XSEED Games Ys: The Oath In Felghana - Premium Edition

Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a remake of the classic action RPG "Ys III: Wanderers from Ys." Ys III was previously the black sheep of the Ys series; it had a great soundtrack, but the side-scrolling gameplay and completely generic plot turned off a lot of Ys fans. OiF successfully takes the low point in the Ys series and turns it into the high point.OiF takes Ys III's general story and remakes everything from the ground up. The graphics, level design, and gameplay are all great, and topping it off is a fantastic soundtrack performed by a live orchestra. I'm being completely honest here: Oath in Felghana has one of the best video game soundtracks ever composed. But just one soundtrack isn't enough; the PSP version of OiF actually also includes the soundtracks to two other versions of Ys III, and you can switch between all three at any time. There's voice acting in all of the major scenes and many of the minor ones, too. The story has also been greatly improved; new characters are added, old characters have considerably more dialog and development, and there are a few touches here and there to tie it into the rest of the Ys series.The gameplay is really the most impressive aspect of OiF. Everything about the game is designed to get you into the action, which is fast and challenging. Be forewarned that there are no consumable healing items; rather, enemies will randomly drop instant-use healing items when killed, which means that the best way to heal yourself is to keep killing more enemies. On top of that, enemies also drop potions that will temporarily increase your stats, and picking up multiple potions will stack with each other. In other words, the best way to make yourself stronger is to kill enemies faster. Need more money to buy better equipment? Again, keep killing!As far as the challenge goes, the game's "Normal" difficulty gets it pretty much perfect, in my opinion; regular enemies are dangerous, but if you pay attention to what you're doing and use your skills appropriately, death is pretty rare. On the other hand, boss battles are very challenging, and you can expect that bosses will kill you several times before you manage to beat them. The lack of consumable healing items means that you will have to learn a boss' pattern to beat him, so the game feels almost Mega Man-ish in terms of difficulty. Fortunately, when a boss kills you, the game gives you the option to immediately start again from the beginning of the boss fight. If a boss is just too tough and kills you several times, the game will even give you the option to temporarily lower the difficulty level.If the game's Normal difficulty is too hard or too easy for you, though, there are two easier difficulty levels and three harder ones, and at least one of them is guaranteed to be just right for you, regardless of when you just want to see the story or you want the game to destroy you. Beating the game multiple times on different difficulty levels also unlocks extras such as an artwork gallery, boss rush mode, and a new game+ mode, so there's plenty of reason to replay the game.To be fair, the game isn't quite perfect. The voice acting is a bit hit-or-miss; the major characters' actors tend to be very good, but a few of the minor characters' range from mediocre to awful. A few of the worst voices also come up right at the beginning of the game, which makes a bit of a bad impression as to the quality of the rest of the acting. Also, by RPG standards, the game is a bit short; you'll probably be able to beat it in 15 hours your first time, and under 10 hours on subsequent playthroughs. On the other hand, that's pretty normal if you compare the game to other action games rather than RPGs, and the short play time means that playing the new game+ mode doesn't feel like a chore.In short, this game is hands-down one of the best action RPGs on the PSP. If you're at all curious about the Ys series, get it.

I've been playing the Ys series ever since Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim on the PS2. Now, that's very late into the series of me playing it, but man, is Ys a great series.You play Adol Christin, a young man who left his home to find adventure throughout the world. In this latest game, it takes place 3 years after Ys 1 and 2. Adol and his best friend, Dogi, arrive in Dogi's hometown, Felghana and is immediately put in a situation where they must save the land before a corrupt count by the name of McGuire, acquires four statues that hold immeasurable power and takes over the land.The game is awesome and has a lot of stuff that makes it 5 stars in my own opinion. The first that made me like it was the voice actors. Nowadays, I'm seeing a lot of people who complain about today's English voice actors being horrendous and very.....crappy. But these voice actors are very good and fit the character very well. Dogi was voiced by Patrick Seitz. Don't know who he is? Actually, this guy has voiced dozens of animes and dozens of video games. Wikipedia can prove that if you're not trusting me. Also, he voiced Ragna the Bloodedge from Blazblue. When I heard Dogi's voice, I wanted to say "RAGNA!!!" and tell Konami "GOOD JOB!!" and such.Elena, Dogi's childhood, is actually one of the best voices in the entire game. Sounds cute and innocent, but also has this toughness that makes her one of the most outstanding characters too.Next, the battles are another outstanding point of this series being a great game. True, there are those people who complain about hack-n-slash games, but this game you can't just hack-n-slash. Many of the enemies sometimes require you to do something a little different than just press that X button to kill them. Some you have to jump them, literally. Some you can't injure with a sword, so magic is a must to kill them, and some are just outright annoying and you have to think before you act, especially w/ the bosses.Now, I started this game on Hard, thinking it will be a good challenge since I played Ys VI on Nightmare. That game was hard, but I beat it, so I thought I was prepared for this game. In two words, HELL NO!! Obviously when you play on Hard, enemies have more life, more attack power, and a different attacking strategy. This was also obvious when I fought the very first boss, a giant statue of a winged woman. I died once before I realized that she never stops attacking, and because she is at a distance, I can ONLY use magic on her to actually hurt her. Even at a high level, I was doing very little damage, even though I was attacking her consecutively. I died probably 6 times before I won. The next few bosses also require you to really think about what you need to do before you go in and press that X button or Square button (magic). But, literally, it was totally worth my money to put the game on Hard and get my ass kicked many times before I beat any boss.They added some side quests for you to complete, so that you can get money, Raval Ore (to upgrade your weapons and armor) and special bonuses like ATK+, DEF+, and EXP RATE UP, during fights with regular enemies. These are helpful, but require you to constantly fight more enemies so that you can keep those upgrades.In my opinion, this is a great game. I play Ys I and II for the Nintendo DS, Ys VI for PS2, and Ys Seven for the PSP and this is a great addition to these games, even though it's just a remake of the original Ys III back in 1989. Many of today's gamers concentrate on these first person shooters and think they are the greatest games in the world and never see these games in their life. But, to me, this is a game to buy and what really makes a great game is not only the gameplay, but the story as well. Each of the Ys games has Adol always pitted against some terrifying beast or ancient god that will destroy the world if something or someone doesn't stop them. Sounds like the same thing that you hear with most RPGs, but seriously, it's hard to come up with something original nowadays since most people expectations aren't that high anymore with RPGs now. The story, the battles, the characters, and the ever increasing Ys library is making this game have a comeback and it's good in my book.

This is such a great game. The Premium Edition is a slick package that's well worth the money. I'm so proud of XSEED for continually bringing over all these awesome Ys games. (Pronounced Ease) This is full of great action RPG gameplay, many many hours of fun. Great graphics, music, gameplay, and overall atmosphere. It has such an old school feel to it. Buy it now, to encourage XSEED to keep bringing us U.S. gamers more awesome RPG's like this one!

Amazing game and great price for premium edition. I got it for someone as a gift and they are really enjoying it. Ys is a great series and definitely worth the purchase.

If you have a PSP and you enjoy action/adventure games then you're missing out if you don't have this game. I'm old enough to have played the original Ys III - Wanderers from Ys in its CD format. It was a drastic departure in play style from Ys Books I&II, think going from The Legend of Zelda to the Adventure of Link. "Wanderers" wasn't a bad game by any means, at least on the CD format with bits of animation and a majority of spoken audio dialogue. "The Oath in Felghana" is a reimagining of "Wanderers" brought into the solidified gameplay style for Ys. I bought the Japanese version while I was in Japan because I wasn't sure if it would ever get localized and I really wanted to play this game. It does not disappoint in either format, the dubbing team is on par with the best you hear today. If you own a PSP, just get the game and enjoy!