Ys: The Oath in Felghana Review

Back in 1989 Nihon Falcom released Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. While it carried the same basic spirit as the first two titles in the series, it featured a radically different gameplay style, switching to a side-scrolling format instead of the previous top-down camera view. It became somewhat of a black sheep in the series, as no other game in the series since has used that style. In 2005 the company released Ys: The Oath in Felghana, a PC remake of Wanderers featuring a more Ys-like battle system using a modified version of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim's gameplay mechanics. While the PC version never got released outside of Japan, a PSP port of the PC version has thanks to XSEED Games. For long-time fans and recent fans, thanks to the release of Ys SEVEN earlier this year, does Ys: The Oath in Felghana deliver or does its original "black" roots keep it from being all it could be?

Similar to Natsume's Lufia: The Curse of the Sinistrals, Ys: The Oath in Felghana keeps many of the story elements, characters and locales from Wanderers with some minor changes here and there, but the presentation, complete with all-new artwork, music and voiceovers, gives the game a fresh new look and feel. The graphics give off a quasi-3D look while keeping with the game's traditional 2D-ish roots. The voiceovers, save for a few people, are great. There are a few standout roles you're bound to notice if you've played enough Japanese-based RPGs in the past. The in-dialogue artwork is very polished, each with a variety of designs depending on the mood of the character. It's clear that Nihon Falcom took a lot of effort into making this feel like a proper entry in the Ys series. And of course, the music is classic Falcom, which for those not in the know, is an amazing mix of rock-based music which is leagues above most other game soundtracks out there. For those who thoroughly enjoyed Ys SEVEN's soundtrack, Oath won't disappoint you in the slightest.

The gameplay is pretty typical for an Action RPG, with the expected sword attacks and a variety of magical attacks which are unlocked progressively later in the game, with both the magic as well as the weapons and armor being upgradeable throughout the game. While this doesn't sound like much, what is included is very, very solid. The hero of each of the entries in the Ys series, Adol Christin, can utilize a bevy of standing and jumping attacks, and unlike Ys SEVEN he can now jump around, albeit with the loss of the ability to dodge roll. This allows for some neat combos, such as Adol driving his sword into the ground from the air to deliver a stun attack to enemies on the ground or knock down enemies in the air to hit them more easily. The jumping ability becomes more useful later in the game when magic is acquired, as abilities such as the Wind spells can carry Adol across wide chasms with relative ease. A Boost gauge is also available, which increases as you defeat the various enemies you encounter. Utilizing it gives you a few seconds of augmented strength and heightened defense, which is paramount in some of the more trickier sections and bosses in the higher difficulty levels.