- Jul 24, 2013
- 12
- 7
Hi, everyone, i decided to start doing some reviews about the ys series for 3 reasons.
1. Many people just talk about final fantasy or recent occidental RPG games.
2. There are almost no video games reviews threads in this site.
3. Ys saga is so awesome as not to be mentioned.
1. Many people just talk about final fantasy or recent occidental RPG games.
2. There are almost no video games reviews threads in this site.
3. Ys saga is so awesome as not to be mentioned.
Let´s start from the recent one, Ys 4: Foliage ocean in Celceta (AKA “Memories of Celceta”).
Ys 4 was known as a master pice for the now old PC-engine (named “turbografx” in occident), it has what fans from that time wanted, a big world, dubbed, interesting characters and a good story. The gameplay formula was almost the same, thought. Nevertheless, there were, unfortunately, bad ports for the super famicom, the playstation 2, and cellphones, to the point where those felt like different games.
To summarize, Ys4, in every incarnation, is about Adol, a silent protagonist for further gameplay involvement, departing toward the land of Celceta due to mysterious happenings taking place in there. He comes to know about the Rolman empire attempting to conquer Celceta, whose “deity” is suffering from an personality alteration illness, which turns him into a being wanting to change the world according to his will. It is up to Adol to stop the triggering calamity.
That is, in one way or another, what the game, in all of its ports, is about. However, slightly alterations had been performed with each performed remake, until the release of the psvita version, presenting not just a new beginning for the story, but also changing the development.
The new version begins with an amnesiac Adol wandering around Casnan city after an uncertain accident happened to him, until he meets the information dealer called Duren, who, although behaving a little harsh with him at the beginning, is unable to leave Adol on his own. Unbeknown for them, mysterious incidents are happening in Celceta, and slowly get thrown in the matter.
The gameplay was no longer about impacting Adol toward an enemy like in previous installments, but rather with the mechanic from latest Ys games. In other words, battles take place in open environments with a “hack and slash” type of performance, with the ability to shift between player characters with different attributes. Technically, some attacks are more powerful on certains enemies, depending of the attribute, but, just being a little high leveled and understanding the dodge/guard timing mechanism, most of the enemies are easy to beat. The bigger foes are the exception, since it is hard to time the dodge/guard movements and take much time to kill with low effective attributes. However, as many hack and slash games, it is still fun because of the fast pace that the gameplay enables, making you feel pretty badass when killing hordes of enemies just with using a single attribute while performing continuous flash dodges and flash guards like a boss , and the sensation is increased when bigger foes are killed that way.
Ys games are characterized by being hard to beat, even in the “normal mode”, due to its boss battles and puzzles, and this installment is no exception. The psvita remake, however, has few puzzles and is considerable easier to avoid damage in boss battles (Note: Avoiding damage is not the same as performing flash dodges/flash guards, since those are hard to time when battling them). Still, boss battles are awesome even when not doing flash movements, also, they are accompanied by an outstanding soundtrack. To tell the truth, the Ys saga is praised by the amazing soundtrack either in world exploration as in boss battles. It is a perfect example of RPG music at its finest.
Later in the story, Adol meets new individuals such as Karna and Ozma, both of them residents from the enormous Celceta forest, and exclusive player characters for this remake. Until recently, Ys saga was about just controlling Adol, but with the arrival of each new videogame generations, fans wanted to control other characters. The hard part was, as in any other party based RPG, giving them a “necessity” to be used and adding the corresponding character development. Unfortunately, memories of Celceta leaves much to desire in that matter.
The story from the PC-engine Ys4 was awesome, and the remaked story from psvita , in theory, behind Ys1 and 2, is the best of the series, but lacks the character script and plot elements to overcome the PC-engine one. Although there is a party, most of them don´t really show development and party chat is kept at minimal; aside Adol, Karna and Duren, the presence of the remaining player characters feels almost pointless, as if it was better to leave as secondary characters.
Another downside is the technical necessity to use them. It boss battles, attributes doesn´t matter, so one can just choose the stronger characters, and while battling minion foes, if an attribute is required to ease the situation, choosing the stronger character is the best option. In fact, personally, the only reason to use other characters is just for fun, but even so it doesn´t last long while following the story. I only find fun with them in the boss rush/time attack segment, and again, it gets pointless.
Secondary characters also leave much to desire, since their appearances, as well as their actions, are kept at minimal. I bet that the plot would have been better if they had been further developed according to the story progress.
The villain´s development, aside the winged Celceta deity, manages to be good, but they only appear in extremely few scenes compared to previous version of the game. Nevertheless, the final boss is indeed what a final boss must be and once that you know who he is, you would undoubtedly desire that he would have appeared more often and further developed along with the plot. I´m sure that many will agree that, if Memories of Celceta had also featured the villain scenes from the PC-engine version, this game would be praised as the most exciting adventure of Adol.
If scenes like this would have been retaken from the PC-engine, it would have been better.
Conclusion:
Ys4 Foliage ocean in celceta (“Memories of Celceta”) doesn´t feature an outstanding plot like the one from the PC-engine but it is still considerable better that the one from previous ports. The gameplay will make you feel badass, your ears will be delighted, the exploration will satisfy your thirst for a big open world, but most of all, it will make you desire not just more content, but another Adol adventure, literally. Ys saga is an example of how a RPG must be done in gameplay, exploration, plot, soundtrack, bosses, and final boss.
Gameplay: 9 Sound:10 Story: 8 Overall elements: 9
Puntuation: 36 / 40 (“Good experience”)
Ys 4 was known as a master pice for the now old PC-engine (named “turbografx” in occident), it has what fans from that time wanted, a big world, dubbed, interesting characters and a good story. The gameplay formula was almost the same, thought. Nevertheless, there were, unfortunately, bad ports for the super famicom, the playstation 2, and cellphones, to the point where those felt like different games.
To summarize, Ys4, in every incarnation, is about Adol, a silent protagonist for further gameplay involvement, departing toward the land of Celceta due to mysterious happenings taking place in there. He comes to know about the Rolman empire attempting to conquer Celceta, whose “deity” is suffering from an personality alteration illness, which turns him into a being wanting to change the world according to his will. It is up to Adol to stop the triggering calamity.
That is, in one way or another, what the game, in all of its ports, is about. However, slightly alterations had been performed with each performed remake, until the release of the psvita version, presenting not just a new beginning for the story, but also changing the development.
The new version begins with an amnesiac Adol wandering around Casnan city after an uncertain accident happened to him, until he meets the information dealer called Duren, who, although behaving a little harsh with him at the beginning, is unable to leave Adol on his own. Unbeknown for them, mysterious incidents are happening in Celceta, and slowly get thrown in the matter.
The gameplay was no longer about impacting Adol toward an enemy like in previous installments, but rather with the mechanic from latest Ys games. In other words, battles take place in open environments with a “hack and slash” type of performance, with the ability to shift between player characters with different attributes. Technically, some attacks are more powerful on certains enemies, depending of the attribute, but, just being a little high leveled and understanding the dodge/guard timing mechanism, most of the enemies are easy to beat. The bigger foes are the exception, since it is hard to time the dodge/guard movements and take much time to kill with low effective attributes. However, as many hack and slash games, it is still fun because of the fast pace that the gameplay enables, making you feel pretty badass when killing hordes of enemies just with using a single attribute while performing continuous flash dodges and flash guards like a boss , and the sensation is increased when bigger foes are killed that way.
Ys games are characterized by being hard to beat, even in the “normal mode”, due to its boss battles and puzzles, and this installment is no exception. The psvita remake, however, has few puzzles and is considerable easier to avoid damage in boss battles (Note: Avoiding damage is not the same as performing flash dodges/flash guards, since those are hard to time when battling them). Still, boss battles are awesome even when not doing flash movements, also, they are accompanied by an outstanding soundtrack. To tell the truth, the Ys saga is praised by the amazing soundtrack either in world exploration as in boss battles. It is a perfect example of RPG music at its finest.
Later in the story, Adol meets new individuals such as Karna and Ozma, both of them residents from the enormous Celceta forest, and exclusive player characters for this remake. Until recently, Ys saga was about just controlling Adol, but with the arrival of each new videogame generations, fans wanted to control other characters. The hard part was, as in any other party based RPG, giving them a “necessity” to be used and adding the corresponding character development. Unfortunately, memories of Celceta leaves much to desire in that matter.
The story from the PC-engine Ys4 was awesome, and the remaked story from psvita , in theory, behind Ys1 and 2, is the best of the series, but lacks the character script and plot elements to overcome the PC-engine one. Although there is a party, most of them don´t really show development and party chat is kept at minimal; aside Adol, Karna and Duren, the presence of the remaining player characters feels almost pointless, as if it was better to leave as secondary characters.
Another downside is the technical necessity to use them. It boss battles, attributes doesn´t matter, so one can just choose the stronger characters, and while battling minion foes, if an attribute is required to ease the situation, choosing the stronger character is the best option. In fact, personally, the only reason to use other characters is just for fun, but even so it doesn´t last long while following the story. I only find fun with them in the boss rush/time attack segment, and again, it gets pointless.
Secondary characters also leave much to desire, since their appearances, as well as their actions, are kept at minimal. I bet that the plot would have been better if they had been further developed according to the story progress.
The villain´s development, aside the winged Celceta deity, manages to be good, but they only appear in extremely few scenes compared to previous version of the game. Nevertheless, the final boss is indeed what a final boss must be and once that you know who he is, you would undoubtedly desire that he would have appeared more often and further developed along with the plot. I´m sure that many will agree that, if Memories of Celceta had also featured the villain scenes from the PC-engine version, this game would be praised as the most exciting adventure of Adol.
If scenes like this would have been retaken from the PC-engine, it would have been better.
Conclusion:
Ys4 Foliage ocean in celceta (“Memories of Celceta”) doesn´t feature an outstanding plot like the one from the PC-engine but it is still considerable better that the one from previous ports. The gameplay will make you feel badass, your ears will be delighted, the exploration will satisfy your thirst for a big open world, but most of all, it will make you desire not just more content, but another Adol adventure, literally. Ys saga is an example of how a RPG must be done in gameplay, exploration, plot, soundtrack, bosses, and final boss.
Gameplay: 9 Sound:10 Story: 8 Overall elements: 9
Puntuation: 36 / 40 (“Good experience”)
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