Rating: 4.5/5
Departing from the overhead view and "bump" system style of combat, Ys returned as a side-scoller in it's third installment. The basic guidelines were not changed much, though. Adol has traveled to a new town, starts with 1000 gold and just as he's about to settle in something terrible happens and he's off to start his new adventure. Adol now controls like a more traditional action platformer, with buttons for attack and jump. What seperates this game from other action platformers is how little downtime there is between attacking and defending. Unlike Castlevania where you must time your jumps and attacks quite precisely, in Ys III you may simply hold the attack button down and run through level after level with not much to stop you. This makes the enemy difficulty quite easy, until you meet a boss. The bosses have been revamped in difficulty considerably in comparison to Ys Book I and II, and you must now plan your attacks carefully before charging forward. The music in this game is my favorite of the series by far. Now being composed solely by Mieko Ishikawa, and again, arranged by Ryo Yonemitsu, it dispenses with the handful of ambient tracks that Ys I and II had and goes full force with guitar/rock driven melodies. Though it is considered the black sheep in the series, it's still a lot of fun, and is my favorite of them all.
You also need an emulator to run this game. To grab one quickly, please check out our PCECD emulators section.