1990
A simple dungeon crawler that's perfect for the game boy. Small maps and quick fights make it easy to pick up and put back down. I played using an English patch and I'm pretty sure it glitched and wiped my save file when I was on the final palace. Oh well, it's a very predictable game, and you get exactly what's on the tin. There are some neat abilities like Substitution where you can make the enemies attack each other. It's crucial to use these abilities until you've grinded your current floor enough. Cool box art too.
1994
It's fun to figure out the levels. You get a surprising amount of movement abilities and mechanics, and there's some clever level design and boss fights. The polish is quite high for a game boy game, lots of animations and flourish. Maybe it's too easy, I ended the game with over 50 lives, but I think being able to just casually play the game without any worries like that is just fine.
I have only played this for the first time recently and it was really stressful at certain parts. Shooting things was really satisfying and I managed to luck my way into getting the best ending on accident. I played as Chris because he's on the fucking cover of the game but all my loser friends tell me I should have picked Jill. OK.
It's too bad this is the last bump combat Ys game (from what I understand), as this was the most fleshed out and enjoyable incarnation of it. It's got cool boss battles, a couple anime cutscenes, glorious classic Falcom CD music, and now a charming fan English dub. Playing this game made me realize the SNES was obsolete earlier than I realized. It's a shame the Turbo CD didn't catch on here in the states.
I just replayed this on a whim to indulge in some nostalgia. It's still quite fun to pick some random pokemon and see how they do against the elite four. Something I didn't notice when I was a kid is that psychic types are so powerful because of a lack of moves that are super effective against them!