To briefly recap my history with Falcom, developers of the Ys series, I think their turn-based RPGs like the Trails games are too slow and plodding but I really like their action RPGs. Or at least, I absolutely loved Nayuta no Kiseki, and I seriously enjoy the combat in the Tokyo Xanadu eX+.
Somehow I haven’t been able to get into the Ys series as much as I thought I would. The originals with the bump system don’t need to be mentioned, but I’ve also briefly tried Memories of Celceta, Ys Seven and most recently whichever Ys it is on the PSP where the main character washed up in this jungle village place. Can’t remember the title right now, but it’s one of them.
But I haven’t given up on trying to like them, hence this attempt at Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA. And thanks to the system of “One Hour Reviews,” I figured out one of the problems with the Ys games: there’s too much talking early on! In Celceta you have to walk around some large boring town first, Ys Seven has a large boring dock, Ys Jungle Village has a large boring jungle village, and now Ys VIII has this large boring ship.
If not for the One Hour system, I would have lost interest when forced to roam around the ship. But because I’d committed to playing a full hour no matter what, I managed to keep going, and eventually stuff started to happen. Where “stuff” means a giant tentacle monster attacked the ship and knocked us all overboard! That was dramatic.
The story in Ys VIII is that the main character Adol happens to wash ashore yet again, and this time there’s a whole ship’s crew with passengers washed ashore with him. Now he has to gather all the castaways so they can find a way home. TBH it’s pretty unrealistic that they can build a ship large enough and get enough provisions to sail anywhere meaningful, but they have an experienced captain with them, so it’s not entirely impossible. More importantly, Adol also has to explore the Isle of Seiren while he’s at it, because that’s just his thing. And my thing too, to be honest.
What I liked
🌴Fancy moves and flashy attacks! Bright happy colors! Especially after playing Octopath Traveler, seeing bright blue skies and bright green grass is great. I like the island motif especially. It reminds me of Nayuta and Shining Ark.
🌴It doesn’t seem too difficult yet, even though I’m playing on Normal. I wanted to start on Easy TBH, but I did that with Nayuta and later on it was just too easy. That said… I almost died against the tentacle monster on the ship. And I haven’t fully gotten the hang of the battle system, so I’ll need to spend some time practising on mobs. There’s a slight chance I will indeed restart on Easy if I decide to play the game for real.
🌴The controls aren’t quite as confusing as in Tokyo Xanadu eX+ yet. There’s no complicated platforming yet, no annoying dungeon puzzles yet. But this is all me talking after 1 hour of gameplay and only fighting one boss – two if you count the tentacle monster. So far so good.
🌴I can save almost anywhere in the field! I remember getting really stressed with Celceta because of the vast areas to explore with no save points in sight. With Ys VIII I won’t have to worry about that, and if I keep a couple of different saves, I won’t have to worry about locking myself into a death spiral either. Phew.
What sucks
🙄Talking sequences. I used to say “dungeon crawlers don’t need stories,” now I’m starting to think “action RPGs don’t need stories either.” At the very least Falcom’s ARPGs don’t, because their games already tend towards the wordy side. But it’s only the first hour, so this could be a set up and then they let me roam as much as I like. That would be nice.
🙄The idiotic Laxia girl and the whole peeping sequence revolving around her. Basically this idiotic girl washed up on the island. And being somehow armed with a big fluffy white towel, she decided to take a bath the middle of a stream, in full view of passers by. But oops, what is this, she “accidentally” dropped her towel in front of Adol! Then she slapped him for looking, even though she’s the exhibitionist pervert tsundere idiot who flashed him. What the heck is this nonsense. I thought that kind of stupidity went out of fashion with Love Hina 20 years ago. I can’t wait to replace her in my party.
The controls are a bit confusing right now, because the on-screen controls assume you’re using the joy-cons, but I’m using the pro controller. The camera controls are also uncomfortable. I have to adjust the camera all the time to see where I’m going. But controls are things you can get used to with time and it’s only been one hour.
Will I continue playing Ys VIII?
Yeah sure, why not? It didn’t set my heart aflutter or anything, but after 1 hour they set me free to explore the Isle of Seiren and that’s what I’ve been itching to do from the start. I really wanted to play the Ys games in order, but it looks like that’s not possible for me tastes-wise so Ys VIII will have to do.
Whether I do continue Ys VIII or not, it won’t be for a long while anyway. On the Switch, I’m almost done with Picross S4, then I have to play S3 while continuing Octopath Traveler. Plus Tokyo Xanadu eX+ takes priority in the ARPG rankings, followed by a retry of Dark Cloud 2. So for now I’ll file Ys VIII under “Promising,” and try to get back to it in the future.
Love Hina, moar liek Hate Hina mirite haha what a blast from the past hearing that name is
I actually surprised myself a little bit, because I haven’t thought of Love Hina in years. But the name magically wafted up the moment I thought of “dumb misunderstandings” and “stereotypical tsundere girls.” Very iconic series, for all the wrong reasons.