Ys (pronounced “ease,” no apostrophe!) is a legendary, highly influential Japanese action role-playing game franchise with a long, strange history of development and releases, both overseas and abroad. One of the strangest things about the series is that its original developer, Falcom, didn’t make an Ys IV, instead giving the story concepts to different developers and letting them run with them individually. As a result, there are multiple Ys IVs, but none have been considered a true part of the series. Until now, that is: Falcom decided to make an “official” Ys IV as its debut Vita game, calling it Memories of Celceta. The result is one of the best action RPGs yet released on the platform.
Celceta puts us back in the shoes of the fiery-haired Ys series hero, Adol. Adol has just wrapped up what seems to be another adventure, but he’s got a serious problem: he doesn’t remember any of it. In fact, he doesn’t remember anything about his life. Fortunately, he runs into an old acquaintance, an “information dealer” named Duren, as he’s recovering at a tavern. With Duren’s help, he remembers that he is a traveling adventurer who had set out into the great forest of Celceta–uncha…