The GWJ JRPG Club - Q4 2021 - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

Started up and finished chapter one last night. Boss fight at the end was a little tough, forced me to use my one healing potion to make sure everyone got exp for the fight. I accidentally figured out the mechanic when I locked on and the lock on was on his head though.

Is it just me or does Laxia's personality seem to swing wildly in these early cutscenes?

A funny thing happened this afternoon: My brother left after our weekly lunch, and I started playing Ys VIII, and I did not stop until something 3 hours later when the guy I'm seeing texted me to go shopping. I just did not noticed how much time had passed.

I think the last time something like this happened was when I played Xenoblade Chronicles back in 2012 or something.

At this rate, I should be done at some point in the coming week...

I've finished up Ch.1 as well. The boss was difficult, and I swapped through the characters as they got low on health so I didn't have to heal up, but it was getting close to the end. Ironically, I still wiped in this chapter, but it was to the giant starfish monster thing back on the beach since it did large damage. In general, you seem to take a lot of damage from each hit in this game, more than other Ys games I've played. I'm on normal, for reference.

So the graphics on the Switch are still pretty rough, but it's manageable. And also, the flash guard seems like it'll be really strong if you can master the timing on it.

I'm a little into chapter three. The chapter two boss was tough. I also switched characters to avoid healing but it came down to Laxia dealing the final blow with almost no health remaining. I'm enjoying the story so far and the combat is pretty exciting. I'm not a fan of enemy respawns when backtracking, but at least you can see them and try to avoid of you want. I do love that fast travel is available from the beginning.

Question for those deeper in: how often/how much do you upgrade weapons? I have enough iron to upgrade the starting weapons to L3 now, but I don't know if I should go ahead and do that upgrade or save up for when I get the next round of weapons. I've played enough in the series to know that you need to keep upgrading to stay on the power curve to be able to do enough damage to bosses, but I don't want to overextend my resources.

Sundown wrote:

Question for those deeper in: how often/how much do you upgrade weapons? I have enough iron to upgrade the starting weapons to L3 now, but I don't know if I should go ahead and do that upgrade or save up for when I get the next round of weapons. I've played enough in the series to know that you need to keep upgrading to stay on the power curve to be able to do enough damage to bosses, but I don't want to overextend my resources.

I am not much further than you but I went ahead and fully upgraded everyone's starting weapon. I figured the next tier would use different materials, and if not, they were cheap enough at this point that I could farm the cost back easily.

Sundown wrote:

Question for those deeper in: how often/how much do you upgrade weapons? I have enough iron to upgrade the starting weapons to L3 now, but I don't know if I should go ahead and do that upgrade or save up for when I get the next round of weapons. I've played enough in the series to know that you need to keep upgrading to stay on the power curve to be able to do enough damage to bosses, but I don't want to overextend my resources.

Whenever a new tier is available, I will upgrade all of the character's weapons to the next tier, then start maxing them out until I run out. The character I use the most are Adol and Sahad, so they have priority, and once they're at max, I upgrade everyone else's.

Something disturbing I noticed this morning:
Somehow I've managed to play 35 hours of this game in the past 10 days or so.

Progressed some more in chapter 2 today and rescued Kierkagard, Sir Carlan, and Kathleen and finished off two bosses. My original thought was that the chapter would end after I found Kathleen but when the path forward got interrupted by the Beast Raid I figured that would probably be the end instead. Kind of surprised I am still considered in chapter 2 at this point after two bosses though.

Thoughts on Sir Carlan so far:

Spoiler:

My first reaction to finding Sir Carlan was "Can we just throw him into the sea until he doesn't come back out?" And after I went to move the eight person boulder and he showed up only to walk off in a huff, it only reinforced that notion for me. I have no patience for his type at the best of times but to be that rotten even in a castaway situation is inexcusable. Also the way he immediately tries to belittle and harass Laxia is incredibly creepy/disgusting. I so wanted her to tell him off or draw her sword on him and put him in his place, but she apparently has some deep insecurities about something.

Aside from him, I am liking the castaway cast so far. I pretty thoroughly explored the ship but don't remember running into Laxia, Kierkagard, or Kathleen on it, so they must have skipped out on the captain's banquet. Makes me excited to see who else we will meet.

I am really just churning away at this. I'm now deep into Chapter 3 and just ...

Spoiler:

got orichalcum-infused weapons, and it appears that I've taken down Avalodragil for good this time.

I'm going to back it up for some random thoughts:

  • Today, I went back to my very first raid and was able to get an S-rank. Basically, at level 30, a souped-up sword, and better skills, I can one-shot anything that now appears in the raid. That let me finish it super-fast. I also think I got more bonus points for all the extra structures I've built. The reward was pretty sweet, one of those permanent stat-enhancing items.
  • I kind of liked the night exploration in the coral forest. That was a fun way to re-explore the map with more monsters and more danger. Though the den at the bottom of the cave, was so packed with those weird giant seal-looking beasts. I don't know how I was even supposed to move around in there!
  • Strength (and dodging) seems so much more important than defense, at least on the higher difficulty. Even with better armor, lower-level foes hit hard, and higher level foes can take me down in just a couple of hits. Armor doesn't seem to reduce that enough to be impactful, which leads me to go with the armor that also does something else (like a % chance to evade) over the armor that provides the best static bonus.
  • Just like in Ys Origin, the bosses are a real treat! I bet the Ys series does a good job with that overall. My highlight so far:
    Spoiler:

    The Demon Tree. The seeds or nuts that would get protected during the battle made for a very creative boss!

Basically the only thing I haven't liked so far is the end of Chapter 2:

Spoiler:

Both in the story and in the end-of-chapter boss fight. The Nameless Ripper thing felt like it came out of nowhere, and was layered in much too quickly rather than being built up. It felt really forced, and I didn't buy the "I'm the other side of the coin" nonsense from that psycho. We could have just seen Avalodragil again without him, that would have been better.

Also did not like the fight. Those tripwire traps were super frustrating, and after he dropped to half health, his AoE attack felt like an undodgeable insta-kill. This has been the only really frustrating part of the game so far.

I left off in Chapter 3.... and I am currently griding and trying to find more villagers

LastSurprise wrote:

[*]Just like in Ys Origin, the bosses are a real treat! I bet the Ys series does a good job with that overall.

It really is the calling card of the series. You can run around and grind against the common enemies and try to optimize how quickly you can get levels, but the bosses are why you come. And also the music.

You really need to hit Oath in Felghana sometime. I think it's the best of the 2D games (cemented in my mind after we played Origin). The final boss is spectacular.

Is that the remake of Ys III for the SNES? I actually played that one back in the day and, as a kid, got stuck on the final boss. I don't remember it super well though, and I bet the 3D version is quite different than the 2D SNES version.

Made it to chapter VI (which I think is the last one) this morning. It starts with a raid, and then some new sidequests unlock. I started one, which is a boss fight, and then I encountered a bug that made Adol just lie on the ground, invincible, but unable to get up. I figured I should just reload, but my last save was before the raid, and the autosave was also before the raid for some reason. Oh well.

Anyone else playing the PC version? It has an 'experimental' multiplayer version, and I'd be curious to give it a shot. This game in coop could be really awesome.

LastSurprise wrote:

Is that the remake of Ys III for the SNES? I actually played that one back in the day and, as a kid, got stuck on the final boss. I don't remember it super well though, and I bet the 3D version is quite different than the 2D SNES version.

Had to check the official timeline, but it looks like it is the remake for Ys III. Yeah, the graphics are in the same engine as Origin and they look very similar, so it'll definitely be an upgrade.

I cannot explain but I find the map to be extremely unhelpful. In Chapter 2 I see a spot on the big map but then when I look at the area detailed map I spend hours looping around not getting near the stupid thing. I feel like they love looping around and lots of areas you can see but low walls prevent going that way so I just always seem to be lost.

Sorry you didn't like the map! I find it pretty helpful, personally. But there are a lot of looping paths and I can see how it would be confusing. I also find that in this game, when I run into a dead-end, I just go down another new path until I hit something interesting.

One thing I discovered after this, was that Playin in handheld is almost impossible in the caves. They are so dark! When I moved to the TV I was much more able to move around

I don't know quite how far you are, but you'll eventually get an item that brightens up dark environments.

Chapter 3 is in the books! Overall, a much tighter chapter than Chapter 2, in terms of its plotting and goals; I think Chapter 2 could have benefitted from being broken up into 2 chapters. I really enjoyed the "summit the mountain" theme here.

Also, Chapter 3's boss was a lot of fun, and the first one that I've beaten in my first attempt! Most take me at least 2 or 3 tries, and sometimes more

Spoiler:

I had to try the first Avalodragil fight, and the nameless Ripper fight, 10+ times before beating either

So, I mistated earlier that I was in chapter 3...I'm still in chapter two. I just defeated Clarion on my first try. I learned quickly that antidotes are crucial for survival. Also, cooking is also very helpful.

I still like all the characters except for Sir Carlan whose a D-Bag. The real draw is the combat. The boss battles have been fun and grinding is tolerable. I find grinding in action RPGs much more enjoyable over turn-based combat.

blackanchor wrote:

So, I mistated earlier that I was in chapter 3...I'm still in chapter two. I just defeated Clarion on my first try. I learned quickly that antidotes are crucial for survival. Also, cooking is also very helpful.

You can get accessories from the tailor to negate poison. That saved my ass in at least one section of the game.

I reached the final dungeon this morning, but I think I will spend some time grinding to 70 before I finish the game. I have a few final side quests to complete, and I am underleveled for those. I did find an area with high level monsters that I can actually beat, and I think there is a recipe that gives EXP++, so that should speed things up. Too bad I'm pretty much up to date on my podcasts...

That's awesome! What's your game clock look like at this point? I think I'm at 21 hours, after beginning Chapter 4 and doing a couple of side quests -- but no story content yet. Curious how much I still have in store. I'll bet it's a lot.

I'm a bit above 45 hours. I probably have another 5 to 10 to get 100% at everything, I think. Not sure I will attempt to get all the hunts and raids at S rank though, I kinda don't like those.

That makes sense. I think much of my completion log is hovering around 50%, so doubling my time and adding a little more sounds about right. I could see going back and trying to get S raids at some but not all of the hunts and raids. The early ones are probably not hard to S-rank with endgame gear and a fully upgraded set of village defenses (for raids), but trying to S-rank the high-level & longer ones might get tedious.

According to Steam, I'm at 54 hours at the moment. (Did I really play 9 hours today? That seems a bit high. I was probably closer to 48 in my previous post.)

I still haven't finished the last dungeon, and I'm still running errands.

I completed the fishing a few moments ago, and those master fish almost gave me RSI.

I think I still need to get the max approval from 2 people, with possibly one side quest remaining (which I haven't unlocked yet). There is still an impending raid that I need to do, but this one recommends level 70, and I'm at around 65 with most characters. I tried it at 60, and I failed miserably. I might give it another shot tomorrow morning. I finally finished upgrading all the village's defenses. That might help. We'll see!

I was hoping to wrap this today, but I don't think it's going to happen.

You know what's kind of interesting to me? I've been seeing Malkroth's progress through the trophies that pop up on my PS4's news feed, and while a trophy comparison makes it look like I'm at least twice as far into the game, Malkroth has one that I don't: for 100 flash guards. It just makes me realize how I'm not really good at guard timing and I'm much more inclined to roll out of the way.

Haha, I have been trying to be more deliberate about not just button mashing my way through the game and trying to use the guard and dodge. I will say though, a lot of my guards are accidental as I go to use a skill and it just coincides with an enemy's attack.

Still chugging through chapter 2 at this point. Finished off the night investigation in the Coral Forest which was incredibly stressful for me. Several times I got swarmed by packs of those large fish dudes and they just absolutely ate my lunch. I burned through several recovery and revival items because of that. It is also the first time they really mix the enemy weaknesses, causing you to have to swap constantly between party members to get the breaks. Probably wouldn't be so long if I didn't explore every side are as soon as I could open it. Only sidequest I have going at the moment is that Menuire for Sir Carlan and no idea how to make that one yet. Slightly nervous it will expire on me before I find the recipe though.

Edit: And I found the recipe about 5 minutes after posting this. Guess all I had to do was go in the "right" direction for a bit.

Malkroth wrote:

Haha, I have been trying to be more deliberate about not just button mashing my way through the game and trying to use the guard and dodge. I will say though, a lot of my guards are accidental as I go to use a skill and it just coincides with an enemy's attack.

I think almost 100% of mine are accidental. I probably have twice as many flash moves to flash guards.

Malkroth wrote:

Only sidequest I have going at the moment is that Menuire for Sir Carlan and no idea how to make that one yet. Slightly nervous it will expire on me before I find the recipe though.

Edit: And I found the recipe about 5 minutes after posting this. Guess all I had to do was go in the "right" direction for a bit.

The same thing happened to me. I think just tend to expect that I can finish any side quest without going in the same direction as needed to progress the story. Sometimes that's right, sometimes not.

Just finished Chapter 4 last night. On to Chapter 5!

Spoiler:

Chapter 4 was titled "The Lost World" which felt appropriate because the game turned into Jurassic Park.

I have a burning question for the group: have any of you gotten less than an A-rank in any of your raid battles?

I haven't, and I swear I'm not asking this to flex. But I've had wildly different levels of success across different raid battles and I'm not sure why my rankings aren't different.

My most recent raid was the one at the beginning of Chapter 5. We can't tell if there's a target score for certain ranks, but in terms of performance, it must have been my worst. I had characters die multiple times during the raid, so I never got that no-damage bonus, and got no or very little HP bonus at the end. I had multiple waves in which I didn't kill every enemy. My time to finish was longer than the raid's target time. And by the end, every single base-defense structure had been destroyed except for the gate, so I got no bonus from that either. I was expecting a low grade, but still got an A.

In contrast, I've had other raids that have gone much better, and still resulted in an A. The only S-rank I've achieved is the one I wrote about earlier, when I replayed the first raid much later in the game, about 20 levels above the recommended, and with much better gear. I could one-shot most monsters, and finished the raid super-fast. I also think I benefitted from having more base-defense structures built than I did the first time I ran through the raid, because that probably led to a higher bonus score at the end. I also retried the second raid while over-leveled, but still only got an A (didn't do great at dodging, but otherwise cleared it very quickly).

It just feels like A-rank covers a really wide spectrum of performance, based on what I've seen. And if I didn't get a B in my Chapter 5 raid, I'm not sure what it would take.

I just did the third or fourth? raid of chapter 2, the one back on the beach after the hill raid and got an S rank on it. I though for sure I was going to get an A on it since I got hit on two different waves losing that no damage bonus and lost like 3 lures in the whole process. I am not sure what the target scores are for each raid, but there are target scores that qualify for S, A, B, and C. I think the first raid needed a score of like 80k to S rank or something (I looked it up when I got like 78k and it was still an A). I honestly have no idea what goes on during the raids, I just run around spamming skills since you have the free SP regen.

Hopefully getting close to the end of chapter 2 now, I am doing some investigating in the village right now (hopefully a good enough hint on location for these spoilers).

Spoiler:

It was really nice to see Laxia open up to Adol and have a heart-to-heart with him. I like that they are showing us her growing and coming to terms with what has happened in her life prior to the game. There is a nice little touch where afterwards she starts calling him "Adol" instead of "Mr. Christin" after this scene, showing that she is growing to trust him as a friend rather than a stand-in for her father. I also right before this scene slept in the village and heard her mutter "Father where are you?" as the screen faded, giving a little hint as to why she was traveling which was cool. Might have to start sleeping more to see what other sound clips they hid in there.

Did anyone else find the adding of a serial killer to the crew a little unnecessary? We already have an extremely hostile island for a sense of danger, but the Nameless plot feels a little overboard. Also personally I am not a fan of the "enemy in plain sight" a lot of the time, hopefully they handle it well. My first thought was that Sir Carlan was Nameless (make an attack, then attack yourself to throw off any suspicion) but then he got himself killed so that theory went out the window. Don't really have any other good ideas currently on their identity but I am guessing it is not one of the newer castaways but one of the early people you find.