Preview: Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Looks to Be in Fine Form

While it’s debatable these days whether or not Ys retains the status as Nihon Falcom’s flagship series it enjoyed for so long, there’s no question it remains an important part of the storied publisher’s history. Ys X: Nordics, the latest in the series, is in many ways the largest and most expansive entry, and it seems to have gone over well with fans. With that said, there’s a certain appeal to the simpler, more straightforward earlier entries. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana offers a spruced-up take on a classic entry, and I’ve had a chance to go hands-on with the first several hours of this action-RPG set to launch on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4/5 early next year.

First, the obligatory background information. Back in 1989, Nihon Falcom decided to change things up for the third game in its successful Ys series of action-RPGs. While the first two games played from a top-down perspective, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys opted for a side-scrolling view akin to that of Falcom’s 1985 hit Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II. Despite the dramatic shift, the game was received warmly by fans and saw ports to a number of computers and consoles. Subsequent Ys games went back to the familiar top-down style, leaving Wanderers from Ys as the oddball of the family.

When the time came to remake Wanderers from Ys, Nihon Falcom chose to use the framework of the original game and completely rebuild it. The then-recent Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim‘s engine served as the basis for this effort, which was ultimately released on Windows PCs in 2005 in Japan under the title Ys: The Oath in Felghana. While many of the the locations and main story beats were carried over, just about every aspect of the game was significantly expanded upon. The story and characters were richer, the dungeons larger and more complex, and the action faster and more furious. Japanese fans were delighted, but it would be a significant wait before Western players could get their hands on it officially.

Nihon Falcom bet bigger than most publishers on Sony’s PlayStation Portable, and part of that involved porting many of its PC games to the handheld. In 2010, Ys: The Oath in Felghana was released on the platform, with a localized version coming by way of Xseed Games. While largely the same game as the Windows PC release, the PSP port added a few small quality of life features and some minor extra dialogues with certain NPCs. A couple of years later in 2012, Xseed Games localized the Windows PC version of the game.

From what I’ve played so far, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana appears to be based on the PSP release rather than the Windows PC original. This is mainly for the better, but those with sharp eyes and a great deal of experience with the PC release might notice some slightly lower quality textures here and there. In terms of new additions, you can now choose to play with Mieko Ishikawa’s original Wanderers from Ys PC-88 soundtrack, Masaki Kawai’s charming X68000 soundtrack, or Yukihiro Jindo’s arrangements for The Oath in Felghana. There are some new character portraits, with the option to use the originals if you prefer. Adol also speaks in this version of the game, with new lines inserted where there was once only silence.

The version I played was the Nintendo Switch one, and I can happily report that it runs smoothly and has minimal load times. As well it should, but one can never know in these times. The game plays great, though it is a little odd that you have to use the directional buttons to navigate some menus while Adol’s movement is locked to the stick. While I suspected this might be a lingering quirk of the PSP version, a quick check showed this to be a mapping choice new to this version. Nevertheless, you can find remnants of the game’s original age here, like the inability to skip most cut scenes. The visuals are rendered at a higher resolution and have seen some clean-up, but at its core this is still a game whose roots lie in the early 00s.

Truly great games transcend time, however, and I firmly believe Ys: The Oath in Felghana to be one such example. The action is so fast, and that speed is thoroughly refreshing in an era where slower, more deliberate combat is the order of the day. Adol Christin is like a little red-haired Tasmanian Devil in this game, flying around like a whirling dervish of destruction. As you gain new abilities and level up, his capacity for chewing through enemies only grows. Bosses require a more strategic approach, but are no less frantic in their pacing. There’s a bit of platforming in here, just enough to break things up without imposing too much on the action.

The story is similarly speedy in its pacing. There’s enough meat here to give the adventure context and make the stakes more real, but you’ll be zipping from one quest to the next without much downtime to worry about. There are side-quests to find and complete, but they’re brief jaunts compared to those in many other games. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a game that wants you to keep on moving, and the result is one of the more exciting action-RPGs you can find.

While more modern Ys games have a lot of excellent qualities, it sometimes feels like something from this era of the series has been lost. Revisiting this outstanding classic via Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana only reinforces that in my mind. So far, this is looking to be a solid update of a stone-cold classic of the genre. If the rest of the game proves as strong as what I’ve played up to this point, this might prove to be an excellent way to ring in the new year.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana will be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on January 7th, 2025.