Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Ys Origins is a rocker and Chronicles is another goodie, but The Oath In Felghana is the best of the series. I say this from both a gameplay perspective and as an entry point for action JRPG newbies. Ys The Oath In Felghana is more an action platformer with RPG elements than a bonafied RPG. This is actually pretty good. The focus on combat and platforming keeps things fun and engaging. The RPG elements are more or less upgrades in equipment, stats, and a few skills. The story is typical JRPG throw-away fare, albeit with likable characters. Whether you're a JRPG fan or not, Oath In Felghana might just be the ONE game in the Ys series that'll appeal to you.

This game is a remake of the title "Ys3 - Wanderers from YS" originally released for the SNES and Turbo Grafix 16/Turbo Duo. The gameplay style has been changed from a side scroll type to a more modern 3D roaming type, and very well done! Every element of the original story is present and has been built upon or enhanced in one way or another. The world in which you explorer is very next level! Great design and well thought out! Everytime about this remake shines! Even if you've never played the original, if you're a fan of ActionRPG's and excellent storylines, you will enjoy this game! Buy it, enjoy!

I think this is a decent entry in the Ys series. But I have a few complaints about this one. First, the positives: +Satisfying combat. +Fun story. +Voice acting, abeit up to you whether you like it or not. +Some of the bosses. So here are the negatives: -Some platforms near invisible until leap of faith (with the sort of swirling ability). This makes the "AHA!" moments a little less satisfying for me -The dark rooms of the Quarry have nearly no checkpoints. With many enemies and some annoying platforming sections. This makes for some unfair difficulty. Might be not being well equipped on my part. This made me give up on the game. Depending on the person, either the positives outweigh the negatives. Or the other way around. For me, it's a 4 star game, despite giving up on it and the negative aspects for me.

Another solid entry in the Ys series. The game took me over 20 hours to finish on normal mode... I guess I'm not so good, but the game is rather hard and you have to grind your way through it. While the game is not easy, it is rarely frustrating. Somes bosses will make you angry, but you can brute force your win by gaining a couple of levels. Story, characters, settings are all extremely generic, but well done. Ys series is pretty much the "Marvel" of rpgs: nothing will really surprise you, but your are going to have a good time. I really like the graphics. Even if the game is old, those kind of graphics are some sort of "timeless". In fact, this game looks way better than more recent entries like Ys Seven in my opinion. As always, music is a highlight of the game. Some negatives: Unmappable controls (this is really a problem, especially when trying to use magic and jumping at the same time). Unskippable cutscenes, but they are rather shorts (~30s).

Although I haven't played anything from the original YS series I do remember playing a demo of a 3D game from the series and I thought it was this one. It surely wasn't this one because I remember it being a way better experience. This is my main problem with Ys: The Oath in Felghana, namely it feels way to generic. It almost felt like playing an action version of the most generic JRPG that there is. The blue monster is tougher than the red, the next sword hits the new enemies the same as the old would hit the former... basically reskins and the most pure form of stat-sticks. The story is bland, you've seen it a million times already, there's nothing new, nothing interesting, from start to finish. Go there, grind a while, get your stat stick so you can have a fighting chance, do the boss, go to next area. While technically speaking it has Metroidvania elements, a proper map would have been great. Instead you can backtrack after a certain point of the game, but you must remember what impassable element was where. There are also basically two difficulty levels in this game and I don't understand this design: an somehow easy to OK-ish difficulty for regular monsters and an absolutely absurdly hard difficulty for the bosses. And I'm speaking for the Normal game difficulty. There isn't any healing during boss fights so you have to always one-shot bullet-hell difficulty bosses. Absolutely rubbish and drains all the fun from the game. What I find odd is that this is a remake of a game that actually featured healing items... The only good thing about this game is the soundtrack which features very in-detail remakes of the original soundtrack. This is an outstanding feat, but music by itself doesn't redeem the game. In all honesty I would recommend just to skip this game. Try to see a movie of a boss-fight and decide if it's worth the sweat. For me it was a huge annoyance and a big waste of time. Also only play the DX9 version as the DX8 has a progress hindering bug.