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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana |OT| Two Systems, Two Heroes, One BIG HOLE

I played about 2 hours last night (PS4 Pro) and the game is glorious so far. Music is A+++ even better so far than previous Ys games. Graphics are better than i expected on PS4 and 60fps makes it like butter mmmmm. Story seems cool to me so far - Sortof a mystery going on and i love the island setting. Combat is FAR better than Ys 7 so far, for me. Overall, my expectations are being surpassed in every way and i can't wait to dig in for an all nighter with this in a few hours.

Oh - the translation. I was mortified when i heard NIS America and not XSeed were releasing this in the US. Thus far, the translation has been completely fine and I hope that continues for the entire game. Feels like i dodged a bullet! The game could have been massively hurt by a shoddy translation but this is competent to pretty good. Voice acting I'm not loving at ALL though - bummer :/ (except for laxative she seems fine)
I'm not too sure but I think Dogi's VA is the same one from Seven and OiF, which is a nice touch if so.

Also laxatives.
 

Mudo

Member
I'm not too sure but I think Dogi's VA is the same one from Seven and OiF, which is a nice touch if so.

Also laxatives.


I'm so early maybe the voices will grow on me. I'll keep them in regardless it isn't making my ears burn or anything lol. OMG LAXIA wow sorry. sorta funny tho
 
I'm so early maybe the voices will grow on me. I'll keep them in regardless it isn't making my ears burn or anything lol. OMG LAXIA wow sorry. sorta funny tho
I'm a few hours in and the voices are all right. I think Sahad's voice fits the character well, for example, and Laxia's voice isn't too bad either, like you said.

And no worries! I got a good chuckle out of it, myself. :p
 

Eusis

Member
Dogi definitely is the same voice
It's awesome that NISA got the same voice or at least a guy who sounds pretty similar. Definitely like to keep consistency where it's feasible.

EDIT: And sticking with English on this, since I'm used to that from prior Ys games and the dub's pretty good anyway. Will probably go Japanese for Tokyo Xanadu because... come on, just look at the name.
 
It's awesome that NISA got the same voice or at least a guy who sounds pretty similar. Definitely like to keep consistency where it's feasible.

EDIT: And sticking with English on this, since I'm used to that from prior Ys games and the dub's pretty good anyway. Will probably go Japanese for Tokyo Xanadu because... come on, just look at the name.
Tokyo Xanadu doesn't have a dub
 
I really like the Collector's Edition, but sadly one edge of my cloth poster thing was really badly cut. I sent a request to NIS support to see if they'll replace it.

A4usYFL.jpg

XNmSdFZ.jpg

1Bp6AV9.jpg
 
I played a bit today and it was good. I'm really biased when it comes to lush and colorful enviroments so I can't give an objective opinion about the graphics and the castway setting in general. The ost is amazing and gameplay wise is a huge improvement already over Seven and Celteta. So, yes, everything ok so far.
 

Oreiller

Member
This game is so much better than Seven and Celceta on pretty much every aspect so far. I hope hard mode isn't too easy though.
 
C

Contica

Unconfirmed Member
I'm not sure what you're getting at with "helpless females" - Laxia's a pretty good character who isn't subject to that kind of thing, and Dana is really great and is the opposite of helpless. I have no idea what seems archaic about the combat to you either. I don't know how you can call it either slow or stiff.

I will concede that the story takes a while to get moving at full speed, but when it picks up, it really goes places.

Laxia is terrible. Between being the archaic noble and proper woman from high society who needs to learn to chill in the real world (dudes teach her this obviously), and the ridiculously "underboob, side boob, all the boobs" of Dana et alls outfits, I cringe at every turn. I'm not against the whole cliche, I'm just really bored woth it. It's lame, over used.

The cpmbat just feels ancient to me. Simple attack patterns, no fluidity, just mashing skills, and dodging here and there. There is nothing exciting about it at all.
 
Laxia is terrible. Between being the archaic noble and proper woman from high society who needs to learn to chill in the real world (dudes teach her this obviously), and the ridiculously "underboob, side boob, all the boobs" of Dana et alls outfits, I cringe at every turn. I'm not against the whole cliche, I'm just really bored woth it. It's lame, over used.

The cpmbat just feels ancient to me. Simple attack patterns, no fluidity, just mashing skills, and dodging here and there. There is nothing exciting about it at all.

Not really feeling the female characters either, but I have just kind of given up on Japan creating non-terrible female characters. Also remember this is a 70+ hour game I'm hoping the opening of the game has to hit you over the head with the tropes so you get an instant feel for the characters and as the game goes on it will be less in your face.

On the gameplay side of things I find the combat and fast paced gameplay to be quite nice. I played N:A earlier this year, and found the combat to be just adequate, and definitely the least in depth major platinum game. This game seems to have more enemy variety, and making it more about juggling which character you are using rather than depth on the individual characters, which I think is a fine design.

The main thing that makes me want to play is the town-building aspect though, if it expands and allows for some customization a-la dark cloud I would be incredibly pleased.
 
I'm so suprised that it seems people love the music in this. It's one element of the game that makes me really hate playing. I hate the music. To my ears it's 80s inspired pop-power rock, that is just stressful to listen to. It's annoying as fuck and it never knows when to slow things down.

To make things worse it's a very clear "digital trying to sound analogue" vibe going on, where there's a hyperactive lead guitar that sounds more like the cheap synth it is, than the guitar they want it to be. There are some nice tracks here and there, but overall most of it just sounds like a playlist of rejected Motoi Sakuraba boss battle themes. Yuck.
lol, In what world does this resemble Sakuraba boss themes? There's way more power metal and J-rock influence here than prog. And the melodies are stronger and more memorable than rejected Sakuraba tracks, and they stack well against other Sound Team jdk music.

I don't see what the beef is with some guitar sounds in this soundtrack, either, which have a good amount of variation, resonate enough, and do the usual effects like vibrato, tremolo, and such. They're obviously not live-recorded except in a few tracks, but that's only an issue in certain tracks arranged (composed?) by Mitsuo Singa, who uses a screaming banshee pretending to play guitar. I hope that's what you're mainly referring to. Anything likely done by Takahiro Unisuga has great guitar work, and Hayato Sonoda's not bad at it either. If there's anything I'd criticize, it's how difficult some of these pieces would be on guitar vs. keyboard where the sequencing and composition happens (and new arrangements simplify or rework all that anyway).

You're not wrong that VIII's music is more frenetic and exuberant than usual, but outside tracks like Sunshine Coastline which excel anyway, you get well-developed tunes which use enough downtime between the adrenaline. I'm fine with not liking the music if it doesn't fit my tastes. Falcom just constructs really solid to great soundtracks almost all the time, and this doesn't seem like an exception...even with Singa.
 

Blue-kun

Member
Laxia is terrible. Between being the archaic noble and proper woman from high society who needs to learn to chill in the real world (dudes teach her this obviously), and the ridiculously "underboob, side boob, all the boobs" of Dana et alls outfits, I cringe at every turn. I'm not against the whole cliche, I'm just really bored woth it. It's lame, over used.

The cpmbat just feels ancient to me. Simple attack patterns, no fluidity, just mashing skills, and dodging here and there. There is nothing exciting about it at all.

Laxia I'll give it to you because really, she's not that great at the start, but the jab at Dana is just... it's not like they're trying to make her some beacon of fanservice here. The way she's dressed is simply related to her civilization there, and it's not like we didn't have civilizations and different people in the past (and even in the present) who had lots of skin showing in how they dressed and what not.

Especially funny when I think you mentioned NieR Automata in a previous post and for all intents and purposes 2B is basically guilty of that, and to a much worse extent than Dana is.

As for the combat, to each his own, eh. I think Ys on the highest difficulty is basically much more complex than whatever Automata can throw at you.
 

Granjinha

Member
The cpmbat just feels ancient to me. Simple attack patterns, no fluidity, just mashing skills, and dodging here and there. There is nothing exciting about it at all.

I don't think we're playing the same game.

Maybe you're on easy? (not a jab or anything, but that could change the whole flow of the game)
 

Wagram

Member
Inferno doesn't seem so bad so far. You get hurt for a lot when you get hit, but if you flash you're all good.

I like Laxia so far, but she does look an awful lot like Karna.
 

Arthos

Member
Sorry if this has been asked before - does the Vita have a physical edition? Debating whether to buy it digitally or not. Don't really buy many games full games digitally!
 

Tohsaka

Member
The voice volume on PS4 seems really low, even when I set the slider to max. Not sure if it's my TV or what but I can barely hear them.
 

Wagram

Member
Jesus the Inferno difficulty starfish moving at me at that speed was some Bloodborne chalice dungeon shit. LOL.
 

Wagram

Member
Two things I really like about the game so far:

1.) Bosses start off simple as hell and quickly ramp up to mechanically heavy.
2.) The feeling of adventure is high. I love this.
 

Alucrid

Banned
anyone got tips for this late chapter 2 boss?
the spider one.
had no trouble with the one before it but this keeps kicking my ass on nightmare.
 

Blue-kun

Member
anyone got tips for this late chapter 2 boss?
the spider one.
had no trouble with the one before it but this keeps kicking my ass on nightmare.

I'm gonna spoil the whole answer because why not.

If you're using food, there's a good one (I don't remember the name now, been months since I played it) that basically heals you and grants you immunity against status effects. Definitely worth taking some against it, as its poison is most likely what will be making you die more often than not, the damage really, really adds up after a while.

Other than that, I dunno. I think it's a pretty straightforward boss, you just need to get used to its patterns.

Oh, but there's something else too. If you don't mind, use Hummel. Hummel's EX is INSANELY POWERFUL, lol. You use it and it basically does ALL THE DAMAGE. It's kinda broken against some bosses, even...
 

Alucrid

Banned
I'm gonna spoil the whole answer because why not.

If you're using food, there's a good one (I don't remember the name now, been months since I played it) that basically heals you and grants you immunity against status effects. Definitely worth taking some against it, as its poison is most likely what will be making you die more often than not, the damage really, really adds up after a while.

Other than that, I dunno. I think it's a pretty straightforward boss, you just need to get used to its patterns.

Oh, but there's something else too. If you don't mind, use Hummel. Hummel's EX is INSANELY POWERFUL, lol. You use it and it basically does ALL THE DAMAGE. It's kinda broken against some bosses, even...

thanks i'll look into those two things. haven't used the person you suggested much since i'm not a huge fan of their weapon but i'll give them more of a shot here.
 

Blue-kun

Member
thanks i'll look into those two things. haven't used the person you suggest much since i'm not a huge fan of their weapon but i'll give him more of a shot here.

No problem, hopefully it helps. By the way, by food I mean the kind of which you can cook at the village there. I also don't remember if you need a recipe book for this specific food, but I think, possibly, maybeeeee? Still, I remember having access to it by then, so it's out there, somewhere, lol.

As for Hummel, yeah, I wasn't using him on my main party either, but he's a very nice character for bosses due to his EX. The spider one may actually be one of the more resilient ones against it, but even then I remember it basically did a lot more damage than Adol's or Laxia's to the point where it was worth taking him anyway
.
 
How much and how this game is better than the Ys Seven that i just beat?

I did not complete YS 7, and I'm only about 5 hours into this one, but here is my hot take on where the game excels so far:

1.) 3rd Person Camera Angle makes this game much more entertaining to explore and it feels makes it all feel less "cheap" I especially notice this with the much more detailed character models.

2.) Gameplay is fast paced and fun, has a bit more of an RPG feel than YS 7 did for me which felt more like an action game. Reminds me of a mix of classic YS with Rogue Galaxy done right.

3.) Much bigger focus on story.

4.) The setting is more engaging for me, exploring the island is fun, and building up towns is always a great mechanic imo.

The game reminds me a lot of a more refined iteration of the golden era of JRPGs from the PS2 days.
 

Blue-kun

Member
How much and how this game is better than the Ys Seven that i just beat?

I'm always biased since I'm pretty much a giant Ys fanboy, but I'd say this game is quite a bit better than Seven. Combat has been much refined, exploring the world is a lot more fun, the maps themselves are much bigger and controlling your party members feel better, from a gameplay perspective it's a step up in every conceivable way, really.

The only part where Seven may have a shot at being *better* for you is the story. It's a lot more straightforward, for better and for worse. While both games start out slow, Ys VIII's real plot doesn't kick in until the later half of the game. The first part is basically built upon its characters and the whole shipwreck situation they find themselves on. I don't mind it, and I think there are some really neat moments there, but well, it's not the epic oldschool "Adol chosen warrior here to save the land!" kind of story they had going in Seven :p

That said, when VIII's actual plot kicks in, I think it's far, far more interesting than anything Seven does.

Anyway, if you liked Seven, this game is basically Seven with a lot of extra polish and much bigger and scope and ambition, as well as a bigger focus on the story and character side of things. If you think that sounds up your alley, give it a go.
 

Elfstar

Member
I did not complete YS 7, and I'm only about 5 hours into this one, but here is my hot take on where the game excels so far:

1.) 3rd Person Camera Angle makes this game much more entertaining to explore and it feels makes it all feel less "cheap" I especially notice this with the much more detailed character models.

2.) Gameplay is fast paced and fun, has a bit more of an RPG feel than YS 7 did for me which felt more like an action game. Reminds me of a mix of classic YS with Rogue Galaxy done right.

3.) Much bigger focus on story.

4.) The setting is more engaging for me, exploring the island is fun, and building up towns is always a great mechanic imo.

The game reminds me a lot of a more refined iteration of the golden era of JRPGs from the PS2 days.

I"m always biased since I'm pretty much a giant Ys fanboy, but I'd say this game is quite a bit better than Seven. Combat has been much refined, exploring the world is a lot more fun, the maps themselves are much bigger and controlling your party members feel better, from a gameplay perspective it's a step up in every conceivable way, really.

The only part where Seven may have a shot at being *better* for you is the story. It's a lot more straightforward, for better and for worse. While both games start out slow, Ys VIII's real plot doesn't kick in until the later half of the game. The first part is basically built upon its characters and the whole shipwreck situation they find themselves on. I don't mind it, and I think there are some really neat moments there, but well, it's not the epic oldschool "Adol chosen warrior here to save the land!" kind of story they had going in Seven :p

That said, when VIII's actual plot kicks in, I think it's far, far more interesting than anything Seven does.

Anyway, if you liked Seven, this game is basically Seven with a lot of extra polish and much bigger and scope and ambition, as well as a bigger focus on the story and character side of things. If you think that sounds up your alley, give it a go.

Thank you very much.

I liked Seven more as an rpg than as an Ys game, if this makes sense, i kinda prefer the old-school series with solo Adol and whatever, but i don't hate this "modern" style, even if it feels more like generic jrpg at times, i don't blame Falcom for trying to reach a bigger audience though.
Regardless, if someone pulls out out a good action-dungeon crawler-rpg with decent artstyle, good combat system and level design i'm always going to play it, always.
 
The voice volume on PS4 seems really low, even when I set the slider to max. Not sure if it's my TV or what but I can barely hear them.

Same for me, I’m trying to tweak it but the voices seem to be off in the distance. Even with the other sounds down it just seems....off.
 

Mr.Jeff

Member
anyone got tips for this late chapter 2 boss?
the spider one.
had no trouble with the one before it but this keeps kicking my ass on nightmare.

My most died to boss in the game! 281 attempts on that git.

If you're using Adol, I recommend using the sideways slash. It has good range and can take down the adds and boss.
First phase is mostly just dodging its stomps. If you're worried about its poison splash, back off a bit when you see it begin to do it. If you stay close to it, it mostly does swipes and smashes which are okay enough to dodge.

Second phase is a pain in the ass. You can't stay too near like before or you'll get poisoned. Aim to attack when it does its swipes or frontal smashes. Kill adds the same way as previous.

When it does its suck in attack, keep pulling to the side and you should manage to get out just before it goes off.
For its beam, try and stay to the side of it when possible. If not some good jumping skills.
For its charge attack, learn to recognise the build up and roll under it's legs and behind it so it misses you. Watch out for a poison spray afterwards.

Hope this helps.
 

Wagram

Member
I'm hoping the boss difficulty picks up a little bit. I died a bunch to the third boss, but it wasn't too mechanically intensive. I want some non-sense!
 

Bladenic

Member
Sorry if this has been answered, but are the Adol costumes for digital only? And why does the Vita version have all these costumes but not the PS4 version?

Can't wait to start this, been way too busy today but this weekend will allow me to dive in.
 

Blue-kun

Member
Sorry if this has been answered, but are the Adol costumes for digital only? And why does the Vita version have all these costumes but not the PS4 version?

That's actually a really good question. I had them on my JP Vita copy and when I found out the PS4 version apparently doesn't have those costumes I was a bit ????.

Especially Laxia's pirate one is really, really cool. I'd love touse it again... lol.
 
I just want Adol's Silver armor one, and I want it bad. Do I have to own both versions of the game to get it? I don't think I want it that bad.
 

LowParry

Member
Ugh I should of went in on the pre order to get the discount from Amazon. Right in the middle of moving. I need this game.
 
Man, I really need to catch up on this series. I've had I, II, and Oath of Felghana sitting on steam for ages but still haven't got to them.
 
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