Difference between revisions of "Ys III: Wanderers from Ys"

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[[Image:SimCity - SNES - USA.jpg|thumb|256x256|North American box art.]]
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[[Image:Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - MSX2 - Japan.jpg|thumb|256x256px|Original box art.]]
  
 
'''''Ys III: Wanderers From Ys''''' is an action adventure fantasy game developed and published by [[Nihon Falcom]] for the [[PC-9801]] and [[PC-8801]] on 1989-07-28. It was later ported to several other platforms. It is the third game in the [[Ys (universe)|Ys series]].
 
'''''Ys III: Wanderers From Ys''''' is an action adventure fantasy game developed and published by [[Nihon Falcom]] for the [[PC-9801]] and [[PC-8801]] on 1989-07-28. It was later ported to several other platforms. It is the third game in the [[Ys (universe)|Ys series]].
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==Status==
 
==Status==
I do not own this game. I am playing the SNES port.
+
I do not own this game. I began playing the SNES port in November of 2018, but after learning how bad it is, I switched to the Genesis port. I beat the game on 2018-11-28.
  
 
==Review==
 
==Review==
* '''Overall:''' ?/10
+
* '''Overall:''' 4/10
* '''Best Version:''' ?
+
* '''Best Version:''' Genesis
  
 
===Good===
 
===Good===
*  
+
* The graphics are pretty decent in the 8-bit ports and the Genesis port. However, the graphics look a bit dated by the time the SNES port was made.
 +
* [[Mieko Ishikawa]] composed a really enjoyable soundtrack with help from [[Yuzo Koshiro]] on a couple tracks.
 +
* The game lets you save and load pretty much everywhere. This is nice considering how easy it is to take damage, so expect a lot of [[save scumming]].
 +
* The NPCs change their dialogue as the game progresses which is nice.
 +
* It has a pretty good ending.
  
 
===Bad===
 
===Bad===
* The beginning story is pretty odd. Dogi takes Adol to his home town, but when it is discovered that the town's leader has been lost in a quarry full of monsters, Dogi just lazes in the inn so that Adol has to rescue the leader by himself.
+
* The game caps you at level 12. I ended up hitting the cap a little over halfway through the game. After that, fighting monsters was mostly pointless for the rest of the game and most of the bosses were painfully easy.
* Several monsters move so fast it's very hard to avoid taking a hit.
+
* Several monsters move so fast it's very hard to avoid taking damage.
* Ground-based enemies just move back and forth in a fixed area without even a primitive AI.
+
* Hit detection is bad in several ports, but especially the SNES where enemies can hit you even when they aren't visually touching you, but your sword also has a huge hit box, so it equals out.
* Enemies do not have wall collision and instead walk right through them. They're usually placed in areas where they won't walk though walls, but sometimes they do.
+
* A lot of the bosses have attacks that are extremely difficult to dodge, so you basically just mash the attack button and hope you have enough hit points to survive.
 +
* In the Genesis port, the enemies have fairly basic movement patterns, but they even worse in the SNES port.
 +
* Enemies don't collide with walls and instead walk right through them. They're usually placed in areas where they won't walk though walls, but sometimes they do. This hurts immersion.
 +
* The animation on the weaker ports (PC-88 and MSX) is terrible.
 +
* Items have liner upgrades, so they should automatically become equipped, but they aren't.
 +
* The dialogue is often confusing because it's hard to tell who is speaking. Some ports color Adol's dialogue, but that's still not enough.
 +
* Despite Dogi being your adventuring companion, he lazes while you do all the hard work. Even if the programmers couldn't code AI for him, they could have at least given him off-screen tasks.
 +
* The NES and SNES console ports use the start button to pause and select to open the menu. This should have been reversed.
 +
* The porters must not have had clear game lore because they use different names and spelling variations for a lot of the locations, and the Genesis port has a lot of typos.
 +
* The final boss is really annoying to fight.
  
 
===Ugly===
 
===Ugly===
* Neither the player nor the monsters recoil from getting hit. This is a terrible way to handle combat because monsters and the player just walk though each other causing damage.
+
* Across the various ports, the player control is pretty bad. Movement is a bit difficult to control, jumping is a bit jagged, attacking doesn't feel fluid at all, and the down-strike on a jump attack is odd. The SNES port is especially bad, the Genesis is one of the better ones. The bad controls really become annoying in the Clock Tower.
 +
* Neither the player nor the monsters recoil from getting hit. This is a terrible way to handle combat because, with such a short invincibility timeout after getting hit, monsters can walk through the player and cause damage over and over again.
  
 
==Media==
 
==Media==
 
===Box Art===
 
===Box Art===
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - MSX2 - Japan.jpg|The PC-88, PC-98, and MSX2 boxes all used a box with  purple marbling, a small generic fantasy painting, and the Ys logo. It's interesting, but doesn't explain the game at all.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - X68 - Japan.jpg|The X68000 manages to make the box look even more boring.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - TGCD - Japan.jpg|The PC Engine CD-ROM2 basically mashes two earlier boxes together.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - TGCD - USA.jpg|The TurboGrafx-CD uses scenes from the port's intro.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Japan.jpg|The Super Famicom has an anime battle scene which is fitting to the game.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - FC - Japan.jpg|The Famicom box has some of the game's characters flanked by bosses and still includes the generic fantasy painting and logo from the original box.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Japan.jpg|The Mega Drive box wins the award for the most dull cover.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - USA.jpg|The Genesis box shows a battle scene painted in an American style.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - USA.jpg|The SNES box has Adol confronting a red dragon and wizard.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
 
===Documentation===
 
===Documentation===
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - TGCD - USA - Manual.pdf|Manual TurboGrafx-CD.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - USA - Manual.pdf|Manual Genesis.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - USA - Manual.pdf|Manual SNES.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Japan - Ad.jpg|Super Famicom ad.
 +
</gallery>
 +
 +
===Maps===
 +
<gallery>
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Town of Sarina.png|Genesis, Town of Sarina.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Tigre Mine.png|Genesis, Tigre Mine.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Alcaino Ruins.png|Genesis, Alcaino Ruins.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Seko Mountains.png|Genesis, Mount Seko.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Valestine Castle.png|Genesis, Valestine Castle.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - GEN - Map - Demanicus Island.png|Genesis, Demanicus Island.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Town of Redmont.png|SNES, Town of Redmont.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Tigray Quarry.png|SNES, Tigray Quarry.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Ilvern Ruins.png|SNES, Ilvern Ruins.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Eldam Mountains.png|SNES, Eldam Mountains.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Ballacetine Castle.png|SNES, Ballacetine Castle.
 +
Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - Map - Galbalan's Islande.png|SNES, Galbalan's Islande.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
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==Links==
 
==Links==
* [https://www.mobygames.com/game/ys-iii-wanderers-from-ys mobygames.com/game/ys-iii-wanderers-from-ys] - MobyGames.
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{{Link|MobyGames|https://www.mobygames.com/game/ys-iii-wanderers-from-ys}}
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys_III:_Wanderers_from_Ys en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys_III:_Wanderers_from_Ys] - Wikipedia.
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{{Link|Wikipedia|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys_III:_Wanderers_from_Ys}}
  
  
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[[Category: Video Games]]
 
[[Category: Video Games]]
 
[[Category: Genesis Games]]
 
[[Category: Genesis Games]]
[[Category: MSX Games]]
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[[Category: MSX2 Games]]
 
[[Category: NES Games]]
 
[[Category: NES Games]]
[[Category: PC-9800 Games]]
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[[Category: PC-88 Games]]
[[Category: PC-8800 Games]]
+
[[Category: PC-98 Games]]
 
[[Category: SNES Games]]
 
[[Category: SNES Games]]
[[Category: TurboGrafx CD Games]]
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[[Category: TurboGrafx-CD Games]]
[[Category: X68000 Games]]
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[[Category: Sharp X68000 Games]]
 
[[Category: Action]]
 
[[Category: Action]]
 
[[Category: Adventure]]
 
[[Category: Adventure]]
 
[[Category: Fantasy]]
 
[[Category: Fantasy]]
 
[[Category: Metroidvania]]
 
[[Category: Metroidvania]]
 +
[[Category: Games I've Beaten]]

Revision as of 10:17, 12 March 2019

Original box art.

Ys III: Wanderers From Ys is an action adventure fantasy game developed and published by Nihon Falcom for the PC-9801 and PC-8801 on 1989-07-28. It was later ported to several other platforms. It is the third game in the Ys series.

I didn't know about the Ys series when it was most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I had seen the titles in lists of games, but because they were mostly Japanese releases, I didn't bother trying to play them. At the end of 2018, I finally decided to try a Ys game because I saw that Ys III had several elements of my favorite game genre, Metroidvania.

Status

I do not own this game. I began playing the SNES port in November of 2018, but after learning how bad it is, I switched to the Genesis port. I beat the game on 2018-11-28.

Review

  • Overall: 4/10
  • Best Version: Genesis

Good

  • The graphics are pretty decent in the 8-bit ports and the Genesis port. However, the graphics look a bit dated by the time the SNES port was made.
  • Mieko Ishikawa composed a really enjoyable soundtrack with help from Yuzo Koshiro on a couple tracks.
  • The game lets you save and load pretty much everywhere. This is nice considering how easy it is to take damage, so expect a lot of save scumming.
  • The NPCs change their dialogue as the game progresses which is nice.
  • It has a pretty good ending.

Bad

  • The game caps you at level 12. I ended up hitting the cap a little over halfway through the game. After that, fighting monsters was mostly pointless for the rest of the game and most of the bosses were painfully easy.
  • Several monsters move so fast it's very hard to avoid taking damage.
  • Hit detection is bad in several ports, but especially the SNES where enemies can hit you even when they aren't visually touching you, but your sword also has a huge hit box, so it equals out.
  • A lot of the bosses have attacks that are extremely difficult to dodge, so you basically just mash the attack button and hope you have enough hit points to survive.
  • In the Genesis port, the enemies have fairly basic movement patterns, but they even worse in the SNES port.
  • Enemies don't collide with walls and instead walk right through them. They're usually placed in areas where they won't walk though walls, but sometimes they do. This hurts immersion.
  • The animation on the weaker ports (PC-88 and MSX) is terrible.
  • Items have liner upgrades, so they should automatically become equipped, but they aren't.
  • The dialogue is often confusing because it's hard to tell who is speaking. Some ports color Adol's dialogue, but that's still not enough.
  • Despite Dogi being your adventuring companion, he lazes while you do all the hard work. Even if the programmers couldn't code AI for him, they could have at least given him off-screen tasks.
  • The NES and SNES console ports use the start button to pause and select to open the menu. This should have been reversed.
  • The porters must not have had clear game lore because they use different names and spelling variations for a lot of the locations, and the Genesis port has a lot of typos.
  • The final boss is really annoying to fight.

Ugly

  • Across the various ports, the player control is pretty bad. Movement is a bit difficult to control, jumping is a bit jagged, attacking doesn't feel fluid at all, and the down-strike on a jump attack is odd. The SNES port is especially bad, the Genesis is one of the better ones. The bad controls really become annoying in the Clock Tower.
  • Neither the player nor the monsters recoil from getting hit. This is a terrible way to handle combat because, with such a short invincibility timeout after getting hit, monsters can walk through the player and cause damage over and over again.

Media

Box Art

Documentation

Maps

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Ys III: Wanderers From Ys
Japanese イースIII – ワンダラーズフロムイース Isu Suri – Wandarazu Furomu Isu Ys III: Wanderers From Ys

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png