Ys Oath in Felghana - Scott Owens​
Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a re-imagining of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys which was originally released in 1989 for the PC-88, closely followed by versions for other computers that were popular in Japan at the time like the MSX2 and the Sharp X68000. The Oath in Felghana is almost an entirely different game to Ys III as it modifies and expands the story and dungeons. It’s also replaced the side-scrolling action with a 3D game engine similar to the one used in Ys: The Ark of Napishtim. In 2010, Falcom released Ys: The Oath in Felghana for PSP, later the same yearXSEED Games released an English version of the game. Following that a newly localized version of the 2005 PC release appeared exclusively on Steam. This is the version I am reviewing.
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Don’t be put off that this is the third game in the series. You never feel like you’re missing out on important events in the story, the Ys narrative has never been a strong point and Falcom probably knew this by the fact that you will hardly have to stop to read any story at all throughout the game, but here’s the background:
In Ys: The Oath in Felghana you play the red-headed hero Adol Christin. Traveling with his friend Dogi you arrive in Felghana and discover the village is being terrorized by monsters. Being the hero that he is, Adol agrees to help the village drive the monsters away. There are many twists and turns along the way they don’t fall short of being interesting.
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One thing you will discover when playing the game is how incredibly fast paced it is. Attacks are done with a single button and jumping with another, no need to memorize combos as you are able to just hack and slash away at your enemies. It’s fast, it’s furious and most importantly it’s a lot of fun. As the game progresses; as does the depth and range of abilities you will obtain. Elemental bracelets can be found and certain enemies are weaker to particular elements. It helps give the game a sense of balance instead of mashing the attack button throughout the lengthy adventure you’ll be mashing through.
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An interesting point to make is fallen enemies don’t drop items that go into an inventory. Pickups will boost your stats like EXP rate, magic defense and others. Continue to defeat enemies and the stats increase up to a certain point. The buff will eventually run out. There are also no healing items in the game. Reaching a save point or leveling up are the only ways to regain health.
Speaking of health, when you reach the bosses, you will die, a lot. These things will give you so much trouble. That fact I spent at least two hours trying to beat one boss is a good indication of The Oath in Felghana’s old school heritage. Fighting the bosses is all about finding the right time and place to attack while dodging the bosses own attacks which is much easier said than done. I almost guarantee you will audibly groan, mumble or shout bad words at some point in frustration at the games’ difficulty. In the PSP version you could change the difficulty any time you wanted, no such luxury in the PC version. You start on a high difficulty? You are stuck with it.
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With the game being in 3D; exploring dungeons can be tricky especially when jumping. Missing jumps will happen fairly often which means losing health or ending up in an area you have already been to. This rears its head mostly in the lava dungeon. I often find myself accidentally falling down into an area and having to fight your way out of that maze is very frustrating.
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Overall Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a fast action RPG that never slows down. It has a few little downsides with the 3D system and the difficulty may put some people off. But the sense of achievement you get when beating these bosses is second to none. You WILL cheer for yourself when you finally beat them. It’s a rare feeling these days that this game can capture perfectly. It’s a supremely fun ride that doesn't overstay its welcome by being too long and it has a brilliant soundtrack too. This game gets a 7 out of 10 from me.
