2025 aims to be the biggest year ever for developer Nihon Falcom, and it all begins with the release of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana in the west. Once again, the hero Adol Christin sets out on an adventure to discover the secrets and wonders of the world, and this time, it takes place in Dogi’s home nation of Felghana. The game’s premise was already really enticing to me, but there are plenty of other interesting elements that makes Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana stand out in the Ys franchise.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is technically the third release of the original 1989 16-bit action RPG Ys III: Wanderers From Ys. In 2005, the game was eventually remade as Ys: The Oath in Felghana, with a number of new content additions and gameplay features. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is essentially a definitive version with even more additions that modernize the game for current gen platforms, and it’s a real treat.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana – Dogi’s Long-Awaited Homecoming
The story of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana picks up roughly two years after the end of Ys II, so it’s also taking place after the events of Ys X: Nordics and Ys: Memories of Celceta. Adol is now 19 and although he’s still young, he’s a seasoned adventurer at this point with the trusted Dogi at his side.
Before starting the game, the Museum’s prologue novella gives a brief backstory on Adol and Dogi’s travels, in which the duo decides on heading to Felghana for their next adventure. En route, Adol and Dogi take a quick stop and get a reading from a fortune teller. This reading ends quite poorly as the fortune teller’s crystal ball shatters, creating an ominous omen for the duo. This actually briefly frightens Adol, but his thirst for adventure still persists.
After sailing to Felghana, Adol and Dogi quickly discover something is wrong, as there’s now monsters roaming the wild outside of Dogi’s hometown, Redmont, and a crisis of sorts unfolds later on. These monsters are about to attack Dogi’s childhood friend Elena, but Adol comes to the rescue as the actual in-game tutorial begins. From here, I quickly remembered how different and simplistic the combat system of classic Ys games can be compared to the more modern entries.
Keeping it Somewhat Traditional
The old-school action RPG combat of 80s and 90s Ys games is back with some twists in Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. Since I played Ys X: Nordics not too long ago, the switch to this combat system was jarring at first, but it’s actually really fun and easy to pick-up and play.
What’s more, there’s only one attack button for combos, but you can charge fire, wind, and earth elemental attacks with three bracelets you acquire during the playthrough. You can switch through these bracelets and accessories on the fly as well to open new paths, traverse large gaps, and reach treasure chests. You can also double jump and, with good timing, get the drop on enemies by striking downward to stun them. I would have liked to have some special moves to make the gameplay feel more dynamic, however.
A Boost Gauge is also present, which greatly boosts attack speed and power when used. Charging this gauge to 200% unleashes a shockwave that damages nearby enemies, while delivering an attack speed and power boost that lasts longer. It will also regenerate Adol’s health. The Boost Gauge certainly came in clutch during boss battles, which can prove to be challenging, even on Normal difficulty.
Despite what the box art might suggest, Adol is the only playable character here, just like in Ys I and II. This time, enemies drop health, MP, and stat-boosting consumables that are automatically used when picked up, since there’s no consumable item inventory. Inventory is limited to weapons, gear, accessories, and key items, so you won’t spend much time in menus. You also can’t sell items at the shop in Redmont, but gold drops generously from enemies, especially in later dungeons.
Glimpses of Metroidvania
Strangely enough, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana does feature some side-scrolling and platforming, making it feel like quite a departure from most of the Ys games we’ve come to know and love from the past decade. The aforementioned bracelets come in handy when re-exploring areas in order to find more chests, which can contain gems that amplify the bracelets’ power or elixirs that raise Adol’s health stats.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana doesn’t overstay its welcome at all, as the entire story can be beaten in the same time it takes to reach chapter 2 of Ys X: Nordics. For me, this took roughly 15 hours, including the time I spent backtracking, getting materials like Raval Ore to upgrade weapons, finishing the game’s few side quests, and making sure I was ready for the final dungeon and boss.
Refined and Definitive
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is the remaster of a remake, so it had to be the definitive version. For the most part, it lives up to my expectations here with a ton of features and quality of life improvements that newer Ys fans will certainly appreciate, in addition to the higher resolution support, 60 FPS support, and better audio quality.
For example, the game has a lot of newly recorded voice lines in Japanese and English, including lines for Adol himself. Adol isn’t fully voice acted, but his personality definitely shines through in combat and select pieces of dialogue. In addition, there’s a narrator that you can toggle on or off, if you want the game to have more of a storybook feel to it. I really enjoyed the voice acting in this game, especially with VAs like Bryce Papenbrook and Patrick Seitz reprising their roles as Adol and Dogi.
Turbo mode also makes its return as a staple of modern Falcom releases, allowing you to speed up gameplay by 1.5x or 2x at any time. I mainly used Turbo mode when backtracking through areas for treasure chests I missed, since the game is already short as is and doesn’t necessitate grinding at all on Normal.
The new “Refined” character illustrations are crisp and clean, but you can change back to the original “Classic” versions from the 2005 remake at any time. In similar fashion, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana features the PC-8801 and X68000 versions of the soundtrack, along with the remake’s soundtrack rearranged by Yukihiro Jindo at Falcom Sound Team jdk.
Concise and Focused, to Some Faults
Despite the game’s fun combat and great features, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana does lack in some areas, mostly due to how short the game itself is. NPCs do have some semblance of character arcs and development as the story progresses, but there are very few side quests that flesh out these characters when compared to newer Ys entries. In addition, Felghana feels really small in scale, since Redmont is the only town you can visit.
I really liked Elena’s role in the story, but I wanted to see her spend more time with Adol and become a more memorable and impactful character just like Karja, Dana, or even Krysha from later entries. On the other hand, Chester is a great rival for Adol in this game, and his choices in the story do make Elena take some matters into her own hands. I enjoyed learning more about Dogi’s childhood, too.
Although the game is short, there is some replay value here, thanks to New Game+, the insane Inferno difficulty, and the Time Attack mode. Those wanting to tackle Inferno will absolutely need certain bonuses that are only available after clearing the game the first time around. Time Attack is accessible in the main menu after the first playthrough, allowing you to complete boss battles again to unlock more illustrations in the Museum.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is A Simple and Fun RPG That Anyone Can Get Into
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a good entry point into the Ys series on consoles, regardless of its flaws. The game’s fun combat still feels true to the identity of Ys, while offering something different from the other games. The story is quite short for a RPG nowadays, but Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana was still a really good game to experience, and speedrunners can definitely have a lot of fun here. The easy pick-up and play nature makes the Nintendo Switch version quite enticing, too.
I hope Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana can help open the floodgates for more Ys Memoire-like remasters or even remakes. Specifically, a remaster or remake of Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand, which happens right after Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. Only time will tell if this is coming or not, but I’d hope this release can bring us one step closer to that possibility.
Disclaimer: XSEED Games and Marvelous USA provided a Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana key on PlayStation 5 to Final Weapon for review purposes.
