The Oath in Felghana lives up to the series reputation of delivering quick-paced combat and imposing boss battles
Status: Completed
Positive
+ Quick, furious combat
+ Powerful, seemingly insurmountable bosses
+ Plenty of difficulties to choose from at the beginning
+ Good, stylish visuals and fitting soundtrack
Negative
- No voice acting
- Dungeons could have used a map
YS: The Oath in Felghana is a remake of 'YS III: Wanderers from YS' and it already was on the PSP before finding its way on the PC. This fun old-school hack-and-slash offers a good story even for those unfamiliar with the long existent series, and the visuals are appealing, along with a solid soundtrack. A few issues are always there, but it would take more than that to intimidate brave adventures that dare enter Felghana.
Red haired protagonist Adol and his fellow companion Dogi travel to Dogi's hometown and upon their arrival, they discover that monsters now inhabit the island. Something is happening in Felghana and Adol decides to help the townspeople. Adol meets other characters like the town's mayor, the lovely and slightly troubled Elena, and frequent encounters with the Duke's trusted knight as he tries to help the townspeople. The governor Count McGuire harshly threats his people and he is up to no good. The story is entertaining if not a bit predictable at times, and a lot on the short side. The story is narrated through voiceless cutscenes and dialogue between characters, but it is surprisingly effective.
Throughout the story, the game sends you to a variety of different dungeons. In these dungeons you will encounter beasts that will not hesitate to attack you on sight. No fear, Adol knows how to handle them. This old-school hack-and-slash pits you alone in unmapped dungeons filled with enemies and brutal boss fights. The combat is basic and comes down to button-mashing most of the time, excluding the use of magic that differs in three elements, each obtained as you progress. While the combat is easy, and occasionally mundane, it is satisfying to carve your way through hordes of enemies. The gameplay is very, very similar to that found on YS: The Ark of Napishtim so if you happened to play that game, the whole combat system is immediately familiar, and the controls work fine on the PC. You level up when you earn a substantial amount of EXP from killing enemies, and especially bosses and leveling up (or finding save points) restores your health. You can't regenerate health but enemies drop recover items that are used the instant you touch them. Therefore you cannot regenerate health against bosses.
As you venture in the 3D dungeons, you have to make your way to the boss, welcoming you with a save spot before the inevitable encounter. Because of the unmapped dungeon, finding your way to the last room will leave you frequently running in circles. It can be a needless waste of time to go back and forth from room to room, especially since enemies reappear as soon as you exit that room. Once you actually find your way to the last room of the dungeon, you fight a boss. Like in The Ark of Napishtim, the bosses are brutal and challenging, honing a ton of HP and normally huge in size and it might take a few tries to beat them. But in the end beating them is satisfying. Even on the easiest difficulty, the bosses can be quite the adversaries, but the game balances the difficulty of the game extremely well, with multiple difficulties available at the beginning of the game. Bosses have particular patterns that helps ease the fight if you can spoil them.
Magic offers some diversity to the fast-paced combat. Magic bracelet are found in specific points in the game and but finding adequate jewels, its power is enhanced. These powers aid you in dungeons, not only in fights but as you need to surpass obstacles. For instance, you need to spin using the wind power to jump further. In combat, some enemies are resistant to your sword, so magic is the alternative. Your equipment can be upgraded in town, by paying in gold and providing Raval Ore, which can be regularly found in treasure chests in dungeons. There are very few levels of upgrading a certain piece of equipment.
The game has simple but great looking visuals. Each dungeon has a completely different design from the previous, along with the decently varied enemy design. The bosses' design makes them look as imposing as they ought to be. Note that the large boss's figure is not for show; these bosses are tough. Even within the same dungeon, the current room looks different than the last. What was left out is voice acting. The Ark of Napishtim (on the PS2 at least) had achieved something very few games manage, even today, to have a full voiced game. The Oath in Felghana does not have any voice acting. But forget the non-existent voices, the soundtrack rocks.
With its release through STEAM, the game offers numerous achievements that require more than a few playthroughs and torture to obtain. But for one, short playthrough, The Oath of Felghana is a fun and exciting game. The lack of voice acting and dungeon map feel missed opportunities to give more life to the story and remove unnecessary backtracking, but those are only feeble shadows to the solid combat system and challenging bosses, accompanied by a great overall presentation.
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Graphics = 8.0
The game on PC looks pretty good, and there is good dungeon variety. Character sprites look quite good as well. The bosses look terrific.
Sound = 8.2
There is no voice acting but the soundtrack is pretty awesome and fitting with the game's frantic pace. Standard sound effects that get the job done.
Presentation = 7.5
One of the things this series excels at is giving a wide range of difficulties in the beginning, making it accessible to just about anyone. Story is told through voiceless dialogues, but it never feels off.
Gameplay = 8.3
What the game is all about. Fast old-school hack-and-slash with extremely challenging and occasionally infuriating bosses. So challenging are these bosses, that they can intimidate newcomers even on the easiest difficulty. There is some simple platforming all around.
Story = 7.3
Entertaining story that could have used a bit more depth. It is occasionally predictable. Unlocks an additional mode after beating the game. It is not a very long game, clocking less than 10 hours. There are Steam Achievements for those who want to test their patience.
OVERALL = 77 / 100
The Oath in Felghana lives up to the series reputation of delivering quick-paced combat and imposing boss battles