Unless you want to rely on affordable life potions - a mundane and unrewarding way to bypass any need for technique - it pays to get technical with Flash Guard and Flash Dodge: highly satisfying last-second evasions that leave enemies prone to powered-up counter-strikes. In terms of power, they're secondary only to your EXTRA Skill, an ostentatious once-in-a-while devastator governed by a treacle-slow gauge.Īlthough initially falling foul of unexciting button repetition and only switching team members when absolutely required, you're given more reason to experiment with team layouts and combos at around 13 hours in. Levelling up with use, some engage aerial juggling, freeze enemies, or increase the defence properties of the team. In addition to standard attacks, each character can assign up to four special battle skills that generate Skill Points and HP bonuses when delivered as a finishing blow. Camera positioning is as nicely orchestrated as the scenery. Combat and boss patterns are more mashy than say, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, but Celceta's handling is still smooth, speedy and engaging, inheriting the engine and combat fundamentals from 2009's Ys Seven. It's an enjoyable and intuitive system that becomes more involving when navigating dungeons and monster-entrenched areas. When you have more than three members at your disposal, assessing an enemy's weakness and tactically arranging your team by ability results in increased damage output. You swap between those who pick locks, smash fissures, and deal better with certain types of enemy, their expertise denoted by Slash, Pierce and Strike suffixes. Only three characters can be present on the battlefield at once, each equipped with different attack repertoires and unique actions. It may not make the hardware sing new wonders, but it looks - and sounds, thanks to the work of Falcom's dedicated sound team - plenty colourful.Īdol is first accompanied by Duren, a do-gooder helping him salvage his memories in return for a little coin, before eventually working up to a six-strong team. This touch of bloom is far from an issue though. Using a Vaseline filter to soften rough edges, the game bears a passing similarity to Squaresoft's PS2 beat-'em-up hybrid, The Bouncer - another game with a redheaded hero. Character portraits are sharp and plentiful, and it's graphically well defined. The automated camera is nicely optimised, panning and scaling to reveal the breadth of quaint townships, arcane architecture, and picturesque vistas in the forest's inner sanctum. At Selray Village, Adol isn't exactly welcomed with open arms.Ĭelceta is visually charismatic and splendidly glossy. The Great Forest holds a number of surprises. It's also markedly different from the original incarnations of Ys 4, opting to cherry-pick plot components and make certain characters playable for the first time. Normally one would assume this to be the result of one too many gin and tonics, but it turns out that he was exploring Celceta's Great Forest: a vast, uncharted area whose labyrinthine nature is known to imprison the meek.Īlthough events occur chronologically after Ys 2, there's only scant reference to the flame-haired Adol's former exploits in Esteria, following the series' tradition of bespoke adventures with no explicit ties to each other. In Memories of Celceta, he finds himself in Casnan's town bar suffering complete memory loss. Protagonist Adol Christin is a rogue adventurer of Sinbad ilk, but younger, cleaner, and all licked in anime, a seafarer in search of lands to liberate from evil and girls to make weak at the knees. With Falcom in the process of rewriting the series canon, this Ys 4 remake - now dubbed Memories of Celceta - is the company's first title for PS Vita. Thanks to US publisher XSEED's truffle-sniffing for the best of Japan's overlooked works, the action-RPG series is now party to a growing international fan base.īack in 1993, Ys 4 was licensed to two external 16-bit developers, a debacle that resulted in two very different variations of the same game. On the back of a recent betrothal to Sony handhelds, Falcom has already released definitive revisions of the first three Ys titles for PlayStation Portable. The fourth in the overlooked action RPG series gets a deep and enjoyable makeover for PlayStation Vita.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |