Ys is a series that has led innovation in the action RPG genre. Getting to dive into games from the series is always a treat. Hearing that XSeed games were again at the publishing table for a remaster of one of the most beloved games in the series with Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana excited me.
Game Name: Ys Memoire: The Oath In Felghana
Platform(s): PS4, PS5 (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer(s): Nihon Falcom
Publisher(s): XSeed Games
Release Date: January 7th, 2025
Price: $29.99
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana puts you in Adol Christin’s shoes once more as he travels to the childhood home of his most traveled companion, Dogi. There, they discover a plot to awaken an age-old evil, and it is up to Adol to stop it from rising to take over the world.
The Good
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a masterclass in combat. Playing and beating the big bosses is enjoyable once you learn their moves. Running through Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana on Normal difficulty was a satisfying experience. Even though The Oath in Felghana iteration of this game is 20 years old, the mechanics and the challenge still hold up extremely well.
The new art that came with character portraits and revamped visuals look amazing. There is still an appeal from the classic look and it is great you can swap between the two, but I preferred seeing the new revamped art models.
One thing I was very happy about was the new default button layout on the console. On the PSP version of the game, trying to use magic and attacking at the same time was difficult with the face buttons doing everything. The change to having magic on the shoulder buttons allowed me to charge my magic while doing normal attack strings and launching them once the combo was finished. It also made it easier to glide with the wind bracelet.
The Bad
The visuals are great in Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana but it still has the layout as if it was on a handheld screen. The text box eats up so much of the screen even with the text smaller to accommodate for the bigger screen. The character art also takes up a large chunk of the screen. On smaller screens, it looks clean but on my big TV, it eats up a lot of space that could be used to show the sprite models and locations. I wish I could configure the art and text boxes to not take up so much of the screen.
There is a new voice now available for Adol in the remaster. It is a welcome addition but it also doesn’t feel like it added a lot to the experience. He has like three or four phrases he would use and it then cuts out the rest of the dialogue that Adol could be saying. The text then hovers above with “And Adol explained the situation.”
I wish I could change difficulties at will in the game. Once you select a difficulty that is the difficulty you are stuck at. If you lose enough times, you will get a prompt asking you to tweak the difficulty for the boss fight but only for that encounter. It also only lowers a single difficulty which I noticed that Easy, Normal, and Hard aren’t too different in that scope. The ones that change modifiers and boss patterns that matter are Very Easy, and Inferno.
The Verdict
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana may not be the best upscaling for the big screen, but man is it an enjoyable one. The visuals that are enhanced are great and line up with the current art style the Ys series is going for. The layout could be tweaked but it is still easy to understand and play. It may require a bunch of rematches to beat the bosses but it is a satisfying victory once they are beaten.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is still probably one of the best games in the Ys series and it has a lot to love. If you want to have a taste of the older Ys games, this is the one to get.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana releases January 7th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Review Disclosure Statement: Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana was provided to us by XSeed Games for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is still a solid game to play today and the remaster makes it a much more accessible experience.
Pros
- Gameplay holds up
- The characters are fleshed out
- Good difficulty balance
Cons
- The screen layout still feels like a PSP screen
- Can’t change difficulty settings within game
