Ys: The Oath In Felghana – Late to the party

Year: 2005 | Publisher: Xseed Games | Developer: Nihon Falcom | Original format: PC | Version played: PlayStation Portable

2010 is the first time I can recall anyone outside of my own bubble talking about the Ys series. Yes, I’d played the original game on Master System many years earlier but since hardly any of the sequels had since released in the UK, I’d remained almost oblivious to the rest of the series and had no idea I what I was missing. Why 2010? That was the year that Ys: The Oath In Felghana released in the US, and a wave of influential podcasts – like 1UP.com’s excellent Active Time Babble – began enthusiastically discussing it with a level of reverence that suggested I’d missed out on something truly special.

Although UK shores remained untouched by a lifetime of Ys games, much as it had Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and so many others, our friends across the pond had, it turned out, received almost every previous entry in the series. The Turbo Grafx CD made the first three games a household name in luxury action RPGs for those who were lucky enough to own, or someday touch, NEC’s awesome console. While Ys III: Wanderers From Ys also graced both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo over there, perfectly paving the way for its remake, The Oath In Felghana ,nearly 20 years later.

Funnily enough, Ys Seven had also released in the States, just a few months earlier in 2010, but that didn’t seem to make the same splash. I never really heard anyone talks about it, despite the fact it was also on PSP, which was fast becoming the RPG system of choice for those in the know. Perhaps it was because Felghana harkened back to the classic Ys III of old, or maybe it had a particular special quality, but for months it felt like American games journalists couldn’t get enough of The Oath In Felghana.

2010 was also the year I bought a PSP, specifically to play Valkyria Chronicles II. So you’d think I would have been all over The Oath In Felghana when it released in the UK the following January. But I’m ashamed to say I didn’t get around to it. I was more of a Nintendo fan at the time, loved the DS and was hyped up for 3DS. I never did pick up this Ys game I’d heard so much about, but it was always there in the back of my mind, its reputation nagging at me over the years.

In 2020, I finally got into the Ys series in a big way, after falling in love with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA. The adulation I felt for that game inspired this very blog and set me on a path to play every entry in the series (in non-linear order) and as I did so, The Oath In Felghana’s reputation overshadowed the whole process. I knew I’d eventually get around to this one and that when I did there was a chance it may very well become my new favourite entry.

Although much of the game is top down, there are large sections of Oath In Felghana that switch perspectives to recreate the side on feel of Ys III from time to time.

In December 2021, with a couple of weeks off for Christmas and my daughter’s imminent birth apparently about a month away, I finally decided to treat myself and play The Oath In Felghana. Well… That plan was scuppered slightly when my daughter arrived three weeks early, on Boxing Day, slamming the brakes on both this blog and most of my free time. What should have taken a week to complete, ended up taking the best part of two months. Sometimes played awkwardly while trying to hold both a PS Vita and baby at the same time, other times played in the dead of night while mother, baby and at least half of my brain slept soundly.

I’m not sure if this outstretched play session negatively affected my enjoyment – I still felt the same basic level of fun as I have in every other Ys game – but I was left feeling that this was far from the best in the series. It doesn’t quite have the classic structure that the first two games do and its age and hardware limitations mean it can’t hope to compete with the epic scale and action of the eighth and ninth entries.

Intermission… If there’s one thing Falcom loves, it’s a remake and so The Oath In Felghana isn’t the only time Ys III has been redone. In fact, the other remake was released just three months earlier than Felghana‘s 2005 PC debut. Developed and published by Taito, this PlayStation 2 version was functionally the same as the original game only updated with new graphics and music. Part of a series of Taito developed remakes, it’s rarely discussed by Ys fans and remains Japan-only to this day. If it is mentioned, it tends to be written off as an inessential curio… Which makes me want to play it even more!

Despite being a remake of Ys III, Felghana’s closest relative, at least based on the games I’ve played so far, is actually Ys Origin.  Made a year apart from each other, both took the bump-combat of old and translated it into a more direct action style, and each boasts a borderline ingenious system in which defeated enemies drop little gems that temporarily power up the player with stacked buffs, rather cleverly encouraging you to fight as fast as possible to keep the combo going.

I can definitely see why people love The Oath In Felghana. After all, I absolutely adored Ys Origin when I played it in late 2020 and they’re practically the same game. If I’d played Felghana first, or played it in 2010, I honestly think I would have been head over heels for it. It does everything you want from Ys… The combat is blisteringly fast and so finely tuned to make every button press feel good, and when paired with its exceptional rocking soundtrack, it’s that rare RPG you can play just to enjoy being in the moment, regardless of any sense of progression. It’s zen gaming at its best. Just settle in, get in the zone and let the rhythm of the combat absorb you.

It’s been fun to compare The Oath In Felghana to Wanderers From Ys. Many of the game’s best moments and locations are recreated beautifully.

But there’s no getting around the fact I did play this one after Ys Origin. Perhaps my insistence that I play the series in a completely random order has set me up for a fall here but the problem is that Ys Origin is just the same concept executed better in every way imaginable. The level designs are better, the music is more memorable and you get three times the playable characters, each with their own combat style and unique story.  The Oath In Felghana, by comparison, feels like a prototype.

Of course, it’s objectively unfair to compare any game to one that came out a full eighteen months later and built on its foundations. So let’s switch gears and compare The Oath In Felghana to the game it’s a remake of… Ys III: Wanderers From Ys. Well, I’m afraid to say I can’t be too objective there either. Ys III is another series highlight for me. As a side-scrolling game it’s a complete outlier in the series and that’s a huge part of the appeal. I can see why it was a natural candidate for a remake, of course. It makes perfect sense to take the story, locations and bosses and transpose them into a gameplay format that’s more in keeping with the established Ys gameplay, but in doing so, I feel like it loses its unique identity. As such, if I get to the end of my Ys journey and want to replay a few highlights; Ys III will be very high on the list, way higher than Felghana, precisely because it offers an experience the others don’t.

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Now if this blog post were a review it would read very differently. This game is a straight up 8/10 for me, maybe even a 9, and it plays like greased lightning. If you’ve read this far and you’ve never played The Oath In Felghana, first of all I’m impressed you’ve made it all this way without the appropriate context but, second, you really should play this game. Just maybe play it before Ys Origin if possible.

Me, I’m left with one more nagging feeling. My quest to play every mainline Ys game yet made is nearing its end, and one of the most significant entries left to play is Ys VI: The Ark Of Napishtim… The game on which the foundations of Oath In Felghana and in turn, Ys Origin, was built. If playing Felghana after Origin felt like a backwards step, will Ys VI feel even more redundant or will it have a hidden quality that makes it worth playing in its own right? I’ve heard so little about this particular game that it’s hard to say. Maybe its reputation fails to precede because there’s really nothing special about it, or perhaps it’s just never had the attention it deserved. Baby permitting, I intend to find out before another 20 years slips by.

SIX LITTLE THINGS ABOUT YS: THE OATH IN FELGHANA THAT I RATHER LIKED

1. What is this, Dark Souls?

2. Buried in the options you’ll find a cool little feature to switch the soundtrack to the PC-88 and Sharp X68000 renditions. Shame there’s no MSX though. Maybe in the next remake, Falcom?

3. Too real.

4. The vertical level design creates some nice locations for secret treasure.

5. Would it even be an Ys game without a bit of wall crushing?

6. This has to be one of the weirdest names for a dog.

Finally, how about some music from Ys: The Oath In Felghana…

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