It’s tough to think of much to say about Ys: The Oath in Felghana. It’s … an Ys game. If you played Ys, you’ll instantly feel at home with this one. But while every entry in the series is an action RPG, the gameplay has shifted a lot over the years. The first two games feature a unique combat mechanic call the “bump system” that’s been retained across all of their remakes, and while the original version of Ys III had similar combat to them, this remake is a significant departure. That’s right, Oath in Felghana is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, released for Windows and PSP. I haven’t played the original, so I can’t make any comparisons — not yet, anyway — but I do know that Oath shares the same combat mechanics as Ys Origin, a style originated by The Ark of Napishtim, a.k.a. Ys VI.
Let’s start with the mechanics. Unlike earlier entries, where accessories mattered a lot, in the Napishtim style, enemies drop orbs that heal you and provide stat boosts. More importantly, they also act as experience multipliers, which is a pretty sick idea for an action RPG. The more enemies you kill, the higher your multiplier, all the way up to times-two. This speeds up grinding a ton, but the catch is you have to keep killing enemies within a relatively short period — otherwise all your bonuses vanish. This keeps you pressing forward, always hunting for the next group of enemies before time runs out. Since there’s a lot of backtracking through areas you’ve already explored as you hunt for secrets, you’ll get to know each dungeon pretty well, and it’s fun optimizing the paths you take, though dungeons are often just as confusing and dense as in the first few games. That seems to be a series staple.
There’s still a few accessories, but they’re now only situationally useful, such as letting you walk on ice as if it’s normal terrain. The big addition is the bracelets, which grant permanent alternate attacks, swappable at the touch of a button. One gives you a nifty spin move that conveniently extends your jump range, one lets you shoot fireballs from afar, and another gives you a powerful AOE ground slam. They’re all fun to use, and you’ll definitely need them in the later dungeons where enemies love to swarm you. From reading forums and whatnot, it seems fans consider Oath one of the hardest games in the series, but I dunno, I found the bosses much easier than those in Origin as well as a bit less creative, and didn’t struggle too much overall. It’s a lot tougher than the first two games, though; that’s for sure. But I want to stress: if you’re new to the series, don’t let Ys’s reputation intimidate you. You can always grind for levels, which helps a ton, and if you’re into action games, there’s nothing too crazy here. I’ve got a feeling those who call these games super difficult probably stick mostly to turn-based games, in which case it’s entirely understandable.
The gameplay’s rock solid, no doubt, but Ys III also shines with is its world and characters. Unlike Ys I, there’s only one town, with most of your time spent in dungeons, but the characters are as endearing as ever. In the first game, Adol meets a dude named Dogi, who breaks through a wall to bust them out of prison in what’s now become a meme to fans of the series and is referenced again in this one. As I understand, Adol and Dogi remain lifelong friends, and Dogi appears in several of the later games, too. Here, though, he’s central to the story. The inseparable pair has made their way to Dogi’s hometown of Felghana, where Dogi reconnects with an old childhood friend named Elena and learns that their town’s fallen under hard times thanks to the harsh rule of Count McGuire from a nearby castle. He’s been forcing the Felghanians to work for him under slave-like conditions, and monsters have started popping up all over the place, making everyone scared to leave the town limits. On top of that, Elena’s brother Chester has joined McGuire’s imperial knights and acts as the main antagonist for much of the adventure.
After each dungeon, there’s a bit of story and character building back in town, complete with voice acting — albeit, not much; there’s still tons of unvoiced lines. Elena’s VA, Heather Hogan, stood out, though, playing the “innocent girl” trope perfectly, and as it turns out, she also voiced Colette from Tales of Symphonia. Hey, that’s one of my favorite JRPGs! Pretty damn cool.
Felghana includes a weapon upgrade system that keeps you wanting to keep grinding and exploring, since you can improve your weapons and armor at the town blacksmith with gold dropped from enemies. It’s a nice addition that helps your quest feel more like an RPG than Ys Origin did, but there’s not much to it beyond that. The game also looks great, nearly on par with Origin. Don’t let the platforms confuse you — while Oath was released on PSP in 2010, and Origin came to Vita in 2017, Nihon Falcom took forever to localize these games. They were originally released on Windows only one year apart, back in 2005 and 06.
Time for some spoilers real quick: at first I thought Chester, Elena’s brother, must be under some sort of mind control, and while he WAS manipulated by the count as well as the ultimate big bad of the game, his decisions were his own, and it’s not until the very end that he finally comes around and joins the good guys again. I love when games explore shades of gray like this, and it works well, although it’s not that deep. And it doesn’t need to be — Oath in Felghana focuses on the action and platforming, both of which it executes brilliantly. There’s an addictive quality to Oath, and every Ys game I’ve played, where I just want to get to the next room and keep my XP boost going, which leads to play sessions that are way longer than I’d intended. I’ve finished all the Ys games so far in just a few sittings, which ain’t common for me and JRPGs, although Oath is on the short side, around 10 to 15 hours.
Finally, as always, the soundtrack kicks all kinds of ass, with the series staple calm, orchestral compositions combined with blasting metal tracks. I’m not sure I’d put it above Ys I & II in terms of composition, but to be honest as well as fair, it’s been a while since I played both games, so I could be misremembering. These games are packed with tunes, despite their 15 to 20 hour run time, which I appreciate in a day where JRPGs love to repeat the same songs over and over. You won’t find that in Ys, and it’s better for it.
That wraps up October’s edition of JRPG Journey 2022. Come back next month, when I’ll discuss Breath of Fire II!
