What most people seem to agree on when it comes to Ys III is the soundtrack. Some complain about the more linear dungeon designs, but after the giant, frustrating, layout of the last dungeon in Ys II, I certainly don’t mind the move towards linearity. In combat, I always found myself simply holding down the attack button and just running into enemies, not unlike in other Ys titles. Ys III looks great, controls well, and moves quickly. However, the game is actually not as bad as some would say. Most of the criticism leveled at this game is due to its switch to a sidescrolling perspective (not unlike Zelda II). The oft-maligned third entry of the Ys series got an excellent Genesis port thanks to Telenet Japan. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Genesis, 1991) Unfortunately, it never made it to North America. The game is a sidescrolling dungeon crawler RPG with a soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro. Sorcerian is part of Falcom’s enormous and varied Dragon Slayer series. Sega decided to give the game an “Olde English” flair, sprinkling thys and thous throughout, not unlike Nintendo of America’s localization of the original Dragon Quest on the NES. Despite these odd changes, the English text is quite charming. Another strange localization choice was changing hero Adol’s name to Aron. For one, on the spine and back of the box, Ys is spelled “Y’s.” No idea what this is supposed to mean. This title was brought to North America by Sega, and the translation is pretty interesting. Perhaps it was because this package only included the first game (Ys I and II are typically packaged together), but this version is extremely difficult and requires a great deal of grinding. It doesn’t look that great (though the character portraits are outstanding), but it plays like Ys, and the Master System version of Yuzo Koshiro’s soundtrack is really catchy. It sticks pretty closely to the source material and does the best it can, despite the limitations of the hardware, to recreate the Ys experience. Ported to the Master System by Sega themselves, this version of the first Ys game is both solid and charming. Ys: The Vanished Omen (Master System, 1988) While only a (relative) handful of Falcom’s games ever made it to Sega platforms (and even fewer were localized), Sega and Falcom had a brief and interesting relationship. Until just recently, Falcom was primarily a PC developer, letting other companies bring their games to other platforms. Best known for their series of Ys action-RPGs, Falcom has developed a variety of games in many different genres. This year, Falcom celebrates its 30th anniversary.
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