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

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Welcome to our final club game for 2021! I've been excited to play this one ever since I read about it, several years ago, and I'm kind of amazed that I haven't picked it up yet. I'm talking about Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.

Guys, this one has everything. Hack and slash action? Exploration and filling in a map? Yup. Crafting? You betcha. A base that you build up over time? Heck yes! A silent protagonist? ... I'm not sure why we're still doing that, especially because Adol clearly has a personality -- he doesn't need to be a blank slate. But apparently, here's as unvoiced as Joker.

And buckle up, it's a big one!
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/OKcSKYc.png?2)

One other note, for the trophy hunters out there: at least in the PS4 version, there is one trophy associated with the Nightmare difficulty level (or higher). So if that matters to you, start on Nightmare. You can always drop the difficulty later, but if you start on a lower level, you're not eligible for the trophy. I'm not a Ys series expert by any stretch, but from what I've read, Nightmare is much less challenging in this game than it is in other Ys games. There is also a New Game + option that lets you carry over a lot of your stuff, if you'd like to take a run at Nightmare later on.

In.

I started playing this yesterday (on PC), and I'm almost 4 hours in (chapter 2). Having just recently completed another Falcom game (Trails to Azure), this is quite the graphical upgrade! It doesn't look amazing by any stretch, but it is still a very good looking game.

The soundtrack (particularly 'Sunshine Coastline') has been on my phone for quite some time. It is really excellent (like most Ys soundtracks).

Of interest to exactly nobody but me:

I found that streaming the game from my main PC to my TV using Moonlight is not an option: fullscreen mode does not work (although borderless window does), and inputs don't register properly (there is a delay, and then they get batched together). I had to take my old HTPC out of its box (good thing I haven't sold it yet) to play it (and it runs really well at 1080p on the aging GTX 960).

I've been on the Ys VIII train for awhile now, so I'm definitely in. I have a couple other games I'm wrapping up, but I'll be starting up soon.

The silent protagonist really is a weird holdover. If you are giving me a fully fleshed out character with a name and personality, then why not a voice as well? It's not like it can be a character insert when there isn't any sort of customization or blank slate for me to build on. Regardless, I'm in!

If I ever finish what I'm playing right now, I might join in.

bobbywatson wrote:

I started playing this yesterday (on PC), and I'm almost 4 hours in (chapter 2). Having just recently completed another Falcom game (Trails to Azure), this is quite the graphical upgrade! It doesn't look amazing by any stretch, but it is still a very good looking game.

The soundtrack (particularly 'Sunshine Coastline') has been on my phone for quite some time. It is really excellent (like most Ys soundtracks).

I'm in pretty much the same boat. I ran the numbers to figure out the winner, downloaded the game early, and dived in hard over the past 3 days. I think I'm about 6 hours in already. For those who have already played, I just finished the boss at the end of the Coral Forest -- not at the halfway point, but all the way at the end.

More thoughts tomorrow, but for now: Sunshine Coastline is an incredible track. I'm totally obsessed with it.

So here are a few random thoughts from the beginning of the game:

  • I love the setting, being marooned on a deserted island and needing to escape. This definitely gives Ys VIII a new and fresh vibe compared to other JRPGs I've played.
  • I also really like the crafting system, which appears to completely replace currency. It makes sense that coin would be useless, here, and reinforces the "we're all in this together" feeling of a group of people, marooned. It's also so easy and fast to collect stuff, partly due to the map, partly due to the drop rate, and partly due to fast loading times. Altogether it makes gathering and crafting much less cumbersome than, say, in DQ XI with the Fun-Sized Forge
  • Fast travel that's unlocked from near the beginning of the game, plus super-fast load times, will totally spoil me for other games. This should be the standard.
  • The map is great and makes me want to explore just that little bit more, filling in a detail here, opening a chest there, etc.

Altogether the game's off to a great start. I love how accessible it is and the way we can jump right in. Other RPGs can take notes!

Also I had to remap the buttons so square is attack, X is jump, and O is swap party members. The default (square to swap, X to attack, O to jump) kept throwing me off.

Finally!!! yay!!!

Can i join?

Darkhaund wrote:

Finally!!! yay!!!

Can i join?

Everyone is welcome!

Quick update: I was feeling pretty down today, so I spent it playing this game, and I made it to chapter 3 (about 12 hours in).

I need to complain about something (which I will spoiler, even though it's not a story spoiler):
I like the game a lot, but after 12 hours,

Spoiler:

all I got to visit were natural environments: beaches, jungles, bogs, forests, caves... I expect we will get ancient temples and some other man-made environments later, because despite some variety, it's getting repetitive.

As I always do, I find myself just mashing the buttons during combat (it's a bad habit of mine, as my regular Monster Hunter partners can attest), but I'm trying to use the block and the dodge more, because mashing buttons can be an excellent path to failure during boss battles. Especially the one at the end of chapter 2. I took several tries to beat this one.

Ok.. sign me up!!!
And hope you are better my freind

Darkhaund wrote:

Ok.. sign me up!!!
And hope you are better my freind

Thanks!

Minor early chapter 3 spoilers:

Spoiler:

Those ladies need to put on some more clothes.

bobbywatson wrote:
Darkhaund wrote:

Ok.. sign me up!!!
And hope you are better my freind

Thanks!

Minor early chapter 3 spoilers:

Spoiler:

Those ladies need to put on some more clothes.

A prologue reaction, based on your (very, very minor) Chapter 3 spoiler:

Spoiler:

Where did Laxia even get that towel?

I've already beaten this gem, so I'm commenting to tag myself in the thread. Keen to follow along.

I think this game shines when you bump the difficulty up from standard. I found the first 10-or-so hours a little button-mashy until I tried playing on hard. Highly recommended.

Otherwise, have fun! The exploration and village mechanics are a treat. Once you get rolling, it feels like every hour there's a new mechanic to play around with. The pacing is wonderful.

Also, remember to try out the other party members besides Adol! They all support slightly different playstyles so you don't get too stuck in one approach.

Anyone try new game plus? I'm kind of tempted if I can easily keep all my stuff and just mop up some remaining trophies.

Adol is the least interesting part of Ys in my opinion although I gather there are those who are obsessed with the Ys continuum. For me, Ys is about the gameplay and the rocking soundtrack. I’d love to see an Ys going in hard on an epic story with a new engaging protagonist.

Anyway, of course I’m in for this. My Ys history is 1&2, 7, Origins, Memories of Celceta, and Oath in Felghana. Happy to add another to the list. I’ll be playing on Vita.

I'll be playing on PS4. I sold a second copy on Vita a couple of weeks ago for (gulp) the equivalent of $94 USD here in Australia. I feel a little bad contributing to the current madness of retro / harder to find game prices, but I couldn't justify keeping it when I had it on another platform (and can always get the Vita digital version for a reasonable price if needed).

Yeah I agree. I'm not well versed in Ys myself -- having only played Origins and Ys 3 on the SNES -- but he's pretty bland. But on the other hand, his "my turn!" reaction line reminds me a lot of one of Falcom's other protagonists: Rean, in Trails of Cold Steel. I don't think it's the same voice actor, but their lines sound similar. And that immediately made me think that, because Adol's here for an adventure, I immediately found him to be a more appealing protagonist than Rean. Rean spent far too much time worrying, and had a bit of nice guy syndrome.

A_Unicycle wrote:

I've already beaten this gem, so I'm commenting to tag myself in the thread. Keen to follow along.

I think this game shines when you bump the difficulty up from standard. I found the first 10-or-so hours a little button-mashy until I tried playing on hard. Highly recommended.

Otherwise, have fun! The exploration and village mechanics are a treat. Once you get rolling, it feels like every hour there's a new mechanic to play around with. The pacing is wonderful.

I did this, deciding to try it on Nightmare after reading about the trophy. Figured that I'd like to give myself the option of going for the platinum. There's a decent chance I'll want to 100% the game, but probably no real chance that I'll do a second playthrough.

And I've been finding that Nightmare is not bad. Enemies hit hard, and the "big" enemies in each region can take a character down in a couple hits. Actually that gives the exploration part of the game a bit of a Souls vibe because warping back to a save crystal usually means changing map screens, which means the enemies reset.

Bosses can be rough at first, but I actually find that similar to the normal & hard modes in Ys Origin. The difficulty was hardest in the first hour or two, and especially at the dino boss you fight with Sahad, because you can't yet get new gear, nor (I think) craft healing & revive items. But you unlock all that shortly thereafter, and the difficulty becomes much more manageable. But, worst case scenario, you can easily warp back to a crystal and backtrack.

And, hope you're feeling better, bobby! Glad Ys VIII has been helping.

LastSurprise wrote:

A prologue reaction, based on your (very, very minor) Chapter 3 spoiler:

Spoiler:

Where did Laxia even get that towel?

That is a very good question...

And I’m off!

I only got up to the first boss in the cave tonight. I felt like I was being button mashy for a bit, but was getting my butt kicked for a bit, and then started using the specials and then triggered the big attack, and then I won. I’ll get into the groove of things, but I did have to change the bottoms to move the rolls and specials off of the bumpers of my Switch and onto the triggers, since it just didn’t feel right the way it’s set up by default.

Since I’m on the switch, the visuals do feel like they’ve been turned down a little, but at least the frame rate is holding solid for now.

And the music is great, just all of the time. But Falcon does great music, so I’m not surprised in the least.

I've made it a bit deeper into the game. I'm about 9 hours in, and I just beat the big spider boss in the area with all the canyons. I love how creative the bosses are here, and the boss fights definitely feel epic. I end up using a bunch of consumables and often just finish off the boss after Adol goes down and the other two are about to drop. I think I now have enough castaways to clear out another rockslide, and I can also finally deal with those damn bug nests!

A few other things I loved:

  • Finally finding some more avian enemies, so Laxia feels more useful.
  • Slightly new mechanics for catching some big fish! I really liked how that was introduced.
  • A fun little marriage of story and gameplay:
    Spoiler:

    After I acquired Sir Carlen and Dr. Kiergaard, I thought I had enough guys to clear out that 8-person boulder, though I did think it wouldn't be in Sir Carlen's character to help. And sure enough, he complained and then refused! So my number was not high enough. I also love that, according to the journal, he actually harms you (by buffing the enemy) during the raid battles.

  • I got a new fire stone, so it's time to upgrade all my weapons to the next tier!
  • Some quests that feel a little bit more complex than the last ones:
    Spoiler:

    Hunting for pirate treasure, finding muniere for Sir Carlan -- don't even know where to do that, and a monster hunt that involves a day-night swap!

Played a little bit more this morning. I had enough people to move another boulder and open up a chunk of the island in an area to the west of the starting beach. This was a fun little bit of exploration: I got to climb to the top of the mountain, fighting rock-throwing monkeys and a bunch of beasts that looked like a cross between a hippo and a buffalo. The view from the top was great, and I loved how I could see the little column of smoke from the place where Castaway Village must be. I also found my way into a cave, with a stream that the party thinks is the source of the water that flows to the village.

And while exploring the cave, I popped a trophy for exploring as Adol for a long period of time (5 hours total, I think). Time to switch it up and make Laxia my main!

LastSurprise wrote:
  • A fun little marriage of story and gameplay:
    Spoiler:

    After I acquired Sir Carlen and Dr. Kiergaard, I thought I had enough guys to clear out that 8-person boulder, though I did think it wouldn't be in Sir Carlen's character to help. And sure enough, he complained and then refused! So my number was not high enough. I also love that, according to the journal, he actually harms you (by buffing the enemy) during the raid battles.

I loved that bit! I'm surprised nobody has punched Sir Carlan in the face yet. He's such a piece of sh*t...

I've been playing more than I thought, and I am currently in Chapter 4 (with a time clock at around 19 hours, if I remember correctly).

Regarding the Meunière:

Spoiler:

I found the recipe AFTER actually unlocking the quest, so I'd say don't worry too much, you'll get to it eventually. Due to story elements, I expect this quest will disappear at some point, so it's probably a good idea to finish this quest right after you find the recipe.

bobbywatson wrote:

Regarding the Meunière:

Spoiler:

I found the recipe AFTER actually unlocking the quest, so I'd say don't worry too much, you'll get to it eventually. Due to story elements, I expect this quest will disappear at some point, so it's probably a good idea to finish this quest right after you find the recipe.

Thanks! That's helpful. It looks like Falcom treats quests in Ys VIII similarly to the Trails series, in that they're time-limited, so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm making an effort to warp back to town after every story beat, and to do all side quests as soon as they appear, so that I don't miss anything and so I can upgrade my gear ASAP.

Going to start the game tonight, but before I did that I did a little unpacking of the collector's edition of the game I picked up when it came out. Going to throw it in a spoiler tag since there will be some images and don't want to clutter the thread too much.

Spoiler:

The box looks nice and feels like one of the tabletop grid maps you can draw on and wash off (neoprene or something I think it is called). I like it.
IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/892914841772240926/892914981337698324/20210929_091437.jpg?width=264&height=469)

All (except poster) the goodies packed inside with images of Dana and Adol on either long side of the box interior. The goodies are: the game with standard case, an OST called Seiren Songs, a book that is a replica of Adol's codex, the steelbook case for the game, a mini art book, and acrylic bookends of Adol and Dana.
IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/892914841772240926/892914981765525604/20210929_091706.jpg?width=834&height=469)

Front page of the Codex:
IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/892914841772240926/892914982180757504/20210929_091721.jpg?width=834&height=469)

The picture of all the goodies didn't include this. A rather large cloth poster of the key art.
IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/892914841772240926/892914982478561310/20210929_091934.jpg?width=264&height=469)

And finally the assembled acrylic bookends which look very nice.
IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/892914841772240926/892914982935752724/20210929_093541.jpg?width=834&height=469)

Those are gorgeous! I'm kind of jealous now that I went digital.

I'm in on this. I've never played a Ys game, but this looks good.

I finished Chapter 2 last night. Plenty to talk about! And end-of-chapter boss fight that I found super frustrating! But in the meantime, I'll just post this, my reaction when I meet any new castaway:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qwU8TmS.gif)

LastSurprise wrote:

I finished Chapter 2 last night. Plenty to talk about! And end-of-chapter boss fight that I found super frustrating! But in the meantime, I'll just post this, my reaction when I meet any new castaway:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qwU8TmS.gif)

The fact that I am still finding new ones in Chapter 5, however many days it has been since the ship sank, boggles the mind. Especially considering how deep into the island I am at the moment. Unless these guys are better at fighting than Adol, which seems far-fetched at best.

Speaking of chapter 5, I have to say it's nice to finally be exploring environments that are not jungles, beaches or caves.

Right? Like that little boy on the beach, surrounded, by aggressive seagulls and bees -- he has to be more durable than Laxia. Or Catherine the blacksmith, who somehow managed to get past that boss that you fight in a very narrow corridor.

Spoiler:

on a tree branch, with no other way to get to the beach where you find her

Put them in my party!

I'm just popping in to say that I really enjoyed this game, and I love reading all the impressions.

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