Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinI have been a fan of Nihon Falcom’s work for a while. Both the Ys franchise and the Legend of Heroes franchises are favorites of mine. Falcom has a way of infusing lore and depth into all of their stories, even things that might be unnecessarily in-depth. It gives a certain atmosphere to the games, so I was very glad to re-visit Ys: Memories of Celceta when a code for the PS4 remaster came across my proverbial desk.
In Ys: Memories of Celceta, you play (yet again) as Adol Christin, who arrives in the Celcetan town of Casnan with no memory of who he is. He meets a man named Duren, who claims to know him and becomes embroiled in the mysteries of the Great Forest of Celceta. Adol sets out to reclaim his lost memory and will have to save Celceta from certain doom as well.
If you have played a Ys game before, odds are you have at least an idea of what is going on here. If not, then let me give you a full rundown (or a refresher for returning players) about what you can expect. Memories of Celceta is an action-RPG in real-time. You play as Adol and his allies, in a party of three characters, as you explore dungeons and ultimately map out the Great Forest of Celceta.
The ultimate goal of the game (aside from stopping the big bad) is to map the entirety of the forest, exploring every inch of it. For every ten percent of the forest you explore, you can get a reward in Casnan. Some of these rewards are monetary rewards, while others are rare items instead.
Combat in Ys: Memories of Celceta is deceptively simple. You can attack, use skills, guard, and dash. However, if you time a guard or dash correctly, you can do a Flash Guard or a Flash Move, which puts you at an advantage against your enemy. Each of your party members has one of three damage types: Slash, Strike, or Pierce. Different enemies are weak to different damage types, so having a well-rounded party is important.
Skills can level up over time, making them more effective. In addition, you can purchase or collect new weapons, armor, and accessories for your party members to make their stats increase. Also, you can use materials gained from fallen enemies to enhance your armor and weapons to either cause or protect against a variety of status ailments.
By reinforcing your weapons and armor, you can make them stronger and thereby increase your survival chances. Weapons can freeze, poison, paralyze, burn, or cause any number of other effects, while armor can protect against these things, as well as raw damage reduction. Crafting materials can also be exchanged or refined to get better materials, which makes the enhancement and crafting a very deep system.
Each of your six party members also has a unique ability that will help you traverse areas. One character can unlock locked chests, one can break cracked walls, and Adol can collect his lost memories, which manifest as glowing orbs on the map. The others I won’t spoil but they all contribute to the Metroidvania-esque nature of Memories of Celceta’s progression system.
Another aspect of this Metroidvania-esque progression comes in the form of artifacts. Artifacts are rare, one of a kind tools that change how you play. For example, one artifact you get over the course of the game allows you to swim and breathe underwater. Another lets you dash through brambles or thick obstacles. There are so many elements to Memories of Celceta that build upon one another, giving hours and hours of gameplay.
Also, in each of the towns in Celceta, you can take on side quests which can get you a variety of rewards. I personally love doing side quests in RPGs and these give you insight into some of the side characters that you will meet along the way.
There are five difficulty levels, which range from a very easy (story focused) mode to a tough-as-nails hardest difficulty that will test even the most masochistic of players. Personally, I find that the easiest mode is plenty challenging, but then again, I’m not someone who plays for the tough difficulty levels anyway.
There is a lot of customization in how you play and yet there are some things that need to be improved on. For one, while there is voice acting that is well done, sometimes only part of a conversation is voice acted. This is an issue for people who have trouble reading certain fonts or reading large amounts of text period.
On the upside, the maps for both dungeon areas and the overworld are easy to use. There are plenty of ways to fast travel, which is useful as well. There is a fair bit of backtracking for sidequests but I found that it was fun to revisit old areas with new capabilities.
As with all of Falcom’s games, Ys: Memories of Celceta builds a beautiful world, with lots of lore behind it. There are a lot of beautiful environments and lots of quirky, interesting characters. The story is a strong point in this and is a big reason why Memories of Celceta was considered one of the better RPG’s on the Vita when it released.
Honestly, if you’re a fan of the Ys series or Nihon Falcom’s catalog, then you can’t go wrong with Memories of Celceta. It has a great plot, fun gameplay, and aside from the voice acting issues, there isn’t really anything to keep you from enjoying it to the fullest.
A PS4 review copy of Ys: Memories of Celceta was provided by XSEED Games for this review.
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🔥645Ys: Memories of Celceta
$24.99 USD
Pros
- Great Action RPG Combat
- Immense Progression Systems
- Multiple Difficulty Levels
- Great Characters and Story
- Beautiful and Unique Environments
Cons
- Only Parts of Some Scenes are Voiced
