Arriving at Felghana

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a remaster of the beloved Falcom game, itself a reimagining of the 16-bit console classic Ys III: Wanderers From Ys.  While the original version is available on PC and PSP, the Memoire edition marks the title’s international release to modern consoles, namely Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. It first launched in Japan in 2023, initially as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, with the PlayStation versions following a few months later.

Over the years, the Ys series has seen many changes and The Oath in Felghana is a product of the era where the story is secondary to the gameplay. That said, it’s not like it’s devoid of a plot. As usual with those games, you follow the adventurer Adol Christin. This time, his journey brings him to the region of Felghana, the birthplace of his companion Dogi. Felghana and the once-peaceful settlement of Redmont have been infested with monsters. There, Adol will encounter several allies as he tries to uncover the reason behind the appearance of the monsters, which seems to tie in with the activities of the local Count. 

Among the many characters, Adol encounters Elena and Chester. While the focus is on Adol as the protagonist and solo playable character, these siblings form the story’s emotional core. It’s not a complex storyline, though it has surprises in classic Falcom style. Nevertheless, the plot is more than compelling for this kind of game and I quite enjoyed its twists and the characters until the end. As for the rest of the cast, they mostly appear in sidequests. While these sidequests are very short, they still do a fine job of making the town more interesting and rewarding the player.

Overcoming all obstacles

The game has a mostly linear structure, Adol heads to various locations and dungeons, and makes his way through several puzzles and myriads of monsters to reach his goal. Additionally, bosses often block his way, and these usually end up as the most fun part of the game. If you’re familiar with Ys Origin, The Oath in Felghana is very similar, though I’d say the level design is a bit better, with bigger and more varied environments. As for the boss fights, I thought the majority was fun with the right level of challenge in Normal difficulty. The areas and the bosses often have some light platforming elements, which I found to be a nice pace-breaker. 

The game has some light RPG elements, like levels and gear, but there’s not a lot of decision-making involved as the focus is on action. There’s not much variety in the combat, but it felt kind of addicting in an old-school way, which makes the repetition tolerable. Furthermore, there aren’t any party members like in the modern Ys games, it’s only Adol and his trusty sword. Through his journey, he acquires several accessories and magical rings that offer assistance inside and outside the fights. The rings in particular allow him to use a few elemental magic spells, which are a bit reminiscent of what eventually the skills are in later games.

Once the oath is made

As for the game’s length, a playthrough in Normal difficulty takes around 10 hours, probably a bit less if you don’t find some of the levels as tricky as I did, and ignore any missed chests. While subsequent playthroughs don’t add anything new to the story, the different difficulties provide a bit of replayability, and the game also offers various options for New Game+, like keeping some key items or Adol’s level.

As a new release, the Memoire version offers some extras, like different background music iterations and a “Refined” artwork option. I picked the new artwork for the latter and while it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I thought all the new portraits looked nice and made the game more modern-looking. Other than those, some graphical updates and quality-of-life additions like a Turbo mode and more voiced lines, even for Adol, really glow this version of the game up. And of course, it is available with Japanese and English voice lines.

Conclusion

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is an excellent classic given a breath of fresh air through this remaster. It remains a great entry point to the series and while some of its aspects might feel a bit dated, it generally holds up well, even compared to modern Ys titles. Its length, suggested price, and lack of complexity might discourage some people, especially when the PC version still holds up equally well despite lacking some of this version’s additions. I’d still recommend it to anyone looking for a fun action title and any fan of the Ys series looking to explore its past.