Ys Online

If you're anything like some of us at Massively, the music in your games really adds something to the experience. While Ys Online may not snag the headlines here very much, it's an MMO based off of a series of Japanese RPGs that reaches back into the 1980s. The Ys IP has also been spun off into two anime series produced in the late 80's and early 90s. Ys Online is still in open beta in Europe, but they're already making the game's soundtrack available for free download. You can preview the tracks on the Ys Online Europe site and download each track individually, or just grab the whole soundtrack as a zip file.

The Ys Online soundtrack is composed by the same people behind the score of the various Ys titles in the past -- Yuzo Koshiro; Mieko Ishikawa and Hideya Nagata.

Ys Online has entered its open beta phase of testing, but for now, the game is still only available to European countries (The full list can be found here. Countries not found on the list are IP blocked). This open beta is a little different to most in that there won't be a character wipe when testing comes to a close, meaning that characters will carry over to the game's launch. Those interested in playing just need to create a Key to Play account, download the client, and log in -- no special key necessary, despite any confusion caused by the name of the game's portal.

According to the Ys Online forums, Key to Play is working on opening up access for more countries to play. Perhaps another publisher will come to the rescue and bring the game to the rest of the Ys-starved world?