Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS5) Review

Ys has been around for a couple of decades now, yet the real-time Japanese action RPG series has largely eluded me until now. With developer Nihon Falcom and publisher NIS currently going all out on ports of this series and localisations of its turned-based sibling The Legend of Heroes, I have made it my mission while at WellPlayed to suss out these long-running series as they roll out their current-gen treatments. After coming off the back of Nihon Falcom’s great The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero, I was hungry to see how 2016’s Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana held up in its new PS5 port. 

Pure action roleplaying dopamine straight to the receptors. That has been my experience playing 2016’s Ys VIII for the first time via its recent PS5 port release. Events quickly commence with a mischievously obvious and trope-laden opening sequence involving a ship full of odd characters being shipwrecked and castaway on an island after colliding with a Kraken-like sea monster. Upon washing ashore and finding an initial group of fellow castaways to form a home camp, the game cuts to the chase – chart the enormous island you’ve been stranded upon and bring any other castaways to safety.

Returning is the series’ protagonist Adol Christin, a red-haired sword-wielding boy whose only mission is for all to regard him as an adventurer. There is not a lot of personality to him, functioning instead as the vessel for players to engage in dialogue and drive the plot forward. The supporting cast of characters Adol finds on his journeys becomes the feedback loop with which the story is fed to both Adol and the player, with a rotating handful of castaways who can join Adol’s active three-person adventuring party when setting out from the game’s base hub. 

The game’s best landscapes still leave something to the imagination

The core tenet of this and the only other Ys game I’ve played (Memories of Celceta on the PS Vita) is to explore and chart the world map. Going from connected zone to connected zone, which together forms a mysterious island, will be consistently rewarded and incentivises discovering every corner of this wild world. Some paths in this interconnected world may be blocked off, becoming explorable later when more castaways join your makeshift village and can help with the clearing efforts. 

Cast a glance at Ys VIII in 2022 and you will notice this is far from the prettiest redhead at the party. In spite of its low-key visuals, Ys absolutely still knows how to get down and makes for one of the most fun ‘gamey’ action JRPGs I’ve played in 2022. 

What do I mean by gamey? Judging by Lacrimosa of Dana, Ys is all about feeling powerful, pulling off stunning combos, and never feeling inhibited by such concepts as ‘realism’ and immersive modern design. It is the anti-Dark Souls. The world’s zones are fairly sparse in detail but full of a great variety of roaming creatures that serve as feeble fodder when running from A to B. Death is forgiving, and saving can occur almost anywhere. Healing items are plentiful, with gathering and crafting encouraged. The half-dozen of playable party characters only have one weapon upgrade path, but loads of craftable gear and unique skills ensure each character can improve with use, and equipment and party members can be tweaked during combat with full access to the pause menu.

Ys VIII’s boss fights are thrilling throughout despite screenshots not doing them justice

The soundtrack likes to shred electric guitar when not swaying the player with oddly retro PS1 symphonies. In isolation, many of this game’s elements would seem dated and niche in their appeal, but together it makes for the most exhilarating and rewarding Japanese action RPG I’ve played this year (save for Elden Ring, of course).

As already mentioned, Ys VIII is not a looker. Yes, the PS5 version has the benefit of instant loads, sharply edged models and terrain, and no perceivable pop-in or LOD restrictions, however the textures are mostly flat and the character models are noticeably plastic and doll-like. The art direction of a paradise island shrouded in danger does make the unimpressive visuals palatable. This world is awash in vibrant greens and blues with its creatures cast starkly against it. Yet an absolute absence of minor touches like particle effects or any graphical advancement since the PS3 has been left behind in favour of producing a game all about fundamentals. And this is fundamentally one of the best action JRPGs of yesteryear.

Series fans have already smashed out Ys’ first title to go full 3D. So is there a reason for them to shell out on this PS5 port? Not really. This is a title I would recommend first to newcomers. The lack of PS5-exclusive features is a bit rough, with nary an expanded graphics settings or the like. Though the PC version that launched in 2018 could theoretically hit the high resolutions and framerates that this port offers, it was reported to be an unstable release for some users at launch. On the PS5 however, Ys runs flawlessly out of the box and is polished just as well. Not a single bug, crash, or glitch throughout my admittedly rushed 35-hour playthrough. 

About to drop a Mortein bomb up in here

A commonplace and somewhat expected feature of a PS5 port is haptic feedback. If we are spoiled, perhaps even adaptive trigger integration. For the first four hours of this game, I was convinced the devs had missed something as there were no DualSense vibrations. It wasn’t until I finally socked a few hits from a prickly multi-headed worm boss that I felt the faint flutter of a kick. My DualSense had shown signs of life! But oddly, feedback only registers occasionally in response to the player character copping a direct whomping from an enemy. There seems to be a window of a second or two where the vibration doesn’t register follow-up attacks to the player. Nothing else, not even damage over time conditions will signal a shake. A huge shame, as the feedback of the fast-paced combat could have elevated the PS5 port to definitive status.

Final Thoughts

The only reason for Japanese action RPG fans to have not yet played this game is purely aesthetic. It is graphically flat, even at the time of its release in 2016. Yet despite the indifference to visual detail, Ys VIII’s ever-evolving gameplay and rewarding pace have aged like fine wine. A ‘fundamentals’ port that remains technically smooth throughout, though it may be a hard sell to returning players.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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