How was the story compared to Trails? Isn't that a bigger focus in this one?
There are moments (late chapter 2/early chapter 3) that the game is very story-driven -- for good reasons, I may add -- but then opens up the world and lets you explore like crazy.
One important difference is that Trails stories build up over the course of two or more games whereas Ys VIII builds up but resolves everything before the end. Especially in the 40-50 hours it tells its story, it hit home really hard. While the storytelling drops the ball at one particular moment (
to which Guru-Guru dedicated a post), I really impressed with what they did with this story -- and what it means for the series as a whole.
This is what I want to know as well. I really liked the earlier games but after skipping quite a few and returning for Celceta I'm very dubious of future entries.
Celceta's worst offence is how badly it wants to, and how poorly it does, tell its uninteresting story, not to mention the laughably bad ending. Ys Seven's problem, for me, lies in the fact that it's longer than it stays interesting -- especially the second half of the game I found a drag.
Ys VIII has neither of this problems: it introduces a cast of which every member is equally likeable and fleshed out, throws in two dozen of NPCs of which the majority is great and then dumps all of them in Adol's craziest adventure to date. While it has some minor backtracking, it manages to feel fresh until the end.
I don't think that it really matters whether Origin, Chronicles, Oath or even Celceta is your favourite -- as long you're not going in narrow-minded, Ys VIII will trump them all.
