Really mixed on this game. The last 15 or so hours were pretty decent, especially Dana's solo segments, but a lot of the game is really aimless and feels padded. Poorly paced first chapters are normal in JRPGs, but I've always felt Ys does a better job feeling even and interesting, while 8 felt more content to waste my time.

The area and dungeon design is probably the worst part of the game as a lot of it has little depth and is very confined due to the original Vita version's restrictions. What you end up with is a very large surface area of separate condensed yet mostly empty areas with spaced out mindless enemies. The combat is at it's best when fighting large packs or bosses, but for the majority of the game you won't be doing that.

The story is pretty mediocre with a lot of heavy-handed JRPG tropes and long drawn out scenes that would make you think the developers are really confident in it, but even if you ignore the somewhat subjective opinion on tropes it's still hard to enjoy because of how lop-sided it is; the first 3 chapters might as well be the Garlic Jr arc from DBZ. Game would have been a lot better as a solo adventure with Dana and less focused on the castaways.

My final complaint comes down to how the game has a number of gamebreaking bugs still even in 2023. Prominently the particle damage glitch which will have you accidentally one shotting half the bosses if you don't know to avoid half of the moves or characters that cause it.

In spite of all that, the core mechanics and later dungeons are good and the pacing does pick up. I wouldn't recommend this game as recklessly as I feel a lot of people do. It's not a good introduction to the series and is honestly offputting if you don't stick with it, though I do understand how some might feel that the game reaches greater heights than Monstrum Nox.