Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

"Stay as far away from this game as you can"

The is a game that really puzzles me in its design. Being the third game in the Ys series, it is preceded by two games for the NES, both of which used a 3D system of movement. So, I am sure that when this game was released, it came as a shock to many gamers that this title was mostly in 2D. Not only this, but ''Ys III'' is also considered by most to be the worst installment in the series. Although this is my first Ys game, from what I have seen I would have to agree with the voices of the many. This game was really bad.

STORY: 6/10

''Ys III'' is one game that I will say had unrealized potential for a great story. The whole premise behind the Ys series is the wandering adventures of a young swordsman named Adol. This portion of his adventures takes place in a small village named Redmont. Redmont is the hometown of his traveling companion Dogi. Here the talents of a warrior are soon needed to stop a monster who is being resurrected.

Dialog in this game was atrocious, and came about very awkwardly. It almost seemed as if a good story was taken and compressed to fit the needs of the game developers. Very little explanation was given to anything, and characters were not much developed before the end of the game. It had potential, but that is all it will ever have.

GAMEPLAY: 4/10

For the most part ''Ys III'' took place in the five quasi dungeon areas outside of a small town called Redmont. The entire game, aside from area selection, took place in a very stale 2D world with assorted battles and quests. This could also be the most linear RPG that I have ever seen. Not only are there virtually no secrets and literally no side quests, but dungeons don't even require exploring. Except for the final castle, every area only moves in one direction and makes the possibility of getting lost very slim.

As far as the fighting itself goes, someone really dropped the ball on this one. I don't know if it is just a flaw in the programming, but it is VERY difficult to hit an enemy without receiving damage in the process. Also, the enemies themselves are hard to avoid, even though they are not given a large range of motion. Battles are very hard in the beginning, until you level up and make them very boring. It seemed as if the only way to get through the quest was by leveling up as much as possible and buying the best possible armor as soon as you could. Of equipment, there were five spaces each for the swords, shields, armor, rings, and items that existed. The one healing item that you could buy could only be stocked one at a time, even though the areas were too small to need more. Even your level maxes out at 16.

All of this is paired with the extreme shortness of the game. Even taking your time, this title will max out at about 9 hours, which is plenty long enough to play this awful game.

CONTROL: 3/10

If I had to pick a game factor that was more of a constant annoyance to me than anything else, it would have to be control. This fun little odyssey of pain will be started with the game's selection of buttons, which are completely unchangeable. The basic buttons were alright, being Y for attack and speak, B for jump, A for item activation, and Select for the menu screen. These weren't bad choices for the basics (although I would have selected X for the menu, but that is their call.) Problems arose from the fact that contrary to every other RPG ever created, the talk button also happened to be the cancel button. Jump was the selection button in the menus. Even NES RPGs knew better than to make this mistake.

And, as if this weren't bad enough, the menu itself is also misleading. There are several categories to choose from, including Equipment, Inventory, Status, and Save. However, useable items are not part of your inventory, but members of the equipment space. Inventory is for rare and useless trinkets that are found throughout the quest. This is really weird, and another nail in the coffin of control.

The other part (the battle screens) wasn't really that bad, but I will cover this mostly in the gameplay section. Sword slashing and jumping were fairly simple, although it became a little difficult at times to use the sword effectively. Mainly it was just the button selection that made this title a little awkward.

GRAPHICS: 4/10

Graphically, ''Ys III'' was a complete flop. Even with its early generation release in 1991, not a single bit of animation was beyond the power of the original NES. Everything looked very grainy, and only boss sprites had any sort of range of motion. When you combine this with the 2D format it creates a monster horrible to behold. The part that baffles me though, is the fact that the version of this game released for the Sega Genesis (at least 3 months prior to the SNES version) has twice the visual appeal. Genesis was by no means more powerful than the SNES, but that didn't seem to matter to the developers of this ''masterpiece''. I hope that someone lost their job over this one.

SOUND: 8/10

This was one aspect that was not tarnished in the movement of the series to the SNES. Sound in this game was very pleasing and appropriate right from the get-go. And while it does not have the sweeping symphonic movements of the Final Fantasy games, the soundtrack to ''Ys III'' had a good beat that stayed fun right until the end. It also probably helped that this game was too short to get tired of any one particular track. Sound effects were a little sparse, though, and mainly limited to the sound of Adol's sword cleaving the air and his frequent collisions with enemies.

One really bad aspect of the sound, which was so bad that I am giving it its own paragraph, was what happened when items were found or received. IT WAS AN EXACT COPY OF ''METROID''. The game froze, it showed the item and its name, and played a nearly exact copy of the ''Metroid'' item music. I don't see how this could have been a coincidence.

Recap:

This is the first game I have ever reviewed that I wouldn't even recommend playing. Not only is it not worth your money to buy or rent, it isn't even worth your time to play. Stay as far away from ''Ys III'' as you can and cover your ears when the name is mentioned. You will be saving yourself a lot of grief.

STORY: 6/10
GAMEPLAY: 4/10
CONTROL: 3/10
GRAPHICS: 4/10
SOUND: 8/10

TOTAL: 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/03, Updated 04/25/05