Ys Memoires: The Oath in Felghana PS5 Review
Summary: Ys Memoires: The Oath in Felghana is a perfectly serviceable port of the PSP original to modern consoles. Offering some nice quality of life improvements and remastered audio and visuals while maintaining the essence of the original release.
3.9
Retro!
The venerable Ys series has been around for a long time. The first game was released in 1987 for the PC-8800 system in Japan. In the decades since then, many of the early games have evolved, been remade, and updated for newer hardware, bringing them to new generations of audiences. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is one such title, this being the second time it’s had an update and re-release.
Originally released in 1989 as Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, the game received a total overhaul in 2005. Re-branded as Ys: The Oath in Felghana, this update largely maintained the original story while modernising and refining the gameplay, ditching many of the concepts of the original release in favour of a streamlined experience. This new take on the title was released on PC in 2005, then later on Sony’s handheld the PlayStation Portable, several years later.
Over a decade later, it is released on modern consoles as Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana.
The story sees Adol Christin and his companion Dogi traveling travelling to Felghana, the homeland of Dogi after nearly a decade away. Upon arriving the two immediately face attacks from vicious monsters and soon after realise the land is no longer what it once was. The pair travel the land, defeating foes and seeking answers for the problems that have hit the area.
Gameplay is as it was on the PSP. Towns and the overworld are isometric 3D environments that can be explored. Dozens of NPCs mill about to be spoken with and outside of populated areas monsters roam around. Dungeons take the form of side-scrolling, often platforming heavy scenes. Usually heavily populated with a myriad of enemies to dispatch. Combat mostly occurs in these areas; it’s hack and slash with some magic use thrown in for good measure. Item management was thrown out with the 2005 transition to 3D, aside from the occasional key, instead, enemies drop potions and other recovery items when defeated when are used immediately upon walking over them. It’s very simple from a gameplay perspective but works remarkably well.
This release is largely just a port of the 2005 game to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, however, there’s slightly more here than a bump to native resolution.
The Ys games have always been lauded for their excellent soundtracks, and Oath in Felgana is no exception. This updated release features a remastered score along with the original versions (from all the different platform releases) that can be switched between on the fly. There are some great tunes, and the updated score is fantastic. Along with the updated music, voice acting has been added for the protagonist, Adol Christin for the first time. There’s not a huge amount of it, but it’s nice to see, nonetheless.
New visuals have been added this time around, with new character artwork for all the major NPCs present. As with the score, fans of the original can swap and change between the updated visuals and the originals at the press of a button in the options menu. Graphics themselves don’t appear to have much of an update beyond the bump in resolution, so it still largely looks like a game from 20 years ago, but thanks to some strong artist direction it still mostly holds up, with only the UI feeling a little antiquated in places. Despite this, it’s still perfectly usable and is never a barrier to playing and enjoying the game.
What’s pleasant to see is the addition of accessibility options, something that is quite often skipped when porting such an old game to a new generation. New customisable difficulty options to cater to all levels of players as well as a turbo function to speed up some battles or just run through the world.
Final Thoughts?
That’s about all there is to Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. It’s a faithful port of the 2005 classic, with a couple of nice-to-have features such as multiple soundtracks and artwork updates. The original featured some questionable design in places, most notably some of the bosses have very repetitive mechanics and as such aren’t very fun to fight, but beyond that Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a great RPG.
Performance, as you might expect for a title like this, was flawless throughout. It isn’t very long as far as RPGs go, easily beaten in a weekend, but because of this, doesn’t outstay its welcome.
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