control
Pad also moves the cursor in menus around. Finally, the Select Button brings
up the main menu, from which you can view Equipment and your Inventory, Save
and Load games, view your Status, and Change the Speed of the game.

Section III: Book I Walkthrough
NOTES: Items to acquire are listed in something resembling an order in which
they should be acquired. Also, "Up, down, left and right" mean these 
directions on the Control Pad. Whenever a direction is made reference to, 
such as north, it means the direction you typically think of when you think 
of north (Up. South: Down, East: Right, and West: Left.).

    Subsection A: Getting Started
        Subsubsection 1: Absolute Beginning
Items to Acquire: Sapphire Ring, Short Sword, Small Shield, Sara's Crystal,
Golden Vase, Long Sword

  Let's get started, shall we? There are two ways to begin the game: By 
selecting "Beginning" from the screen that says "Ancient Ys Vanished", or by
going to "Continue" and picking "Start Game Story". After viewing the opening
sequence, you'll be just to the south of a building in Minea Town. Go into 
the building. There, a fortune-teller name Sara will tell you of the peril of 
the land of Ys, and instruct you to buy some equipment. Leave the building 
and go north until you come to a building that says "Pim" in cursive writing. 
Go in and buy a Sapphire Ring. Leave and go directly to your right until you 
come to the bar (It says "Bar" on it). Go in and talk to the One-Eyed Man. 
He'll take the Ring and give you 1500 Gold and 50 Experience Points. A free 
Level Up! Woo! 
   From there, talk to everyone else in the bar to pick up some info, and 
leave. Go down and right until you come to a building with two doors. One 
will have two swords above it, and the other will have a shield. Go into the
door with the two swords above it (It's a Weapon Shop), and buy a Short 
Sword. Then go into the other door (The one with the shield above it; It's
[No! You guessed!] an Armor Shop). Buy a suit of Chain Armor. Leave and Equip
both items. Talk to everyone else in the village, again to get more info, and 
leave town by the exit in the north-center. 
   You'll now be out in the Field, where you'll first experience combat 
(NOTE: From now on, whenever you go into an area with enemies, it's assumed
that you fight any in your general way. You can't kill them all; they 
regenerate endlessly. But at least fight SOME.). Woo-Hoo! If you follow the 
path leading from Minea Town, you'll cross a bridge and eventually end up in 
Zeptic Village. For now though, stay on the left side of the bridge and kill 
enemies until you have a total of 700 Gold (You should have 600 before 
leaving town if you did the above sequence right).
   Once that is done, go back to Minea, and to the Armor Shop (It's in the 
bottom-right of the town). Buy a Small Shield and Equip it. Leave the shop 
and go left until you come to Sara's Shop (The first building you entered, in 
the bottom-left of town). Go in. She'll offer to tell you about the Books of 
Ys. Go ahead and let her if this is your first time through the game, which I 
will assume it is (If not, just say "Yes" when she asks if you know about 
them). When she's done, she'll tell you that one of the books is in the 
Shrine, and ask you to recover the book (If you said that you knew about the 
books, she'll simply ask you to recover the book). Say that you will. You 
will then receive Sara's Crystal and 100 Experience Points, which will be 
enough for a Level Up, and possibly two, depending on what enemies you killed 
in the field.
   The next part is optional, but it makes this part of the game a little 
easier. Leave Minea and follow the path across the bridge. When you see a 
big, leafy tree (It stands out from the rest), go just to the right of it, 
then down until you see a lake on your right. Go to the contour (For lack
of a better word) in the north side. You should find a Golden Vase (If not
go as far into the contour as you can and hit Button I). Go back to Minea
and take the vase to Pim's Shop. Sell the vase back to him for 2000 Gold,
then go to the Weapon Shop and buy a Long Sword. Equip it. Now leave town.
(Thanks go to Clint Dyer for pointing out the location of the Golden Vase in
his Ys: The Vanished Omens Walkthrough for the Sega Master System)  
 (ALTERNATE METHOD: After getting the 1500 Gold from giving the Sapphire Ring
to the One-Eyed Man, IMMEDIATELY go get the Golden Vase [Try not to fight any
enemies along the way]. Sell it to Pim, then go to the Weapon Shop and buy
a Long Sword, thereby passing the Short Sword entirely. Then go to the Armor
Shop and buy the equipment described above. Then see Sara and leave town.)

        Subsubsection 2: To Zeptic and the Mountains
Items to Acquire: Shrine Key
  
Okay, you should now be in the Field. Just follow the gravel path into 
Zeptic Village. Once there, talk to everyone, including the Mayor (In the 
house in the upper-left region of the village). The Mayor will ask you if you
can keep a secret. If you can, he'll ask you to recover the Silver Bell from
the thieves (Ignore this). Say yes. Then go to Jeva's House in the lower-right 
section of the village. She'll recognize Sara's Crystal and give you the 
Shrine Key. Leave the village by the northern exit, in the right half of town. 
  You will now be in the mountains. Just follow the path--don't take the 
split near the top--and you should see the Shrine looming ahead. If you're 
not at Level 4 (Or higher) at this point, fight enemies until you attain
that level. Then go into the Shrine.
      
        Subsubsection 3: The Shrine Entrance
Items to Acquire: Ruby
  
Here in the Shrine Entrance, you'll face your first Boss. Yippee! But first,
you have to get there. From the entrance, turn right and touch the gold 
statue. You should now see 4 doors. Take the upper-right path first; Walk all 
the way to the right and open the chest to get the Ruby. Then go back to the 
center of the paths. The upper-left path leads to a treasure chest you can't 
get yet, so ignore it for now. The lower-right path eventually connects to 
the upper-right path. Go to the lower-left path, and take the left door. 
Follow the path until it splits, and then take the lower route. Once you open 
the big door you'll face your first boss--The Magician. Save before entering 
the door, then walk in and kick his butt. When you win you'll receive 150 
Experience (Which should be enough for a Level Up, and maybe 2) and be able 
to explore the Shrine Depths.
  (NOTE: At this point you may wish to go back to Minea and sell the Ruby to
Pim for 1200 Gold. You'll do that anyway, though, at a later point in this 
walkthrough.)

        Subsubsection 4: Getting the Volume Hadal
Items to Acquire: Prison Key, Treasure Box, Necklace, Mask of Eyes, Armor 
Ring, Plate-Armor, Silver Bell, Ivory Key, Silver Shield, Heal Potion, Marble
Key, Volume Hadal, Power Ring (Optional at this point)
   
Now it gets a little more difficult. When you go through the door beyond 
The Magician, you follow a brief path. Then you'll notice that the path 
splits into FIVE different sections--the one you came from, and four others.
We'll call the central passage where you first see these Point A.
   For now, take the lower left path, and keep going left until you can't.
Then go down through several doors until you can't do that anymore either. 
>From there, go right, and up through the first door you see (Let's call this
Point B). You'll see a treasure chest guarded by two enemies. Kill both of 
them (Be careful, you may take damage when you hit them the first time) and 
open the chest to get the Prison Key. 
   Now go back to point A, and take the upper-right path. When the path 
splits, take the lower branch, and proceed to the right. You should see two
prison doors. The left one contains an enemy, and the other one contains...
a prisoner-- a girl named Feena. She'll give you 100 Experience Points and
the Treasure Box Key.
   From the right prison door, take the second path from the right (It joins 
with the one on your far right), and follow the left path. Take the first 
right split you see and you'll come to a treasure chest containing the 
Necklace. Go back to the left path mentioned above and go all the way down, 
then follow the lower wall to the left. From there, go up to find a treasure
chest. Inside is the Mask of Eyes.
   Now leave the Shrine--but before you go, get the treasure chest you 
couldn't unlock in the Shrine Entrance. Now that you have the Treasure Box
Key, you can unlock it and get the Armor Ring. When you Equip it, it 
decreases the amount of damage enemies (Except Bosses) do to you by one-half.
  Go all the way back to Minea and sell both the Ruby (If you haven't done so
already) and the Necklace to Pim for a total of 1700 Gold. Now go to the 
Armor Shop, buy some Plate-Armor, and Equip it.
   Now go all the way back to Point B. Now take the right door and the right
path. When the paths split, take the second northern path (Counting the small
dead end to its left as a path), and when it splits into the crossroads, go
down. Open the treasure chest that contains Zeptic Village's Silver Bell.
   Go back to the path split in the above paragraph (Not the crossroad one),
and take the final path on the right. It leads to Shrine Depths 2
   From the stairs, which we'll call Point C, go left and take the third 
split leading down. Immediately go left when you can, and then go up to get
to a chest. This chest contains the Ivory Key.
   Go back to point C and just keep heading down, then left, until you can't
go anymore. Then go right, and you should see another Gold Statue. Mark this 
as Point D. Go past it, and take the upper path and touch THAT statue. Take 
the lower left path to the Silver Shield. Equip it.
   Go back to point D and this time touch the statue. Take the obvious path
before you to get a Heal Potion.  Once you've done that, get near the blue
statue--the one whose eyes you think you see glow--and use the Mask of Eyes
in your Inventory. Secret door (So you know, the Mask of Eyes allows you to
see hidden passages. Its two drawbacks are that it turns everything black and
white, and more importantly, you can't see enemies. They're definitely there 
though.)! Go through the door and immediately take off the Mask of Eyes. From
there, take the lower path and touch the statue. Touch the chest and get the
Marble Key. 
   At this point, if for whatever reason you're NOT at level 10, leave the 
Shrine (You'll have to use the Mask of Eyes again in order to get out) and 
return the Silver Bell to the mayor of Zeptic Village. In return you'll pick 
up 80 Experience Points and the Power Ring, which, when equipped, doubles 
your attack power (My favorite ring, besides Healing). If you used the Heal 
Potion you got earlier then go back to Minea and buy another one for 1000 
Gold. You can buy them at the Hospital, to the north of the Weapon Shop.
   Once you're at Level 10 and have the Long Sword, Silver Shield and 
Plate-Armor, you're ready to go get the Volume Hadal. Go back to the path 
split mentioned 2 paragraphs ago, but this time take the UPPER path, and
touch the statue. Follow the path to the left and through the first door. 
Save. Now go through the second door and try to take the treasure chest. 
You'll be attacked by the Millipede. Defeat it and take the treasure chest to
get the first Book of Ys, the Volume Hadal! Yaaaaay! :) Now leave the Shrine, 
again using the Mask of Eyes to reveal the door.

   *Looking at work* Wow, this guide is gonna be HUGE when I finally get 
through with it. Oh well, this game is great and deserves a huge guide, or at
least a complete one.
As such.....this guide is Copyright 1999 by "Emptyeye". However, you can do
pretty much what you wish with it except A. Say you wrote it, B. Quote parts
of it directly (Paraphrasing is acceptable) without putting the quoted part
in quotation marks and naming me/this guide as a source (THAT IS 
PLAIGERISM!!), and C. Sell/give this guide away for any profit of any kind.
If you have any questions about whether what you do with this guide is in 
violation of A, B, or C, ask me first. I reserve the right to ask that this 
guide be taken down from your website at any time (Which won't happen under
ordinary circumstances). I respect all copyrights, trademarks, etc. in 
writing this guide. Special Thanks go to my cousin Jamie (For introducing me
to this game and leaving me the system and game with which I am writing this
guide, to Clint Dyer (For pointing out the location of the Golden Vase), to
Devin Morgan (For giving guidelines on how to write a full FAQ), and to...The 
Lagged Riftez Man (For nothing in particular).
   Extra Special Thanks go to Deuce and Razorclaw X (For showing I'm not the
only one in the world who loves this game), and Kao Megura 
(kmegura@hotmail.com; http://i.am/kao) (For so many things, chief among them
having a REALLY good guide to how to write FAQs, for taking an interest in 
this game and my Boss Guide to it, and in general just encouraging me to
write this FAQ. Thanks man.)
-Marc