Recovering lost memory in Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta

When we came across the slightly-larger foes like a mutant bull and a giant gorilla pack leader, we had to be a bit defensive. Some bosses, like Glucarius the "Great Squilla of Extermination" require you to do a flash dodge when it attacks so that you can attack its temporarily-exposed weak spot to kill it faster. Unless you like getting steamrolled constantly by its continuous charge attack, we suggest practicing flash dodge and flash block beforehand.

You'll need to switch characters frequently against enemies impervious to particular attacks.

This game being on the Vita, some touchscreen nuances had to be added and thankfully, it all appears to be for the better. Players can access menu and item screens with a touch of the icons at the bottom right of the screen. If the current view is too close to the party characters, you can zoom in and out by dragging both of your fingers inwards or outwards on the touchscreen.

Accessing the full map of the area only requires you to touch the top right map, while scanning the floors is as easy as dragging the touchscreen slider on the right part of the screen. Falcom resisted the temptation to implement touchscreen controls for combat, and instead used it for menus. Frankly, we think it was a good move.

The flash dodge system may remind action game fans of Bayonetta's Witch Time mechanic.

At the end of the day, killing enemies and earning materials to make better loot is the key point of Ys: FOC, and it seemed to deliver on that point well enough during our playthrough. The game's flashy combat appears to have a lot of meat to it, resulting in really frenetic battles with enemy hordes that can be managed with a lot of skill. Boss fights so far have been challenging and require you to make use of the game's new dodging techniques. While the game's canon takes place before the third game, players can get into the story quick without much of Ys' backlog in mind, provided they can read Japanese.

We hope these qualities can justify Xseed Games (who previously localized Ys Seven) to push out a North American-translated version of this reiteration, even if they haven't officially announced any plans to bring it over. In the meantime, fans of action RPGs can check it out from their friendly neighborhood parallel import store.