Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

"Short, linear and hard at the beginning, but still enjoyable"

Ys 3 is a side-scrolling action RPG game, contrary to the other Ys games, that were all using top-down view, like Zelda 2. It looks like your common action game on SNES, but it keeps some nice RPG elements, and the difficulty of a NES game.

Gameplay: 6/10
It is a 2D side-scrolling action game, you play a knight named Adol that can jump, attack with his sword, use items and use rings (that more or less replace magics). He gains experience and gold when he defeats enemies, can gain levels, that raise his stats, and can use his money to buy equipments. It looks like a standard RPG, but everything is very limited: you can buy less than 10 equipments, and 5 items (but only the herb healing HP, and the other healing ring points are really useful) the only stats are HP, attack, and defense, and the only way to hit enemies is the standard sword attack. But the first major problem is the difficulty: beyond the second room of the first dungeon, enemies are already far too strong for you! You will need a bit of leveling before going further.

Yet the game isn't as hard as it seems: first you will find rings. Rings must be worn in the equip menu to work, they consume ring points (around 1 RP per second for the first ones) and double your attack, or your defense, slow time and much more. Needless to say, rings become mandatory when you realize you can reduce 80% of damage taken, or hit bosses you couldn't without. Moreover, you can recharge your RP entirely at the town for only 100 gold! Secondly, you don't need to kill all the monsters you meet, when you head for the boss, you will probably jump over most enemies. Thirdly, you can buy herb to restore all your HP, and you also heal entirely when you leave the first room with enemies, in any stage, which is quite handy to get some experience, some gold and discover the new enemies of the stage. All in all, it makes the game quite enjoyable, as exploring and fighting bosses is quite fun.

Sadly, there are many flaws. The second dungeon is really hard, and will require you to run a lot. Herbs and ring recharge are too expensive at the beginning of the game, which makes the first two dungeons far harder than the rest of the game. Afterwards, the game even becomes too easy from time to time. The worst is the hit detection, it is very hard to hit enemies because your sword is very short, and sometimes, it seems you must reach the back of the monster to hit him. Therefore, you get hit far more often than you should, and it can get really frustrating against bosses that hurt badly.

Story: 2/10
A very standard story, full of cliches. You come to a small town, because a fortune-teller told your friend Dougi that it will be destroyed. There, you help people, and fight against an evil emperor that want to resurrect an evil monster. The story could have been enjoyable, if dialogues weren't so flat and stupid, or epic, if there was something impressive (a boss, a background, a music), but there isn't. Especially Adol, the hero, doesn't have any motive, he just has nothing else to do than risk his life and kill monsters.

Graphics/Sound: 8/10
Ys 3 was an early SNES release, yet it is quite impressive. There are animated cut-scene, the backgrounds are nice and the characters are detailed. The musics get repetitive quite quickly, most will be quickly forgotten, a few ones are a bit catchy.

Play time/Replayability: 3.5/10
The game is short, less than 10 hours to finish, is very linear and once you finish it, there's nothing else to do. Well, you might play it again, from time to time, because it is not much of an investment, as there's nothing complicated and you can save anywhere, but it's not much.

Overall: 5/10
Ys 3 is certainly enjoyable and fun despite his flaws (poor hit detection, poor difficulty balance) thanks to his RPG elements (rings, experience, gold), but there is nothing special about it. There are many better side-scrolling games, far less linear and with better fights (Faxanadu, Zelda 2, Dragon View), but if you can find it for cheap, you can give it a try.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/09

Game Release: Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (US, January 1992)