Well… After slogging through the first two entries in the series, this was the one I was really looking forward to and it did not disappoint.

HUGE leap forward in gameplay for their third outing in Ys, although the story oddly seems to be lacking a bit, especially compared to Ys II. It’s been so long since I played the SNES version released in the states that I can’t remember if that was the case there as well or if it was just a matter of dumbing it down for the 8-bit console.

While I do agree with the previous reviewer that this game is reminiscent of Zelda II, the controls are a lot looser here and not nearly as good as they were on the SNES. Though this was a huge step up from “run into enemies to kill them” combat style from the previous two games, if you’re looking for the great combat from Zelda II you’re honestly not going to find it with Ys III for the Famicom.

If I had to compare it to another game, I would pick a little known title called Zeliard for DOS. Actually, the similarities between the 8-bit version of Ys III and Zeliard are really quite staggering. I don’t think I noticed that with the 16-bit polish the SNES version got. I would have loved having this on the NES when I was a kid, and it would have blown my mind to then play a 16 bit upgrade to it on the SNES a few years later.

No FAQ required at all for my playthrough of this one, which is how I like my Retro. :)

I didn’t notice a single problem or glitch with the game and the translation. Then again, I’m not the greatest human spell checker in the world and to reference the previous review again, I didn’t notice for years that Bimmy Lee was in Double Dragon III until the AVGN pointed it out to me. That being said, nothing here amiss that I think 99 out of 100 people would notice in any case. This was a great translation.

Many thanks to the Vice Translations team for bringing another classic NES RPG to a grateful English speaking audience.