Let There Be Ys!

With Yakuza 4 done, Monster Hunter out of steam and Onimusha 2 on indefinite hiatus, I wanted something to play before Donkey Kong Bananza comes out next month. I want to play Daemon x Machina before the sequel comes out this fall but I don’t have a copy of that. Instead of looking at my BOMBS25 Chart, which would sensible, I decided to grab a copy of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana off the shelf. I’ve wanted to play this game for a while, I’ve also coveted the collector’s edition on the PSP for some time but its always been more expensive than I thought it should be. So when Falcom announced the remaster of The Oath in Felghana I jumped on the reasonably priced collector’s edition. That edition is put together well, though I wish it came with an art book, even a small one, rather than the postcards. The included fold-up manual is also a great addition. Now, enough about the feelies, on to the game!

I’ve played 3 other Ys games, before this, Ys Origin, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim and finally, Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana. I liked all three! Felghana is a remake of the 1990 CRPG Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. I am not brave enough (or patient enough?) to have played the original Ys games, though they are on my list (and apparently they’ve all been released on Switch as part of the EGGCONSOLE series, but not in English). In 2005 they remade that third game as Ys: Oath in Felghana, first released on Windows and then finally in 2010 on PSP. And this is what Ys Memoire: Oath in Felghana is a remaster of! So far I’m liking the remaster options, it doesn’t really get in the game’s way. There are also options to swap the music around, from the orchestral arrangements (which are great) all the way back to the PC88 game (which is also kick-ass). They’ve also created all new character portraits, which is less interesting to me, but you do get some incredible gems like these… (original on the left).

Let the adventure begin!

I like this series because these are big, grand, epic adventures that aren’t 120 hours long. According to IGN Owned (and filled with cookies and trackers) howlongtobeat.com this game reaches 13-15 hours depending on how much grinding and backtracking you need to do. Right away we’re dropped off our boat and immediately get tossed into the action. Wolves are attacking some poor defenseless maiden, oh no! Adol to the rescue! After the dust settles we learn that Dogi is from here and knows everyone. He, of course, will soon go out to run some errands and we will have to fend for ourselves. The first dungeon is inside the towns main source of income, the Ravol Mines. This game has showed a fair amount of enemy variety so far, which I like. There are flying enemies, ground enemies - some of them you need to use magic to kill - it’s a nice variety. Of the games I’ve played in this series, they all include a fair amount of platforming and exploration, and this game is no different. You’ll also notice this game is fully 3D and while it mostly presents itself as a mixture of top-down and isometric, but since we’re not working with pre-rendered backgrounds it can move the camera around and play with angles and scale.

In the first dungeon, the mines, there is a huge boss, Ellefale: the Azure Queen of Death! When you walk into her chamber we’re no longer top-down, instead it’s more over-the-shoulder, the camera moves around the room and follows Adol in from behind, and then the subsequent fight takes place in that same viewpoint! It forces you to think quick and adapt your play-style, but its not enough of a departure that it feels disorienting. Speaking of bosses, holy shit I forgot how difficult these games can be. I almost started this on hard but I’m so glad I didn’t. Though, when a death occurs - and this may be a product of the remaster - it gives you the option to tweak the difficulty.

So far, I’m through the first and second dungeon, I’ve got two of the four statues that are needed to do or prevent something, I’m not entirely sure what the story is leading up to just yet. In those 2 dungeons I’ve fought 5 bosses - and I’ve had to restart each of them at least 5 times each. This game really forces you to study the moves, memorize the patterns and do everything correct the first time… or else. They bosses attack hard and quick, they are unforgiving. For instance, there is a dragon that flies out of a pit of lava that we’re walking through and while its move set is not complicated, if it catches you just right, you can get stuck on it’s nose and since there are no i-frames in this game, you’re health could drain down in about 2 seconds.

Not having any kind of invulnerability after taking damage pushes this game from a simple action/adventure game and makes it into something more akin to a shoot-em-up. You have to be precise in movements, you need to recognize what the boss is going to do before they do it and get yourself into the right defensive position. To me, this isn’t as frustrating or challenging as something like Devil May Cry because it’s only requiring half the skill. Adol doesn’t have a deep bench or a complicated move set so you can kind of hack away. Sometimes you’ll need to mix in his magic abilities, and knowing when to activate Boost versus when to save it for later.

What’s Next?

Tonight I finished off the second dungeon and got through some story stuff which then left me to run around the map and revisit some areas looking for secrets. Since I’m half-way through I’ve increased my abilities and now have access to double jump which means I can get back to areas I wasn’t allowed in before. Tomorrow I’m going back to town to upgrade my armor and then I’ll set off to find the third statue!