Why You Should Play Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

When I first looked at this game I thought it was a mindless, hack and slash, mash the attack button, anime game. What I actually got was a challenging action rpg with a deep story, very likable characters, and deep exploration. Fantastic game

Man, the soundtrack in this game is godly. I mean, the music from this series is great since Book 1, But Ys 8 knocks it out of the park. Sunshine Coastline, Iclucian Dance, and A-TO-Z are some of my favorite tracks in any piece of media.

One of the few games that left me legitimately depressed once I was finished. I loved everything about it, so getting to the end sucked. XD

To think, I bought this game on a whim and now it's gotten me to be a major fan of the series now! So far I've played this, 9, and Memories of Celceta. I plan to play more!

Why you should play Ys VIII: Because it's hands down one of the greatest RPG's ever made. For real, the characters, the setting, the exploration, the gameplay, the music, how all of the various systems fit together into a cohesive whole... From top to bottom, Ys VIII is charming, unforgettable, and consistently fun to play and control. Ys may not have the budget of Final Fantasy... but Ys doesn't force you into ducking under the umpteenth object or having you squeeze through countless tight spaces, thus killing the momentum (Lookin' at you Final Fantasy 7 Remake). Ys VIII is a rare gem. Play it if you can.

I've been playing video games since the mid 1980's and Ys 8 is one of the most fun and amazing video games I've ever played.

One of the things I loved about Ys VIII in particular is how natural the exploration felt. Yes, it's basically a Metroidvania disguised as an Action RPG, but that kind of game just lends itself to exploring mysterious places like the Island of Seiren. Conversely, Ys IX didn't really feel as enjoyable with its exploration. Where the Island of Seiren slowly opens up as you find more mysterious artifacts and castaways to help you overcome obstacles, the City of Balduq just... didn't. The only thing that really limited where you could go in Ys IX were some magic barriers, and while there was an explanation in the game for why they were there, it just didn't feel as exciting to explore a city where magic barriers stand in the way as it did to explore a mysterious, uncharted island where you needed to find these power-ups to actually explore it. So the exploration is really the only reason I found Ys VIII superior to Ys IX.

Ys VIII is just so much fun. I like Ys origins a LOT too but Ys VIII was just impressive. That moment you reach the top of the mountain and see the entirety of how much of the rest of the island you have to explore ...

Ys VIII is one of the best games I ever played. It far exceeded my expectations, especially in the story department. Totally recommended.

Man, I love Ys 8, it's such a great game. I got it back when it first came out on Switch and now that I have a PC I've started going through the rest of the Ys series, as well as the Trails series. 3:30 Speaking of Trails, there's actually a bunch of references here and there to the Ys games in it. This moment in the video reminded me of one treasure chest phrase, from Trails in the Sky SC, which says: "Adol is here to wreck boats and kick butt, and he's all out of boats."

I had a „video game depression“ during 2018 and 2019. Then I played Ys VIII in January 2020 and instantly fell in love with videogames again. It is one of the best games of all time to me and I already pre ordered the Ys VIII Deluxe Edition for PS5 to play it again ♥️

Yessss I’ve been waiting for this! So glad you liked it!! I did not know you could upgrade your camp defenses at first and I almost quit the game because of the raids. Luckily I figured that out and was able to finish one of my favorite games ever. Cannot wait for IX!

Your voice quality, video cutscene choices, and thoroughness of the game's development throughout the years deserve a thousand likes (if I could). This is a high-quality review that deserves more subscribers. Please do more reviews for other games! Kudos to you.

The only review of the dozens I have watched thst really showcases what I can expect bub jumping into this game and series. I'm convinced to get a copy now!

I can only agree on your opinion. I love this game, for me it is the peak of the Ys series and a modern masterpiece. The only thing I can complain about are the raid battles, which often appear while you really don't need them. I've finished Ys IX last week. It has some small mechanical improvements and I like the cast (excluding Dana) better, but overall I still prefer Lacrimosa of Dana.

Yep! I've never liked JRPG's and even the ones that grabbed my attention were never able to grab my attention enough to actually finish them. That was until I decided to try Ys 8 earlier this year. I loved that one so much that I beat it and then immediately played it again and got about half way through before getting other games to play. It holds a special place in my heart now. One good thing about the slower pace of the first half of the game is that it gives you time to really get to know the side characters and come to care about them, which really raises the tension as the stakes rise in the second half of the game. The game gives you a reason to care that things are. . . . Well, I won't spoil it here. One of my favorite things is how well the game's story and its mechanics connect. You explore to find more survivors so that they can join your village and contribute their unique skillsets, which allows you to do things like upgrade weapons, make potions, farm for food that can be used for healing and cooking meals, etc. These all help with advancing in the gameplay mechanics, but they also make complete sense in the story. Adol and the others WANT to find survivors so that they can get everyone off of the island. The survivors WANT to contribute their unique skills to helping you and everyone else on the island flourish while they're stuck there. Interacting with the characters and getting them to like you can help increase your stats, which helps advance gameplay mechanics, but it also makes sense that the people stuck on this island with each other in a close-knit community would learn to get along and grow to regard each other and friends or family. The game's world, like many games, have many "roadblocks" that prevent you from advancing in the world until you find enough survivors to help you remove the obstacles. This is obviously a classic gameplay mechanic where you can only explore certain areas early on in the game and you can only advance to other areas when you fulfill certain conditions, but it also makes sense contextually because natural road blocks can only be removed if there are enough people to help remove everything blocking the path. It's pretty common in games for a map to fill itself in as you explore more of the world, but it's also a goal of the characters to have a better understanding of the island and its layout, so creating a detailed map of the island is important to the characters as well, not just a gameplay mechanic. Adol is asked by the characters to make a map, so he's literally drawing it. I played it on Switch, which had significant performance issues, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it so much. I digitally downloaded it from the eShop when it was on sale, but now I really wish I could get a physical copy of the game for PS4. It's looking like it's difficult to find a physical copy of the game.

I started playing this yesterday, never played an rpg , but I'm addicted alright 8 hours in.

Great video 👍👍, been checking out few games on steam as there's a summer sale going on and stumbled across this one and it looks pretty sick. I have played a few ys games before but they are the old ones and totally different from this, definitely gonna grab this asap. Thanks for the video, it has been very informative for me.

This game makes you want to 100% it easily

Great review man