I think I can honestly say I now have some history with this game, having played through three other tiles in the franchise so far. And while this seems to be "more of the same" from the set, I don't think that's such a bad deal. In fact, I've already lined up the next one. Come on inside.
Story: It's been 8 years since he's been home, but Dogi managed to convince our hero (Adol) to make a pitstop to visit. Bragging about his hometown of Redmont, he soon is quieted by obvious signs of distress. The first can be attributed to local troubles with the youth as an old relic statue has been defaced just beyond the dock. The second, however is not so easily pushed aside: a scream of a young woman in trouble followed by monsters attacking both her and our heroes! This is more then just a little trouble for a local town!
Of course our duo can not stand for that and quickly dispatch the hoards, only to find out the young lady is none other then a childhood friend of Dogi's. Thankful for the help, she guides them all home where the real extent of trouble is revealed. These lands have become a lot more dangerous as of late, as monsters have begun roaming about. And to make matters worse this town is a trading town, something that has reduced immensely with the increasing danger. Furthermore, the town is known for a rare and valuable ore called raval they would normally mine from the local quarry, but the lord of the lands has closed it down! With nothing to offer the few traders visiting town anymore, the town is doomed! Of course the mayor had no intention of taking this sitting down, but ultimately only got himself trapped inside when trying to find for himself why the quarry was being closed. Adol, being the adventurer he is, could not just stand aside and leave him to his fate, so it was time to head out!
This basic beginning will be used to introduce you to the real story behind it all as Adol finds the mayor deep down in the minds. I do not believe I would be giving away anything to say there are ancient secrets who's power are seeping out into the world and set to shape Adol's latest adventure. And while there are a few good twists along the way, don't expect anything to floor you. After all this is in essence a remake of a game made in 1989 when plots didn't need to be half as in-depth as we see now. Still, what is here is solid and each step feels right as you move forward to the inevitable conclusion and final confrontation. Even if it's not deep, it's entertaining.
7/10
Graphics: If you played the last game I reviewed in this series, you already have a good idea of just how Oath is going to look. And if you like PSX-style graphics, you are going to enjoy what you are about to see. In essence you are about to step into a world shown from a bird's eye view and 3D rendered, but from a fixed angle and direction. The geometry that makes up this world is fairly simple, but it's in that way you would expect from a game with a retro style so you probably won't notice anything out of place here.
However, the artwork decorating that 3D world is another story, as it frankly goes above and beyond. Your journey will take you through many locations, each of which stands out with it's own feel and rich in detail. From the moment you get off the boat, the world will just look spectacular and it will never really stop right up to the end.
And the inhabitants also are a great draw too, pun kinda intended. This is one of those games that fills its 3D world mainly with sprites, harkening strongly to the Playstation days where monsters look nasty and vile while the human characters tend to have a more chibified look to them. Once again, retro is the name of the game here, and it just works. Of course those human characters do get more detailed looks as well in the form of profiles for conversations. Here you get a closer look at their faces to go with the text and the real artistic work gets to show off. In short expect something you might see in a popular anime, and everyone again to look really good for it.
But there are exceptions to this rule and you will find them in the form of major bosses. Assuming the encounter is a massive creature, you will find they are not sprites like everyone else but a real setpiece as an overwhelming 3D rendered creature you will have to find a way to fight through. Between them and the chaos most of them will put on the battlefield be ready for a spectacle!
But not everything is great for this entry in the graphic department, for the UI is a bit of a weak spot this time around. While very similar to what we got in the last game we played, it is clear that other one benefited from actually coming out a little bit later. It has all the parts we need just like before, including an obvious way to tell what spell we have equipped, our charge level, and even icons for our four pieces of equipment and what level they are at. It's all here, but the experience bar is just a bit trickier to read. Where Origins gives it it's own defined space over the health and magic so you can see clear starts and endings and read it no matter how little it's filled, Oath does no such thing. Rather it just sort of floats on it's own over the bar, and while it's very easy to see when you are about to level, it's over the charge meter in such a way as to make it difficult to see at all as it begins, making a grind session's effectiveness difficult to gauge until you've been at it for a while. It's a small gripe that really won't get in the way much, but it is worth noting since it can cause difficulty in trying to be as efficient as you can if you need to get a level or two before taking on the next boss.
8/10
Sound: And as usual, the music department for an Ys game is an absolute masterpiece. From the docile tones of the town's music noting it as a safe place to relax and talk to the locals to the heavy metal scores that will have you in the mood to rip apart every monster in your way, it is another excellent soundtrack!
And while the sound effects are a lot more standard (as seems to always be the case) this time you can look forward to an adventure with many characters being voiced! I will not say all of them are since many of the townsfolk are minor and denoted as such for talking to them just being a text scroll, but there are a handful who the majority of lines are voiced and voiced surprisingly well! From the sultry store-maiden Cynthia to the energetic innkeeper Margo, everyone has their own personality bursting through these performances. You will likely have a favorite who will make the town itself that much more a a joy to be in. Enjoy the performances!
9/10
Gameplay: As noted in the graphical section, you will play from a fixed angle camera at a birds-eye-view, slashing away at enemies as you run through the dungeons and overworld. Although perhaps overworld is not the best word for it since it's really just a set of branching paths to connect you to the five dungeons (even if many of them have multiple sections) that make up the game and the single town you will spend your time in between adventure-beats. And this is perhaps the one if the weaker points this game has against other adventure/RPG hybrid games you might see: it is pretty linear in nature. In addition to that overworld being a few paths (and maybe enough maps to require you to use all your fingers on one hand to count), the dungeons it connects to generally are single paths with a few hidden objects on the way (which you will want to find as they will make a HUGE difference while playing). There is a lot to see, but it is basically in a line for you to travel across rather then branching paths you an exploring gamer might prefer. For an adventure game, there is very little exploration here.
Nor is does that town offer a lot of extras either, I'm afraid. True there are many characters to talk to and some even leading to smaller side-quests you can take on, but they are fairly sparce and most of the time fetch quest for items you will find along your way in the dungeons or even in the town itself. As of for things to help you in your quests, however, there is only a single store, which will offer you a handful of equipment, weapons, and armor... and you will get more then enough money to clean them out before your game is over. But it does offer another option where the blacksmith there will upgrade your gear as well, requiring you to find and earn raval as well as cash to use it. Don't worry too much about it, though.. once again there is plenty to find and if you play like I did, you are likely going to max out your ore well after you've maxed out all your gear.
But the game really becomes an Ys game while you are in those dungeons, hacking and slashing your way through the hoards of monsters in your way. Just like the game before it, running into an enemy will not hurt you. Instead they will hurt you only when they attack, but in return, many of them can actively block your attacks, making for a much more tactical combat experience and requiring you to be more aware of how you fight then other adventure games of this nature. And this goes double for when you face off with bosses which in themselves. Expect to die once or twice on many of them while figuring them out. If this sounds enticing to you, you are about to have something special here. But don't think the game will go easy on you for the volume of enemies: it won't. There are plenty of hoards to keep things frantic as well as interesting, so don't worry about it.
Still, where the combat is something special, the navigation is not. Most of the time it works and works well to get you between battles and let you hunt for items in the pathways offered, but the dept perception in this game is kinda horrible, so those very few times the game becomes a legitimate jumping puzzle really stand out in that controller-throwing way. Specifically this seems to be the case for one of the late dungeon sections and the final boss. To explain them is to give things away, but if I were the kind to break controllers, a few would have died at these points. Still they were not so bad as to ruin the rest of the game, so I can't knock the whole game for what amounts to about 15-20 minutes of it even taking your time.
8/10
Bugs: Once again we have a game here that had absolutely no issues for me outside of some QoL updates missing due to it being a decade old game. And for the most part, the issues present here are the exact same ones I had with Ys: Origins. To have explain, this game comes from an era where PC game controllers were not as well defined as they are now which means the controller you choose to play on will greatly effect if the default button layout works for you or not. The good news is that while the default is a little awkward on my controller of choice it wasn't terrible and using the exact same button layout I did for the previous Ys game worked wonders to correct even that!
Overall: Once again Ys does it with a solid entry in the franchise. I may not argue it as my favorite so far (I still favor 2 as the one to perfect the formula of the original), but not being my favorite out of a series I have generally loved right down the line does not make it a bad game in any way. If you like action adventure games and don't mind something that is a bit more linear then this genre usually is, it's a very solid game to pick up and play. Have fun!
Score:
System Requirements:
- 800 MHz Pentium III
- 1 GB RAM
- Any GPU with 32 MB of VRAM or more
- Windows XP
- 1 GB hard drive space
- Ryzen 5 5600G running at 3.9 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 11
- PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)
Source: Steam
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