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Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Developer: Nihon Falcom Corporation
Release date: PC 2005, PSP 2010 (JP) PSP 2010, PC (Steam) 2012 (NA)
Platform: PC, PSP
Genre: Action RPG.
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Ys: The Oath in Felghana is actually a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, perhaps one of Falcom's most well-known failed experiments. Falcom attempted to turn Ys into a side-scrolling action game, much in the same way that Zelda II attempted the same thing. However, while other parts of the game were executed well, the actual mechanics of play were not. While the flaws did not make the game unplayable, things like dodgy hit detection and a magic system that was best used as little as possible due to its costs did not endear it to the player base. It's failure in the US meant that no more Ys games would be localized until Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim. However, because Ys VI was such a huge success in Japan, Falcom decided to revisit Ys III and refine the Napishtim engine at the same time, resulting in the remake that is Ys: The Oath in Felghana.
So, the story does remain largely unchanged. Adol has been traveling the continent for the past year with his trusted companion, Dogi, taking the odd adventure here and there. As they were traveling, however, they come across a caravan on their travels, and decide to consult the fortune teller. As she works her magic, she warns of a great danger approaching Dogi's homeland of Felghana, and only can put a single word to it- "Galbalan". with this warning on hand, Adol and Dogi return to Felghana and Dogi's hometown of Redmont, where they find that the people are being heavily oppressed by Count McGuire, the Romun governor of Felghana, monsters are infesting the mine that supplies the town's livelihood, and that Dogi's best friend is not only out of town, but has been missing for months. Most of all, McGuire's men appear to be searching for a set of ancient statues, meaning that once again Adol has to delve into the near-forgotten history of the world to triumph.
Ys: The Oath in Felghana is the second Ys game to use the Napishtim engine. Falcom finally decided in Ys V that all Ys games from then on should have an attack button. The Napishtim Engine is what brought Ys into true 3D, so the game uses polygons for the level layouts and the larger bosses, but sprites for the NPCs, Adol, and the smaller and human-sized bosses throughout the game. Adol attacks in combos, like any modern Action RPG protagonist, and actually has a fair number of moves. Perhaps the most interesting part is that scoring hits slightly increases the amount of experience that Adol gets from destroying enemies, until enemies provide almost double the amount of experience. However, this is only on a temporary basis, but the timer is replenished by scoring more hits. While the magic system in Wanderers was based mainly around timed stat boosts or the like, an entirely new system has been implemented in Oath, where Adol acquires three kinds of magic throughout the game. First is fire, which allows Adol to shoot fireballs and light torches, wind, which allows Adol a whirlwind attack and can greatly extend the length of his jumps if he uses it in midair, and earth, which gives Adol and invincible charging attack and allows him to bust down weakened walls (full-strength walls still require Dogi). These magics can be upgraded through finding appropriate gems throughout the game, and while you can't use the magics at will, Adol's MP pool regenerates fairly quickly. Also new to the series is the boost meter- when filled, Adol can boost, doubling his defense and attack speed. Though it normally is only charged by hitting things, it charges on its own as Adol loses health, and speeds up the charge rate the lower Adol's health gets. It also has the usual array of experience (and exp scaling), levels, and equipment tiers. However, Felghana is the first game where Adol can't carry healing items, which are mainly retrieved as instant-use drops from enemies or pots.
While the game itself has a fairly open overworld, one can't tackle the dungeons in any order the player cares to, so the game has a fairly linear progression overall, save for the points where the player backtracks to access areas and treasure as Adol gains new abilities throughout the game. However, none of the dungeons are especially dull, and all of them do have their own character to them. The longer dungeons even have at least a couple of different sub-areas within them, each with their own sort of character. One cannot expect to encounter the same type of monster across dungeons, however, so each dungeon does present a fresh set of monster-created problems to deal with. As usual, however, the game is not especially long, but it does have additional modes, such as Boss Rush.
The difficulty does remain challenging, but like all Napishtim Engine games, there is a difficulty select which affects enemy stats and HP. Thankfully, the difficulty levels do work as advertised. Normal is about as difficult as one expects from earlier Ys games, and everything above or below is adjusted based on that. The boss difficulty is initially high, but many of them are based on learning their patterns. However, this does not mean that bosses are incapable of unleashing nasty surprises, and the lack of healing items does make many of the boss fights fairly unforgiving, considering the hurt that so many of them can dish out. Whenever Adol enters a new area after the first dungeon, he is in some very immediate danger until he gains some levels and/or new equipment.
(Also, for those who have played Wanderers, you actually get to fight Chester this time around.)
The story of the game has been altered. Not to anything unrecognizable by those who have played through Wanderers, as many of the changes and expansions to the story were made to tie the game more solidly into the greater Ys story and setting. McGuire was made into a Romun noble, the story has been connected to the greater mythology of the Ys setting through tying it in with Ark of Napishtim, and a one-off boss in the original has been given a far larger role in the game. As the story was one of the things praised about the original Wanderers, the rest of it has been left generally intact, but with far more dialogue and characterization along the way, but not so much as to overwhelm the player with text.
The art and graphics direction is fine enough- the spriting is done to a fairly high standard, as the sprites were constructed the same way they are in Diablo- rendering 3D models and using the animations as sprites. Adol's sprite also changes whenever he equips an entire full tier of equipment. The hit detection is spot-on, a welcome departure from Wanderers, and the camera angles are such that is easy to see where you are in relation to the background and enemies. Of special note is the music- for all of the flaws of Wanderers, the soundtrack was already quite good, and the remixes of the already good old Wanderers tracks have truly given this game a superior soundtrack from the ground up.
Oath in Felghana is a superb remake to a game that really needed the help, and stands on its own as a fine entry to the Ys series. all of the flaws of the original has been smoothed over, leaving behind a fine action-RPG experience.
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Intro:
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