Poucos jogos legitimamente me deixaram tristes por simplesmente terem acabado, me deixando com um sentimento de saudade que dificilmente é reconfortado pelos jogos que vêm a seguir, e pra minha surpresa, em um jogo que eu mergulhei sem grandes expectativas, aconteceu mais uma vez.
Laços familiares são muito mais complexos do que unicamente compartilhar do mesmo sangue, laços familiares se constroem, se fortificam com a convivência. E sendo o grande foco principal do jogo, a mensagem é muito bem transmitida.
Quando dezenas de pessoas diferentes, com passados e costumes opostos, visões diferentes sobre diferentes aspectos da vida se vêem com o mesmo objetivo em mente, toda e qualquer diferença é deixada de lado, mesmo que de maneira inconsciente. Nobres, aventureiros, pescadores, guerreiros, médicos, vendedores, todos com uma única coisa em mente após o naufrágio do barco em que todas estavam: Escapar dessa ilha misteriosa. Juntos.
O início é propositalmente lento, e acredito que foi uma decisão muito bem acertada. Focado unicamente na investigação dos arredores em busca de sobreviventes da embarcação, a fim de estabelecer uma base para todos os náufragos, são mais de dez horas que não incomodam. Por mais que pareça não dar nenhum caminho para a história principal, um arco inteiro de construção de relacionamento entre os personagens foi essencial para criar uma conexão real com cada uma das diferentes pessoas que resgatamos na ilha.
Pessoas essas que eu vou sentir muita falta, de todas elas, sem exceção. Em especial, Dana Iclucia, maravilhosa.
Laços familiares são muito mais complexos do que unicamente compartilhar do mesmo sangue, laços familiares se constroem, se fortificam com a convivência. E sendo o grande foco principal do jogo, a mensagem é muito bem transmitida.
Quando dezenas de pessoas diferentes, com passados e costumes opostos, visões diferentes sobre diferentes aspectos da vida se vêem com o mesmo objetivo em mente, toda e qualquer diferença é deixada de lado, mesmo que de maneira inconsciente. Nobres, aventureiros, pescadores, guerreiros, médicos, vendedores, todos com uma única coisa em mente após o naufrágio do barco em que todas estavam: Escapar dessa ilha misteriosa. Juntos.
O início é propositalmente lento, e acredito que foi uma decisão muito bem acertada. Focado unicamente na investigação dos arredores em busca de sobreviventes da embarcação, a fim de estabelecer uma base para todos os náufragos, são mais de dez horas que não incomodam. Por mais que pareça não dar nenhum caminho para a história principal, um arco inteiro de construção de relacionamento entre os personagens foi essencial para criar uma conexão real com cada uma das diferentes pessoas que resgatamos na ilha.
Pessoas essas que eu vou sentir muita falta, de todas elas, sem exceção. Em especial, Dana Iclucia, maravilhosa.
It's good, but a tad overrated.
The combat and soundtrack are awesome, but the story really isn't there. I also don't like the island setting while fighting dinosaurs, it's goofy as hell
The fact that raids get repetitive would be my only complaint of the gameplay... they are pretty boring after a while
The combat and soundtrack are awesome, but the story really isn't there. I also don't like the island setting while fighting dinosaurs, it's goofy as hell
The fact that raids get repetitive would be my only complaint of the gameplay... they are pretty boring after a while
I wish that the Ys games were a little bit more available because every time I play one I fall in love with the series.
This was such a good game. I think the world they built using this island was a perfect idea. It gives such a rewarding gameplay loop that isn't overwhelming in the slightest. You want to do everything you can possibly do to build your village up so you look for more castaways, while you do that you find materials that you can use to upgrade things, then when you have done that you will be strong enough to participate in a raid or hunt. And it just keeps going.
It's such a strong loop that you can get stuck in it for hours at a time! The story is interesting but for me the main draw was the gameplay.
The combat is quick and breezy. The exploration is the same. Everything is such a joy to do that you will happy do it.
The one area where I can't say this is the solo Dana sections. These sometimes made me roll my eyes when I saw one coming up. They just kill the pace and it doesn't really work with the deserted island feel.
But apart from that. This was amazing.
This was such a good game. I think the world they built using this island was a perfect idea. It gives such a rewarding gameplay loop that isn't overwhelming in the slightest. You want to do everything you can possibly do to build your village up so you look for more castaways, while you do that you find materials that you can use to upgrade things, then when you have done that you will be strong enough to participate in a raid or hunt. And it just keeps going.
It's such a strong loop that you can get stuck in it for hours at a time! The story is interesting but for me the main draw was the gameplay.
The combat is quick and breezy. The exploration is the same. Everything is such a joy to do that you will happy do it.
The one area where I can't say this is the solo Dana sections. These sometimes made me roll my eyes when I saw one coming up. They just kill the pace and it doesn't really work with the deserted island feel.
But apart from that. This was amazing.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, Uma aula de construção de mundo... A mais bonita pérola escondida no poço mais profundo de uma última ilha...
E aqui estamos nós, novamente escrevendo sobre um JRpg, dessa vez a série Ys foi me recomendando pelo @Gaimm_ e reafirmado pelo @Bertolomeu .... E eu agradeço muito pela recomendação deles...
De fato, não pretendo jogar a série inteira por agora, talvez eu o faça quando YS X: Nordics sair no ocidente, por enquanto me aventurei em dois títulos da série esse aqui YS VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, e o YS IX: Monster Nox, que eu tô me aventurando por enquanto aqui e ali...
Mas antes de falar do jogo em si, eu queria falar sobre a desenvolvedora que tem trabalhado nos jogos da série até então a Nihon Falcon... E eu pretendo começar, impressionantemente, com uma crítica, em partes negativa, mas nada ruim de fato... No lançamento de YS X: Nordics alguns fãs lá do oriente estavam um pouco chateados pelo fato de que esse jogo, mesmo sendo facilmente o mais bonito dá série, não parecia chegar próximo do poder gráfico que poderia ser de fato alcançado, principalmente quando comparado com jogos como Tales of Arise e o ainda não lançado GranBlue Fantasy Relink... O Ceo do estúdio então veio a público e disse que a atual forma como eles trabalham não os permite trabalhar tanto a qualidade gráfica de seus jogos, pois eles são um estúdio de 68 pessoas, que por vezes entregam mais de três s RPGs em dois anos, e que nenhum outro estúdio de fato o fazia... Também disse que por conta disso, eles buscavam caprichar o máximo em sua direção de arte, para assim compensar a falta de qualidade gráfica...
Sinceramente eu entendo ambos os lados nessa história, começando pelo estúdio em si, e notório que se manter na indústria é algo de fato extremamente complicado, e que eles utilizam dessa estratégia para conseguir continuar fazendo jogos... Porém eu devo dizer que acharia mais interessante se eles conseguissem aumentar a quantidade de pessoas em seu estúdio, e aumentassem um pouco mais o tempo de lançamento entre os jogos... Isso permitiriam eles construírem seus jogos ainda mais primazia, já que eles já são maravilhosos, enquanto mantém as belas direções de arte... Dito tudo isso....
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana é pérola com mais brilho no mar...
No sentido de que, talvez ele seja o melhor daqueles tipos de jogos que são pérolas escondidas... Eu mesmo nunca tinha ouvido falar dessa saga até a recomendação desse jogo... E cara, que jogo fantástico, principalmente quando se trata de narrativa e construção de mundo....
Ys é um jogo que tem um estilo de história que me agrada muito... No jogo controlamos Adol, porém estamos na verdade vivenciando uma história dele, pois Adol é um lendário aventureiro, que registrou todas as suas histórias em seu diário, e cada história são, na verdade, um jogo diferente, é por esse motivo que os jogos não necessariamente tem ligação entre si... Além do fato de que são histórias do Adol é claro... E isso abre um leque de possibilidades de criar história sem conexão mas que se passam no mesmo universo...
Eu amo esse conceito de escrita, pois torna possível apresentações como a de Ys e a de O Nome do Vento, livro do escritor Patrick Rothfuss, que conta uma história também muito bem escrita e interesse, embora o escritor tenha cometido erros, no último ano, que eu abomino, sua história é de fato muito bem escrita.
Esse tipo de apresentação também permite a contratação de um universo único, para diversos jogos diferentes, o que diverge da ideia de Final Fantasy, que também é maravilhosa, por exemplo... Já que lá cada jogo contém um universo completamente diferentes, são duas ideias boas, mas eu tendo a preferir a de Ys.
E é isso que eu gosto em Lacrimosa of Dana, além da direção de arte, que de fato é maravilhosa, sua narrativa, construção de personagens em geral, e sua história são maravilhosas, lindas na forma como são aplicadas... Também gostei combate do jogo, que mesmo que seja diferente de todos os outros JRPGs que joguei, ele ainda é extremamente bem aplicado e também divertido, ao menos para mim foi...
Eu queria falar dos personagens desse jogo, cara, eu realmente amei cada um deles, me apaguei a eles, e foi uma montanha russa acompanhar a história deles nesse jogo... Foi uma experiência e isso é fato, e eu também devo dizer que Lacrimosa também tem muitos outros pontos positivos que poderiam ser citados a trilha sonora.... A trilha sonora... É uma barbaridade de tão boa, simplesmente maravilhosa, e pelo o que vi, a Nihon Falcon nunca erra quando se trata de trilha sonora...
Sinceramente falando, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana foi uma experiência maravilhosa, e eu agradeço muito pela recomendação... Uma conquista enorme nessa saga pouco conhecida, e uma obra que deveria ser mais conhecida... Para esse cara aqui, um belo 9.7/10 ou um 5/5...
Obs: Eu não... Fui...Não fui capaz de tirar The Banner Saga 2 do topo dos melhores jogos de 2016... São duas experiências que me marcaram muito...
E aqui estamos nós, novamente escrevendo sobre um JRpg, dessa vez a série Ys foi me recomendando pelo @Gaimm_ e reafirmado pelo @Bertolomeu .... E eu agradeço muito pela recomendação deles...
De fato, não pretendo jogar a série inteira por agora, talvez eu o faça quando YS X: Nordics sair no ocidente, por enquanto me aventurei em dois títulos da série esse aqui YS VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, e o YS IX: Monster Nox, que eu tô me aventurando por enquanto aqui e ali...
Mas antes de falar do jogo em si, eu queria falar sobre a desenvolvedora que tem trabalhado nos jogos da série até então a Nihon Falcon... E eu pretendo começar, impressionantemente, com uma crítica, em partes negativa, mas nada ruim de fato... No lançamento de YS X: Nordics alguns fãs lá do oriente estavam um pouco chateados pelo fato de que esse jogo, mesmo sendo facilmente o mais bonito dá série, não parecia chegar próximo do poder gráfico que poderia ser de fato alcançado, principalmente quando comparado com jogos como Tales of Arise e o ainda não lançado GranBlue Fantasy Relink... O Ceo do estúdio então veio a público e disse que a atual forma como eles trabalham não os permite trabalhar tanto a qualidade gráfica de seus jogos, pois eles são um estúdio de 68 pessoas, que por vezes entregam mais de três s RPGs em dois anos, e que nenhum outro estúdio de fato o fazia... Também disse que por conta disso, eles buscavam caprichar o máximo em sua direção de arte, para assim compensar a falta de qualidade gráfica...
Sinceramente eu entendo ambos os lados nessa história, começando pelo estúdio em si, e notório que se manter na indústria é algo de fato extremamente complicado, e que eles utilizam dessa estratégia para conseguir continuar fazendo jogos... Porém eu devo dizer que acharia mais interessante se eles conseguissem aumentar a quantidade de pessoas em seu estúdio, e aumentassem um pouco mais o tempo de lançamento entre os jogos... Isso permitiriam eles construírem seus jogos ainda mais primazia, já que eles já são maravilhosos, enquanto mantém as belas direções de arte... Dito tudo isso....
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana é pérola com mais brilho no mar...
No sentido de que, talvez ele seja o melhor daqueles tipos de jogos que são pérolas escondidas... Eu mesmo nunca tinha ouvido falar dessa saga até a recomendação desse jogo... E cara, que jogo fantástico, principalmente quando se trata de narrativa e construção de mundo....
Ys é um jogo que tem um estilo de história que me agrada muito... No jogo controlamos Adol, porém estamos na verdade vivenciando uma história dele, pois Adol é um lendário aventureiro, que registrou todas as suas histórias em seu diário, e cada história são, na verdade, um jogo diferente, é por esse motivo que os jogos não necessariamente tem ligação entre si... Além do fato de que são histórias do Adol é claro... E isso abre um leque de possibilidades de criar história sem conexão mas que se passam no mesmo universo...
Eu amo esse conceito de escrita, pois torna possível apresentações como a de Ys e a de O Nome do Vento, livro do escritor Patrick Rothfuss, que conta uma história também muito bem escrita e interesse, embora o escritor tenha cometido erros, no último ano, que eu abomino, sua história é de fato muito bem escrita.
Esse tipo de apresentação também permite a contratação de um universo único, para diversos jogos diferentes, o que diverge da ideia de Final Fantasy, que também é maravilhosa, por exemplo... Já que lá cada jogo contém um universo completamente diferentes, são duas ideias boas, mas eu tendo a preferir a de Ys.
E é isso que eu gosto em Lacrimosa of Dana, além da direção de arte, que de fato é maravilhosa, sua narrativa, construção de personagens em geral, e sua história são maravilhosas, lindas na forma como são aplicadas... Também gostei combate do jogo, que mesmo que seja diferente de todos os outros JRPGs que joguei, ele ainda é extremamente bem aplicado e também divertido, ao menos para mim foi...
Eu queria falar dos personagens desse jogo, cara, eu realmente amei cada um deles, me apaguei a eles, e foi uma montanha russa acompanhar a história deles nesse jogo... Foi uma experiência e isso é fato, e eu também devo dizer que Lacrimosa também tem muitos outros pontos positivos que poderiam ser citados a trilha sonora.... A trilha sonora... É uma barbaridade de tão boa, simplesmente maravilhosa, e pelo o que vi, a Nihon Falcon nunca erra quando se trata de trilha sonora...
Sinceramente falando, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana foi uma experiência maravilhosa, e eu agradeço muito pela recomendação... Uma conquista enorme nessa saga pouco conhecida, e uma obra que deveria ser mais conhecida... Para esse cara aqui, um belo 9.7/10 ou um 5/5...
Obs: Eu não... Fui...Não fui capaz de tirar The Banner Saga 2 do topo dos melhores jogos de 2016... São duas experiências que me marcaram muito...
Joguei 8 Ys antes deste e nenhum deles me conectou tanto a ponto de eu pensar que é um dos meus jogos favoritos da vida. Bom, uma hora isso tinha que mudar.
É uma evolução em vários aspectos: Gameplay e exploração muito mais refinada que seu antecessor; a interação entre os náufragos, o senso de sobrevivência, de vínculo para sair daquela situação é algo que me cativou muito. Adorava ver os diálogos com TODOS os náufragos sempre que possível, criei um certo carinho com a maioria deles e ver a evolução de cada é reconfortante.
Mas o ponto chave é totalmente a Dana, ela é uma personagem tão bem escrita, tão bem valorizada na obra, que é impossível tu não criar um vínculo com ela. Gosto muito das sessões do passado dela e como entrelaçaram isso com o presente.
Um jogo incrível, acerto absurdo da Falcom.
É uma evolução em vários aspectos: Gameplay e exploração muito mais refinada que seu antecessor; a interação entre os náufragos, o senso de sobrevivência, de vínculo para sair daquela situação é algo que me cativou muito. Adorava ver os diálogos com TODOS os náufragos sempre que possível, criei um certo carinho com a maioria deles e ver a evolução de cada é reconfortante.
Mas o ponto chave é totalmente a Dana, ela é uma personagem tão bem escrita, tão bem valorizada na obra, que é impossível tu não criar um vínculo com ela. Gosto muito das sessões do passado dela e como entrelaçaram isso com o presente.
Um jogo incrível, acerto absurdo da Falcom.
(I honestly wasnt even expecting to make a long review after i literally finished the game but here we are)
I started this game in my mind to cope myself for playing the Trails after going 9 games in a row but my god this game blew my expectations to the point that i couldn't stop thinking about it and the JDK Band tracks in this game.
YS plot start is always the same of every YS game but something about it never makes me bored seeing it happen countless of times. There's something about the start of that always me amazed of how the setting puts you in especially when you're hearing ''Sunshine Coastline'' in the back (god Unisuga never dissapoints) and it shows the sense of adventure and needless to say it's such a immaculate feeling.
The characters are pretty much solid but Dana and Hummel stole the show for me, kinda annoys me Hummel's backstory is locked in a bonding system but i really don't find it difficult to get it.
One thing about the story especially if you played till chapter 2 (if you know you know) but something about completly threw me off on it and honestly kinda gave me impression after being done with it was just ''huh? so the chapter ends like with that ''cartoon ass vilain?'' but honestly after looking at it, it honestly feels fine especially when the lore about Dana's character in the game comes in.
The experience after finishing a game and living rent free in your head after beating the game for days/months and rarely years is just why i love video-games so damn much.
I started this game in my mind to cope myself for playing the Trails after going 9 games in a row but my god this game blew my expectations to the point that i couldn't stop thinking about it and the JDK Band tracks in this game.
YS plot start is always the same of every YS game but something about it never makes me bored seeing it happen countless of times. There's something about the start of that always me amazed of how the setting puts you in especially when you're hearing ''Sunshine Coastline'' in the back (god Unisuga never dissapoints) and it shows the sense of adventure and needless to say it's such a immaculate feeling.
The characters are pretty much solid but Dana and Hummel stole the show for me, kinda annoys me Hummel's backstory is locked in a bonding system but i really don't find it difficult to get it.
One thing about the story especially if you played till chapter 2 (if you know you know) but something about completly threw me off on it and honestly kinda gave me impression after being done with it was just ''huh? so the chapter ends like with that ''cartoon ass vilain?'' but honestly after looking at it, it honestly feels fine especially when the lore about Dana's character in the game comes in.
The experience after finishing a game and living rent free in your head after beating the game for days/months and rarely years is just why i love video-games so damn much.
The best Ys game in the series. It nails everything perfectly from gameplay to story. Just absolutely amazing, adventuring and going through new lands especially with the story progressing as it gets more fast paced.
It also helps a lot that with Ys games, anyone can pick up a game from anywhere in the series and continue in any order they want so this is also an amazing starting entry point in the series.
One of the best Ys games. Amazing main party and set of characters in this game. The story was amazing and the way they were able to incorporate it with fun gameplay is genius. Never felt like a dull moment in the game, doing quests every single chapter, talking to other characters and helping them and learning more about them. Lacrimosa Of Danas endgame is one of the best ever along with getting the true ending.
Never breaking a promise and to say goodbye with a smile on our faces.
I love Dana. One of my favorite characters forever. She is the beating heart of this story and represents everything such as the themes and is perfect for Adol relationship dynamic wise.
DANA FOREVER.
It also helps a lot that with Ys games, anyone can pick up a game from anywhere in the series and continue in any order they want so this is also an amazing starting entry point in the series.
One of the best Ys games. Amazing main party and set of characters in this game. The story was amazing and the way they were able to incorporate it with fun gameplay is genius. Never felt like a dull moment in the game, doing quests every single chapter, talking to other characters and helping them and learning more about them. Lacrimosa Of Danas endgame is one of the best ever along with getting the true ending.
Never breaking a promise and to say goodbye with a smile on our faces.
I love Dana. One of my favorite characters forever. She is the beating heart of this story and represents everything such as the themes and is perfect for Adol relationship dynamic wise.
DANA FOREVER.
Firstly, I'm hella biased. I love this series, I love beach settings, and I love blue-haired heroines. Secondly, I will write a lot (lmao nerd).
Jumping is back, babyyyy! Finally Adol's feet can be unbound from the grips of the earth again. This means we get some platforming back in the mix, and overall I think this function is used decently well, just maybe not as much as in older games that had it. Neither in level traversal, nor in combat. Small minus but no big deal, because in the end I think the scenarios have a good amount of verticality in them, which brings good variety compared to the flatter landscapes of the last two games.
Another game changer is free camera. Being able to look around makes me take in much more of the game's world, as you can sometimes just stop take a moment to let the space around you sink in, and it's gives more freedom on getting an understanding of the game's world as you spot landmarks from afar.
Probably the next big change is also the game's length. While the previous one took me 40 hours to beat, this one took 60! Ys has come a long way from a series that used to have 10-hour long playthroughs. Although this was expected since the change to more traditional JRPG-style since Ys Seven. However...
...While a game being long is not a bad thing, I think it's not that favorable usually. It's weird. I definitely enjoyed every minute of it, and I appreciate the fact that the game being longer allowed me to spend more time with it. And while there is some repetition, I feel it never goes into the bad side of it. There's always new areas to explore, new progression for the plot... Well, maybe not as much as I'd consider ideal on the gameplay side? But again, never bad enough to be an actual problem. Just maybe a thing that could be better.
For example, I love the optional dungeons you can do as Dana. They feel tightly-packed, and you unlock new significant abilities to do combat and level interaction at a nice pace. While the main game doesn't do that as well. This might just be the Ys Origin fanboy in me, but perhaps I would indeed enjoy the game better if it was either shorter (which would be a problem, considering the scope of the story they wanted to tell), or had more impactful gameplay changes unlocked throughout it.
In the end, this might still be the best Ys game I've played so far (still didn't play IX). I love the exploration, it's the best that's ever been in the series. They finally nailed it after what I'd say a slightly awkward attempt at a "big open world" with the previous game. The story is epic and well-crafted, it takes you on a ride for sure. Growing the village and improving it slowly with time is one of the best sensations too. The village feels like a comfy and warm community where you belong. This also means the side-characters here are the best in the series, since you get to know and interact with each of them over time.
And of course the music is awesome, it is Ys we're talking about. Many songs here will stick with me forever, special shoutouts to "Next Step Towards the Unknown", "Riddles of the Labyrinth", "Eroded Valley", and... Better stop it here or I ain't stopping... Okay fine, at least I'll put "Sunshine Coastline" in there too, it's definitely one of my favorite Ys songs of all time.
In the topic of me not stopping, I feel like this review could go on forever as well... But in the end, this is a series I hold really close to my heart, I can't help it! I like a lot what this entry adds to the world itself, both lore and characters, and I'm sure as hell looking forward to seeing some familiar names and faces in future entries. The power level is getting way too dank at this point too, but I don't mind if it means I always get to fight some crazy god transcendent entity alongside the sound of soul-lifting power metal.
I'd say little keeps me from rating this a perfect game, but it's a very special one nonetheless. I think Falcom finally reached a very sweet spot with the formula they started on Ys SEVEN, and while maybe it will still not completely dethrone Ys Origin in the deepest parts of my platformer-lover heart, it surely can find space to be there alongside it.
Jumping is back, babyyyy! Finally Adol's feet can be unbound from the grips of the earth again. This means we get some platforming back in the mix, and overall I think this function is used decently well, just maybe not as much as in older games that had it. Neither in level traversal, nor in combat. Small minus but no big deal, because in the end I think the scenarios have a good amount of verticality in them, which brings good variety compared to the flatter landscapes of the last two games.
Another game changer is free camera. Being able to look around makes me take in much more of the game's world, as you can sometimes just stop take a moment to let the space around you sink in, and it's gives more freedom on getting an understanding of the game's world as you spot landmarks from afar.
Probably the next big change is also the game's length. While the previous one took me 40 hours to beat, this one took 60! Ys has come a long way from a series that used to have 10-hour long playthroughs. Although this was expected since the change to more traditional JRPG-style since Ys Seven. However...
...While a game being long is not a bad thing, I think it's not that favorable usually. It's weird. I definitely enjoyed every minute of it, and I appreciate the fact that the game being longer allowed me to spend more time with it. And while there is some repetition, I feel it never goes into the bad side of it. There's always new areas to explore, new progression for the plot... Well, maybe not as much as I'd consider ideal on the gameplay side? But again, never bad enough to be an actual problem. Just maybe a thing that could be better.
For example, I love the optional dungeons you can do as Dana. They feel tightly-packed, and you unlock new significant abilities to do combat and level interaction at a nice pace. While the main game doesn't do that as well. This might just be the Ys Origin fanboy in me, but perhaps I would indeed enjoy the game better if it was either shorter (which would be a problem, considering the scope of the story they wanted to tell), or had more impactful gameplay changes unlocked throughout it.
In the end, this might still be the best Ys game I've played so far (still didn't play IX). I love the exploration, it's the best that's ever been in the series. They finally nailed it after what I'd say a slightly awkward attempt at a "big open world" with the previous game. The story is epic and well-crafted, it takes you on a ride for sure. Growing the village and improving it slowly with time is one of the best sensations too. The village feels like a comfy and warm community where you belong. This also means the side-characters here are the best in the series, since you get to know and interact with each of them over time.
And of course the music is awesome, it is Ys we're talking about. Many songs here will stick with me forever, special shoutouts to "Next Step Towards the Unknown", "Riddles of the Labyrinth", "Eroded Valley", and... Better stop it here or I ain't stopping... Okay fine, at least I'll put "Sunshine Coastline" in there too, it's definitely one of my favorite Ys songs of all time.
In the topic of me not stopping, I feel like this review could go on forever as well... But in the end, this is a series I hold really close to my heart, I can't help it! I like a lot what this entry adds to the world itself, both lore and characters, and I'm sure as hell looking forward to seeing some familiar names and faces in future entries. The power level is getting way too dank at this point too, but I don't mind if it means I always get to fight some crazy god transcendent entity alongside the sound of soul-lifting power metal.
I'd say little keeps me from rating this a perfect game, but it's a very special one nonetheless. I think Falcom finally reached a very sweet spot with the formula they started on Ys SEVEN, and while maybe it will still not completely dethrone Ys Origin in the deepest parts of my platformer-lover heart, it surely can find space to be there alongside it.
Inicialmente não pensei que seria grandes coisas, mas é um jogo lindo em todos os aspectos, da narrativa até sua produção.
Obrigado, Falcom.
Obrigado, Falcom.
The best YS story period and probably even in most action RPGs.
The combat is alright, I don't mind party-based combat that the new Ys adapts, but the combat in this game is really broken, flash guard and rolls are so easy to abuse.
The characters are really good, especially Dana which is truly the best heroine in the series along with probably Feena.
The music is one of the best in the series, I still listen to it to this day.
The story starts out slow to introduce you to the world and the casts but after a certain chapter it really took off while keeping the intensity going.
Plus the true ending is bittersweet.
The combat is alright, I don't mind party-based combat that the new Ys adapts, but the combat in this game is really broken, flash guard and rolls are so easy to abuse.
The characters are really good, especially Dana which is truly the best heroine in the series along with probably Feena.
The music is one of the best in the series, I still listen to it to this day.
The story starts out slow to introduce you to the world and the casts but after a certain chapter it really took off while keeping the intensity going.
Plus the true ending is bittersweet.
what can I say.. i truly understand now why people call this game falcom's magnus opus, the music, exploration, combat, characters and story everything is just amazing, 10/10 one of the best games i've ever played
dana iclucia is the best written falcom character tbh
dana iclucia is the best written falcom character tbh
Not really a fan of the art style but it seems like it could be pretty good so far. I'll get to it soon just too many games to play lol <3
I just wish the bosses didn't blend together (they're still fun enough and you do have to learn patterns) and skills had more functional variety and don't all practically do the same thing. Flash is also more broken than it needs to be.
Otherwise got damn
Otherwise got damn
Congrats to this game for being the first game in over 5 years to make my cry like a little bitch. What a fuckin game.
Minha jornada finalmente terminou, foram mais de trinta e oito horas aonde explorei quase o todo possível que o jogo tinha a me oferecer (por volta de uns 85%, por aí), com isso posso afirmar que minha experiência foi simplesmente... INCRÍVEL! Por via das dúvidas, este texto não é uma análise aprofundada do título em questão e sim um comentário sobre cada ponto do jogo que eu considero importante ressaltar, então não venha dizer “ei, isso não tem uma estrutura”, eu sei que não tem.
Começando por sua gameplay:
Posso dizer que seu combate, apesar de simples, é bastante sólido. Possuindo todas as suas mecânicas como um pilar essencial, o título exala uma paixão por parte dos desenvolvedores ao entreterem o jogador conforme a progressão for surgindo, quando se une isto ao seu combate de fácil domínio a imersão se torna uma guloseima que você aproveita até o último segundo.
Level Design + OST:
É impressionante o trabalho dado na ilha do título, todo mistério que a mesma exala casa tão bem com a temática do jogo que não se sentir atraído nela se torna quase impossível. Tendo sido construída de uma forma que incentive a exploração do jogador, a música se tornou uma peça central na forma que me vi imersivo no ambiente e quando digo isso me refiro a tudo e esse tudo vai desde os mínimos detalhes até os textos da obra.
Em uma definição mais simples, é como se acontecesse uma fusão entre o mundo, a música e a gameplay! Da mesma maneira que o título te entretém em momentos relaxantes enquanto toca “Alone on the deserted island” o mesmo faz isso na pura frenesi ao som de “Sunshine coastline” e isso muda você, muda a forma que você joga e te deixa tão unido ao jogo que você nem percebe a quanto tempo está jogando e meu amigo… isso é esplêndido. Talvez, os únicos momentos que me senti distante foram suas raids que além de exaustivas, as senti bastante convenientes. No mais, todas as atividades que o jogo me deu foram feitas sem nenhum pesar, não me senti preso ou mais fraco em certos trechos, o que, pelo menos para mim, é essencial caso queira sentir a progressão como algo natural.
HISTÓRIA:
É difícil, mas não irei rechear você com spoilers e mais spoilers desta trama esplêndida, até porquê: isto não é uma análise!
Com uma trama um tanto quanto episodica, as primeiras dez horas podem parecer algo sem muita direção mesmo com os bons momentos narrativas, porém, não se engane, está é uma parte bastante importante para tudo que veremos depois.
Cada membro da party é bastante individual e a interação que eles tem entre si e com o protagonista (Adol Christin) torna eles bastante humanos, não existe algo que pareça forçado e irreal aqui ao ponto de que até mesmo os momentos que seriam fracos utilizam uma camada de humor que o levanta. Para uma pequena exemplificação: um personagem da party é iconoclasta e não parece um cara tão amigável ao primeiro momento, conforme vamos evoluindo na jornada o mesmo vai mudando e as interações que observamos o torna um personagem melhor. Este foi apenas um exemplo, eu poderia dar vários, mas se isso acontecesse seria melhor a criação de um vídeo detalhado em casa aspecto da trama do que um comentário grande kkk.
Todos os membros da party se demonstram relevantes para a trama central e conforme você for fazendo tanto a jornada e os famosos “desvios” (sidequest) o aprofundamento que os mesmos têm e suas mensagens para a jornada se tornam mais claras e impactantes. Se você acha que somente sua equipe é relevante pra trama, não se preocupe, os personagens secundários também são importantes, mas acho melhor não focar tanto neste assunto por eles estarem ligados diretamente na trama principal e dos membros da equipe, o que posso dizer é que tudo se torna mais belo e sólido conforme você for apreciando a narrativa total da obra.
Sobre a narrativa principal, o que posso dizer é DANMMMM, QUE COISA LINDA! Sim, eu chorei. A narrativa aqui é significativa e bela ao ponto de abalar profundamente minhas emoções, era como se uma parte de mim saísse de mim e ficasse naquele jogo, não tenho palavras para descrever a experiência que tive aqui… o único culpado desse jogo não ter um 10 é um arco específico que puta merda, quem criou isso deve MORRER!
Creio que irei finalizar aqui com uma ost que representa muito o que senti com esse jogo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xogTY-BvV6s.
Começando por sua gameplay:
Posso dizer que seu combate, apesar de simples, é bastante sólido. Possuindo todas as suas mecânicas como um pilar essencial, o título exala uma paixão por parte dos desenvolvedores ao entreterem o jogador conforme a progressão for surgindo, quando se une isto ao seu combate de fácil domínio a imersão se torna uma guloseima que você aproveita até o último segundo.
Level Design + OST:
É impressionante o trabalho dado na ilha do título, todo mistério que a mesma exala casa tão bem com a temática do jogo que não se sentir atraído nela se torna quase impossível. Tendo sido construída de uma forma que incentive a exploração do jogador, a música se tornou uma peça central na forma que me vi imersivo no ambiente e quando digo isso me refiro a tudo e esse tudo vai desde os mínimos detalhes até os textos da obra.
Em uma definição mais simples, é como se acontecesse uma fusão entre o mundo, a música e a gameplay! Da mesma maneira que o título te entretém em momentos relaxantes enquanto toca “Alone on the deserted island” o mesmo faz isso na pura frenesi ao som de “Sunshine coastline” e isso muda você, muda a forma que você joga e te deixa tão unido ao jogo que você nem percebe a quanto tempo está jogando e meu amigo… isso é esplêndido. Talvez, os únicos momentos que me senti distante foram suas raids que além de exaustivas, as senti bastante convenientes. No mais, todas as atividades que o jogo me deu foram feitas sem nenhum pesar, não me senti preso ou mais fraco em certos trechos, o que, pelo menos para mim, é essencial caso queira sentir a progressão como algo natural.
HISTÓRIA:
É difícil, mas não irei rechear você com spoilers e mais spoilers desta trama esplêndida, até porquê: isto não é uma análise!
Com uma trama um tanto quanto episodica, as primeiras dez horas podem parecer algo sem muita direção mesmo com os bons momentos narrativas, porém, não se engane, está é uma parte bastante importante para tudo que veremos depois.
Cada membro da party é bastante individual e a interação que eles tem entre si e com o protagonista (Adol Christin) torna eles bastante humanos, não existe algo que pareça forçado e irreal aqui ao ponto de que até mesmo os momentos que seriam fracos utilizam uma camada de humor que o levanta. Para uma pequena exemplificação: um personagem da party é iconoclasta e não parece um cara tão amigável ao primeiro momento, conforme vamos evoluindo na jornada o mesmo vai mudando e as interações que observamos o torna um personagem melhor. Este foi apenas um exemplo, eu poderia dar vários, mas se isso acontecesse seria melhor a criação de um vídeo detalhado em casa aspecto da trama do que um comentário grande kkk.
Todos os membros da party se demonstram relevantes para a trama central e conforme você for fazendo tanto a jornada e os famosos “desvios” (sidequest) o aprofundamento que os mesmos têm e suas mensagens para a jornada se tornam mais claras e impactantes. Se você acha que somente sua equipe é relevante pra trama, não se preocupe, os personagens secundários também são importantes, mas acho melhor não focar tanto neste assunto por eles estarem ligados diretamente na trama principal e dos membros da equipe, o que posso dizer é que tudo se torna mais belo e sólido conforme você for apreciando a narrativa total da obra.
Sobre a narrativa principal, o que posso dizer é DANMMMM, QUE COISA LINDA! Sim, eu chorei. A narrativa aqui é significativa e bela ao ponto de abalar profundamente minhas emoções, era como se uma parte de mim saísse de mim e ficasse naquele jogo, não tenho palavras para descrever a experiência que tive aqui… o único culpado desse jogo não ter um 10 é um arco específico que puta merda, quem criou isso deve MORRER!
Creio que irei finalizar aqui com uma ost que representa muito o que senti com esse jogo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xogTY-BvV6s.
+combat is extremely fluid and responsive. I think the choice to allow parries at any time with no startup encourages aggressive play that focuses on quick reactions to enemy's moves and constantly keeping abilities in use
+I appreciate how relaxed the game's plot is at the start, with island exploration and day-by-day events taking precedent
+there's good variety in enemy design and the game takes care to give each one wind-up animations/tells so that you aren't taking potshots when encountering new enemies.
+it's a little odd to call this a positive quality but there's a dreary element to the game's plot and environment that makes the game feel like you really are trapped on an island; a pervasive sense of claustrophobia and sadness to each of the characters as they grow more and more accustomed to their new lives away from their families and trapped in an unsafe environment. a unique atmosphere that few games have tackled
+adding to that previous point is the search action-esque world layout: this is not open world but instead a gigantic interconnected series of rooms filled with landmarks and hidden treasure. the acquisition of exploration items make revisiting previous areas rewarding as well
+side content isn't excessive and it all has story elements that flesh out the characters around the main base. many of them have subtle arcs over the course of the game, and as you'll be returning to base frequently it's easy to keep up with everyone's different stories
+there's plenty of extra optional combat content, including endgame and post-game raids (base defense) and hunts (capture the flag), the large multi-level sanctuary ruins both solo as dana and in the post-game, a small true ending dungeon and extra final boss, and another optional endgame dungeon as well
+bread-and-butter action mechanics at its finest: so many bosses and a laundry list of every possible action rpg mechanic you could ever want. bullet patterns, traps, huge AoEs, stage gimmicks, multiple bosses at once, multi-phase fights, bosses that swim around your platform; it's a vertiable tour de force that never gets tiring
+as the island escape plot winds down in the back quarter of the game and the larger, eon-spanning narrative takes hold, the game goes into some rather somber directions that I feel were executed excellently. there's few tonal whiplashes to be found here and a lot of serene character interactions in their place, where the heroes keep their required-by-genre jrpg stubborn determination while actually mourning those lost along the way and pondering the different civilizations they've been exposed to. I was honestly not expecting how much I would enjoy the story here, and even the somewhat abstract ending
-very obviously a vita game in the graphics and UI, giving it a bit of a cheap look. ymmv on how big of a deal this is for you, I sometimes find it charming. what's less charming is when it begins to chug... though on ps4 this really only happened around castaway village
-certain map features are a little wonky, specifically with how it picks up unopened treasures on the map. some of them didn't appear even after 100% map completion, and I had to use online resources to clean up
a truly impressive action rpg that takes simple controls and turns it into a fast and franctic experience that feels more responsive than perhaps any other hack-and-slash I've ever played. it feels like it took me forever to beat, but only because I couldn't stop myself from doing as much optional content as I could whenever given the opportunity. I've always had falcom on my radar, but this game really has made me more interested in their work, and I can't wait to dive into whatever ys game (or trails or whatever) I choose to play next.
+I appreciate how relaxed the game's plot is at the start, with island exploration and day-by-day events taking precedent
+there's good variety in enemy design and the game takes care to give each one wind-up animations/tells so that you aren't taking potshots when encountering new enemies.
+it's a little odd to call this a positive quality but there's a dreary element to the game's plot and environment that makes the game feel like you really are trapped on an island; a pervasive sense of claustrophobia and sadness to each of the characters as they grow more and more accustomed to their new lives away from their families and trapped in an unsafe environment. a unique atmosphere that few games have tackled
+adding to that previous point is the search action-esque world layout: this is not open world but instead a gigantic interconnected series of rooms filled with landmarks and hidden treasure. the acquisition of exploration items make revisiting previous areas rewarding as well
+side content isn't excessive and it all has story elements that flesh out the characters around the main base. many of them have subtle arcs over the course of the game, and as you'll be returning to base frequently it's easy to keep up with everyone's different stories
+there's plenty of extra optional combat content, including endgame and post-game raids (base defense) and hunts (capture the flag), the large multi-level sanctuary ruins both solo as dana and in the post-game, a small true ending dungeon and extra final boss, and another optional endgame dungeon as well
+bread-and-butter action mechanics at its finest: so many bosses and a laundry list of every possible action rpg mechanic you could ever want. bullet patterns, traps, huge AoEs, stage gimmicks, multiple bosses at once, multi-phase fights, bosses that swim around your platform; it's a vertiable tour de force that never gets tiring
+as the island escape plot winds down in the back quarter of the game and the larger, eon-spanning narrative takes hold, the game goes into some rather somber directions that I feel were executed excellently. there's few tonal whiplashes to be found here and a lot of serene character interactions in their place, where the heroes keep their required-by-genre jrpg stubborn determination while actually mourning those lost along the way and pondering the different civilizations they've been exposed to. I was honestly not expecting how much I would enjoy the story here, and even the somewhat abstract ending
-very obviously a vita game in the graphics and UI, giving it a bit of a cheap look. ymmv on how big of a deal this is for you, I sometimes find it charming. what's less charming is when it begins to chug... though on ps4 this really only happened around castaway village
-certain map features are a little wonky, specifically with how it picks up unopened treasures on the map. some of them didn't appear even after 100% map completion, and I had to use online resources to clean up
a truly impressive action rpg that takes simple controls and turns it into a fast and franctic experience that feels more responsive than perhaps any other hack-and-slash I've ever played. it feels like it took me forever to beat, but only because I couldn't stop myself from doing as much optional content as I could whenever given the opportunity. I've always had falcom on my radar, but this game really has made me more interested in their work, and I can't wait to dive into whatever ys game (or trails or whatever) I choose to play next.
Pangburn nails a lot of the highlights from this game, so I'll refrain from repeating too much from his review and add on a few more greats from this game:
- The soundtrack is fantastic, as is par for the course for Falcom Sound Team JDK. Everyone knows Unisuga's Sunshine Coastline, which opens up the adventure with this kickass, exciting and bright melody, but there's definitely more to the soundtrack than just that and the soundtrack just knows how to complement both the exciting and the melancholy perfectly.
- Some of the best movement in any video game I've seen, much less any action-adventure or RPG. Access to a solid dash, jump (and later a double jump), rolling (both on the ground and in mid-air), aerial attacks that maintain your momentum, and a quick dash jump that makes bunny hopping viable lets you zip around the island in no time, and makes dodging enemies fairly doable if you just want to collect resources without engaging in combat. And there are items to increase your speed to boot.
- Access to two different parries really opens up combat. Need to quickly get behind your opponent to pound them to shreds or get in position to activate a parry? Use your dodge roll, which slows down time for an opponent. Need to just quickly parry in place on reaction and strike back harder? Use the flash parry, which afterwards, turns all your attacks into critical hits. Best of all, you can actually continue parrying while in the slowdown phase after a successful dodge roll parry, which allows you to just rack up successful damage while in practical invincibility from playing well if you can maintain your parry timing.
- Very generous true ending requirements: finishing side quests and giving the other castaway gifts will get you plenty of reputation (and they're often pretty interesting with added backstory, or at the very least easy enough to accomplish while romping around the island), and hunts/raids give you tons of reputation so you don't even have to complete all of them.
- Very likable characters that don't feel like flanderized caricatures typical of most JRPGs/anime games; they've got their own interesting backstories and personalities, but ultimately they know when to get their shit together and how to support the main conflict and narrative.
All in all, this is not just a good game; this is an incredible game. I had put Ys VIII aside for the longest time after catching up on Trails last year, and now I'm wondering why I didn't play it sooner because I couldn't put it down after resuming this prior Tuesday. The game keeps you intrigued with this tinge of nostalgia from exploring this primal, deserted island, and presents a surprisingly thoughtful narrative without excess exposition. But of course, the meat of the game is the phenomenal and fast paced combat, with tons of customization and depth yet fairly approachable due to great bread and butter action mechanics and extremely responsive controls. Please don't just write this off as another generic anime game or JRPG or a stand-in while you wait for the next Trails localization, this 100% stands strong on its own and is an emblematic example of why Falcom makes phenomenal games when they're on point. I can't recommend this enough, it's genuinely one of the best action adventure games I've played, ever, and I'm going to be thinking about this for a long time while clearing up more of my backlog. Fighting dinosaurs and dragons on a deserted island has never been so gripping yet so much damn fun.
- The soundtrack is fantastic, as is par for the course for Falcom Sound Team JDK. Everyone knows Unisuga's Sunshine Coastline, which opens up the adventure with this kickass, exciting and bright melody, but there's definitely more to the soundtrack than just that and the soundtrack just knows how to complement both the exciting and the melancholy perfectly.
- Some of the best movement in any video game I've seen, much less any action-adventure or RPG. Access to a solid dash, jump (and later a double jump), rolling (both on the ground and in mid-air), aerial attacks that maintain your momentum, and a quick dash jump that makes bunny hopping viable lets you zip around the island in no time, and makes dodging enemies fairly doable if you just want to collect resources without engaging in combat. And there are items to increase your speed to boot.
- Access to two different parries really opens up combat. Need to quickly get behind your opponent to pound them to shreds or get in position to activate a parry? Use your dodge roll, which slows down time for an opponent. Need to just quickly parry in place on reaction and strike back harder? Use the flash parry, which afterwards, turns all your attacks into critical hits. Best of all, you can actually continue parrying while in the slowdown phase after a successful dodge roll parry, which allows you to just rack up successful damage while in practical invincibility from playing well if you can maintain your parry timing.
- Very generous true ending requirements: finishing side quests and giving the other castaway gifts will get you plenty of reputation (and they're often pretty interesting with added backstory, or at the very least easy enough to accomplish while romping around the island), and hunts/raids give you tons of reputation so you don't even have to complete all of them.
- Very likable characters that don't feel like flanderized caricatures typical of most JRPGs/anime games; they've got their own interesting backstories and personalities, but ultimately they know when to get their shit together and how to support the main conflict and narrative.
All in all, this is not just a good game; this is an incredible game. I had put Ys VIII aside for the longest time after catching up on Trails last year, and now I'm wondering why I didn't play it sooner because I couldn't put it down after resuming this prior Tuesday. The game keeps you intrigued with this tinge of nostalgia from exploring this primal, deserted island, and presents a surprisingly thoughtful narrative without excess exposition. But of course, the meat of the game is the phenomenal and fast paced combat, with tons of customization and depth yet fairly approachable due to great bread and butter action mechanics and extremely responsive controls. Please don't just write this off as another generic anime game or JRPG or a stand-in while you wait for the next Trails localization, this 100% stands strong on its own and is an emblematic example of why Falcom makes phenomenal games when they're on point. I can't recommend this enough, it's genuinely one of the best action adventure games I've played, ever, and I'm going to be thinking about this for a long time while clearing up more of my backlog. Fighting dinosaurs and dragons on a deserted island has never been so gripping yet so much damn fun.
So first of all a giant thanks to my buddy Brandon for gifting this to me. Realistically if this doesn't get gifted to me I never play this game. The trails game (falcom other series) burnt me out. I had zero desire to play any more of their games. However this game was a delightful surprise in so many ways and fixes so many issues I have with the trails series.
First of all the comabt is way more fun for me. Just simple hack and slash and dodging around but super quick and easy to pick up. The story is really solid hear, it takes a while to cook (like all falcom stuff) but once it does it cooks hard. The characters are all great here. There's real consequence and meaning and sadness to the plot here, and at times reminded me of a final fantasy like story in that regard.
Being able to explore just a giant island and feel like a pirate was pretty cool. Finding all the people that had washed ashore kept it interesting.
I do wish the story got going sooner or some hours were cut here, and the map was finnicky and I wish was stronger.
There's some falcom jank here too (the slow pan introductions/the presentations/cheesy dialogue/everyone way too happy)
But overall this was a great game and one I can easily reccomened. Can't wait to check out ys ix at some point!
First of all the comabt is way more fun for me. Just simple hack and slash and dodging around but super quick and easy to pick up. The story is really solid hear, it takes a while to cook (like all falcom stuff) but once it does it cooks hard. The characters are all great here. There's real consequence and meaning and sadness to the plot here, and at times reminded me of a final fantasy like story in that regard.
Being able to explore just a giant island and feel like a pirate was pretty cool. Finding all the people that had washed ashore kept it interesting.
I do wish the story got going sooner or some hours were cut here, and the map was finnicky and I wish was stronger.
There's some falcom jank here too (the slow pan introductions/the presentations/cheesy dialogue/everyone way too happy)
But overall this was a great game and one I can easily reccomened. Can't wait to check out ys ix at some point!
guys what the FUCK is a lacrimosa?
UPDATE: this is the greatest fishing game ever made good shit
UPDATE: this is the greatest fishing game ever made good shit
stop fucking talking
One of the best action rpgs I've played. A great premise, engaging combat, good exploration. OST is top tier. Characters solid, but not up to Kiseki standards Expect for Adol and Dana. This is more about the experince/gameplay. I won't forget my time spent with this.
Archeozoic Big Hole is the funniest bad localization ever and i hope NISA never forgets that fuckup
Once again, I have no one to blame but myself.
I was in the mood for a Action RPG after investing way too much time into Baldurs Gate 3 because I kept making new characters and experimenting with alternative choices, while not actually progressing with new content. It's just a strange quirk I get with those kinds of RPGs. Same thing happened with Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, and Divinity II especially. Digression aside, I wanted to scratch the ARPG itch I get often. I then saw talks of the YS series anytime I look up ARPGs I haven't played before. This isn't my first forte into the series though, that would be with YS Origins. I'll be honest, I don't remember much about that game other then that it was good. I liked what I played, but it didn't stick with me afterwards. It wasn't because of anything it did wrong on a gameplay side, it's just that the story and characters didn't interest me much. I don't know, I feel there's something about that game that I'm missing the appeal of.
Still, a lukewarm first impression is better then a bad one; so why not try another game in the franchise? Out of all the games I looked at, I felt VIII would be the one most up my alley with its action mechanics, and RPG customization and leveling. I knew only a little bit of background going in from the mainline games; such as the main character is named Adol whose a odd "sort-of" silent protagonist, his travel companion Dogi, the soundtrack always goes exceptionally hard, and action is normally kept at a brisk pace. And I thought I knew that these tend to be shorter RPGs, but my 50 hour game file is telling me how much of a fool I was. This game is long, fully-featured, but maybe just a little too loaded.
One thing that I wasn't expecting was the lack of budget. Not a bad thing by any means, more surprising since I assumed a franchise going for this long would have more money going into it. But looking at this game's background more, this came out in 2016 for Vita and PS4. The former explains everything, so expect some very simple and stilted cutscene animations, inconsistently voiced dialouge, and other cost/time saving measures. This is not a crack at the team or the game's quality, this shows me they worked smarter with their constraints as they invested their resources into what Ys VIII excels in. Especially the design of the island and how connected every location feels.
I suppose the most distracting presentation aspect is the voice acting. (Yes I had the dub on. No I will never apologize for being a dubbed degenerative.) Inconsistent is the word of the day. Some aren't too bad. Others are a lot harder to swallow. It felt like some of these actors had only one take to say their lines, or that they weren't clear on the kind of character they'd be portraying. I felt the main characters that you hear all the time were the most well-performed, but there were certainly lines where I'm like "Maybe you could've tone it down". Nothing here felt bad to me, just more distracting.
The story itself, without going into major spoilers, took a while to hook me. There are two plotlines with the Castaway Village being built in order to survive and escape the deserted island the main cast found themselves shipwrecked on, and then you have the backstory of the island itself and the civilization of the previous inhabitants; but I found myself glossing over the latter a lot. I'm not the biggest fan of the "Advanced Ancient Civilization" trope as I'm always more concerned about the present day issues happening to our main cast rather then whatever happened before the main plot began. I've definitely seen it unnecessarily used in many a story where it adds very little to the overall plot but takes up way too much time. I felt myself getting pretty antsy during these sections, but soon enough the game slowly showed its cards and I was all "Ah! That's what you're playing with." The civilization itself wasn't too enticing still, but the way its used to expand on the mysteries infestering in the plot was surprisingly clever and effective. And overall, the story in general became more and more engaging the longer it went on, which made its gradual buildup well worth it.
As a relative newcomer, it is odd that the main character, Adol, is silent but only kind of. He has dialouge options to pick like any RPG protagonist, but he's also shown to speak during combat and will have quips for many things like fishing. Also the fact that he his named Adol. No, not that his name is weird. More that he does have a name that all the characters address him as. Most other RPGs would have the player name the main character if they aren't going to say much anyway; but here you can't since Adol himself is his own character with an already established backstory. It's a real fine-line between a player-insert and having an existing personality, and I was not expecting it to work so well. Even though I don't mind silent protagonists most of the times, there are points when the story actually starts to suffer when your main character doesn't display much emotion or they just blankly stare as other characters have to carry the conversation themselves. Here, it never felt annoying. It was just enough added to make things interesting.
But who cares about emotional feelings, I want to feel physical feelings of pain from mashing the 'A' button for fifty hours straight. OK it's not actually that simple, though fuck, some of those fishing mini-games can genuinely be painful with all that button mashing. You have one combo, plus a charged attack after a few seconds of not attacking, a aerial combo, a downwards strike while your descending in the air, four equippable skill moves, and a limit break super attack. Not a lot admittedly, but they're used well enough for the addictive gameplay loop. Build the SP meter with combos and charged attacks to unleash skills, which will then gradually build up your limit break. Skills vary a lot and are gradually earned as you level up and progress the story. SP gain is real easy, which allows you to unload a ton of skill attacks on the enemy at any point. Honestly, the speed at which this happens is why it almost never gets old. You're never waiting to be allowed to perform the cool attacks, and the higher your aggression then the more SP you build, meaning even more devastating attacks. Still enemies are plentiful and often fast as hell, so you'll need to utilize the game's defensive options. You can either dodge at the last second of an incoming attack to slowdown time, or you can guard before being struck to greatly increase your damage for a short period of time. Both provide full invulnerability. I felt the dodge slowdown was kind of vague to initiate. Even after fifty hours I was never quite sure how close I needed to be to the attack, when to dodge, and what direction to dodge to get the slowdown. Most of the times I would activate it by complete accident. The guard felt a lot more consistent though. It's a pretty tight window, but not having your character roll out of the way meant I was able to pinpoint the timing of attacks much more reliably. And because I played Ys VIII on hard, these abilities were a godsend and incredibly satisfying to pull off as messing up resulted in a huge chunk of health disappearing, but it made success a lot more fulfilling.
Many enemies also have weaknesses to specific damage types, which vary between the party members. Using the correct damage type will break the enemy and make them vulnerable to all damage types. I'm fairly neutral about this. It encourages swapping characters constantly, which is thankfully instantaneously, so you can't stick to one playstyle and make the combat feel stale. But at the same time there's not much more to it then that. I was honestly expecting enemies to start having multiple weaknesses that offers more of a choice of which character you wanted to use while still being a restriction to overcome, or maybe they would periodically change their weaknesses, and so on. Yet because battles are lightning quick, it doesn't linger enough to drag the combat, rather its just enough to add some spice to the many, many fights.
While not the most complicated or even my favorite ARPG combat, it does its job as well as I could've hoped. Even with the few recolors, enemy variety is high from start to end. Characters play distinctly from one a other, especially the ones that share the same damage type. The RPG systems are simple enough to not have a laundry list of menus and stats to manage, but offers a decent amount of customization and equipment to sought after in the short and long term that kept me playing.
Speaking of equipment, it's really interesting how, because the setting here takes place on an island after a shipwreck, there's no traditional currency. Rather every armor, weapon, and accessory not found in a chest has to be crafted. Luckily no items are ever obnoxiously rare and the game catalogs where to find what, whether they're harvested in a dungeon or dropped by a specific monster. Will say, I did use the 5th party member constantly as they could steal items from monsters, so not sure if that affected how much I felt compelled to grind for materials.
With all that said, goddamn this game is long. I was interested in playing through most of it, but there's so much to do that I stopped at roughly 90% completion. Did get the true ending, played through a lot of raids, fought a few secret bosses, cleared every quest, and fished till my thumb actually started to hurt. And the story has you backtrack back and forth all the time. If you drank everytime you had to go back to the Castaway Village, I'd be concerned for your liver. But mercifully fast travel is extremely accessible and load times are very reasonable. If not for those two things then this would've been dire. Still there's so much dialouge and story scenes, a lot of them even optional that are dependent on whether you complete quests at the village (which are timed depending on story progress) or giving gifts to the survivors you find on the island. There's a lot to do, and I did start to feel fatigued by the end, though as mentioned earlier I was enjoying the story more as it went on so things certainly could've been worse.
Even after all of this, I feel I still don't fully grasp the appeal of Ys. I did leave a lot unsaid as it would bloat this review far more then it already is, but I came away from Ys VIII thinking "Yeah that was good". Not too dissimilar to how I felt about Ys Origins, though I liked pretty much everything here in VIII more apart from it being a bit too long. But maybe I felt that way as I was intending to have a small in-between game, and not a fully-loaded RPG. That's definitely on me for not looking into its average playtime.
Also I'm shocked by the lack of love I see online for Hummel. He's literally designed to be a fan favorite character who'd get so popular that Ys fans would get sick of seeing him in every game and spin-off.
I was in the mood for a Action RPG after investing way too much time into Baldurs Gate 3 because I kept making new characters and experimenting with alternative choices, while not actually progressing with new content. It's just a strange quirk I get with those kinds of RPGs. Same thing happened with Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, and Divinity II especially. Digression aside, I wanted to scratch the ARPG itch I get often. I then saw talks of the YS series anytime I look up ARPGs I haven't played before. This isn't my first forte into the series though, that would be with YS Origins. I'll be honest, I don't remember much about that game other then that it was good. I liked what I played, but it didn't stick with me afterwards. It wasn't because of anything it did wrong on a gameplay side, it's just that the story and characters didn't interest me much. I don't know, I feel there's something about that game that I'm missing the appeal of.
Still, a lukewarm first impression is better then a bad one; so why not try another game in the franchise? Out of all the games I looked at, I felt VIII would be the one most up my alley with its action mechanics, and RPG customization and leveling. I knew only a little bit of background going in from the mainline games; such as the main character is named Adol whose a odd "sort-of" silent protagonist, his travel companion Dogi, the soundtrack always goes exceptionally hard, and action is normally kept at a brisk pace. And I thought I knew that these tend to be shorter RPGs, but my 50 hour game file is telling me how much of a fool I was. This game is long, fully-featured, but maybe just a little too loaded.
One thing that I wasn't expecting was the lack of budget. Not a bad thing by any means, more surprising since I assumed a franchise going for this long would have more money going into it. But looking at this game's background more, this came out in 2016 for Vita and PS4. The former explains everything, so expect some very simple and stilted cutscene animations, inconsistently voiced dialouge, and other cost/time saving measures. This is not a crack at the team or the game's quality, this shows me they worked smarter with their constraints as they invested their resources into what Ys VIII excels in. Especially the design of the island and how connected every location feels.
I suppose the most distracting presentation aspect is the voice acting. (Yes I had the dub on. No I will never apologize for being a dubbed degenerative.) Inconsistent is the word of the day. Some aren't too bad. Others are a lot harder to swallow. It felt like some of these actors had only one take to say their lines, or that they weren't clear on the kind of character they'd be portraying. I felt the main characters that you hear all the time were the most well-performed, but there were certainly lines where I'm like "Maybe you could've tone it down". Nothing here felt bad to me, just more distracting.
The story itself, without going into major spoilers, took a while to hook me. There are two plotlines with the Castaway Village being built in order to survive and escape the deserted island the main cast found themselves shipwrecked on, and then you have the backstory of the island itself and the civilization of the previous inhabitants; but I found myself glossing over the latter a lot. I'm not the biggest fan of the "Advanced Ancient Civilization" trope as I'm always more concerned about the present day issues happening to our main cast rather then whatever happened before the main plot began. I've definitely seen it unnecessarily used in many a story where it adds very little to the overall plot but takes up way too much time. I felt myself getting pretty antsy during these sections, but soon enough the game slowly showed its cards and I was all "Ah! That's what you're playing with." The civilization itself wasn't too enticing still, but the way its used to expand on the mysteries infestering in the plot was surprisingly clever and effective. And overall, the story in general became more and more engaging the longer it went on, which made its gradual buildup well worth it.
As a relative newcomer, it is odd that the main character, Adol, is silent but only kind of. He has dialouge options to pick like any RPG protagonist, but he's also shown to speak during combat and will have quips for many things like fishing. Also the fact that he his named Adol. No, not that his name is weird. More that he does have a name that all the characters address him as. Most other RPGs would have the player name the main character if they aren't going to say much anyway; but here you can't since Adol himself is his own character with an already established backstory. It's a real fine-line between a player-insert and having an existing personality, and I was not expecting it to work so well. Even though I don't mind silent protagonists most of the times, there are points when the story actually starts to suffer when your main character doesn't display much emotion or they just blankly stare as other characters have to carry the conversation themselves. Here, it never felt annoying. It was just enough added to make things interesting.
But who cares about emotional feelings, I want to feel physical feelings of pain from mashing the 'A' button for fifty hours straight. OK it's not actually that simple, though fuck, some of those fishing mini-games can genuinely be painful with all that button mashing. You have one combo, plus a charged attack after a few seconds of not attacking, a aerial combo, a downwards strike while your descending in the air, four equippable skill moves, and a limit break super attack. Not a lot admittedly, but they're used well enough for the addictive gameplay loop. Build the SP meter with combos and charged attacks to unleash skills, which will then gradually build up your limit break. Skills vary a lot and are gradually earned as you level up and progress the story. SP gain is real easy, which allows you to unload a ton of skill attacks on the enemy at any point. Honestly, the speed at which this happens is why it almost never gets old. You're never waiting to be allowed to perform the cool attacks, and the higher your aggression then the more SP you build, meaning even more devastating attacks. Still enemies are plentiful and often fast as hell, so you'll need to utilize the game's defensive options. You can either dodge at the last second of an incoming attack to slowdown time, or you can guard before being struck to greatly increase your damage for a short period of time. Both provide full invulnerability. I felt the dodge slowdown was kind of vague to initiate. Even after fifty hours I was never quite sure how close I needed to be to the attack, when to dodge, and what direction to dodge to get the slowdown. Most of the times I would activate it by complete accident. The guard felt a lot more consistent though. It's a pretty tight window, but not having your character roll out of the way meant I was able to pinpoint the timing of attacks much more reliably. And because I played Ys VIII on hard, these abilities were a godsend and incredibly satisfying to pull off as messing up resulted in a huge chunk of health disappearing, but it made success a lot more fulfilling.
Many enemies also have weaknesses to specific damage types, which vary between the party members. Using the correct damage type will break the enemy and make them vulnerable to all damage types. I'm fairly neutral about this. It encourages swapping characters constantly, which is thankfully instantaneously, so you can't stick to one playstyle and make the combat feel stale. But at the same time there's not much more to it then that. I was honestly expecting enemies to start having multiple weaknesses that offers more of a choice of which character you wanted to use while still being a restriction to overcome, or maybe they would periodically change their weaknesses, and so on. Yet because battles are lightning quick, it doesn't linger enough to drag the combat, rather its just enough to add some spice to the many, many fights.
While not the most complicated or even my favorite ARPG combat, it does its job as well as I could've hoped. Even with the few recolors, enemy variety is high from start to end. Characters play distinctly from one a other, especially the ones that share the same damage type. The RPG systems are simple enough to not have a laundry list of menus and stats to manage, but offers a decent amount of customization and equipment to sought after in the short and long term that kept me playing.
Speaking of equipment, it's really interesting how, because the setting here takes place on an island after a shipwreck, there's no traditional currency. Rather every armor, weapon, and accessory not found in a chest has to be crafted. Luckily no items are ever obnoxiously rare and the game catalogs where to find what, whether they're harvested in a dungeon or dropped by a specific monster. Will say, I did use the 5th party member constantly as they could steal items from monsters, so not sure if that affected how much I felt compelled to grind for materials.
With all that said, goddamn this game is long. I was interested in playing through most of it, but there's so much to do that I stopped at roughly 90% completion. Did get the true ending, played through a lot of raids, fought a few secret bosses, cleared every quest, and fished till my thumb actually started to hurt. And the story has you backtrack back and forth all the time. If you drank everytime you had to go back to the Castaway Village, I'd be concerned for your liver. But mercifully fast travel is extremely accessible and load times are very reasonable. If not for those two things then this would've been dire. Still there's so much dialouge and story scenes, a lot of them even optional that are dependent on whether you complete quests at the village (which are timed depending on story progress) or giving gifts to the survivors you find on the island. There's a lot to do, and I did start to feel fatigued by the end, though as mentioned earlier I was enjoying the story more as it went on so things certainly could've been worse.
Even after all of this, I feel I still don't fully grasp the appeal of Ys. I did leave a lot unsaid as it would bloat this review far more then it already is, but I came away from Ys VIII thinking "Yeah that was good". Not too dissimilar to how I felt about Ys Origins, though I liked pretty much everything here in VIII more apart from it being a bit too long. But maybe I felt that way as I was intending to have a small in-between game, and not a fully-loaded RPG. That's definitely on me for not looking into its average playtime.
Also I'm shocked by the lack of love I see online for Hummel. He's literally designed to be a fan favorite character who'd get so popular that Ys fans would get sick of seeing him in every game and spin-off.
What is a medical student?
A student who studies medicine
- NISA Pre-patched translation
A student who studies medicine
- NISA Pre-patched translation
Peak enjoyment
Overall I enjoyed moments of Ys 8, but I kind of came away from it with a so-so feeling.
Pros
- The reveals of Eternia, the interweaving of past/present was very cool, although it did wear thin by the end.
- Mapping out an island was an interesting structure (although again, became repetitive). It was cool going up the mountain.
- I enjoyed aspects of Laxia and Sahad's characters
Cons
- There's something about the way that Falcom escalates their stakes into almost chuuni-worldbuilding territory that I never really like... like the story of Eternia and that tragedy I found interesting, but somehow when the story jumped up to 'now we we need to construct some huge world lore' feels off to me. Those kinds of gigantic stakes just end up sounding ridiculous when the game spent like 15 hours building up characters in more reasonable scenarios. Like with the whole 'past races' thing, it just feels like 'well, ok...' when it's all dumped on you at once.
I've noticed recent Ys games seem to be really hammering home deep lore, but to me it feels sort of 'against' the idea of Adol's adventures being these rediscovered myths, almost. I don't have a sense of 'myth' so much as a game that's trying to construct and justify why its world exists or something - where I'd rather have more understated/unexplained magic.
That being said, you can more or less ignore all the lore reveals and it doesn't affect much of the game. But Ys 8 felt really long overall - my playthrough was fairly rushed and it still came out to around 22-23 hours. Bosses started to feel really repetitive - you just watch their moves enough to get the Flash Guard timing down, then spam attacks. I did like that wacky top-down view dragon boss that fires bullets and rolls balls at you, although the camera shaking all over the place made it hard to control.
The upgrade system is also a bit silly.. you just get linear DEF/ATK upgrades, and you rarely run out of materials to upgrade to be strong enough to win the fights. It felt really routine to do those upgrades.
Definitely one of the worst habits Ys games have picked up over the past few installments is all these 'modular', 'reskinned' feeling rewards systems - there's always someone giving you stuff for filling out the map, there's a item rank trader, a blacksmith... it makes meeting the characters feel a lot more disposable/artificial than organic.
Ricotta and Hummul were fairly poor characters... the raids were kind of slow/boring...
---
Overall, the idea of Ys 8 is really great, but I think this is one of the weaker entries in the series to me - even if it's really smooth/streamlined to play. The Adol/Dana stuff is great, but it doesn't quite make up for how bloated and long the rest of the game feels.
Pros
- The reveals of Eternia, the interweaving of past/present was very cool, although it did wear thin by the end.
- Mapping out an island was an interesting structure (although again, became repetitive). It was cool going up the mountain.
- I enjoyed aspects of Laxia and Sahad's characters
Cons
- There's something about the way that Falcom escalates their stakes into almost chuuni-worldbuilding territory that I never really like... like the story of Eternia and that tragedy I found interesting, but somehow when the story jumped up to 'now we we need to construct some huge world lore' feels off to me. Those kinds of gigantic stakes just end up sounding ridiculous when the game spent like 15 hours building up characters in more reasonable scenarios. Like with the whole 'past races' thing, it just feels like 'well, ok...' when it's all dumped on you at once.
I've noticed recent Ys games seem to be really hammering home deep lore, but to me it feels sort of 'against' the idea of Adol's adventures being these rediscovered myths, almost. I don't have a sense of 'myth' so much as a game that's trying to construct and justify why its world exists or something - where I'd rather have more understated/unexplained magic.
That being said, you can more or less ignore all the lore reveals and it doesn't affect much of the game. But Ys 8 felt really long overall - my playthrough was fairly rushed and it still came out to around 22-23 hours. Bosses started to feel really repetitive - you just watch their moves enough to get the Flash Guard timing down, then spam attacks. I did like that wacky top-down view dragon boss that fires bullets and rolls balls at you, although the camera shaking all over the place made it hard to control.
The upgrade system is also a bit silly.. you just get linear DEF/ATK upgrades, and you rarely run out of materials to upgrade to be strong enough to win the fights. It felt really routine to do those upgrades.
Definitely one of the worst habits Ys games have picked up over the past few installments is all these 'modular', 'reskinned' feeling rewards systems - there's always someone giving you stuff for filling out the map, there's a item rank trader, a blacksmith... it makes meeting the characters feel a lot more disposable/artificial than organic.
Ricotta and Hummul were fairly poor characters... the raids were kind of slow/boring...
---
Overall, the idea of Ys 8 is really great, but I think this is one of the weaker entries in the series to me - even if it's really smooth/streamlined to play. The Adol/Dana stuff is great, but it doesn't quite make up for how bloated and long the rest of the game feels.
The game starts out somewhat simply, but it's a game where you quickly realize you're playing something special. Impressively both action-oriented and relaxing to play, it has an amazing soundtrack.
acompanhando a vida, morte e reencarnação do universo com meus amigos
This game... Holy hell this game really blew me away. I played the Vita version through my PSTV and despite that being the "worst way to play the worst version", I still could not help but fall head over heels in love. The story, the combat, the questing, the characters, the exploration, the sense of completion, and completionist friendliness all added on top of a great soundtrack, pleasing visuals (even if mine were more pixelated than yours) and awesome dual storyline make this game a nearly flawless MASTERPIECE. So why isn't it a perfect score? Well when I really went looking for something to criticize, I found that the lock-on camera wasn't always the best, at least in the version I played, that's literally it. Play this game, it's amazing.
Dana forever!