Ys: Memories of Celceta Review

Fighting your way through Celceta won’t be just at Adol’s hands. As you venture deeper and deeper into its depths, you’ll recruit more characters to join your party and can eventually run around with a full party of three characters, swapping between them freely with the O button. With one at the lead, the other two characters will follow along as AI to attack along with you. A quick pinch on the rear touchpad will put them into a passive mode if you only want your main character to be attacking and an expanding swipe will do just the opposite. These characters will also be quite handy outside of combat with their own individual abilities. Adol’s primary ability is to pick up on resonating memories scattered about Celceta that remain invisible to everyone else, as they all pertain to something important in his past. Beyond that, you’ll encounter members that are trained in picking locks, destroying barriers, and helping to access other out-of-reach areas and more.

There’s also a minor synergy based mechanic to the party makeup in Memories of Celceta. Utilizing three members of differing attacks (slash/pierce/strike) will cause enemies to drop more items. On the other hand, using three party members that all use slashing weapons will increase the damage of the whole party. There’s a small tradeoff depending on what you want to be efficient at. Rotating between characters is also equally as important as defense as the enemies all have their own sort of defenses. Don’t expect Adol’s sword to do much good hacking away at hard-shelled enemies just as Duren’s punches won’t be as effective against soft or gelatinous monsters.

Routinely during your adventures throughout Celceta, you’re bound to run across patches of forest that are filled with endless mazes. Even before charting my way to the second town, I had already encountered two of these such mazes. Usually there’s some simple think to keep an eye out for, like a particular flower or seeking the path that goes downhill. It’s not uncommon to wander around aimlessly before an NPC bystander tells you explicitly how to get out. These small diversions tend to slow the game down and it’s not until you’ve wandered at least a dozen screens that you actually make it past these roadblocks.

One of my personal favorite parts to the Ys series has always been the music and Memories of Celceta definitely nails it. The folks at Falcom Sound Team jdk have infused every track with energy and emotion. Even something so simple as the first field when you step out of Casnan City is filled with a melody that empowers both body and spirit. It’s not uncommon to hear a fusion of heavy metal guitar riffs and violins woven together so expertly in a way that only the folks at jdk know how. To be completely honest, there isn’t a single battle theme in the entire game that hasn’t gotten me pumped up for Adol’s adventures.

The Ys series has always been a franchise that I’ve followed ever since Wanderers From Ys III for the Super Nintendo. Since that point, I’ve made an effort to grab any that have come out stateside and even ones that hadn’t made it to US shores yet (Oath in Felghana for the PC). In each entry, the combat systems get better and better and easily remain my favorite reason for playing the series, second only to the soundtracks from Sound Team jdk. Ys Memories of Celceta rekindles that enjoyment in the series and brings back the same joy I felt when Ys Seven came out years ago. If you are as willing as I to forego Celceta‘s average storytelling and instead focus on the action, you’re looking at the next must-play RPG on the Vita.

[Editor’s note: Ys Memories of Celceta was reviewed on the Playstation Vita platform. Review code was provided to us by the publisher.]