This game's pretty cool. It is more of a sidescrolling action RPG this time rather than a top down bump combat action RPG. The scrolling for the levels is particularly choppy on the PC engine version of the game, which is the one I chose to play, but I do believe the scrolling is better on other systems so play on those if the scrolling is too disorienting. This game is really fascinating to me in the fact that for its time I feel like this is a really really really solid glimpse at what video games are to become in the future, with how the game has a focus on storytelling that is actually decently written and choreographed in-engine, instead of just having text on a screen or an FMV video playing. The voice acting, while a step down from the actually well-performed Ys book 1 & 2, is actually still rather decent for its time. It's still cheesy deliveries on most lines but it's not like Last Alert or Valis 2 levels of bad. This game is a game that I feel if I played it back when it was brand new on this new cutting edge hardware, I would think differently about video games as a whole medium, and I don't really say that about a lot of video games. Play if you are willing and able to see it from that mindset, since otherwise by today's standards you just kinda have a chunky lil decent platforming action RPG.

Reviewed on Mar 17, 2023


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