Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review
Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys: Memories of Celceta are what made me a fan of Nihon Falcom many years ago. While the latter isn't really one of my favorites, Ys: The Oath in Felghana remains a game I adore and replay very often. In fact, I didn't even wait for a localization for Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana when it hit Nintendo Switch in Japan. I know the game well enough to just play through it in Japanese, and I did that back when it debuted on Switch. Fast forward to today and Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana has finally been released in the West on Nintendo Switch, PS5, and PS4.
For those who aren't familiar with Ys: The Oath in Felghana, it is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, and originally released in Japan on PC in 2005. Yes, it was back when Falcom used to do PC games in-house (something we are seeing for the first time in years with the upcoming Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter release). Ys: The Oath in Felghana made its debut in the West on PSP back in 2010 followed by a PC release in 2012 on Steam. While it was playable on PS Vita through backward compatibility which is how I first experienced it, Ys: The Oath in Felghana wasn't ported to other platforms until Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana.
On paper, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana should've been the best version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana with its new features, but it is sadly lacking in some ways. I already previewed Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana last month, but after putting more time into it, there are aspects I love, but also some that disappoint me. I hope Falcom learns from some of these missteps with its next potential Memoire release, but newcomers are probably wondering what makes Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana special in the first place and why I adore it so much.
While newer Ys games have started focusing on the plot and characters a lot more, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana does not. The story and characters are more of a means than the focus while things are vastly different with modern Falcom games. You play as Adol in what I consider a standalone action RPG with platforming and puzzle elements slaying enemies, exploring different locations, gaining new abilities, taking on powerful bosses, and upgrading your gear before moving the main story forward. What hooked me right from the start is the fast combat, which is enhanced with the new turbo mode, and also the soundtrack.
My perspective for Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana's story and core gameplay is quite different to newcomers, but I hope it helps those who first played it on PSP or even PC back in the day. As my first real Falcom game and without looking up a guide back then, I quickly found myself stuck because I skipped a few scenes and didn't realize I wouldn't be able to progress early on without getting a specific bracelet for magic. This moment, while not the same, kind of reminded me of the first time I had a similar experience playing a Legend of Zelda game many years ago. I then got into the flow of upgrading or buying new gear, exploring as much as I could, and also saving a lot.
I say this because Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a challenging game. Even on its normal difficulty, don't expect this to be a walk in the park. You will die. Even as someone who has played this many times, I had some rough experiences early on with turbo mode. It does ship with multiple difficulty options and even a no-fall mode you can toggle from the settings. This helps since the platforming and some of the encounters with even groups of normal enemies might see you falling off platforms.
Having Adol voiced is a great addition here, and I still think the English voice acting for the base game is very good. To keep things interesting, I stuck to Japanese voices and the X68000 soundtrack option. The new audio options included in this release are welcome additions.
Before getting into the other remaster features and comparisons with prior releases in the West, Ys: The Oath in Felghana's soundtrack deserves its own highlight. It is brilliant across the board and one of my favorite game soundtracks ever with its sublime guitar solos and riff work. Falcom has promoted Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana with multiple soundtrack options, but those are also included in the Western PSP and PC release so there's nothing of note there. It would have been nice if we saw some more soundtrack options included here to make this more enticing for existing owners.
Since I got into Falcom games on the PS Vita, I've been gravitating to playing the ports and new releases on Switch. The ports and releases we've gotten have been of varying quality thanks to technical issues or just subpar ports aside from a few that are good. I don't really consider Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana a port to Switch given the remaster debuted on Switch, but it does feel like one of the better Falcom games on the platform thanks to a good frame rate (with some issues) and generally being snappy to play.
I focused on playing Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana with turbo mode to see how it felt, and the performance could've been better on Switch. Not only does the 1.5x speed option just not feel great in general (even on PS5), but 2.0 is a bit absurd to play with. I'm not one to play Ys games on Nightmare, but I'd love to see someone do that and have the game set to 2.0x. Some of the early to mid game locations on Switch seem to struggle a bit maintaining the target frame rate with a lot of effects. Given the turbo mode was one of the highlight new features, this is disappointing. Having swapped between docked and handheld play, I can't really say for sure if the game runs better in a specific mode, but I would definitely stick to playing in portable mode so that the visual inconsistencies are less noticeable.
If you already played Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana on PSP, the most notable upgrade here is the higher resolution visuals and the 60fps target. You also get voice acting for Adol and the option to use the Japanese voice track that wasn't included in the North American PSP release. You do miss out on the ability to use the d-pad for movement, a regression I hope can be addressed in a potential patch.
Visually, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is inconsistent. There are tiling issues that are very noticeable when playing the Switch version docked or on PlayStation, and some textures also look weirdly upscaled. Falcom seems to have used the PSP version as a base for Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana rather than the PC version that scales to higher resolutions better. This is most noticeable with the field of view and the UI being very large, and also not crisp enough at higher resolutions.
Speaking of the PC version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana, if you already own that and have played it, this new version only offers turbo mode, Adol's voice acting, the Japanese audio option, and the alternate portrait option as notable new features. The visuals in Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana are not as good as the PC version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana even when played on PS5. I wish Falcom had used the Western PC version as a base for this release so we'd see it scale better on modern displays and not just be fine on Switch in handheld mode where the issues are less noticeable, yet still present - and simply obscured.
So far, I've not really spoken about the new portrait option that Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana includes. I'm not a fan of it at all. I used it for a few hours when playing for my preview, but I went back to the classic portrait option. I don't think this aesthetic suits Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and it looks out of place almost across the board. The art itself is good on its own, but I don't see myself ever using it when I replay Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana in the future.
While the turbo mode, Japanese voiceover for the West, and Adol's new voice are good additions, the only real reason to buy Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is if you want to replay Ys: The Oath in Felghana and only play on Switch or PlayStation 5. The additions aren't enough to warrant playing this over the PC version given the visual inconsistencies. As someone who replays Ys: The Oath in Felghana, I definitely appreciate the option to skip cut-scenes here right from the start.
While I already covered it in my preview, I want to reiterate that it is disappointing to see Falcom barely do anything to improve Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana on PS5 or even generally for playing on the big screen. The PS5 version targets 60fps just like the Switch release and it doesn't offer anything of note over it barring more stable frame rates. It still has the same visual inconsistencies. A 120fps target and UI tweaks for the larger screen would've elevated this version a lot, and even made it so that I could recommend Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana on Switch to play in handheld or PS5 to play on TV.
If you've never played Ys: The Oath in Felghana and own multiple platforms, I'd only recommend Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana over the PC release if you want to play in handheld mode on Switch or really want a physical version of the game since it has a lovely physical release from XSEED Games. If you have access to a PC or Steam Deck, the Steam release is not only much cheaper, but also better looking. The additions don't warrant the price increase over the PC version. This might sound odd coming from someone who has multiple versions of every Ys game including Ys: The Oath in Felghana as you can see in the photo above, but I'd rather new players get the best possible experience and go in with the correct expectations here.
With Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, Falcom had a chance to deliver the definitive version of a classic, but the end result is just a good portable version of a fantastic game. Newcomers to the game or those who have only played modern Ys games should absolutely get Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, but I can't help but feel disappointed with what could've been. I'll still be replaying Ys: The Oath in Felghana through this new release on PS5 and Switch, but hopefully Falcom handles a potential future Memoire release better.