[PS4] Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Review

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is finally here! I have been excited for this game since the announcement for Vita way back and Nihom Falcom developed an updated version of the game for the PS4 with some few extras.

Adol Kristin is like Link from the Legend of Zelda for Consoles. He is the star of all YS games. His been to various adventures before and this time, Our hero finds himself stuck on a huge Island when he and the crew of the ship, Lombardia were attacked by a giant sea monster. Some of the crew survived and were washed to this cursed Island. When Adol got reunited with the captain they decided to search the Island and rescue the other crews and develop their escape plan. They decided to build a section on the Island called Castaway Village where your team must help develop the area by bringing in supplies and folks to reach the ultimate goal of escaping.

The Graphics for the PS4 version is gorgeous! It’s a mouthwatering 60 FPS and if this is the same engine that they'll be using for Trails of Cold Steel 3, that makes me more excited for that game. Anyway, being a PSVITA port that doesn't look like the case as this game feels at home in PS4. It's not Horizon and Uncharted 4 graphics but still a beauty.

I have played various YS before and I must say the story telling has drastically improved and I think they have done a good job with it. Not something that you'll skip for sure. There's also great character development as backgrounds of each character grew in an interesting manner as you unravel the secrets of the cursed Island.

Soundtrack is still superb. The familiar tune is heard for all Falcom games and they are all amazing! Legend of heroes, Tokyo Xanadu and YS series were all composed by Falcom Sound Team JDK(in case you want to know). From rock to mellow music, the team capture every sound for every moment.

It's a fast action packed RPG. Like previous YS games, you have two other ally with you which you can swap to any time even while in combat. Each character is effective to certain enemies so you'll be forced really to use everyone on your team. The fun part is that, it's not as complicated as you think and combat is really addicting. There's a portion of the game where I stayed there for 15 mins and grind my skills while attacking an invincible bee hive where I just smashed the X button over and over. >:D

If you're thinking of things you'd do in this game. There's a lot. There's this Castlevania like Map system which is huge and the captain has given you the task to Map the whole Island. Though the Map is confusing due to each Map has levels upon levels of stages, you'll have fun travelling the island and character movement is fast enough that you'll be sprinting your way from one area to another in a few mins. There're tons of items to collect as each portion of the Map has its unique materials that you can harvest to be used for upgrading your weapons, developing new ones, for healing items and developing the village. There're also spots in the Island where you can fish, not the best mini game but certainly great way of getting supplies and rare items.

You'd need to rescue villagers to progress to some portion of the Map. There're some blockers which prohibits you to enter certain areas unless you have a certain number of villagers that can help you remove those blocks. Rescuing them will benefit you're preparation for your adventure. There's a blacksmith that can create and upgrade your weapons and armors, There's a doctor that can create healing items, and Dogi's trade shop which lets you trade in items you can use for forging. Basically, you unlock more stuff the more people you rescue.

Combat as mentioned is addicting. This kind of system is unique to YS and I never played any RPG as fast and addicting as this one. You might get overwhelmed with the controls at first if you're not familiar with YS games' controls but you'll get a hang of it in a while. You level up your characters as well as their skills The more you use your skills the more it strengthens. Its fast and action packed. You can switch from performing a skill, jumping, dodging and blocking in almost an instant. There's an Inferno difficulty new to PS4 and it'd be a great test of skill if you're not new to YS franchise.

Boss battles were all intense and satisfying specially if you're in a higher difficulty level. You need to identify their weak spots instead of just slashing the enemy over and over. There're moments that you're village will be attacked by monsters and during those moments you need to defend the village which you'd also need to upgrade the defenses.

Bonus stuff for PS4 gamers were new monsters, new dungeons, and additional stuff for Dana. Of course, any additional feature is welcome so I'd recommend the PS4 version over the Vita for that. Based on the videos I found on Youtube, I'd prefer the PS4 version over PSVITA.

Nothing here that you've not yet seen before in any JRPG if you’re an JRPG fan. But games like Ys, they're rare nowadays as this is what you call a real JRPG classic. It brings you back to the old days on how JRPGs were told and how it touch every gamers hearts who love the genre.

Pros:

· Most exciting YS game yet

· Long Gameplay and great replay value

· Exciting combat that will never bore you

· Huge map to explore and complete

· Additional stuff for PS4 version aside from better graphics

· Great soundtrack

Cons

· Huge map is confusing to navigate

Overall Score:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

4.5/5