Friday, 7 February 2014

Review: Ys Memories of Celceta

First of all i need to apologise myself to the Otaku staff and my readers. I have been slacking of as of late. I had some personal problems but i am back in action. I will do the best i can to make this review worth reading. Review incoming prepare for take off!

It's strange to think that YS Memories of Celceta isn't the sequel to Ys seven. Ys Memories of Celceta is a story that happens before YS seven even happened. However, it is mentioned through the story that Altago is indeed in war with Romn. YS memories of Celceta is the new interation of YS VI ( Which was the only YS not developed by Nihon Falcom). Falcom dediced to make this game here first debut vita game and it was a blast to play.
Story
Ys memories of Celceta tells the story of Adol. After adol ventured into the great forest of Celceta he finds himself lost in the city of Casnan town. Adol finds himself lost without any memory how he got there. In fact, he doesn't remember anything about his life. Luckily for Adol he meets his old friend Duren, who tells him he saw him heading into the great forest of Celceta. After helping the town denizens from a mysterious attack by monster in the nearby mine they meet the governor of Celceta, whom is tasking people for mapping out the dangerous forest of Celceta. Ofcourse, there is a reward of 30 million gold which is music in the ears of Duren. Adol on the other hand can't refuse an adventure because he has the knack for arriving at the right time at the right place.While some will argue this game has a great story. Some will say it may lack seriousness but when the story develops further in the game it becomes really interesting. The thruth will come and all pieces of the puzzle come together. The thing i liked the most about the story of Ys Memories of Celceta is collecting the memories of Adol. Every piece of Adols memory tells you a story how adol became an adventurer. It was awesome that i could know more about the way adol became the way he is now.
Gameplay
What i really liked about Ys Memories of Celceta is how straightforward it is. You don't have to waste precious time with overly tedious tutorials and excessively long narrative and instead the game pushes you right into action. You gear up with the best equipment you can buy and you depart from the city of Canan to the great forest of Celceta.The first thing i did when i departed was to explore the lush green forest. To my surprise i came across a lot of strong monsters in the beginning. It felt challenging and pushed me to my limits. I came to the point some enemies are to strong to defeat. I had to grind to become stronger to defeat those monsters. In some games grinding is a bad thing. It becomes repetitive but in this game grinding is a lot of fun. Heck, i even didn't care about the grinding. I was backtracking every area i explored to become stronger than any enemy this game throws at me.


For who people who haven't played a Ys game before every time you finish off an monster you will get rewarded with items and gold. The way you defeat you enemy in this game is important in this game. You will get rewarded if you finish your enemy with a special attack or by dodging/defending yourself at the right time. This takes practise but defeating your enemies this way is so much more rewarding than button bashing your way through. You can button bash your way through the weaker enemies but you don't get as rewarded as with special attacks or dodging/defending. Furthermore, every enemy has it's weakness. Some enemies are weak to slash attacks while others can only defeated by force. This mechanic forces you to change from character and helps the game to stay fresh.


The world we life in is a busy place. We don't have the time to do the things we like. This game has given me a place to run away from the busy existence we all have. We all want to travel to see lush green forests or mountains but we can't. This game offers a place to explore your heart out. Whether, it is caverns tucked away deep into the forrest or each of the towns that come complete with their own shops and citizens to talk to. There are always something pushing you to explore more of the game and you should. On every corner of the map lies something you want to explore.


The highlight of this game are the bossfights, and showoff a joy this game could be. Every bossfight was challenging in it's own way. When i was fighting a  boss  i  was observing the attack patterns . So, eventually i discovered the weaknesses of the boss and defeat it. Furthermore, you will notice how much effort and time Nihon Falcom has taken in the design of the enemies.

Visuals
Ys Memories of Celceta is beautiful in it's own way. The visuals are rich with vibrant colours. It's a place you want to visit in your holiday and will remind you of the beautiful vista's. Ys Memory of Celceta offers stunning environments like lush green Forrest or an city build in a river. I have seen it all and i know for certain i will revisit this place again. Furthermore, the characters are designed with great detail. However, there are some things i didn't like about the visuals. I thought the game could improve in the graphical department. Some objects in the game looked PSP detailed. After seeing games like Tear away and Killzone mercenary you would think they could push the detail up a notch. I hope with the next YS iteration on the  Playstation Vita they could improve on that point.

Sound
As you guys already know i'm an avid fan of Ys. Ys Memories of Celceta didn't disappoint me. Every soundtrack made me feel i could take on the world. When i heard the introduction of the game i couldn't stop listening to it. I somehow felt sad when it ended. I think it's really important for a game to have some great soundtracks. It can elevate a game from being good to great. Ys Memories of Celceta falls in the latter. Defeating a dozen of enemies with rock in the background is the best thing since sliced bread. In the video below you could listen to one of the soundtracks and understand why i praise Ys that much.




Conclusion
My recommendation for this game? Buy it! This game is a superb action RPG  that offers something special.
This game tells an interesting narrative and will keep your attention till the credits roll. Furthermore, it was a pleasant surprise to get to know how Adol became an adventurer. Where this game shines is it's gameplay. Exploring the world like you are the adventurer yourself and slashing through the enemies that dare come across your path is exciting. This feeling gets stronger with the excellent soundtracks. As i mentioned before taking on a dozen enemies with some rock tunes playing in the background is the best thing since sliced bread.

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9/10

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