Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Reviews
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a look to the past for the series, updating one of Adol's best adventures with bells and whistles like Turbo Mode, new voiced lines, and more. If you're curious about the series, The Oath in Felghana is a great place to start, but be warned that there is a challenging game ahead of you. Thankfully, it doesn't overstay its welcome and has a straightforward story that'll keep you invested to the end (and onward to more adventures).
As a remaster, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is subtly slick and exactly what it needed to be. While it doesn’t necessarily improve my thoughts on The Oath in Felghana foundationally, it is the best version that you can buy. It looks sharp, runs great, and additions like new artwork and narration for Adol help to further uplift the story. That said, it’s difficult to overstress that these additions don’t fix the game’s problems, nor was that necessarily the point. It still has an anemic story and a noticeably weak first half. Frustrations like poor hitboxes and a smattering of horrible bosses also still remain. While it does have good pacing, I’m also left with the sense that a lot of its gameplay elements aren’t able to fully breathe. To its credit, it comes together quite admirably during its climax and in a few instances offers up some of the most memorable encounters in the series. Once it gets good, it stays good, but the aforementioned problems leave me weary of the prospect of playing it again in the future. Fun for the one time, but ultimately not what I would call a favorite despite its strengths.