The third Ys game takes a cue from Zelda II and flings the series in a side scrolling perspective. As a result, many fans regard it with quite a bit of disdain (again, much like Zelda II). Taking place a few years after the first two games, Adol and Dogi travel to the town of Redmont, where evil happenings are going on. All of this is somehow related to the cold-hearted childhood friend Elena and her malicious brother Chester (surely the best-named evil doer in video game history). Naturally, it's up to Adol to investigate the conspiracy, none of which has anything to do with the land of Ys. Incidentally, the original title of the game was not Ys III, but simply Wanderers from Ys. Later console ports added the Ys III designation.

Characters

Elena Stoddard Elena is kind of a cold-hearted brat at first, but after Adol tries to save her brother Chester from the clutches of evil, she warms up a bit. Naturally, she gets kidnapped in the end.

Chester Stoddard Truly a Great Villain in Video Game History, Chester aspires to be a major bad ass by summoning the power of the evil Demanicus (or Galbadan, depending on what version is played). His voice actor for the English Ys III is terribly amazing.

Edgar The mayor of Redmont, whom Adol finds lying wounded in the mines. He is very thankful of having a true hero around, and keeps supporting Adol on his quest.

Count McGuire The ruler of Felghana, known by everyone as a cruel tyrant. So it doesn't surprise at all that he also has his hands in the restoration of the big bad. The Oath in Felghana tries to humanize him a bit by introducing his wife and children, but in the original Wanderers of Ys he stays mostly in the background.

Dularn A mysterious sorcerer that weasels around McGuire. His true identity is a big mystery throughout most of the game.

The side scrolling venue is a little awkward at first, especially when attacking in mid-air, but Adol swings his sword like a buzzsaw and the joy of dashing back and forth, cutting through enemies to steal their luscious experience, is still maintained. Like the other games, a lot of time is spent power leveling, because skill isn't something that will win battles here. There's no magic, but the rings are back for a variety of effects (higher offense, higher defense, time slowdown, etc.), although you can only use them for a limited amount of time, which is recharged by slaying enemies.

There are still some major problems. The maze-like designs of the previous Ys games are entirely gone. Most of the "dungeons" are straightforward paths, with an occasional rewarding branch to explore. And the boss fights are made unnecessarily frustrating due to the damage they deal, combined with the overall shortness of Adol's weapon. Despite these issues, and the distance Ys III places itself from the rest of the series, it's still just fun. The graphics are mediocre, but there's some fairly keen multiplane scrolling, which was a technological marvel back at the time. It doesn't hurt that Ys III not only has the most amazing soundtracks of the series.

The Famicom version has the worst graphics and sound of any of the ports, but otherwise plays reasonably well. It's also quite difficult. The PC-88 (the original) and MSX versions are a step up, but per usual standards for the computer systems, the scrolling is pretty choppy. The X68000 port is the best of the home computer versions, offering graphics comparable to the consoles. However, the MIDI synth is a little bit hard on the ears when stacked up against the PC-88 version. Surprisingly, all three 16-bit console versions actually made it to America. The Genesis version came out courtesy of Renovation/Telenet, the SNES was brought out by Sammy, and Hudson put out the TG-16 CD version.

The TG-16 version is considered by many to be the definitive edition, primarily due to the amazing CD soundtrack, once again arranged by Ryo Yonemitsu. Even if you have absolutely no intention of playing this game at all, track down the CD just for the music, it's worth it in extraordinary magnitudes. There are also a few intro cutscenes - one showing some sort of beefy hero of legend with long hair and the other, more traditional anime style intro, with Adol and Dogi sharing a variety of adventures. There's also some terribly amusing voice acting throughout the game. As for the game itself - unfortunately, the TurboGrafx can't seem to handle the multiplane backgrounds very well, so a lot of the scrolling is quite choppy. It doesn't ruin the game, but it is a bit distracting. This is also the easiest of the three 16-bit titles, with weaker enemies, easier leveling and less insane boss fights. Oddly enough, the English translation names have been changed - Redmont is now Sarina, Ilburn is now Alcaino, and there are plenty of other differences. Weird.

One of the most balanced 16-bit ports is the Genesis edition. The colors have been downgraded a bit, but the game actually runs smoothly, which already puts it above the TG-16 version. The music obviously isn't quite as good, but for a Genesis, it makes the transition amazingly well and its FM synth makes it sound relatively faithful to the PC originals. The intro is also different, showing how Adol and Dogi decided to start their adventure. It also maintains the bizarre altered names from the TG-16 release.

The SNES version has a similar intro to the Genesis version, but quite a bit condensed, with entirely different artwork and some totally unnecessary Mode 7 effect. It also offers the cleanest graphics of the three. Unfortunately, the music ends up pretty lousy during the conversion process, with totally abrasive sound samples - considering the SNES' awesome sound chip, this is a mystery. The enemies are also nasty difficult, making this version a bit more irritating. It is the only English version to keep the original Japanese names intact.

The PlayStation 2 version, released in Japan in 2005 (fifteen years after Ys III initially came out) by Taito, gives a big overhaul to the game to make it comparable to the Eternal remakes of the first two games. The graphics have been given a major overhaul obviously, with extremely well animated, high res sprites, hand drawn backgrounds, and characters portraits for all of the major characters, including the shopkeepers. Most of the dialogue is fully voiced, including Adol's, for the first time in the series. The mechanics have been upgraded, too - bad guys are stunned when hit, and Adol has a bit of invincibility time when he is hurt, so say goodbye to those irritating insta-kills from before. Unfortunately, you can't hold down the attack button anymore and buzzsaw your way through bad guys, although Adol has a pretty cool four hit slashing combo. There is also a separate upwards slash, as well as a downwards attack from jumping.

For all of the positives, however, there are some cryptic changes. While the game overall feels less broken than all of the other versions, hitting bad guys in mid-air is still difficult, and the difficulty is very unbalanced. On the Normal setting, almost all of the bosses are pansies. There are other weird issues too - the enemy life gauge has been removed, save for boss battles. Most of the levels don't scroll - instead, they fade in and out as you move from screen to screen. As a result, a lot of the cool multiplane scrolling is missing. So are a lot of the background details. Remember those awesome waterfalls in the Tigre Mines? Gone. The Volcano in the Ilburn Ruins? Also gone. But the biggest problem is that, other than fixing the controls, Taito didn't do much to the actual structure. The stages are still linear and dull, and the whole game can still be beaten in three hours. You would think that the wisdom of hindsight would provoke the designers to severely overhaul the game from its core, but they didn't. As a result, only people that really loved Ys III in the first place could really dig this version. Only a few months after the PS2 release, Falcom published their own remake of Ys III, dubbed The Oath in Felghana. Since it uses the Ys VI engine, the gameplay is entirely different - you can read about it later in the article.

Following the first game in the series, Wanderers from Ys was graced with a teenie-weenie cell phone port by Bothtec, in 2002. The same company then developed a graphically enhanced version two years later. There was yet another distinctive mobile port, but this one was exclusive to Korea, like Ys II Special a decade earlier. Programmed by PNJ Mobile and published by Kama Digital Entertainment in 2004, it was known as Ys III Eternal (이스III 이터널) and featured improved graphics and rearranged levels.

Ys III Eternal (Mobile)