In today's episode of Curse of The Blinking Cursor, I sit at my desk, dumbfounded and drooling, trying to imagine a word salad that'd explain why I keep replaying a game I'm indifferent to. My first Ys III: Wanderers of Ys experience was renting the Super Nintendo port. After hearing about how big of a deal the duology was for the Turbografx-16, I went into the third Ys entry expecting something special. What I got was Adol losing fights to bees and ants, as well as bosses that required ugly grinding just to do more than 1 point of damage. It wasn't all bad though. I'd even go so far as to call the game a valuable learning experience. It taught me how to save scum. Actually, that might've been Lagoon. I can't remember which I played first. In all seriousness, Ys III SNES left such a bad first impression that I ignored every other port. The Oath in Felghana though, you're damn right I enjoyed it on both the PSP and PC.
- Hang on a second. I'm reading the review I wrote for the PSP version. It seems that I didn't love it all that much. Jeeze... Okay well, forget about the remake. It's irrelevant anyway. Let's mash the start button and skip through the next dozen plus years. 2025 was when I finally played the Turbografx-16 CD version of Ys III. It was exactly what I expected; Mediocre as ever but lifted into the stratosphere by Ryo Yonemitsu's incredible arrangements. Skip ahead one last time to today. I'm trapped in the latest hell I built for myself. Besides recency bias, what does the Sega Genesis port offer that makes me value the time I spent with it?
It has a down-stab that's freaking decent! You'd be surprised just how much one aspect that works can lift almost an entire game out of the muck. If there's a monster that walks, crawls, or is stuck to the ground, I'm down-stabbing the life out of it. I mean, it's definitely not Zelda II tier, but Adol having something to do besides face-tanking or striking from a safe spot gives the combat a little more dimension. Now I'm left wishing that there were more bosses that could be attacked from above. There'd be something else to do for the 5 to 30 seconds an average boss-battle lasts.
If you've played any version of Ys 3 (even Oath!) then you understand the importance of a little grinding. The Genesis port makes the early game a little less grimy. Provided Adol is at level 3, both of the Tigre Mine bosses can be easily defeated. Level 7 or 8 is more than enough to finish the Alciano Ruins and clear out Tigre's third boss. You'll hit the cap not long afterwards, likely squishing flies in caves near the mountain cabin. If there's an incentive to try and keep Adol's level on the lower side, then I'll never see it. Destroying bosses in an instant is a sensation too pleasurable to give up. For what it's worth, hitboxes and hurtboxes are actually quite solid. Avoiding attacks on reaction is simple, creating a little satisfaction where there was once none.
In the end however, there's not a whole lot that can be done with the final series of bosses. That tall wizard you face at the end of Valestine Castle is quickly undone by the fact that the one spot where his lightning won't strike is directly in front of him. A couple of knights are shredded by buzzsaw Adol running at them with a power ring on his finger. All Demanicus has going for him is the immense damage he does if the hero makes any physical contact. He'll take a few tries, but only because tapping the jump button just enough to land hits without getting melted is made extra wonky by the floor that won't stop shifting.
I don't have too much to nitpick. Probably the biggest annoyance is that enemies are sometimes placed in the worst possible locations, so Adol will get bashed the moment he enters. There's a spot in Alciano Ruins just outside of the second building where killer millipedes will eat the red-haired warrior alive, so keep it in mind. Otherwise, I guess the blind jumps in the second half of Tigre Mine are a pain. Well, they're not so much jumps as they are drops, and if you drop right next to one of those tentacle-pod thingies... It won't be pretty.
After several years and multiple ports, the only score I can give Ys III: Wanderers of Ys is a "Eh... well..." This game being part of a legendary series and receiving a brilliant remake keeps leading me to believe that there's significance to it, and I should be more respectful. Honestly, I can't recall a single time in my life that I thought this was ever a good side-scrolling Action RPG. Even by 1992 standards I thought it was lacking. The Genesis port being a little better still doesn't merit it a place next to Zelda II, Faxanadu, Battle of Olympus, etc.
... I better quit while I'm behind. Last thing I need is to build another Hell for myself, with the only way out being a stack of classic NES game reviews taller than the Tower of Babel.
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