Developed By: Falcom
Published By:  Marvelous
Categories: RPG, Adventure
Release Date: 01.07.25
Price: $29.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a unique game because it’s a remake of a remake. Twenty years ago, Ys: The Oath in Felghana was released, and it was a significant remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. At its core, Memoire is the same 20-year-old game with a few small changes here and there. But is it worth playing? The short answer is that if you haven’t played it before, you’ll enjoy it.

A few of the upgrades from the previous version include a turbo mode that allows you to speed the game up by 1.5 or 2x and better character portraits. At first I liked speeding the game up to help with traveling and grinding but this made boss battles and some platforming puzzles incredibly difficult.

The game is already difficult without everything happening twice as fast. I began my playthrough on the normal difficulty and died many times to just the first boss. Doubling the speed made some battles painful. Fortunately, you can easily toggle the speed with the right joystick, meaning you can change it as needed.

The game also comes equipped with the ability to change some aspects between modern and older options. The character portraits are slightly better looking but if you prefer the older designs, you can play with those. The same goes for the music because you have three options to choose from, including the original from more than thirty years ago.

For me, the soundtrack ended up being the greatest strength of the game. There were some great songs and I often found myself just stopping and listening to the music for a few seconds before continuing. The Falcom team did a great job with the soundtrack and I had a blast switching between the options to see how they were updated.

There are some great songs, and couple that with great voice acting, Memoire has some fantastic sound design. Though I did have to mess with the settings a lot at the start to balance the volume. Not only are many of the characters fully voiced, but the protagonist Adol has some voice lines now too, which is a great addition.

So what is the game about? If you have played the previous version, you don’t really need to know because nothing about the story has changed. It’s an action RPG that follows Adol as he visits the homeland of his friend Dogi during the worst time of its existence. There are monsters, a volcanic eruption, and a new lord that is making things difficult for the citizens. 

For lack of a better word, Adol simply gets “involved.” For a while he just goes around helping the other citizens until the bigger mystery begins unravelling. I really liked the characters and thought the plot was pretty interesting, though it is a fairly short game.

If you’re playing at double speed and only focus on completing the story, you’ll probably beat the game in under ten hours. That isn’t too remarkable for an RPG with this much going on. But it’s a very good experience and the price also reflects how “little” there is. 

If you buy the physical copy, it will cost $60 but will come with a ton of physical goodies like the physical soundtrack. But you’re basically paying $30 for the extra stuff because the digital copy of the game costs only $30. I think that’s a very fair price for the amount of content and overall experience. 

Playing the previous version on Steam is still an option and only costs $15 if you go that route, you just won’t get all the slight upgrades. With all that said, is the game worth it? It’s a very challenging game that’s made even more difficult using the turbo mode but the fast-paced action gameplay is lots of fun, there are a bunch of interesting characters, and it’s a short but great overall experience.

If you’re a newcomer to this game, you’ll have a blast and should look into buying the game digitally. If you’ve already played the previous version, your only reason to get this version is if you really want to see all the changes and updates or want the portable version. If you’re already a fan, the $60 collectors edition was also is also something you’d want to look into.

4.5/5