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[duckroll]

The new Ys formula sure sounds like it continues to be a drag. Should have expected it after two lame Ys games in a row.

 

[GhostTrick]

The new Ys formula sure sounds like it continues to be a drag. Should have expected it after two lame Ys games in a row.

I guess you and I just want to go through, slaying monsters at top speed. :")

 

[Gu4n]

The new Ys formula sure sounds like it continues to be a drag. Should have expected it after two lame Ys games in a row.

And yet, somehow, it's the best game in the series.

Does anyone know if you can skip the tower defense missions? Like it doesn't "force" you to go back but it just keeps saying "base is under attack" if you don't. Wondering if you can just ignore it the whole game because I'd really like to do that.

I think you can. You do miss out on popularity from the villagers (required to unlock the true ending). Since the message usually comes up near a crystal, I usually warped back to use materials to fortify the base and then do the defense mission.

 

[Bebpo]

I think you can. You do miss out on popularity from the villagers (required to unlock the true ending). Since the message usually comes up near a crystal, I usually warped back to use materials to fortify the base and then do the defense mission.

Sure but it just kills the pace even further. Enjoying your way through a dungeon? Hey, why don't you stop progressing in the dungeon and go back and do a dumb tower defense mission for 10 mins before you get back to where you were in the dungeon?

It's just like the fishing in Ys8. The mini-game itself is great, but it's so at odds with the pacing of the game. You're running around exploring and fighting monsters at high speed and then you just stop and fish and then get back to running around at high speed fighting monsters.

And then hey, how about you stop and talk to characters for 20 mins & watch cutscene before you can go back to playing?

Game feels incredibly schizophrenic, like it's trying to be all these different things at once.

And yet, somehow, it's the best game in the series.

I'll see how I feel at the end, but I really doubt I'll like this better or even close to Oath/Origins. I thought Ys4r was pretty awful and the worst game Falcom's made in ages, like a 5/10 or 6/10. Ys7 was fine popcorn entertainment, and Ys8 seems like it'll be fine overall like Ys7, but I can't see this comparing to Oath or Origin which were top-tier action games. Then again Ys6 is pretty mediocre, so the series as a whole is as mixed bag and not a shining beacon of arpg quality anymore.

I was talking to duckroll and he suggested that Falcom should just kill off Ys and Adol entirely and make a branch of Kiseki arpgs instead. I thought about that for a second and remembered that Nayuta no Kiseki was exactly that and better than the last 3 Ys games and Tokyo Xanadu, so I'd be on board with that.

I do feel at this point, halfway through Ys8 that Tokyo Xanadu is a better arpg in every way. Way more interesting story and well written characters (closer to Kiseki) and I actually prefer the combat flow to the Ys7/4r/8 combat style. In Bosses Ys8 has the edge, but TX has some great boss fights too. I'd also give the dungeons edge to TX just because the Ys8 dungeons are all confusing mazes which is a plus in that they're more complex, but a negative in that I'm finding them a lot less fun, especially on the new PS4 night dungeon revisits. Considering Falcom has these non-Ys kiseki-style arpgs with TX and Nayuta, you'd think they'd be happy to leave Ys alone as a pure high-speed arpg, but no it's gotta be kiseki-paced as well.

I would have liked to see what a not held back by Vita Ys8 would've been like. The locations are cut up into all these tiny areas with load zones and you're locked onto these paths with invisible walls instead of being able to jump down from one area to another and it all screams Vita tiny areas. If they do a Ys9 that's PS4 only in this exploration style it could be better, though I still think a PS4-only Ys should be fully open-world game instead of all these invisible walls.

 

[Com Truise]

Tokyo Xanadu is Falcom's worst modern game by a country mile and Ys 8 is pretty damn great, so how about no to pretty much everything you said.

 

[Strings]

Yeah... I thought Tokyo Xanadu was fine, but not even close to Ys 8 in terms of quality.

 

[Glitter and Gold]

It'll be interesting to see impressions of the game on here once western release comes out.

Because this place is like the only place I've seen negative impressions of the game so far.(Even Amazon JP reviews were positive. Amazon. JP.) It's mostly been the same few people (even before playing it) but that trend might be more widespread considering the general Oath/Origin favoritism and bias against the party system that seems to be common here.

I'll see how I feel at the end, but I really doubt I'll like this better or even close to Oath/Origins. I thought Ys4r was pretty awful and the worst game Falcom's made in ages, like a 5/10 or 6/10. Ys7 was fine popcorn entertainment, and Ys8 seems like it'll be fine overall like Ys7, but I can't see this comparing to Oath or Origin which were top-tier action games. Then again Ys6 is pretty mediocre, so the series as a whole is as mixed bag and not a shining beacon of arpg quality anymore.

I was always curious, do people that share this sentiment actually like any other Ys games besides Oath and Origin?

because it always seem like you guys hate(or would hate) more of the games than you actually like, despite framing your opinion as 'the series just isn't as good as it used to be' and such. lol

 

[Thud]

In Guan we trust.

 

[Gu4n]

I'll see how I feel at the end, but I really doubt I'll like this better or even close to Oath/Origins. I thought Ys4r was pretty awful and the worst game Falcom's made in ages, like a 5/10 or 6/10. Ys7 was fine popcorn entertainment, and Ys8 seems like it'll be fine overall like Ys7, but I can't see this comparing to Oath or Origin which were top-tier action games. Then again Ys6 is pretty mediocre, so the series as a whole is as mixed bag and not a shining beacon of arpg quality anymore.

I was talking to duckroll and he suggested that Falcom should just kill off Ys and Adol entirely and make a branch of Kiseki arpgs instead. I thought about that for a second and remembered that Nayuta no Kiseki was exactly that and better than the last 3 Ys games and Tokyo Xanadu, so I'd be on board with that.

I do feel at this point, halfway through Ys8 that Tokyo Xanadu is a better arpg in every way. Way more interesting story and well written characters (closer to Kiseki) and I actually prefer the combat flow to the Ys7/4r/8 combat style. In Bosses Ys8 has the edge, but TX has some great boss fights too. I'd also give the dungeons edge to TX just because the Ys8 dungeons are all confusing mazes which is a plus in that they're more complex, but a negative in that I'm finding them a lot less fun, especially on the new PS4 night dungeon revisits. Considering Falcom has these non-Ys kiseki-style arpgs with TX and Nayuta, you'd think they'd be happy to leave Ys alone as a pure high-speed arpg, but no it's gotta be kiseki-paced as well.

I would have liked to see what a not held back by Vita Ys8 would've been like. The locations are cut up into all these tiny areas with load zones and you're locked onto these paths with invisible walls instead of being able to jump down from one area to another and it all screams Vita tiny areas. If they do a Ys9 that's PS4 only in this exploration style it could be better, though I still think a PS4-only Ys should be fully open-world game instead of all these invisible walls.

Ys VI's problem is that most of us played it after its more polished younger siblings. It aged really poorly.

I know you've played/are playing the PS4 versions of both games while I played the Vita versions (both twice), and I know Falcom fixed the PS4 version of Tokyo Xanadu, so discussing slightly different games here, but -- I don't agree that Tokyo Xanadu is a better action RPG than Ys VIII. The combat in Tokyo Xanadu felt a little stiff, much slower paced and fairly easy, even on Nightmare. Apart from perhaps the boss fight at the end of chapter 4, boss fights were stupifyingly easy. I was really disappointed with them.

I really love Ys VIII and believe it's the right direction for the series.

 

[Blue-kun]

I was talking to duckroll and he suggested that Falcom should just kill off Ys and Adol entirely and make a branch of Kiseki arpgs instead. I thought about that for a second and remembered that Nayuta no Kiseki was exactly that and better than the last 3 Ys games and Tokyo Xanadu, so I'd be on board with that.

You're bothered that the gameplay you enjoy in Ys, which is the high speed action RPG part, gets interrupted by cutscenes and people talking. But then you think Nayuta no Kiseki is a better game than Ys Seven and VIII, even though it has tons more dialogue and story than Seven and about as much if not more than VIII?

Not to mention that Nayuta absolutely falls apart when you look at its actual "action rpg gameplay". The game is a bore. Completely braindead, easy as hell, slow as hell. If you like Ys solely for its gameplay, I can't for the life of me understand how you can be excited by what Nayuta does, when it's like Zwei redux, and Zwei's gameplay is... well, lackluster at best.

Like, sure, I realize that some people may not like the *story* parts of the newest games. But the gameplay has been about as good as it's always been. Celceta a few notches below, but both Seven and VIII feature some really great bosses, and VIII in fact even features challenging zako, which is something that made the game a lot harder than the two previous entries, especially early on, as almost everything could OHKO-2HKO you.

Once again, I feel like I just can't understand the Ys fanbase. People say they like Ys, yet say that a game that basically lacks just about everything that makes Ys, well, Ys, is better than Ys. A mystery~.

I was always curious, do people that share this sentiment actually like any other Ys games besides Oath and Origin?

because it always seem like you guys hate(or would hate) more of the games than you actually like, despite framing your opinion as 'the series just isn't as good as it used to be' and such. lol

Yes, that's the question I ask myself all the time, too. It seems like most people in the west like "Ys", as long as Ys means Felghana and Origin. I/II are already pretty divisive, VI gets a lot of flak, and I wonder what people would say if they stopped to play other titles like Dawn of Ys and what not.

 

[duckroll]

I like Ys 1+2, I appreciate Ys 3 but find it really poorly tuned and a bit annoying to play, I don't think I actually played Dawn of Ys, I don't really like Ys 5 SFC much, I enjoyed Ys 6 quite a bit. I love Oath, I like Origins a lot, I tolerated Ys SEVEN, and I mildly disliked Celceta. I feel that Ys is moving further and further away from what I want the series to be, and Falcom envisions it as something that can support a larger meatier experience with a lot of "extra" content, minigames, sidequests, etc, when all I want is an action RPG that feels like a cross between an arcade action game and a shmup, but with leveling.

 

[Wagram]

I've found most impressions to be overwhelmingly positive.

 

[Aeana]

Agreed. The shift to party-oriented, long-form, exposition-overload that Ys has made is such a turn-off. The actual best game in the series (Ys 2) has like 8 dialog boxes total.
With that said, eye-rolling perv scenes aside, Ys 8 is much better than Ys Celceta.

 

[duckroll]

I've found most impressions to be overwhelmingly positive.

Sure, I'm certain there's a fanbase that enjoys the new direction for Ys. Just like there's an audience that enjoys how Castlevania stopped because stage based action and went all in on Igavanias forever. To me it's the same thing. It's not surprising that after two games in this direction, that the people left rushing out to buy the third one immediately are the ones who actually like the direction and would hence... be positive about the game.

Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it or endorse it as a positive direction for the series. I'm happy jumping is back though. Small victories...

 

[preta]

Agreed. The shift to party-oriented, long-form, exposition-overload that Ys has made is such a turn-off. The actual best game in the series (Ys 2) has like 8 dialog boxes total.
With that said, eye-rolling perv scenes aside, Ys 8 is much better than Ys Celceta.

I can only recall the one scene at the beginning. What else are you thinking of?

As for the rest of the game, there's no question that it's more in line with Seven and Celceta despite the reintroduction of jumping (though the PS4-exclusive postgame dungeon gave me some Felghana vibes), but it does almost everything much better than either of those games did. The party members have chemistry and development and feel more unique in gameplay, the story goes far more interesting places than Seven or Celceta (even if it does admittedly take a while to really kick into high gear), the dungeons are more creative than Seven's or Celceta's and some even have unique mechanics, the bosses are way, way better than Celceta's and a bit better than Seven's, and there are even proper superbosses. Perhaps most notably, though, the game does an amazing job of making the player feel the same wanderlust that Adol does, with the diversity of environments in the island and they way you go about exploring them.

While I can definitely understand preferring the tight, focused design of the earlier games, I feel like VIII is a rare game that includes a ton of different things and does all of them well. It's my favorite in the series and I can't wait to replay it in English. I only hope NISA does it justice.

 

[Bebpo]

How can people defend this:

-Started chapter 3 after a few hours of cutscenes/npc talking at the end of chapter 2/intro to chapter 3
-Final back in control of the game, get to the mountain dungeon
-Great big well designed dungeon. This is some of the best Ys has been. If this whole chapter (climbing the mountain) is a giant multi-hour dungeon this is going to be fantastic. Maybe the first few chapters were just slow and this is the meat of the game and why people really like Ys8. (Feeling the Ys)
-Do a couple short quests while going through the dungeon.
-Hit a checkpoint
-Time to warp back to town to do another boring tower defense mission.
-Back to the dungeon
-First boss down, cool, some cutscenes, ok. Still really feeling chapter 3 at this point. This is a great dungeon.

-Time to go back to town
-Bunch more cutscenes
-Time to do some zzz overworld to get mat for weapons
-Tiny short dungeon that's not even a dungeon it's just one room
-More cutscenes, yay gonna have better weapons
-No wait, time for NEW DEFENSE MINIGAME, go do that zzz
-Ok, more cutscenes, now gonna have better weapons
-No wait #2, it's OLD TOWER DEFENSE MINIGAME time agian
-Ok, more cutscenes, finally have new weapons
-Oh, yay more sidequests popped up
-Ok, done, now I can finally get back to the dungeon I was enjoying and in the middle of 2 hours ago

....

When the game is on, aka in the dungeons, it's a great Ys game and easily better than 7 & Celceta. But how can this be "the best Ys" or anything like that with horrible filler pacing like that? You go from a great enjoyable dungeon, to 90 mins - 2 hours of filler before you can resume your dungeon crawling. I was having a good time in the dungeon and figured I'd do the whole thing tonight, but after half a dungeon + 2 hours of filler, that's about all the time I got for the night, so I'll get back to the dungeon next time. It's frustrating. The game has sucked in the problems with Kiseki pacing, and that does not belong in a Ys game.

I hope the US version pulls a Type-0 and deletes all the tower defense missions. Would flow a lot better if it was just cutscenes, sidequests and dungeons.

That being said, I still like Ys8 a good deal. I just hate all the boring stuff I have to waste hours plowing through for the good content. Feels almost like a grind.

I was always curious, do people that share this sentiment actually like any other Ys games besides Oath and Origin?

because it always seem like you guys hate(or would hate) more of the games than you actually like, despite framing your opinion as 'the series just isn't as good as it used to be' and such. lol

That's true. I'm not actually a Ys fan. Oath was my first Ys game and I really enjoyed it as an action game fan. Origin was a great followup. Everything else has been disappointing coming from those two, although the combat & dungeons in Ys8 are the closest it's gotten back to that excitement, but all the non-combat stuff is a bore. Maybe it'd be less boring if the story was engaging, but I'm 20 hours in and nothing's happened yet. Hell it's a "Dual-Protagonist" concept game and the other protagonist doesn't even exist yet this far in. Maybe it all comes together and gets good 40 hours in, but that means everything outside the combat/dungeons is going to feel boring until then.

You're bothered that the gameplay you enjoy in Ys, which is the high speed action RPG part, gets interrupted by cutscenes and people talking. But then you think Nayuta no Kiseki is a better game than Ys Seven and VIII, even though it has tons more dialogue and story than Seven and about as much if not more than VIII?

Not to mention that Nayuta absolutely falls apart when you look at its actual "action rpg gameplay". The game is a bore. Completely braindead, easy as hell, slow as hell. If you like Ys solely for its gameplay, I can't for the life of me understand how you can be excited by what Nayuta does, when it's like Zwei redux, and Zwei's gameplay is... well, lackluster at best.

Like, sure, I realize that some people may not like the *story* parts of the newest games. But the gameplay has been about as good as it's always been. Celceta a few notches below, but both Seven and VIII feature some really great bosses, and VIII in fact even features challenging zako, which is something that made the game a lot harder than the two previous entries, especially early on, as almost everything could OHKO-2HKO you.

Once again, I feel like I just can't understand the Ys fanbase. People say they like Ys, yet say that a game that basically lacks just about everything that makes Ys, well, Ys, is better than Ys. A mystery~.
.

Just gotta disagree here, but a lot of it is subjective. I thought Nayuta had a good interesting story like the Kiseki games. I greatly preferred the story, characters and art direction to TX or recent Ys. Tighter stage based gameplay is a lot more appealing to me than current Ys design. There's not a lot of filler, mostly just action action action with enjoyable story cutscenes between. A lot of good boss fights too and the combat and movement abilities were a lot of fun. You talk about Nayuta being easy, but it's not any braindead easier than all the overworld stuff in the new Ys games. The overworld sections are so boring. Nayuta even has some puzzles and stuff. The different season versions of the stages was a neat gameplay/art concept. It's a pretty good stage-based action game with a good engaging story like the PS1/PS2 days where you wanted to see what happened next, and the art and music are great. I'd rather have something like that than modern Ys with all the hours of boring filler that isn't story & isn't dungeons. If they cut all the filler out of modern Ys and it was a story/dungeon focused game yeah I'd prefer Ys because the combat/dungeons are better, but it sure seems that the let's make every franchise we have as bloated as Kiseki is the direction Falcom is heading these days.

 

[Holundrian]

Aren't the cutscenes in Ys8 skippable?
If you don't enjoy them you can just push through that way unlike in Origin(which is an insane drag considering you also kinda go through the game 3 times and arguably 2 times you gotta sit through stuff with pretty boring leading characters... urgh).

I've been super down on Ys as a series for the longest time cause people put Felghana and Origin on this podestal and I don't know they're solid games but honestly lack any kind of charm engaging you in what's actually happening in the world. Felghana was so forgettable to me in the end I barely remember any details of it just the general feeling and some moments around Elena and her brother.

Only recently I made the effort to try again and found out that there's at least one ys game I can get behind.
Ark has been the only Ys I genuinely enjoyed while it may have weaker bosses and a few spots of really frustrating platforming cause of the required dash jumping I still prefer it by far over Oath and Origin. Main reason is I felt like Ark actually cares about it's world and characters and it actually tries to communicate the sense of adventure.

I for one from what I heard am most looking forward to 8.

 

[Gu4n]

How can people defend this:
[rant]

By finishing the game and taking it as a whole. I wouldn't say the village defense was my favourite part of the game or consider it necessary, but you completely blow things out of proportions. The only annoying ones are toward the end of the game, but also completely optional (good source of popularity points).

 

[Worldshaker]

I like Ys 1+2, I appreciate Ys 3 but find it really poorly tuned and a bit annoying to play, I don't think I actually played Dawn of Ys, I don't really like Ys 5 SFC much, I enjoyed Ys 6 quite a bit. I love Oath, I like Origins a lot, I tolerated Ys SEVEN, and I mildly disliked Celceta. I feel that Ys is moving further and further away from what I want the series to be, and Falcom envisions it as something that can support a larger meatier experience with a lot of "extra" content, minigames, sidequests, etc, when all I want is an action RPG that feels like a cross between an arcade action game and a shmup, but with leveling.

This is exactly how I feel. Ys just hasn't been the same lately.

 

[Strings]

I feel like a crazy person for digging the story in Ys games Like, I even really enjoyed Celceta's story, as boilerplate JRPG as it is.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I feel like a crazy person for digging the story in Ys games Like, I even really enjoyed Celceta's story, as boilerplate JRPG as it is.

I'm there with you. I don't mind tropes and cliches as long as they grab my attention, and Celceta was very enjoyable for me. Ys 7, too.

 

[QisTopTier]

I feel like a crazy person for digging the story in Ys games Like, I even really enjoyed Celceta's story, as boilerplate JRPG as it is.

Same I'm the type that talks to almost every npc.

The extra dialog from monsters in 2 was amazing to me

 

[Young Magus]

Finished the game few hours back.
It was pretty good, enjoyed the dungeons and combat. Maybe the most fun Ys game I've played

 

[EricB]

I like Ys 1+2, I appreciate Ys 3 but find it really poorly tuned and a bit annoying to play, I don't think I actually played Dawn of Ys, I don't really like Ys 5 SFC much, I enjoyed Ys 6 quite a bit. I love Oath, I like Origins a lot, I tolerated Ys SEVEN, and I mildly disliked Celceta. I feel that Ys is moving further and further away from what I want the series to be, and Falcom envisions it as something that can support a larger meatier experience with a lot of "extra" content, minigames, sidequests, etc, when all I want is an action RPG that feels like a cross between an arcade action game and a shmup, but with leveling.

My Ys defense mechanism immediately wants to kick in here, but I am forced to agree. Especially after starting another run of Ys Origin on Vita today. I've definitely liked the last three games (VIII, Celceta, and Seven), but I doubt any of them would have launched me into the series as a whole the way Oath, Origins, and—especially—VI did. They still have the same spark, but it just seems to be buried. Still love them, but also hoping for a return to form.

By the way, Dawn of Ys is great.

 

[Blue-kun]

Just gotta disagree here, but a lot of it is subjective. I thought Nayuta had a good interesting story like the Kiseki games. I greatly preferred the story, characters and art direction to TX or recent Ys. Tighter stage based gameplay is a lot more appealing to me than current Ys design. There's not a lot of filler, mostly just action action action with enjoyable story cutscenes between. A lot of good boss fights too and the combat and movement abilities were a lot of fun. You talk about Nayuta being easy, but it's not any braindead easier than all the overworld stuff in the new Ys games. The overworld sections are so boring. Nayuta even has some puzzles and stuff. The different season versions of the stages was a neat gameplay/art concept. It's a pretty good stage-based action game with a good engaging story like the PS1/PS2 days where you wanted to see what happened next, and the art and music are great. I'd rather have something like that than modern Ys with all the hours of boring filler that isn't story & isn't dungeons. If they cut all the filler out of modern Ys and it was a story/dungeon focused game yeah I'd prefer Ys because the combat/dungeons are better, but it sure seems that the let's make every franchise we have as bloated as Kiseki is the direction Falcom is heading these days.

Yeah, definitely different strokes for different folks at work here. I don't dislike Nayuta no Kiseki, but I don't think the story is particularly interesting, and I honestly had a lot more fun with VIII's than Nayuta's. The stages weren't bad, but the whole game felt clunky to control and it took away from that, and I never really found myself looking forward to the bosses because they just weren't very good... or challenging.

It does look very good for a PSP game, though, I'll give you that. But then I find the overworld of VIII (not Celceta's) really damn good! I adored exploring that and it was one of the highlights of the game for me. Especially the part you previously mentioned, dungeon from Chapter 3, I thought it was such a nice treat that you got to explore it in the way you did, since it had been looming in the background for so long and suddenly -- BAM.

As for the music, tho... eh. The thing with Nayuta is that I think it has great compositions (Nihilistic Icon), but at the same time that PSP period featured some of the worst synths Falcom's ever used for their stuff. Nayuta (and Ys Seven) could really, really use a great arrange album with real instruments, it'd make so many of the tracks sound so much better. VIII is one of my favourite Falcom OSTs though, so...

 

[Geddy]

The new Ys formula sure sounds like it continues to be a drag. Should have expected it after two lame Ys games in a row.

What makes you say that? Memories was my first Ys game and I've gone back and played Books I & II, Felghana, and Origin, and thought they were all really fun. Memories was definitely the most action packed though, I felt. You're saying Memories and Lacrimosa are slow?

 

[Tetsuo9999]

Are the cutscenes skippable at least? The unskippable ones in Origin tested my patience already, so if this is worse, I might have to hold back for a while.

 

[Holundrian]

Are the cutscenes skippable at least? The unskippable ones in Origin tested my patience already, so if this is worse, I might have to hold back for a while.

They are skippable

 

[Jolkien]

Are the cutscenes skippable at least? The unskippable ones in Origin tested my patience already, so if this is worse, I might have to hold back for a while.

They last like half a minutes at most when you speed through them. I'm not sure if I'm more patient then most or you're just impatient

 

[duckroll]

What makes you say that? Memories was my first Ys game and I've gone back and played Books I & II, Felghana, and Origin, and thought they were all really fun. Memories was definitely the most action packed though, I felt. You're saying Memories and Lacrimosa are slow?

No I'm saying they are padded, bloated, and give me less bang for my buck in terms of excitement moment to moment. I don't agree that it is the most action packed at all, because there's so much of the game that does not involve being packed with action.

 

[Bebpo]

Second half of chapter 5 now. Game finally kinda came together at the end of chapter 4. I enjoy the cast and the

Spoiler

time switch mechanic

, maybe they didn't need to wait until 70% through the game to introduce that since it's sorta the main unique mechanic of the game.

Spoiler

And Dana basically doesn't do anything or have gameplay until that point.

Anyhow, I was reading the wiki and they really changed the game up a lot in the PS4 so I'm realizing that just like my impressions on Tokyo Xanadu PS4, they aren't really matching up with people who played Ys VIII on Vita in some ways.

Like I didn't realize the 2nd tower defense mini-game was added for PS4. So the part I was talking about in Chapter 3 when there were 3 tower defense mini-games back to back basically interrupting the story, in the Vita version there were only 2. There's a handful more quests in the PS4 version slowing down the pacing between game progress even more including more sidequest mini-games. The night version dungeons really add nothing and don't even have a boss fight; there's not even a lot of them. That's the strangest addition because you'd think if they were adding reskins of dungeons for the PS4 it'd be like entirely new dungeons with a new boss...but they saved that for the Dana portion.

The new PS4 defense mini-game is way more fun than the original, so I don't mind it unlike the original TD which I still dislike a lot because its so repetitive and boring and just grind feeling.

On the positives for the PS4 version, so it appears that Dana's main dungeon that expands each chapter is...entirely new for PS4? That's the best part of Dana parts because otherwise her parts have so little gameplay to them. Her dungeon crawl is sorta a mini Ys Origin if it was made in Tokyo Xanadu. It reminds me of the meaty new chapter dungeons w/bosses added for Tokyo Xanadu PS4. It's nice having just a pure dungeon crawl with puzzles and no team switching. The extra style mode switches for Dana that go along with it are pretty nice since I'm not that big on how base Dana plays compared to Adol.

Anyhow, so it seems like the PS4 version is a bit slower paced and more padded, but the Dana side is much more satisfying, plus the whole 60fps and good graphics.

But yeah, enjoying it now. I have a feeling it'll end up my 3rd favorite Ys after Oath & Origin. It's interesting comparing Dana's gameplay to Origin since it's single character dungeon crawl; really shows the difference between the combat engines. Ys VIII combat on hard plays a lot closer to TX's PS4's combat imo than Oath/Origin style. The combat's a lot slower and boss attacks are more telegraphed and come every couple seconds so you just watch and flash guard and counter, repeat over and over. It's fun, but I find it fun in a TX+ Ys-lite way. It feels like a mainstream accessible Ys combat, which isn't bad, it's just popcorn entertainment vs Devil May Cry.

Also I don't like Sahad. He started off ok, but his scaredy-cat afraid of everything everywhere you go is kinda annoying. Hummel is pretty good for deadpan humor, probably the best in the cast. Ricotta and her dad are a good dynamic; jrpgs could use more cool dads. Adol is Adol and everyone else is forgettable. Hoping Dana will become more than fanservice by the end with her story.

 

[preta]

Second half of chapter 5 now. Game finally kinda came together at the end of chapter 4. I enjoy the cast and the

Spoiler

time switch mechanic

, maybe they didn't need to wait until 70% through the game to introduce that since it's sorta the main unique mechanic of the game.

Spoiler

And Dana basically doesn't do anything or have gameplay until that point.

Anyhow, I was reading the wiki and they really changed the game up a lot in the PS4 so I'm realizing that just like my impressions on Tokyo Xanadu PS4, they aren't really matching up with people who played Ys VIII on Vita in some ways.

Like I didn't realize the 2nd tower defense mini-game was added for PS4. So the part I was talking about in Chapter 3 when there were 3 tower defense mini-games back to back basically interrupting the story, in the Vita version there were only 2. There's a handful more quests in the PS4 version slowing down the pacing between game progress even more including more sidequest mini-games. The night version dungeons really add nothing and don't even have a boss fight; there's not even a lot of them. That's the strangest addition because you'd think if they were adding reskins of dungeons for the PS4 it'd be like entirely new dungeons with a new boss...but they saved that for the Dana portion.

The new PS4 defense mini-game is way more fun than the original, so I don't mind it unlike the original TD which I still dislike a lot because its so repetitive and boring and just grind feeling.

On the positives for the PS4 version, so it appears that Dana's main dungeon that expands each chapter is...entirely new for PS4? That's the best part of Dana parts because otherwise her parts have so little gameplay to them. Her dungeon crawl is sorta a mini Ys Origin if it was made in Tokyo Xanadu. It reminds me of the meaty new chapter dungeons w/bosses added for Tokyo Xanadu PS4. It's nice having just a pure dungeon crawl with puzzles and no team switching. The extra style mode switches for Dana that go along with it are pretty nice since I'm not that big on how base Dana plays compared to Adol.

Anyhow, so it seems like the PS4 version is a bit slower paced and more padded, but the Dana side is much more satisfying, plus the whole 60fps and good graphics.

But yeah, enjoying it now. I have a feeling it'll end up my 3rd favorite Ys after Oath & Origin. It's interesting comparing Dana's gameplay to Origin since it's single character dungeon crawl; really shows the difference between the combat engines. Ys VIII combat on hard plays a lot closer to TX's PS4's combat imo than Oath/Origin style. The combat's a lot slower and boss attacks are more telegraphed and come every couple seconds so you just watch and flash guard and counter, repeat over and over. It's fun, but I find it fun in a TX+ Ys-lite way. It feels like a mainstream accessible Ys combat, which isn't bad, it's just popcorn entertainment vs Devil May Cry.

Also I don't like Sahad. He started off ok, but his scaredy-cat afraid of everything everywhere you go is kinda annoying. Hummel is pretty good for deadpan humor, probably the best in the cast. Ricotta and her dad are a good dynamic; jrpgs could use more cool dads. Adol is Adol and everyone else is forgettable. Hoping Dana will become more than fanservice by the end with her story.

You could say that the story has barely even begun at this point. You have no idea what you're in for.

 

[FallenGrace]

I'm pretty new to YS. Celceta was my first YS and I really liked it. I recently played Origin on PS4 and really liked that too.

Been really interested in VIII but I have a question, footage I saw for the PS4 had the characters vanishing as you moved the camera around before they were off screen and it looked really distracting. Is this still a thing to those playing?

 

[preta]

I'm pretty new to YS. Celceta was my first YS and I really liked it. I recently played Origin on PS4 and really liked that too.

Been really interested in VIII but I have a question, footage I saw for the PS4 had the characters vanishing as you moved the camera around before they were off screen and it looked really distracting. Is this still a thing to those playing?

I never noticed or thought about it one time in my entire playthrough, if it even happened to me.

(also, it's just "Ys" - not "YS", nor "Y's".)

 

[FallenGrace]

I never noticed or thought about it one time in my entire playthrough, if it even happened to me.

(also, it's just "Ys" - not "YS", nor "Y's".)

Thanks.

YS YS YS YS.

 

[Bebpo]

Need help on a quest at the end of Ch.5, haven't missed a quest yet so don't want to miss one.

There's a timing = short quest near the end of Ch.5 you get where you need to give 3 items to a guy, 2 of a easy to get item and then 1 of this item 陽光牙

Looking at the guide,
http://h1g.jp/ys8/index.php?陽光牙

I don't see how I'm supposed to get it this chapter? It unlocks at the material transmuting girl in the next rank of items which I assume I'll get after I beat ch.5. And the enemies that drop it, all those areas they are in look like their from ch.6.

So assuming that the quest expires at the end of chapter 5 before ch.6 starts...I don't get where I'm supposed to find this item?

I assume the answer most likely is that after the next few events there is another rank up in camp before ch.5 ends

Spoiler

Got back from the ghost ship and at the palace ruins now.

and that's when I'll be able to create the item and finish the quest before ending ch.5, but it's kinda weird because it's the first quest I can't just complete at the time I receive it. I normally do all the quests once I get them so I can enjoy the story for a few hours before getting back to more questing.

*edit* nm, found a blog that has a place where you can get a drop of the item right now:

Spoiler

陽光牙：水と森の丘の「ヴァルヴァロキア」のドロップ//賭博師のコイン＋盗賊の腕輪

 

[everyer]

The battle, the story and the system are perfect. I love playing it a lot.
For me, this game's battle is much better than P5 which I really want to skip the battle stage.

Really enjoy the game.

 

[Bebpo]

Welp, 30+ mins later after like 50-60 dinos killed, finally got 1 drop of the item I needed (gained like 2-3 levels from the grind and a bunch of other items). Finished the quest. Sure hope none of the 8 or so quests in ch.6 require grinding rare drops.

I'd honestly have skipped all the sidequests and cut my game time down by 1/3rd if I didn't need everyone's friendship levels up for the true ending. Read that on the Vita version you needed like 150 popularity for the true end, but now it's 200 on PS4. I'm only around 140 right now but still have the biggest final chapter left.

 

[preta]

Welp, 30+ mins later after like 50-60 dinos killed, finally got 1 drop of the item I needed (gained like 2-3 levels from the grind and a bunch of other items). Finished the quest. Sure hope none of the 8 or so quests in ch.6 require grinding rare drops.

I'd honestly have skipped all the sidequests and cut my game time down by 1/3rd if I didn't need everyone's friendship levels up for the true ending. Read that on the Vita version you needed like 150 popularity for the true end, but now it's 200 on PS4. I'm only around 140 right now but still have the biggest final chapter left.

I was around the same at that point, as I recall. Don't worry too much, you can get a lot of points in the final chapter. Also make sure you finish the PS4-exclusive Dana dungeon, as that alone gets you 20.

 

[Bebpo]

I was around the same at that point, as I recall. Don't worry too much, you can get a lot of points in the final chapter. Also make sure you finish the PS4-exclusive Dana dungeon, as that alone gets you 20.

Yeah, definitely will. It's a fun dungeon! I figure I should have everything finished outside all fish (and relationship with bird guy because of it), 100% map (probably end up at like 98-99% because I miss spots), and all cooking because I think I've missed recipes.
Also my mini-game completions are usually A rank with occasional S rank, so I'm missing a few points from not S-ranking them all.

But I figure if I do everything else I should be ok.

 

[Yu Narukami]

I just noticed that the European edition is 15 bucks cheaper on amazon.co.uk compared to other amazons.

 

[Bebpo]

I was around the same at that point, as I recall. Don't worry too much, you can get a lot of points in the final chapter. Also make sure you finish the PS4-exclusive Dana dungeon, as that alone gets you 20.

Had kind of a worry, was at 186 and the

Spoiler

Tree defender people said "finish all of the stuff you've got to do and meet me at the tree" which I thought was point of no return for sidestuff.

Looked it up and the cutoff isn't until the final boss...phew. Hopefully I'll get another 14 points pretty easily.

I definitely am enjoying the main plot more in ch.6 with these people who are actually interesting characters, which the game has been missing until now. Still don't care for how they handled the NPCs at the base, there's so much dialogue/cutscenes getting their hearts to max and seeing the max relationship scene but I don't find a single one of them interesting. Could've done without any of the NPC stories.

Anyhow, I guess I'm getting near the end of the game? I'm around 36 hours now. Probably will be able to finish it in the next week and get back to DQXI.

 

[Bebpo]

Alright, finished. ~45 hours, with basically 100% completion outside fishing and some optional tower defense battles.

eh, it was ok.

Pros:
+Art is gorgeous
+Characters control well
+Music is pretty good
+TONS of content, so many bosses, lots of dungeons, big world map to explore

Cons:
-Dana & her entire side-story. Could've been done in a flashback, her story is weak & underdeveloped, feels forced and throws off the pacing constantly especially in the latter half when Adol's exploration/story is actually moving. Dana's PS4 dungeon is ok, but kinda repetitive and not any better than a random TX+ dungeon.
-The NPCs. Game is like a really bad Suikoden with so much time wasted on very slightly developing 20+ simple NPCs. There isn't a single NPC that's as interesting as Anton in Kiseki, but you probably spend 10 hours of the game just talking to all of these NPCs and doing quests for them.
-Main cast is a bore outside Hummel and maybe Laxia. He's the only interesting character that feels almost like he could fit into a Kiseki game. Everyone else is standard Ys simple, which is fine just simple.
-Plot is basically as good/bad/simple as your standard Ys tales. I think Ys storylines are pretty awful and I'm always surprised the same company that writes quality like Kiseki can't write a story for Ys, but it is what is is. The difference here is that the story is like 10x more dialogue/cutscene heavy than usual, so it's a standard Ys tale paced like a Kiseki game that takes 40 hours to tell instead of like 15 hours.
-I feel like the just guard/dodge timing is inconsistent between bosses. Felt like every fight I'd have to relearn the timing. Just felt kinda janky and not as tight as an action game should be with just guarding or dodging. Still was perfectly doable on Hard.
-The PS4 additions are almost all junk and just add like 10 hours-ish of clearing things for clearing sake unlike TX+ where the PS4 additions were huge positive changes to the story. Otoh, the clean clear 60fps that makes the art pop is a huge upgrade in itself.
-There's a bunch of Tower Defense mini-games forced in, they're kinda whatever but at least they're short and it's more of an annoyance early on when they keep popping up.


Game was ok. There were times when I was really enjoying it, just running through fields mapping out the world and beating up enemies; making my way through dungeons and fighting bosses. The most memorable parts of the game were some of the mini-adventures when exploring like

Spoiler

The Ghost Ship

. But then there was a lot, and I mean a loooot of wasted hours of life doing boring stuff in this game. I feel like Ys8 was very ambitious, but I also feel like Falcom didn't quite pull off the execution. The dual-protagonist story in concept is neat, but Dana's portion is so underdeveloped and sporadic, it's just a big waste of time and I always was like "oh great" anytime it switched over because that meant doing 30-60 mins of boring linear stuff to check the boxes before getting back to the story with Adol. Her character & story comes off more as a fanservice appeal to otaku with bikinis and lolis than anything.

And the NPC system was just a total disaster imo. You can tell they tried to incorporate Kiseki's NPCs and friendship events (Aka the worst thing in Kiseki) and it just added so much padding and none of these characters ever get interesting.

In my opinion, this game should've been about 15-20 hours. If they cut all of Dana's story out, all the NPC stuff out, and it was just Adol and friends exploring dino island as the story unraveled occasionally, fighting bosses & getting upgrades, it'd be a pretty great arpg. I'd probably give the game with 20 hours cut out a 9/10 arpg. That would've been more like a normal Ys game. I don't have much of a problem with the 3-person combat system. Dana's single combat doesn't make much of a difference and single Adol combat in this engine would still feel like Ys7/Celceta/Ys8 combat.

But instead Ys8 is a new type of Ys game that's Ys x Kiseki x Suikoden-bad and all the non-Ys stuff is generally mediocre and a bore and hurts the arpg. If this the permanent direction of Ys now, I'm done with the franchise.

For me, Ys8 was about a 7/10 and the probably the most middling Falcom game I've played since Celceta. I thought TX+ was about an 8/10 and I'd put CS1+2 around an 8.5/10 combined. Even though I haven't played Ys8 Vita, I'd probably recommend that version over the PS4 even with the huge graphics downgrade just because 10 hours less of padding will still go a long way to improve the story/game pacing. Usually the latter version is the superior version in games, but this is one instance where I feel it's not. Fwiw I still liked it much more than Celceta. I'd rank the Ys games I've played as Origins/Oath > Ys 7 > Ys 6 > Ys 8 >>> Ys 4r.

On a second to last note, while I enjoyed exploring the island a lot, the game is incredibly linear. I get that was probably a vita limitation, but I really would've liked more freedom in exploring. I feel like the linear narrow courses take away some of the experience of the joy of exploration.

And on a last note, bringing back jumping was nice but underused. There's one mini-dungeon near the end that requires a little platforming and it kinda shows the potential of if they wanted to do some real platforming in the dungeons, but they shyed away from that and there's really almost no platforming in the game.