"Generic but enjoyable." Ryo Reviews: Ys: The Oath in Felghana

For the record ARPGs I've tried are (off the top of my head):

1. Legend of Mana, which I love.
2. Secret of Mana, which I don't quite like. I have problem with how traversable and non-traversable areas aren't quite so clear.
3. Trials of Mana, which is better but I still don't quite like. At this point I realize that I like LoM because it's my childhood and the story is unique.
4. Chrono Trigger, which I dropped because I don't know what to do in the beginning. Definitely gonna retry this someday.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, which I used to enjoy, but recent playthrough leaves me finding myself too slow at solving the puzzle, so I dropped.
6. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which was a meh.
7. The Legend of Zelda, which the idea I find really intriguing and enjoyed a bit, but I only played a bit. Metroidvania's probably scratch the itch better.
8. Zelda II: The Adventure of link, which I find surprisingly enjoyable, but I only played just a bit longer.
9. Is metroidvania counts as ARPG? apparently it's action-adventure but have RPG elements. Whatever, I loved Aria of Sorrow, then the Symphony of the Night, then Dawn of Sorrow too, so basically the main lineup. I don't quite like the rest of it.

Anyway, discounting metroidvanias, which are too different anyway, Ys: The Oath of Felghana is something I actually can have a good time on aside from Legend of Mana. The combats are fun, and the traversable areas is distinguished enough. It's also really gentle; the normal combat is already easy enough, but enemies drops buffs and healings, and checkpoints can indefinitely restore your life. There are infinite retry, and if you find the boss's to be too difficult, you'll be given option to lower the difficulty after dying a certain times. There's harder mode, but I only tried normal mode so idk.

That said, the boss battle are repetitive, and the story and characters are generic. There's not much merit except that the act of playing it is fun. I only played maybe a quarter of it, but I definitely wasn't impressed.

Edit: Oh, I've also played Alundra, which have similar problem to Minish Cap, Shining Soul, which in similar situation to Zelda II, and Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, which I used to enjoy and play almost to completion, but haven't played it again since.