15th August 2018, 9:42 PM
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita) -- This game is really good and addictive! Ys VIII is a great action-rpg, with a well-thought-through mixture of elements from both the classic Ys games and modern titles. I've been playing quite a bit of this game over the past few weeks, and quite enjoy it. As with Ys VII, the game has three characters active at a time, and you control one and the AI control the others. A button switches between the three, and once you get more than three you can swap out the others on the pause menu anytime. It seems that only the three active ones get experience points though, so you will need to switch characters out to keep them levelled. The combat is simple but has some depth, as there's a roll command to dodge incoming attacks -- using this well is vital -- and you have special attacks and a meter that limits how much you can use them. There are also super moves, if you use enough special moves to fill another meter. You're fighting a lot as expected from the always-grindey Ys series, but combat is fun so it's not too bad. The game does seem a bit easy on Normal difficulty though, so I've mostly been playing on Hard.
Ys VIII has a more interesting story and setting than most previous games in the series, though. Adol and a bunch of other people were on a ship, but it wrecked on the coast of an uninhabited and mysterious island full of danger. The whole game is set on the island, and you explore it, find new survivors to add to your party or base camp, and collect stuff. As with many modern games this game has a crafting system, but as fitting with the deserted-island theme, it doesn't really have a money system at all. Instead all purchases in the town are done through barter with the stuff you collect, so the monster-parts-collection element of this game fits the setting well. There isn't any complex crafting either, you just get stuff that people say they want and bring it to them, either for side quests or for getting new items in the shop and such. That seems simple enough, if you know where to find the things they need, but that latter part can be a challenge sometimes. Story quests, on the other hand, usually have you going to a specific point in the map, either to search for a survivor, kill monsters there, or just to explore to that point.
And the story is actually kind of interesting, which is a rarity for Ys. Oh, Ys game plots are fine enough heroic journeys, as Adol fights monsters and discovers ancient civilizations, and you do a lot of that here, but the many fully voiced cutscenes give the characters personality in a way I don't remember seeing in this series before. Ys VII also had a party, but this one makes you care about your party members a lot more. The deserted-island setting is also reasonably interesting. The game is definitely anime though, and has some dumb anime themes in it for sure. It's always weird to see how little actually medieval anything Japanese "medieval fantasy" games have in them... though apparently this world has advanced far enough to make some guns, so there is that. Still, that ship in the beginning or most any characters' clothing doesn't fit the ostensible setting at all, as usual. Oh well.
Graphically the game looks great for the Vita, and is probably one of the better-looking games I've played for the system. I'm sure it looks even better on PC and PS4, and probably the Switch too, in framerate particularly as the Vita version is 30fps and the others try for 60, but I am quite fine with 30fps and I think this game looks very nice. The soundtrack is fantastic too, it's great stuff.
So it's mostly good, but even as early-is in the game as I am (maybe 10 hours in?) there are a few issues to mention. First, this is a long game, as much as 70 hours to finish, and a lot of that time will be spent levelling or killing monsters for parts. I'm sure the grind gets old after a while. And second, the Vita version of this game here is the original version of the game, which means that it's missing a whole bunch of features that the other three versions added. The additional content of the other versions includes a bonus dungeon at the end of the game for Dana to play through, more combat modes for Dana to switch to when you play as her near the end of the game, a bunch of interface and map improvements and such, and more. On the other hand, this versions also cost a lot more than the Vita one does -- this version is easy to find for under $40, while the other three are still a full $60. So despite the cuts I got this version, and don't regret it. I probably will also get the PC version someday as well, but this is great.
Ys VIII has a more interesting story and setting than most previous games in the series, though. Adol and a bunch of other people were on a ship, but it wrecked on the coast of an uninhabited and mysterious island full of danger. The whole game is set on the island, and you explore it, find new survivors to add to your party or base camp, and collect stuff. As with many modern games this game has a crafting system, but as fitting with the deserted-island theme, it doesn't really have a money system at all. Instead all purchases in the town are done through barter with the stuff you collect, so the monster-parts-collection element of this game fits the setting well. There isn't any complex crafting either, you just get stuff that people say they want and bring it to them, either for side quests or for getting new items in the shop and such. That seems simple enough, if you know where to find the things they need, but that latter part can be a challenge sometimes. Story quests, on the other hand, usually have you going to a specific point in the map, either to search for a survivor, kill monsters there, or just to explore to that point.
And the story is actually kind of interesting, which is a rarity for Ys. Oh, Ys game plots are fine enough heroic journeys, as Adol fights monsters and discovers ancient civilizations, and you do a lot of that here, but the many fully voiced cutscenes give the characters personality in a way I don't remember seeing in this series before. Ys VII also had a party, but this one makes you care about your party members a lot more. The deserted-island setting is also reasonably interesting. The game is definitely anime though, and has some dumb anime themes in it for sure. It's always weird to see how little actually medieval anything Japanese "medieval fantasy" games have in them... though apparently this world has advanced far enough to make some guns, so there is that. Still, that ship in the beginning or most any characters' clothing doesn't fit the ostensible setting at all, as usual. Oh well.
Graphically the game looks great for the Vita, and is probably one of the better-looking games I've played for the system. I'm sure it looks even better on PC and PS4, and probably the Switch too, in framerate particularly as the Vita version is 30fps and the others try for 60, but I am quite fine with 30fps and I think this game looks very nice. The soundtrack is fantastic too, it's great stuff.
So it's mostly good, but even as early-is in the game as I am (maybe 10 hours in?) there are a few issues to mention. First, this is a long game, as much as 70 hours to finish, and a lot of that time will be spent levelling or killing monsters for parts. I'm sure the grind gets old after a while. And second, the Vita version of this game here is the original version of the game, which means that it's missing a whole bunch of features that the other three versions added. The additional content of the other versions includes a bonus dungeon at the end of the game for Dana to play through, more combat modes for Dana to switch to when you play as her near the end of the game, a bunch of interface and map improvements and such, and more. On the other hand, this versions also cost a lot more than the Vita one does -- this version is easy to find for under $40, while the other three are still a full $60. So despite the cuts I got this version, and don't regret it. I probably will also get the PC version someday as well, but this is great.