Shortly after arriving at PAX East in Boston, MA, we had the pleasure of stopping by the Xseed booth to see their four upcoming titles. After we muscled our way past the growing lines to see Granblue Fantasy Versus, we found one of two lone kiosks showcasing the upcoming PlayStation 4 release of Ys: Memories of Celceta, the canonical fourth title in Nihon Falcom’s long-running action RPG series (although certainly far from the fourth title to be released chronologically).

　　This former PlayStation Vita-exclusive is seeing new life on Sony’s flagship console, nearly six and a half years since its release in North America. Ys: Memories of Celceta was previously available in Japan, but as this was only announced for a North American release by Xseed as recently as last December, this is one of the first times that the English build has been playable by the public.

　　Much of the core release of Ys: Memories of Celceta remains the same from its Vita counterparts: Adol still adventures off in a small party with up two AI partners and can freely swap between them in the midst of combat and even mid-combo. Thanks to Celceta’s emphasis on attack affinities (strike, slash and pierce), rotating active characters is nigh mandatory in combat.

　　To support the free flow combat, Ys: Memories of Celceta’s PlayStation 4 remaster will run at a solid 60 FPS at full HD (which won’t go any higher than that on the PlayStation 4 Pro but the supersampling boost mode should aide in picture fidelity). On the audio side, the PlayStation 4 version will support both English voices as well as the original Japanese audio track, which will soon be released as a free PC patch if you already own Memories of Celceta on PC.

　　From what I’ve played, Ys: Memories of Celceta is very much the same game that I played half a decade ago, but it’s been long enough apart from Adol and Karna’s adventures that I look forward to the refresher in full HD. While a firm release date for Ys: Memories of Celceta is yet to be confirmed (Xseed reiterated a Spring 2020 release window), this HD remaster will be available in two flavors at launch: a digital standalone edition on the PlayStation Store for $29.99, and a Day 1 “Timeless Adventurer Edition” that includes a special soundtrack CD that was previously exclusive to the Ys 25th Anniversary Pack in Japan as well as twelve 4” x 6” art cards highlighting various heroines from the long-running series.