The two-page advertisement prominently announcing the 12.22.1993 release date for the highly anticipated Ys IV: Dawn of Ys makes a truly gorgeous Ys IV poster (1300x2125 .jpg) ▼. Dare I suggest that it is suitable for framing?
Of course, the Ys IV soundtrack (.mp3 ▼) is no less brilliant than the artwork featured in this ad. Dare I suggest that you listen to it today?
This installment of the Ys series is, sadly, considered non-canon because it was developed by Hudson Soft. Falcom, with their incessant cycle of rebooting/repackaging each entry in the Ys franchise every few years, has shown little interest in salvaging the unique, original elements of PCE's Dawn of Ys—the character designs, the story, etc. have been forsaken. Falcom has thus been able to retain complete creative control over the franchise and avoid any licensing hassles. Still, it would have been nice to see Falcom embrace their red-headed stepchild in some manner (any subtle reference/cameo/homage alluding to PCE's Dawn of Ys would have been appreciated). Stepchild? Falcom has treated this game as a bastard-child.
Interestingly, this was not the first time Hudson had creative control over a Falcom property. Earlier, Hudson had created another bastard-child: Faxanadu (1987), a version of Xanadu for the Famicom.
STATUS: Falcom has shown little interest in reuniting with the stepchildren it abandoned decades ago.
Continued below…
PURISTS BE DAMNED…▲
To create the poster, I stitched two scans together. The seam needed some creative improvisation and is not my best work (it is passable if you don't investigate it too closely)…
Detail: Before (and after) mending the seam.▲
I should have taken more time to be faithful to the original, but the smell of broccoli rabe (simmering in olive oil and garlic) lured me away from the computer. The ugly truth is that nearly all of the "posters" created for tg-16.com have been unwitting victims of my butchery. With a callous hand, but tender heart, I have reunited disparate pages (separated by digitization) so that they may be married once again, as they were originally found in print media.
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