Vidjama Gmaes Work

I’d feel bad about reviewing this.

Renting Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is my fault, to be honest. I should have looked online before putting it on my Gamefly list to see that it was a remake of a 2005 PSP game. Not that I have anything against that, I’m just trying to stay on top of 2025’s physical releases for my review series. I also should have looked at some gameplay because I’m going to be honest again; I have never played the Ys games nor have I even seen gameplay video of them. It’s one of my blind spots.

There are a lot of games you won’t see me review simply because I can’t. A very long time ago I would buy games like Rise of Nations or Total War, but those days are long gone. I can’t play them anymore, I don’t have the time or capacity to learn them like I would when I was 15. The same goes for sports games, fighting games, and a few other genres. I know the games are good, I just can’t personally review them in a dignified manner that would be fair.

And that goes for Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. I got to the Gyalva boss and after attempting several times to kill it without luck, going back and grinding a couple levels, and still getting wiped out, I realized there’s no way I could give this game a fair shake.

Ys is not my cup of tea, but I can see why fans of the gameplay think this is one of the best in the series. It’s an action RPG with a shitload of action. You go from set-piece to set-piece with admittedly well designed levels full of twists and secrets to uncover. All the while you are mindlessly mashing your X button to kill monsters by the hundreds and thousands in order to rack up gold and experience.

Eventually you hit the bosses and this is where Ys lost me, because the monsters in the game are completely mindless. When you get to the bosses, those turn into something more akin to a bullet hell game and I cannot play bullet hell games to save my life. You throw me in a Jigsaw trap with the challenge of surviving a bullet hell game for 10 seconds and I’m dead before Jigsaw even finishes explaining the rules. I don’t think the genre is bad design, I’m well aware it’s a me problem.

So I’ve thrown my review plan for Ys Memoire into the trash where it will be with my skill at playing games like Ys Memoire. I think my next “new release” game review is going to be Cusineer, so at least I have some time to spend on my existing games.