Ys IV: Mask of the Sun

Lore & Background

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun takes place between the events of Ys II and Ys V, with Ys III: Wanderers from Ys occurring after Ys IV. The story begins after protagonist Adol returns to the town of Minea and finds a message in a bottle from the far-off land of Celceta asking for help. Adol immediately boards a ship to Celceta at the start of the game, unlike the other Ys IV version, The Dawn of Ys, which included initial events in Minea.

Reader's Guide

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun is significant as one of two contemporaneous Ys IV titles, each developed by different companies with the same basic story but many differences. It was the version considered the official Ys IV storyline until Ys: Memories of Celceta superseded it. The game returned to the top-down perspective and bump-attack combat of Ys I and II, while introducing a new Magic system allowing Adol to equip elemental swords for attack spells. Its music was composed by Falcom's Sound Team JDK and arranged by Cube Corporation, sharing source material with The Dawn of Ys but using it differently and including exclusive tracks. A planned Mega-CD version by Sega Falcom was canceled. In 2005, Taito developed a PlayStation 2 remake titled Ys IV: Mask of the Sun - A New Theory, which received a score of 25 out of 40 from Famitsu. The legacy includes a novel prequel by Waku Ōba and two manga adaptations by Hitoshi Okuda and Nozomu Tamaki.

Did You Know?

• Mask of the Sun was one of two games released under the title of Ys IV, the other being Hudson Soft's Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys.
• The game's story begins with Adol finding a message in a bottle and immediately departing for Celceta, with no events in Minea.
• A Mega-CD version of Mask of the Sun was planned by Sega Falcom but was canceled.
• The PlayStation 2 remake used only the original Ys IV music, omitting tracks composed for the Super Famicom version.

The Dual-Release Phenomenon

Few moments in the Ys franchise are as distinctive as the simultaneous existence of two separate games both carrying the Ys IV banner. Hudson Soft produced The Dawn of Ys for the PC Engine CD-ROM², while Tonkin House developed Mask of the Sun for the Super Famicom. Both titles inhabit the same overarching setting within the series' world, yet they diverge sharply in execution. Hudson Soft reportedly took greater creative liberties with how the story and world were presented, and the end result was not a simple port or variant but two genuinely unique experiences. For fans of the series, this meant that the label "Ys IV" could point to two fundamentally different adventures depending on which console sat in the living room. The shared setting provided a common narrative anchor, but the tonal and structural choices of each developer ensured that no two players discussing "Ys IV" were necessarily talking about the same game. This parallel release remains a singular curiosity in the franchise's history.

Narrative Placement in the Ys Timeline

Ys IV occupies a specific and carefully bounded slot in Adol Christin's ongoing saga. The events unfold roughly two years after the conclusion of Ys II, placing the hero in a period of relative quiet between major crises. Crucially, the story also precedes Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, meaning the player witnesses Adol before the next great upheaval reshapes his world. The narrative opens with Adol back in Minea, the very town where the original Ys adventure began. Rather than rushing into new danger, he lingers among old acquaintances, engaging in familiar conversations that ground the character in a lived-in community. This pause serves as a narrative breath, allowing the player to reconnect with the series' roots before Adol makes his decision to set sail for Celceta, an overseas land that will carry the story into unfamiliar territory. The pacing of this opening—deliberate, reflective, and rooted in nostalgia—sets a tone distinct from the more immediately action-driven starts of other entries in the series.

Development and Sound Design

The creation of Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys illustrates the collaborative licensing model that defined several entries in the franchise. Nihon Falcom, the original creators of the Ys series, entrusted the development to Hudson Soft for the PC Engine CD-ROM² platform. The musical score drew on the talent of Falcom Sound Team J.D.K., with contributions from Atsushi Shirakawa, Naoki Kaneda, Takahiro Tsunashima, and Masaru Nakajima. For the CD-DA audio tracks, Ryo Yonemitsu handled arrangements, continuing a pattern established in Hudson's earlier CD-ROM² releases of Ys I & II and Ys III. However, Yonemitsu did not cover the entire in-game soundtrack; a significant portion of the music was programmed directly for the console's internal sound chip by Osamu Narita. Yonemitsu did, however, arrange every single track for the later Perfect Collection Ys IV CD series, ensuring a complete and unified listening experience for collectors who wanted the full score in one place.

Legacy, Reception, and Modern Revival

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys launched in Japan on December 22, 1993, and quickly earned strong critical attention, most notably a 96 percent score from the French gaming magazine Joypad—a mark of considerable praise in a market where such high ratings were uncommon. For decades, English-speaking players had to rely on community efforts to access the game; the fan translation produced by NightWolve and released in 2004 became a vital bridge for international audiences who otherwise had no official means to play the title. The game's long wait for a modern Western release finally came to an end in 2025, when Edia announced it would bring a series of Nihon Falcom's TurboGrafx-CD titles to new platforms, with Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys included among them. The port is slated for release sometime between fiscal years 2026 and 2027, meaning that after more than three decades, a new generation of players will be able to experience Adol's voyage to Celceta without the barrier of region-locked hardware or unofficial patches.