Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

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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, but after learning how bad it is, I switched to the Genesis port.

Review

  • Overall: ?/10
  • Best Version: Genesis

Good

  • The graphics and music are both pretty decent in the 8-bit ports. However, the graphics look a bit dated on the SNES.
  • The game lets you save and load pretty much everywhere which is nice considering how easy it is to take damage.

Bad

  • You have to spend a lot of time grinding.
  • Several monsters move so fast it's very hard to avoid taking damage.
  • Hit detection on the SNES port is pretty bad. 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.
  • Most of the enemies have extremely primitive AIs, although some of the better ports make them more interesting.
  • 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.
  • The animation on the weaker ports (PC-88 and MSX) are terrible.
  • Items have liner upgrades, but they are not automatically equipped. If the next sword is objectively superior than the last, it should automatically become active.
  • The dialogue is often confusing because it's hard to tell who is speaking.
  • Despite Dogi being your companion, he basically lazes in the inn while you do all the work.
  • The NES and SNES console ports use the start button to pause and select for 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.

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.
  • 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

  • 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.

  • The X68000 manages to make the box look even more boring.

  • The PC Engine CD-ROM2 basically mashes two earlier boxes together.

  • The TurboGrafx-CD uses scenes from the port's intro.

  • The Super Famicom has an anime battle scene which is fitting to the game.

  • 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.

  • The Mega Drive box wins the award for the most dull cover.

  • The Genesis box shows a battle scene painted in an American style.

  • The SNES box has Adol confronting a red dragon and wizard.

Documentation

  • Manual TurboGrafx-CD.

  • Manual Genesis.

  • Ys III - Wanderers From Ys - SNES - USA - Manual.pdf

    Manual SNES.

  • Super Famicom ad.

Maps

  • Genesis, Town of Sarina.

  • Genesis, Tigre Mine.

  • Genesis, Alcaino Ruins.

  • Genesis, Seko Mountains.

  • Genesis, Valestine Castle.

  • Genesis, Demanicus Island.

  • SNES, Town of Redmont.

  • SNES, Tigray Quarry.

  • SNES, Ilvern Ruins.

  • SNES, Eldam Mountains.

  • SNES, Ballacetine Castle.

  • SNES, Galbalan's Islande.

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

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