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Easy does it: Talking Ys

Voncaster

Voncaster

I just finished a play through of Ys: Memories of Celceta. I liked it but didn't love it.

I liked the setting of the game; exploring a giant forest and finding the different cities in the forest. I like the relatively short length of the game: 30 hours with 100% of the map explored.

I've played Ys VIII and IX before this. The Ys game design is Celceta felt a bit stale to me. Every new city gives you a new character Celceta. Same as in Ys VIII with new regions and Ys IX with new parts of the city. I wish Ys games would start you off with the full adventuring party (or close to it) and let you choose which characters you want to use. The paced introduction of the characters and associated story gets a little old to me.

VIII obviously took inspiration from the Lost World. IX took inspiration from Joan of Arc. I can't pinpoint the historical inspiration for Celceta. Babylon because there is a giant tower? Atlantis because there is references to an old civilization and a sea? Maybe there is not an analogous inspiration fro Celceta.

My lukewarm reaction to Celceta maybe a result of playing too much Ys in a short time period. I played both Ys IX and Celceta this year. I think with FF games and RE games (other series I like), I try to space them out a bit more.

It feels like the primary difference between the Ys games is the setting and the story. I wish the game play would have more differences in each new entry.
 
Sarge

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Celceta was definitely a step down for me from Ys Seven. It's still good, but yeah, not next-level stuff. And it's an odd game because it combines both aspects of Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys and Ys IV: Mask of the Sun.
 
Regulus

Regulus

Sir Knightbot
Yeah... Celceta is just kind of a mediocre Ys game. I felt this way back when it came out and there weren't even as many "party based" games to compare it to. I don't think it's just Ys burnout in your case.
 
Kazin

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Yeah, Celceta is kinda meh, but as usual for the series, it has some awesome tracks at least:

 
Rosewood

Rosewood

The metal babble flees!
(she/her)
Here's some threadcromancy for you! I couldn't search on Ys because it's too short, so searched on Napishtim instead and found it. Inspired by some talk on the RPG thread on Discord (iirc about a Felghana remake), I picked up a copy of Napishtim for $5. I either remembered playing it myself on PS2, or my partner playing it, or both. A handful of odd thoughts after going through about an hour of it:
  1. Unlike the rather kind and indolent enemies of Legend of Mana, the enemies in this game are completely unapologetic about trying to kill you, even on Normal. Stressful!
  2. I really enjoy that older-school RPG advance-and-retreat where you spend some time getting near-destroyed by basic mobs, then level up and learn a bit, and then deal with them easily.
  3. Thank you for offering a retry option on the bosses, devs! Much appreciated. ❤️
  4. I'm not sure if the character sprites are 3D or not (I leave that to the AV fans), but it's a euphonious look with the background. I associate this overall look with Falcom games in general, and between it and the music and the nice character portraits this is a very pleasant overall experience.
  5. It reminds me of Grandia and Trails, in that you can talk to NPCs multiple times, at different parts of the story, and they say different things. Adds to a homey vibe.
  6. Menu on R3? Yuck! I also seem to be turning on autorun and not knowing how to turn it off - we'll pin that on user error with the controller than anything amiss with the game.
 
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Voncaster

Voncaster

Playing Ys Memoire: Oath in Felghana for PS5.

I know this is based of a portable game, but the graphics are weird!

The backgrounds are low polygon and generally look pleasing. However, the characters look like 3D models that were output to 2D like Donkey Kong country. Whatever portable system couldn't handle polygon characters? The polygon characters couldn't be re-rendered at a higher fidelity for PS5? To me its a very jarring juxtaposition of graphics. The background graphics are sharper than the character graphics.

***
I do like that the discover artifact and treasure chest jingles are the same across the Ys games that I've played (VIII, IX, and Celceta).
 
Regulus

Regulus

Sir Knightbot
The original was a PC game, actually. The prerendered sprites were just how Falcom did games in this engine at the time.
 
Voncaster

Voncaster

Interesting. I'm guessing the source 3D models are lost to time or would be too labor intensive to restore for the remaster.

Prerendered sprites aside, I'm enjoying Oath. Coming off of FFVII Rebirth and Persona 3 Reload, its nice to play a shorter RPG.
 
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