Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta Review: A Great Entry Point for Any Newcomer

As Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have been achieving global, mainstream success, the Ys franchise has just been quietly doing its own thing, cultivating a massive cult following in the process. I count myself among them, as Ys has been one of those franchises I've been very vocal about in my attempts to get it more mainstream appreciation.

It feels like a rite of passage for every JRPG fan to love Final Fantasy, but also find a weird little niche series that they become utterly obsessed with. Ys was that game for me, as I've developed quite a significant bond with protagonist Adol and his epic tales. While a new Ys game is still very far off, that hasn't stopped developer Falcom and publisher Xseed Games from making sure the series stays in the public eye.

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is a new version of a 2012 Vita game that was later ported to PC and PS4. While it was known back then as Ys: Memories of Celceta, it is fundamentally the same game with some minor improvements. If you didn't play the game on any platform back then

Who am I?

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta takes place a year after Ys X: Nordics, and follows longtime protagonist Adol Christin in his journey to uncover his lost memories. Along the way, he's tasked with mapping out a largely unknown region of the world known as the Great Forest. In doing so, Adol comes into contact with a myriad of party members, unusual NPCs, sinister villains and a host of towering bosses.

The pace of Revelations in Celceta is really something spectacular, as it moves at such a breezy, no-nonsense speed. There aren't a lot of JRPGs that do that. That's not always a bad thing, of course, but the pace at which Revelations in Celceta operates is really enjoyable. It helps make the game far more engaging, and when you consider how reliant the game is on its dialogue and story, that's something I genuinely appreciate.

Characters are quick to understand situations, then act, which doesn't allow the game to slow down. That might be why the game has an average running time of roughly twenty hours, which is admittedly short for a JRPG, but I find myself drawn to the shorter games in the genre these days. If you're anticipating dropping sixty hours into this, maybe look elsewhere, as the game really blitzes you for twenty hours and ends decisively.

That's really been the beauty and appeal of the Ys series, however. Aside from Lacrimosa of Dana, the Ys games tend to fall on the shorter side. While I appreciate the way some JRPGs jam as much content as possible into an eighty-hour experience, I've always found the Ys method of just creating a unique scenario and letting its story play out over ten to twenty hours to be just as satisfying.

Revelations in Celceta's story is focused mainly on Adol's journey to uncover and map out the Great Forest, but the way that story presents itself can be somewhat baffling at times. I'm not entirely opposed to a half-voiced JRPG, where big cutscenes are fully performed by actors and smaller, in-game cutscenes just have tiny little quips for each dialogue box.

Revelations in Celceta doesn't do that. Instead, it opts for full voices during the most random scenes, which has one recorded line and then just text. It's just an odd design choice that leaves the game feeling a little disjointed in some cases. Ultimately, I'd have just preferred no voices at all, mainly because the writing is so appealing that it doesn't really need voices.

I'm a big fan of voice acting, but JRPGs not having them wasn't ever really a big deal to me. JRPGs always kinda felt like interactive novels to begin with, where the dialogue felt like prose from an ancient book, and that's something that Revelations of Celceta also does. There were a number of moments during my time with Revelations of Celceta where I felt like I was enjoying a virtual fantasy novel, and I wish more games would make me feel that way.

Slice and Dice

Combat in Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is incredibly simple when you take it at face value, but in the heat of the moment, it just feels stupendous to play. It manages to avoid the pitfalls of hack-and-slash action RPG combat by making sure that no action or special move overstays its welcome, and it also doles out new moves somewhat rapidly.

Being in the middle of a huge combat arena, cutting down smaller enemies and then unleashing a special move on a larger beast usually happens over a matter of several minutes in some other JRPGs of this style. That happens within seconds during Revelations in Celceta, and it's that ferocity which makes the game feel so immensely satisfying to play.

That being said, by the time you reach the end at nearly twenty hours, it's somewhat impossible for fatigue not to be a factor. For as fun and savage as the combat can feel, there is a sense of déjà vu towards the very end, which is thankfully helped a little bit by that shorter run time. I felt like I was just starting to get fatigued by the time I reached the finale, which was also a little disappointing when I realized that the final boss was not much of an improvement over what had already been a weak roster of bosses.

The boss battles, a fairly important part of JRPG design, really leave a lot to be desired. Most of them are huge, oversized buffoons, and don't really offer much resistance outside some power moves that are easy to dodge. These power moves tend to stun them, at which point you can beat them up some more. In a game where combat is so rewarding and interesting, the boss battles being this weak really stands out.

The scope of the world is really impressive. Each area is cordoned off by loading zones, but each chunk of the map feels suitably large, and the connective tissue between each one helps make it feel like one consistent world. Roaming the world, cutting up monsters and listening to the game's phenomenal soundtrack is really where the game shines, as there's a sense of scale that really shows itself off the deeper you get.

Exploring the world also feels incredibly rewarding. It's nothing groundbreaking, as it still relies on the standard JRPG tropes of hiding optional items and goodies in alternate paths, but Revelations in Celceta has a fun system where you can explore to find some of Adol's lost memories. Finding these rewards you with new story content, but more importantly, will give you a stat increase.

There are also monuments that you can find that allow warping to different points, but you can only warp to one that's the same color. If you're able to get a good grip on the world and its little side areas, you can really zip around at a pretty astonishing rate. It adds a little bit of strategic value, and it's those small things that really help the game's world feel interesting to mess around in.

Let's Become Overpowered

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta has multiple difficulty options, but I'd recommend potentially starting the game on a harder one if you want any sort of challenge. The game tends to hand out experience points and special moves like candy, and if you spend any amount of time grinding, you'll find yourself overpowered rather quickly. At a certain point towards the middle of the game, you may sense that you've outclassed nearly every enemy you find.

Your characters feel like level ninety-nine behemoths, while enemies and bosses are still fighting you at level five. If this sounds troublesome to you, then I'd highly recommend starting at the highest difficulty possible. It does tend to make the game feel a bit monotonous towards the end, so that's something to know going into it.

The Nintendo Switch version of Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta doesn't contain any new story content or areas. It is a straight port of the PS4 version, with no other new bells and whistles outside a bump in resolution and a new re-arranged soundtrack. That may not be a big deal, and I'll say that for me, it honestly wasn't, but if you've played the PS4 version already, there isn't much here that you haven't seen already.

It does run spectacularly on Switch and Switch 2, however. Even with the game throwing multiple enemies and particle effects on screen at once, it still runs at a blazing speed. Considering how fast and fluid the combat is, having that run uninterrupted is greatly appreciated. The game really looks and runs fabulously, and if you're looking for a fun way to get into the Ys series, Revelations of Celceta is a great place to start.

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is a furiously-paced action JRPG that has a big world to explore. It's a world that feels great to explore, and you'll often feel rewarded for doing so. Finding little alcoves and secret areas is always enjoyable, and the way the game urges you to do so is incredibly natural. The bosses are a little weak, and it is a bit on the shorter side of the JRPG spectrum at twenty hours, but I feel like that's a genuine strength of the game. If you've never played Ys before, this is a great entry point for any newcomer.