Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta Review – Memories of Mediocrity

How do you breathe life into one of the most middling entries in a series after almost 10 years? Nothing, apparently. Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is releasing for the Nintendo Switch, and with the exception of the option to listen to a worse version of the soundtrack, there are no noticeable differences from the PC version. Well, aside from the $5 price bump.

Falcom has such a rocky history with the Ys series being farmed out to different developers, and Celceta’s initial release was a result of that. Both Dawn of Ys and Mask of the Sun act as a split version of Ys IV, so why release another version of Memories of Celceta with a different name and almost no difference in content? Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is a great game you can get elsewhere and likely cheaper.

Last year, when Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana was released, we were treated to a version of the game we hadn’t seen before. There was new voice acting, a new soundtrack, and new character illustrations that you could switch between. Falcom gave a reason to buy the game. I can’t say the same for Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta. The only difference between Revelations and Memories is that Memories isn’t on the Nintendo Switch, and Revelations has a new soundtrack.

Adol is back, memories gone, and adventures to be had. As it turns out, he’s been in town for a bit, and the folks there know him. He’s been out exploring the Great Forest of Celceta, something even locals are afraid to do. Teaming up with a local thief, Adol catches wind of problems in the local mine and, after saving the miners, is recruited by the army to map out the great forest. While performing this task, he can revisit areas he’s already been to to regain his memories.

Celceta boasts a healthy cast of characters, having Adol team up with teammates in battle for the first time in the series. If you’ve been keeping up with the series thus far, party combat might seem like old hat, but this was fairly novel at the time of initial release. Adol is joined by 5 heroes from around the Great Forest of Celceta, joining him on his quest as he unravels the mysteries of the forest.

The story of Celceta ends up having far-reaching consequences, with a slow drip of information to the player as Adol recovers his memories. Towards the end of the story, I think the writers play a strange hand, revealing a story beat that makes Adol’s lost memories inconsequential. The final stretch is interesting conceptually, but makes a strange Lord of the Rings turn where Adol has to dump something into a volcano before the game just kinda ends. Compared to the combat, cast of characters, and memories of Adol’s past, the main story is a little disappointing.

Combat is what you’d expect from a Ys title from this era. Adol is quick with his attacks and can learn skills by holding RB/R1 and pressing a face button. Skills range from single attacks to those with long wind-ups or wide spreads. The variety of skills is quite impressive considering the size of the cast, and a lot of fun to mess around with, though greater control over when your allies use skills would have been appreciated. There are three attack types: slash, pierce, and strike. Each party member has one of the three attack types, allowing players to mix and match their party, which allows for party bonuses like rare item drops.

The combat system should be especially familiar to those who have played either Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana or Ys XI: Monstrum Nox. One of the reasons Celceta is revered is because a lot of its mechanics were used in Ys VIII, often considered one of the series best entries. Like those entries, the game also features a dodge/parry system that provides an advantage if successfully pulled off. Dodging an attack temporarily freezes the enemy, and parrying gives Adol critical strikes against the enemy for a few moments.

As the progenitor of this system, it feels pretty rudimentary. Though each character has a little tag next to their name showing which type of attack they’re performing, they all feel the same. Your goal is to perform combos by slapping the attack button and occasionally using a skill when skill points are available. It’s far from robust but still feels good thanks to being quick and snappy. Performing combos and dodging in and out of attack zones is an Ys staple, and feels pretty good in Celceta.

Celceta also features a new map exploration system that is carried over into future entries. With his new task to explore the forest, Adol is given a map to fill out. Though it automatically fills out as Adol explores the great forest, it allows the player a better understanding of the forest and eventually shows the locations of chests and the memories Adol has lost. There’s a little joy I get out of exploring the map and seeing the map exploration % go up, but other than that, and the little reward you get for filling out every 10% or so, it’s just a normal map.

Revelations in Celceta received no graphical upgrades whatsoever, so the game looks the same as it does on PC or PlayStation. It received an HD upgrade in 2018 when it was first released on those platforms, so it looks better than the PlayStation Vita version. At the very least, I can say the game looks just as good in both docked and portable mode on the Switch 2. I played in both capacities, and handheld mode did not suffer in the slightest.

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta’s one new addition is the newly recorded and re-interpreted version of the soundtrack. For those unaware, Falcom Sound Team jdk, Falcom’s in-house band, has always produced incredible music. Unfortunately, the composition for Revelations was outsourced, and it shows. While the original Memories of Celceta has an incredible soundtrack, the re-interpreted Revelations soundtrack isn’t nearly as good.

The soundtrack isn’t all bad; in fact, there are a couple of tracks that might be better than the originals. The Foliage Ocean in Celceta arrangement is quite good, and though I’m not a huge fan of it, the Frontier Town -Casnan- arrangement has been stuck in my head for the past two weeks, a real earworm. But tracks like In the Fires of Ignition and The Dawn of Ys, tracks that were already mediocre in the original soundtrack, are somehow worse. Falcom’s sound team is maybe one of their crown jewels, so to continually outsource the music is a disappointment. At least you can switch between the new and the original soundtracks.