Ys: Memories of Celceta Review

The Ys series has a long history with its roots going all the way back to the heady days of the late 80s. As such it’s not a stranger to being ported and remade; with most of the series having a variety of incarnations. Ys: Memories of Celceta is no different with this latest PS4 release being a remaster of the PlayStation Vita game released in Japan in 2012.

It’s also canonically the fourth entry in the series, superseding two other entries with the literal number four in them that came out in the 90s as well as being a prequel to Ys: The Oath of Felghana which was a remake of Ys III. Got your head around that? Good. The series has a complex history, the question is, should you play Ys: Memories of Celceta?

Like other Ys titles, it is an action role playing game with a heavy focus on combat. This takes the form of a single attack button that rewards timing rather than mashing as timed attacks earn skill points you can then use to perform skills tied to face button combos. You also have access to a powerful special move known as an EXTRA move when a different meter gets filled.

This is augmented by a combination of evades and blocks which if timed properly give benefits like slowing down time for a moment or nullifying any incoming damage. This makes for a fun, kinetic combat system that in general feels really good. This has been something the Ys series has always been quite good at so it’s not surprising it still feels great here.

The plot of the game sees series protagonist, Adol, stumble into the town of Casnan suffering from amnesia. He discovers that he apparently made it out of the Great Forest of Celceta after going in alone after taking a moment in the local inn. After a brief scuffle in the local mine when monsters attack. Adol and Duren, a local information dealer, then agree to map out the forest for the local governor with the hope of uncovering what occurred in the forest.

As well as Duren you end up with an assortment of characters joining you on your journey, with a maximum of three in your party at any time. During combat you can switch between characters with a quick tap of a button, each character being strong against different enemy types. Strike characters being better against harder enemies whilst Slash characters make light work of fleshy beasties for example.

This is another layer to the combat that makes it a lot of fun; the dynamic nature of timing attacks as well as tagging in an appropriate character for each fight means you have something to think about most of the time just getting from A to B. Party members are also a varied bunch which helps keep things interesting.

The remaster itself is a little underwhelming. As a port of the PlayStation Vita release the main benefits are the higher resolution, now running at 1080p and the solid performance at 60FPS. Any other changes are extremely subtle as while textures have been touched up it is very hard to tell the difference, even lining up comparisons. The HUD elements are one area that definitely benefits but visually it’s very hard to notice the improvements outside of that.

Lighting has changed in a number of places, but again, without a side by side you’d be hard pressed to notice. Character models and other assets still appear to be the same as the Vita in terms of quality too. Including the sloppy sliding animations characters do instead of walking. All of this is a big shame as whilst it’s not an ugly game by any means, this PS4 remaster was a good opportunity to bring those Vita visuals more inline with the newer entries.

Audio however sounds great and you do get dual language options so you can have Japanese voices if you’d prefer. The music, as is usually the case with Ys titles, is absolutely stunning with great energy throughout and is a thoroughly good listen.

All in all Memories of Celceta is just a bit underwhelming, the remaster itself is fine, and is arguably the best version of the game on console due to the performance and resolution benefits but it’s extremely no frills. The whole game manages to feel a bit generic which is something Ys should never feel.

Is it worth your time then? In my opinion this depends as whilst it’s a good game, it’s just not as good as the other entries in the series so I’d start elsewhere if you are new to Ys, perhaps the excellent Ys Origin or Ys: The Oath in Felghana. If you just want more Ys or are set on finishing your collection then sure, it’s a perfectly fine time, just don’t expect it to reach the high bar the series has set for itself.