Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review – A Masterful Action RPG Still Shining Two Decades Later

In the vast realm of action RPGs, the Ys series boasts impressive consistency in overall quality. Despite a few noticeable stumbles in the franchise’s earlier years, such as the infamous case of Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand, almost every game has been satisfyingly well-crafted, and one classic example of this shining standard is reflected in Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

This remake of the original Ys III, known as Wanderers from Ys, debuted in 2005 on PC before seeing an enhanced PSP release that added new content. Then, the Steam version many enjoyed in the West saw the light of day, even if it lacked some of the PSP outing’s features. Now, this must-play adventure of protagonist Adol Christin is making its way to modern platforms in this remake’s definitive package: Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana.

Adol’s Journey Through Felghana

Following Adol’s journey in the land of Celceta at age 18, he travels to the town of Redmont with his companion Dogi at 19. This capital of Felghana is the latter’s hometown, and it’s a somewhat emotional homecoming before the sight of monsters makes it clear that the land isn’t quite as peaceful as Dogi fondly remembers it.

After quickly becoming acquainted with Redmont’s townsfolk, namely Dogi’s childhood friend Elena, and learning about the settlement’s financial plight, Adol seeks to hopefully cease the vain ambitions of Felghana’s vain ruler, Count McGuire. Along the way, Adol frequently encounters Elena’s brother, Chester, who has swapped sides to serve McGuire for reasons beyond understanding. Amid it all, historical truths surrounding the land of Felghana make themselves evident, illustrating notable scars of time and a multi-year-long struggle.

A Solo Adventure with Punishing Gameplay

For those who have only played the recent Ys games, The Oath in Felghana will undeniably be a drastic shift. Contrasting the likes of every entry from Seven onward, Felghana is a brief solo Adol journey with no other playable characters. As a result, the gameplay here is far more straightforward and intuitive, with Adol only having a handful of sword techniques and obtainable magic spells. Yet, consequently, this design choice leads to an increasingly more involved challenge. The Ys games of this era were far more punishing and demanding due to a more compact toolkit and stricter boss move pools.

Of course, you have a selection of lower difficulty levels upon starting, but understanding the intricacies of each boss and even the standard mobs makes Nightmare and the unlockable Inferno difficulty well worthwhile. I’ve played Felghana a few dozen times in the past decade, so I can’t say the challenge here applies to me. However, the fact that only a handful of hits can kill you on Nightmare and Inferno ensures your pride doesn’t swell excessively.

It’s also worth emphasizing that the RPG components here shouldn’t be slept on since they can sway the odds heavily against or toward your favor. In the older Ys games, your level matters immensely. It’s no exaggeration to say that a level or two can drastically enhance your damage output and defenses. Thankfully, grinding isn’t necessarily advised since you can clearly tell when you hit an experience point wall in an area. Then, when considering the acquisitions of new equipment and the elementary upgrading system, this revival of Felghana is a welcome revisit to simpler times.

Exceptional Boss Design and Progression

The Oath in Felghana has some of my favorite boss design in gaming history, with a memorable final battle that stands near the top of action games as a whole. Still, this adventure has its fair share of other notable strengths, such as the stage design. Felghana comprises a handful of linear explorable dungeons that lightly echo that classic Zelda phenomenon of finding new movement upgrades or tools to progress past various obstacles. Between a double jump to a wearable accessory that negates damage from shallow lava, every location feels like a meaningful gameplay step forward.

The mandatory spells Adol learns serve multiple functions, too, such as the wind magic that, besides providing a vast, charged spin attack, instills tremendous distance when trying to cross significant gaps. The general smoothness of the movement bolsters every action as well, with not much animation lag for most of your maneuvers. Therefore, your innate reflexes and attained understanding of enemy telegraphs are all that matter in the moment. Additionally, there is a decent amount of reasonable platforming, enhanced by how swift and intuitive Adol is.

A Small Yet Memorable Town

Besides combat and exploration, Felghana has a hub, the town of Redmont. In typical Falcom fashion, the NPC dialogue here updates after every narrative stride, though there are far fewer characters to speak to than later entries and, of course, the Trails games. There’s nothing outright poor about the characters in this settlement, but their collective execution is probably my sole shortcoming with this title. Despite a handful of optional quests with a few townspeople delving into their characterizations and histories, there isn’t quite enough to build genuine attachment or intrigue. Even the heroine, Elena, doesn’t get much memorable non-mandatory material besides a missable quest. Still, the bonds between the members of Redmont are believable and make themselves known if you take the time to speak to them.

Soundtrack and Visual Features

Regarding its soundtrack, Felghana is from a musical era I consider to be peak Falcom. Without exception, every area and battle theme hits indescribably hard. The sheer level of hype employed by the likes of “Valestein Castle” and “Steeling the Will to Fight” has not gotten even remotely dull over almost two decades later, and I don’t see that hypothetical fall-off ever happening. On the other hand, fans of older-styled soundtracks can swap to the PC-8801 and X68000 soundtracks of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.

Another feature of this enhanced release is Turbo Mode, which, while not a borderline necessity like for many players of the Trails series, helps backtracking and grinding. Adol himself is also voiced in this re-release, though it only extends to specific boss openers and battle grunts. This add-on really doesn’t mean much, but it does at least add some vocal consistency to this main character, extending beyond the newer games.

New Content and Replayability

The newly illustrated character portraits are the most noticeable addition in Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. These latest depictions are similar to modern anime and JRPG art styles, so they may not click depending on your artistic preferences. Personally, I’m fond of these new pieces of artwork, mainly Elena’s portraits. However, you can swap to the original Felghana character illustrations if you’d prefer. Another feature I appreciate is the prologue movie in the extras menu, showcasing the events leading up to why Adol and Dogi even arrive in Felghana in the first place.

Lastly, when you beat The Oath in Felghana for the first time, you unlock a slew of bonuses, namely New Game Plus, the Gallery, and Time Attack. New Game Plus operates in a similar vein to the older Tales of entries, where you earn points depending on the difficulty you cleared the game on. When redeemed, these points let you carry over elements from your latest playthrough or gain additional boons for your next one, such as starting with more HP or expanding the upgrade capacities of your equipment. I love this general implementation of New Game Plus since it offers more rewards for skilled players, making replays feel individualized.

Time Attack is self-explanatory, letting you battle every story boss singularly or in a row, with completion of the latter across multiple difficulties unlocking sets of images in the Gallery. A neat set of bonuses here is how there is new artwork of Elena cosplaying other Ys characters as rewards for these feats. Moreover, Time Attack has two bonus optional bosses that are not in the main game at all, which are genuinely tricky bouts chiefly testing your endurance. So, if you want to see everything The Oath in Felghana has to offer, your playtime can easily balloon past its estimated 10-15-hour playtime.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a meticulously crafted action RPG that feels at home on the Switch with favorable performance, both handheld and docked. Further, every boss battle, upgrade, and area meld to create a no-nonsense masterclass implementation of this genre. Even after almost twenty years, The Oath in Felghana remains near the cream of the crop in boss design, and the availability of multiple difficulty levels ensures that players of varying skill levels can experience it all firsthand. And while the character-writing admittedly doesn’t reach its potential, the compact, close-knit narrative is a well-paced execution that perfectly illustrates the types of journeys Adol Christin’s travelogues depict.