Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review - Screenshot 1 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Way back in 1989, Nihon Falcom released Ys III: Wanderers from Ys for various PC-based platforms and eventually consoles like the Genesis and SNES. This 2D side-scroller was well-respected in the community and eventually acted as the basis for 2005's 3D reimagining, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, though this didn’t receive a Western release until a PSP version in 2010. Now, hot off the recent Western release of Ys X: Nordics, Falcom brings this remake to modern platforms as Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. Sporting a few quality-of-life updates, this throwback to simpler times (which debuted in Japan back in September 2023) offers up an enjoyable and tightly designed action-RPG experience that you shouldn't miss out on.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana covers one of the earlier adventures of series star Adol Christin, following a journey to longtime companion Dogi's homeland of Felghana. They arrive and are warmly welcomed by Dogi’s friends and family, but it doesn’t take long for Adol to get caught up in a larger struggle. The king of Felghana seeks to claim a series of statues to loosen the seal placed upon a demon he wishes to release. Adol thus sets out to retrieve these statues before the king can, hoping to stop his nefarious plan.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review - Screenshot 2 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

It’s a relatively thin plot, all things considered, but this remake makes the most of it through expanded scenes and voice acting. Sequences where you get to interact with Dogi’s friends help to give the plot emotional stakes, while the brisk pacing keeps the storytelling tight and not too overindulgent—in a world where RPGs frequently go into triple-digit runtimes, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is content to tell a modest 10-15-hour tale. Though there’s a lingering sense that more could’ve been done with the narrative here, Ys games have never really been about the storyline and what’s here offers up the perfect mixture of cosiness and intrigue.

Gameplay follows the typical Ys formula, mixing dungeon crawling and exploration with riveting combat, and while it’s obvious this is an older series entry, the gameplay loop has an enjoyably timeless quality. The side-scrolling design of the original release has been swapped out for a 3D isometric engine that creates space for more dynamic fights and complicated dungeon layouts, and though there are still some relics here and there of the old 2D style, it feels like Ys III made a nearly-perfect jump to 3D.

Combat is decidedly simpler than in later entries, though that’s not to say that it feels worse. Adol has a series of ground combos, a few jump attacks, and a growing list of spells he can spam by burning some regenerating MP, all of which combine for a decent variety of offensive options to pull from.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review - Screenshot 3 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Even so, it feels like most fights begin and end in a matter of seconds, and there’s a certain scrappiness to encounters that calls to mind old-school beat ‘em ups. You typically get mobbed, mash the ‘A’ button while occasionally jumping, and watch the fireworks as enemies drop all sorts of goodies that help you build momentum in the fight.

Almost every defeated foe will drop some sort of temporary stat-boosting consumable, further buffing your attack and defence as you carve your way through yet another enemy pack. This creates a wonderfully satisfying loop where Adol becomes more formidable as the fight goes on, and in some places we were vaguely reminded of the power trip Dynasty Warriors delivers as you fell foes with overwhelming ease. Naturally, this means that the base difficulty is a bit of a cakewalk, but the boss fights still offer a healthy challenge and there are always harder difficulty options to activate if things feel just a bit too easy.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Review - Screenshot 4 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Visually, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana utilises a basic but wonderfully effective art style that looks great on the Switch’s portable screen. The character models all have a squat, chibi-esque look while the 3D environments are compact, but manage to squeeze in a lot of detail. Notably, textures here feature an impressive level of detail, and all the action runs at a silky 60fps that rarely drops a frame.

Couple this with the constant bursts of light and collectibles being tossed around like confetti during fights, and you’ve got a thrilling spectacle to behold and an action RPG that feels right at home on Switch hardware. Falcom has done an excellent job of polishing this nearly 20-year-old game for a new generation.

As for its audio, you have a few options for how you’d like to experience the soundtrack. You can either listen to the more rock-infused modern iteration or opt instead for something more retro with the X68 or PC-8801 versions from the original Ys III. It can be fun to toggle between them and see how the modern soundtrack built upon and remixed the original tracks, and while the new soundtrack feels like an overall better fit for the modern gameplay, it’s a nice easter egg that you can listen to the classic tracks too if that’s more your speed.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Meanwhile, the voice acting perfectly walks that line between being a bit hammy without being too over the top—we greatly enjoyed the performances here and felt that they added a lot to the largely text-based exchanges.

Given that the original Oath in Felghana was itself a remake of an earlier game, Falcom made a few relatively minor quality-of-life adjustments to bring it more up to today’s standard. The most significant gameplay-affecting feature is a new ‘turbo mode’ that can be triggered at any time with a click of 'R3' to speed up the entire game. Though the cutscenes are skippable, we appreciated how this turbo feature offers the option to fire through slower-paced segments if you’re getting impatient.

Otherwise, beyond the obvious audio and visual enhancements, this release also features dual audio giving the option between Japanese and English voice acting.

Conclusion

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is hardly a revolutionary RPG, but it stands as an excellent reminder that sometimes less is more. The brisk pacing, thrilling combat, and cutesy visuals all come together in a wonderfully enjoyable and simple action RPG. This is an experience that makes no compromises and holds nothing back, and even if it’s clearly less ambitious and expansive than many of the later entries in the series, there’s also something very satisfying about playing through a game where its reach did not exceed its grasp.

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