I often caught myself looking for retro games to play it, not because I want the nostalgia of old games… But because I actually want to experience gaming from the past! So I already spent dozens of hours reading about retro games, and decided to share my thoughts on the ones that I play!

So, I’m skipping Ys I and II for now, because this is a hidden gem. The TLDR of this game is: This is the Zelda II: The Adventure of Link of the Ys franchise. And not because is clunky and weird, but it also feels a lot like Zelda II. And don’t get me wrong, I love both of these games.

Just like the first two games of the franchise, Ys III has a insane amount of grinding, and exp. walls. And to be honest, I love that. It’s a very unique and chill feeling to grind from some exp and gear, while watching some series or movie. So, if you don’t like grind, you probably won’t enjoy any of the games on the Ys franchise. That being said, it’s not just a “turn off brain, and grind”. You actually had to put some effort (or a LOT of time) into creating the farm setups in every exp wall (mostly after every main boss). So basically, the grind is part of the game’s challenge.

Besides grinding, it’s a regular action retro RPG, where you do some quests, kill some monsters and upgrade your gear. The lore it’s pretty standard, not bad, but not impressive. It’s just about enough to keep you paying attention to what are you doing.

By the way, if you are going to try this game out, good luck with the final boss… you need a LOT of patience. Holy damn, it was annoying.