Once again we we have here another adventure with gaming's leading adventurer, Adol. (Seriously, how many characters actually claim their job title is Adventurer?) And each time we have spent time with him, I have to say I have enjoyed the hell out of it. Was this time any different? Not really... I had a blast here too. Come on in and have a peak.
Story: Adol Christin is at again. With an adventurer's determination to see it all, he has boarded Lombardia and set sail. However if you know anything about this man's history, you are also aware of his luck when sailing in the deep blue seas. It isn't long before a monstrosity the likes of which is rarely seen attacks the ship, sinking it and stranding him on the Isle of Seiren. This island is known by sailors the world over as a cursed land and few, if any, ships are willing to get close enough to pick him up since anything that does get close enough gets absolutely destroyed. In fact (and unfortunately for our hero), the reason the Lombardia was destroyed is that cause strayed a bit further out then normal on this fated day.
But Adol is not alone. It doesn't take him long before he found another survivor: a woman who knows her way with a sword and immediately decided it's his fault he found her in less then descent attire. Together, these two will have to find a way to survive long enough to find the others who managed to get ashore and perhaps a way off the island itself.
But there is also something else on Adol's mind. Since being marooned here, he's been having strange dreams about another land with another kingdom where he can see into the life of their new religious leader: the maiden of the Great Tree, Dana. If I were to tell you these are not just dreams, I would be giving nothing away, but this unusual meeting of the minds will be key in uncovering a much darker secret buried on this island... something fateed to happen that no one here could fathom or allow to pass.
The story itself is made up of two blended together: Dana's and the castaways collectively, at first using the dream framework to divide the sections up and keep the flow together even as the tales have yet to converge. The result is actually really solid, up until the halfway point when everyone finally gets to come together. The skill telling the story remains the same, don't get me wrong. It just ceases to really feel like two stories so much as it explains why they made this choice and then continues from that point. If anything, the plot actually gets better... at least until the end. Unfortunately I can not say it stands up to the rest of the title, and to explain, I need to be allowed to give a spoiler. As such, skip the indented and italicized part below if you wish to avoid a huge one.
You have done it! With the elemental force of evolution itself destroyed, the Lacrimosa (a literal force of nature to wipe out the dominant species and make room for the next) has been stopped. But this proved a lot more catastrophic then you expected: destroying the law of nature itself destroyed the world!
And then Adol wakes up in his hammock. The castaways are getting ready to leave and would really like his help to do so. It seems however, something is amiss. Dana isn't here. In fact no one even remembers her being there... ever. And on top of that it seems like there everything since destroying the beast who was guarding the waters and preventing your escape never happened. From here, how much side content you found and completed will decide how much of the ending you see, but the gist of the what happened is without the force of evolution, the goddess who was dreaming it all Maia, woke up, ending everything. If she had no desire to return to dreaming, that would have been that. However, Dana's actions during this event supposedly woke her and in the process, erased the poor girl from this new reality entirely.
Now I have two major issues with the above ending. The first of which is Dana's fate. I understand she's gone, but why she's gone is convoluted at best. The goddess explains she stopped the Lacrimosa from happening by waking her up, but at the same time, the very cutscene after you finish off that boss has her doing "something" well after it was stopped and the world was beginning to be erased. This might be smoother or less clear based on the translation your copy of the game used (and trying to make sure I had the details right before making this complaint, I did find there were at least two VERY distinct English versions), but we are being told something in that last scene that completely contradicts what we just saw: Dana could NOT have stopped the Lacrimosa by that last act of defiance when it was stopped by your party literally killing evolution before her action. Yes, she clearly helped, but the contradiction is confusing at best, and straight up bad writing at worst.
And for that matter, let's talk about "reconstructing the world." This really feels to me like the writers painted themselves into a corner and needed a way out. The world was being destroyed, but conveniently just gets replaced with a new one exactly the same? With the exact same history minus one girl? I have seen endings like this before and generally they have always felt weak for the lack of impact an apocalypse of this nature should have. This is no exception.
Overall, the game's story actually seems pretty good to me, but that ending just seemed jumbled at best, and desperate to not end poorly for our heroes and their world at worst, leaving a bad taste at the last moment.
7/10
Graphics: Ys games overtime have not so much taken different styles of look as evolved as technology has allowed. In the old days 2D sprites roamed a flat world with anime-style artwork for character profiles. Later when hardware advanced enough, those sprites would populate 3D landscapes, and later themselves be replaced by 3D models.
At this point we have effectively done away with the profiles almost entirely as the models are now advanced enough to carry that look and all the expressiveness to come with it on the models themselves, and it looks great doing so. You can expect the camera to move freely around as needed so all cutscenes not using an actually fully drawn animated scene (while they are in the game, they are rare) are in-engine and not just characters standing in screen without any expression at all as previous games might have done. It makes for a much more cinematic feel then ever before.
But a game is more then it's cutscenes, and the same graphical work serves the core game very well as well. While actually playing you will see everything from a camera focused on your character you can move circle around at will and independently to your movement, letting you get a solid look at everything in the world. And that world is bright, colorful, and varied. Everything from open coastlines to forests to even haunted relics of a past forgotten by the outside world, you will never run out of things to see until the very end of the game, and it will all look vibrant as hell.
And while I've already touched on the people, rest assured the variety you see in the land applies here too. Everyone is distinct and full of life and character. You will likely have a favorite or two before this game is over in and outside of your playable ones.
Nor are the monsters slouches either! Ranging from lowly slugs to giant dinosaurs and far more outlandish beasts in between, you will have a lot of creatures to fight as you play giving the active life as much (if not more) variety then even the environments.
If I had to sum it up, this is one beautiful game that was smart enough to keep a style that simply doesn't age with the tech it's built around!
9/10
Sound: Much like the visuals, I have to give a lot of credit to the soundscape this time around, even the sound effects. Most of the game takes place on the Isle of Seiren, and the environment itself carries this in sound as well as sight. True, the sounds you will listen for are things like Adol's sword slashing, roars of angry monsters, or the sounds of getting hit (you or your enemy) and these sound about as good as one can expect. But the world itself doesn't hesitate to fill your ears as well. Waves crash on the shores while seagulls cry out while on the beaches. But at the same time, waterfalls splash as you approach and caves echo properly, creating the audio half of the atmosphere perfectly.
Well, maybe almost perfectly for no Ys game is complete without an absolutely amazing soundtrack, and this one is no exception. Yes, you will get more dulcet tones for when you are exploring a particular moment or a more comedic time is at play, but these will not be the songs that stick with you. Ys is known for it's almost 80's style metal, particularly while in combat, and here that tradition continues with the absolute mastery. When that guitar flairs up, you KNOW shit is about to go down in the best way remotely possible.
Nor will you have to listen to only sounds and music. As one would expect for most modern games, there is a fair amount of speech that went into this game, too. True, not every moment is voice acted, but key scenes usually are, and done so fairly well. It's a bit campy to call the best I've ever heard, but you get a strong sense of everyone from their work, which only enhances your connection to them (love or hate, and you will definately find both in this).
7/10
Gameplay: As one would expect from a more modern game in the franchise, Ys VIII is an action RPG played from a 3rd person perspective. You will run around the island fighting your way through bigger and badder monsters, gaining better gear and experience and in the process leveling up your party as you explore and complete various missions. If you've played any ARPG of the past, you have an idea of what to expect here.
But I have to say only an idea, since the Ys games tend to differentiate themselves from other games here in the style they apply. Unlike other ARPGs, hitting the enemy isn't necessarily enough to do damage, nor is being simply touched by one going to hurt you. This game's damage system is based on hitting an enemy properly while avoiding their attacks instead of just avoiding them themselves. This may sound easier (as I keep saying in every review of this franchise) but it allowed the devs to create animations that make combat more of a boxing match where you have to be aware of what your enemies do and take advantage of it. This is especially true as you will have nothing to speak of when it comes to ranged combat most of the time and while no "Souls-Like" taking a hit can be a lot more punishing then most of these game types, resulting in some of the most engaging combat this type of game can offer.
Nor is it even as straight forward as that since you will find combat damage is also splashed with a rock-paper-scissors flavor. Not for damage you take (enemies will do the same damage to you regardless of the type of attack they use), but Adol and his allies each use different types of weapons that break down into three damage types: slash, pierce, and crush. Some enemies will only take serious damage from one of these so who you have attacking can make a huge difference on the field. However, the game is also fairly forgiving with this since you will have up to three party members on the ground at any time and for the most part be able to swap both which of the three you are controlling as well as who's out and who's in reserve at will, making your combat unit incredibly flexible. You can even replace Adol from the party this time around if you so desire!
But you should also be aware that just because the enemy doesn't have the same variety of damage types vs your allies weaknesses, that doesn't mean they are not packing some serious side-effects they can hit you with. There are several ailement types that you or the enemy can be inflicted with. Anything from poison to burning to freezing to even paralysis or darkened vision is possible here... but everyone, you and enemies, all have resistances to this too. When you are hit with the effect, you will see a circle with it's icon over the character with the issue's name with a white line around the outside. Until you take enough damage of this effect to fill that, you are resisting it. If it fills you either need to heal it or wait out that line reducing to nothing, making for some extra balance in how you fight.
But there will also be times when you have to deal with something big... both as bosses and enemies designed to require you to run like hell rather then fight. The latter are not so much interesting as either a sign you shouldn't be there yet or (in at least one case) something requiring you to sneak past it before it absolutely destroys you, showing you the true danger the island represents, but bosses are a spectacle all their own. In general you will know when you are coming up to them as the game will give you a place to completely heal up/remove ailments/artifact you can insta-travel to and from before the entrance to an obvious arena. This is also traditional to the franchise. Most of the games use stone tablets to mark these places, but this time, you will find them to be the form of pointed crystals jutting out of the ground. So use that space, go gear up, then come back for one hell of a fight.
But gearing up will not be quite as simple as spending earned currency on new equipment and items. Being castaway on an uncharted island means that money of any sort means nothing at all. Rather as you find and rescue others on the island, you will have their talents to lean on, provided you can collect the materials they need to lend a hand. These people will act as crafting stations, allowing you to build better armor, upgrade your weapons, craft trinkets and medicines to take with you on your journey. Every time you rescue someone, they will add some new function to your homebase of Castaway Village. Furthermore there is also strength in numbers that will be demonstrated in the form of obstacles like mudslides and broken bridges that Adol simply can not pass on his own. Rather he will need to have found enough castways to dislodge whatever is in the way and access new parts of the island, using this as a way to expand the areas you can reach.
But there is always a price to be paid for such favors, and the name of the game this time is protection. At various times through your adventure, Adol will be called on to defend the gates of Castaway Village from waves of enemies in a new game-type called raids. Talk to Adol's life-long friend Dogi and you can build up the defences you will be able to use, but ultimately it will be you and your team against wave upon wave of monstrocities who want nothing more then to knock down that gate and destroy everything on the other side... including the other people! Only the first is absolutely necessary to do to complete the game, but when you finish based on how well you did, you will be given a whole bunch of materials as a reward so it's worth your time to do this.
And sometimes, the best defense is also a good offense, and this too will be offered as a game mode in the same fashion as raids. When you partake in one of these, you will enter a new location with a handful of nests and places to light torches. You will be given a number of waves during which you need to light all the torches and kill the nests in order to summon and defeat a final boss. Maybe it's the fact that you're on the offensive instead of the defensive, but I found myself enjoying this mode far more.
But overall, the whole game plays amazingly well, and flows great. It may not be quite on par with my current favorite game in the series, but there is a reason a lot of people love this game in particular.
8/10
Bugs: The only bug I came across when playing this title was actually in it's intro. The first scene has script/iconic drawings light up, but it looks more like the transition is artifacting into place, like a video that loads improperly. Other then that, though the game had zero issues at all.
Overall: I really can't say anything bad about this game, at least outside the ending. It is a very solid action RPG and a great place for the mordern gamer to get their first taste of Adol's adventures. If you've been looking into trying out the Ys games, enjoy. If you, like me, have spent a lot of time with Adol, its still a great game and even adds some extra variety compared to what most of the series has offered so far. Either way, enjoy yourself. You are in for a good time.
Score:
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i3-2100 running at 3.1 Ghz
- 4 GB RAM
- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 650 Ti
- Windows 7/8/10
- 30 GB hard drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 5 5600G running at 3.9 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 11
- PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)
Source: gog.com
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