Comparison – YS SEVEN, Memories Of Celceta, Lacrimosa Of Dana

While I can’t say that I know a lot about the YS series, I did dabble in a few of the games and the three games I finished were the modern style YS games in the sense that you control multiple characters as opposed to just Adol. While these games have gotten a lot of flak from die hard fans, I personally had a lot of fun with all three of them. Having tried a few of the older games, I’m glad that these changes happened because I absolutely despise the gameplay in some of the older games and I actually prefer having party members as opposed to just a single character for the entire game.

Now that I have played all three of the modern games, I feel the urge to do a comparison of the three so that you can get a good idea as to what each game’s strengths and weaknesses are as well as my personal thoughts on each one and which one is the best of the three. So for starters I want to talk about the earliest of the three games, YS SEVEN.

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YS SEVEN

YS 7

Playstation Portable, PC

YS SEVEN was the second game I played in the series and was the first game in the series to have multiple party members. This was a colossal change from earlier YS games and because of it, the game had to incorporate a lot of new features to accommodate this feature to the point that it became a completely different experience. In a way, that kinda makes YS SEVEN the Castlevania Symphony Of The Night of the YS series as it completely reinvented the formula and was the first game of its kind.

One thing I noticed immediately was the ability to charge up your sword to perform a stronger attack that fills the sp meter up faster, this is the only game of the three that has this feature as the other two games have the sword charge automatically whenever it is not used. Because you could charge the sword manually, this meant that you would often have the X button held down wherever you went just to make sure that your first hit on the enemy would be a strong attack. I can see why they automated this feature for that reason, however I can’t deny that the act of charging up your attacks was pretty satisfying in a way.

YS SEVEN introduced the three attack modes that players had to be aware of when fighting certain enemies to exploit weaknesses. Because of this, players will usually prefer a party that has one of each attack mode and since you have a maximum of 3 characters in your party at a time, you would need to make sure all of them have different attack modes. This is a problem in later entries as it essentially presents several false choices in the form of party compositions, where certain party compositions would be objectively inferior to others. In YS SEVEN however, this isn’t an issue as Adol can equip different weapon types, allowing him to use all three attack modes, making certain party compositions that would otherwise handicap the player a viable combination. The downside however is that YS SEVEN is the only game of the three to prohibit players from removing Adol from the party, meaning that you only get to choose 2 party members to tag alongside him.

The story of YS SEVEN is pretty straightforward and is arguably the most generic of the three, not that this is an issue. There are a few interesting twists here and there but the story mostly revolves around your typical macguffin hunt for most of the game. While this isn’t inherently an issue, it’s certainly nothing we haven’t seen before. If you’ve played any Zelda game or Tales Of Symphonia, you know what to expect. Go to the elemental dungeon, get the macguffin, go to the next elemental temple, rinse and repeat. It is literally chapter 3 of Valkyrie Profile 2 but for the entire game so if you hated chapter 3 in Valkyrie Profile 2, you will be bored to death by this game’s story. I personally didn’t mind this however as I personally play these games for the adventure, not the story, I enjoyed all the temples as they each had their own distinct characteristics that brought a lot of flavor to the experience though I did notice that I spent most of the game confined to dungeons as opposed to travelling outside.

Next I want to bring up the skill system. In order to learn new moves, players have to equip certain weapons and by using those weapons, they will eventually learn the skill. After that, the skill must be used over and over again to further level it up. This encourages players to swap weapons and keep using old weapons to learn all the skills. This means using all 3 weapon types, encouraging players to change their party continuously. I personally see this system as a double edged sword. If you’ve played games like Final Fantasy IX, Atelier Iris 2 or Tales Of Vesperia then you’ll probably be familiar with this system and if you liked it in those games, you probably won’t mind it here as it encourages you to spend more time in the menu, those who hate having to bring up the menu too often may see this as busywork. I personally don’t mind it as I am used to playing games that implement this system.

There is a crafting system but it’s a pretty conventional one. It’s your typical, gather specific components to make the item crafting system, the one you see in most RPG’s these days. I don’t mind it though as it encourages me to gather components from enemies.

The cast of characters are a mixed bag. While Adol, Geis and Dogi are great, the rest of the cast are pretty bland and just serve as the representative of each elemental temple you go to and they barely ever play a major part in the story outside of their own scenarios.

While I did enjoy the music of YS SEVEN a lot, I found it to be the least memorable of the three games, I found the three most standout tracks from the game to be Mother Earth Altago, Sanctuary Of Meditation Breeze and Crossing Rage, those three tracks were amazing, though the rest of the tracks, didn’t stand out as much to me as the tracks in the other games personally but it’s still an amazing soundtrack nonetheless.

So that’s YS SEVEN, a fiercely unapologetically conventional Action RPG for better or for worse, if you go into it expecting that, you’ll be well catered for but there are no frills here. Difficulty wise, YS SEVEN isn’t too hard but it is probably the hardest of the three as you have limited healing items so you can’t just mindlessly mash buttons, you have to carefully avoid the enemy attacks and counter them when the opportunity presents itself to conserve your health.

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YS: Memories Of Celceta

YS 4 (Remake)

Playstation Vita, Playstation 4, PC

Next up we have YS Memories Of Celceta, a remake of YS IV and the last of the three games that I played. Memories Of Celceta made some noticeable improvements to the combat system from YS SEVEN, implementing the flash move system that rewarded players for avoiding the enemy’s attacks at the right time by making them temporarily invincible. The game also removed the manual charging and replaced it with an automatic charge so you no longer have to run around with the X button held down all the time. All of this made the combat feel a lot more involving and this increased the fun factor for me.

Unlike YS SEVEN where skills are learned from weapons, Memories Of Celceta’s skills are learned in a similar way to that of the Tales games in the sense that you learn new moves as you fight. It’s difficult to pinpoint what triggers this exactly though it seems that fighting stronger enemies makes it easier to learn new skills.

What did bother me about Memories Of Celceta were the underwater sections. In the other two games, the underwater sections had you sink to the bottom and you could fight as normal. In Memories Of Celceta they added swimming, sure this does make the game more realistic but is that really important in a game like this? Plus it makes combat an absolute nightmare since your attacks are so slow and limited while in water, yet there are enemies to fight underwater. It really boggles my mind why they made this design choice but thankfully this is the only game where this is ever an issue.

Unlike YS SEVEN where you had to gather specific items to craft new weapons, YS Memories Of Celceta features an equipment enhancement system, allowing players to synthesize their equipment with just about any component in their inventory. This allows for so many more possibilities and it is a lot more fun to use whatever components you like to enhance your weapons as opposed to just crafting new ones with specific materials, because it means that no material feels wasted. It is similar to that of Star Ocean 4 and 5’s weapon augmentation but it works a little differently in this game as there are no factors so to speak of, rather there are stats for a multitude of effects that are applied to the weapon which are increased by adding components. Of course there’s a limit to how many components you can add to a weapon so you can’t just stack all of your components onto a single weapon, you have to choose your components carefully and because of this, it’s a really involving process.

On top of this, you can even upgrade the key items needed to traverse certain areas in the game, giving them special properties. This was great as it gave you a reason to use them even if you didn’t need them at the time, whereas in the other games you would only swap between them when they were needed as they otherwise felt kinda meaningless. I never was a big fan of these items in the other games as they just felt like keys to access other areas so that you couldn’t just go wherever you wanted, essentially breaking the illusion of openness in the same way a Zelda or Metroid game would.

While the other two games had completely original stories, Memories Of Celceta is a retelling of YS IV’s story. I personally enjoyed the story of Memories Of Celceta a lot more that YS SEVEN’s as it was no longer just your typical macguffin hunt throughout. There were some interesting plot ideas in this one and I found it to be the most grounded of the three games overall. I really liked the premise of being sent into this huge forest to map out uncharted territory, it felt like I was on a real adventure as opposed to being on a quest to save the world, though naturally such a quest does present itself later on in the game. If you play JRPG’s for the adventure as opposed to a deeper, more complex narrative then you’ll be right at home with Memories Of Celceta’s story. I personally consider it to be the best of the three games overall.

Like all great party members… am I right?

The Characters on the other hand I didn’t care for one bit, sure you can’t go wrong with Adol but every other character didn’t really appeal to me at all. Now don’t get me wrong, the characters aren’t terrible, heck I’d actually go as far as to say that the female cast were the most interesting of the group but that’s not saying much. Duren is pretty much a clone of Dogi and while they do try to make him an interesting character, I can’t help but see him as an inferior version of Dogi, don’t get me wrong, he isn’t terrible but he also isn’t breaking down walls any time soon. The other male character, Ozma is so bland that I had to look up his name because I completely forgot about him. Karna pretty much fits the outgoing spirited girl role to a T but she never goes anywhere beyond that. Then there’s Calilica who is just some really annoying little bratty kid and finally Frieda who is a completely new character that didn’t appear in YS IV there’s not much to say about her besides the fact that she is essentially the cool big sis trope given sentience.

Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack grew on me the more I played of it. While the music at the start didn’t capture my attention in the same way the other games did, the music later on more than made up for it. Burning Sword was great and all but it didn’t blow me away in the same way Mother Earth Altago and Sunshine Coastline did. Ultimately though I consider Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack to be a colossal improvement from YS SEVEN’s, not that YS SEVEN’s soundtrack was bad, it certainly wasn’t, I just felt that Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack was better overall. My personal favorites are Crater, The Morning After The Storm, Gust Of Wind and Forest Of Dawn.

I personally found Memories Of Celceta to be the easiest of the three games as you could carry as many potions as you want. Also the flash move system made bosses a lot more manageable. There are still some tough sections but nothing too bothersome. It should be noted though that you’ll occasionally encounter some powerful enemies on the field that are a higher level than you, which can be tough to take down if you don’t run away from them but besides that you shouldn’t have any problems. I recommend this game for people who aren’t very good at Action RPG’s as it’s a lot easier to pick up and play than the other two games.

I really enjoyed my time with Memories Of Celceta a lot more than I did with YS SEVEN overall, it brought a lot of gameplay improvements to the table and the story was a lot more interesting. The only major downside for me was the cast of characters, other than that I’d argue it’s one of the better of the three games.

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YS VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana

YS 8

Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC

Finally we move on to YS VIII Lacrimosa Of Dana, this was my first YS experience and it’s the only game of the three that I have actually reviewed so expect to see a repeat of what I said in my review. As it is the most recent of the YS games so far, with the exception of YS IX Monstrum Nox which is only available in Japan as of now, the most noticeable change is the fully three dimensional camera. The draw distance is also quite impressive and does a good job at establishing a greater sense of scope when you’re exploring the island. This does wonders when it comes to keeping the player engaged in exploration.

The combat however is surprisingly not all that different from the other two games, though it does have the automatic charge up as opposed to manual charging of YS SEVEN. Put simply, it plays mostly the same as Memories Of Celceta but with the ability to jump and use aerial attacks which was absent from the previous two games for some reason. One thing to note however is that flash move is a lot harder to pull off in YS VIII than it was in Memories Of Celceta as you have to time your evasion perfectly. This makes pulling off a flash move feel more rewarding though the fact that it’s harder to pull off might be a turn off for some though I personally prefer it this way. In Memories Of Celceta you could perform a flash move during the attack which felt quite weird to me after having played YS VIII beforehand.

What I did like about YS VIII was the inclusion of raids, these involved protecting the village from hordes of enemies and were a lot of fun to do and could get quite chaotic, beast hunts on the other hand I wasn’t a fan of as I found that they could become a bit too chaotic and were more complicated than they needed to be.

One thing that I did notice about YS VIII in particular after playing the other two games is how linear many of its systems are. Learning new moves is as simple as leveling up in most cases, though there are a few exceptions. What did bother me however was the weapon forging system, unlike the previous games which had more in depth weapon crafting, YS VIII’s weapon crafting system is extremely linear as you can only have 1 weapon per character which can be reforged and upgraded up to 3 times. Reforging is essentially replacing it with a new weapon and you don’t really get to choose what you reforge your sword into, it just moves up to the next tier, there’s no new weapon types to choose from and no properties you can apply to your weapons. It’s just a really bland crafting system when compared to the other game’s systems.

The story of YS VIII is the complete opposite of YS SEVEN for better or worse. Sure the story is arguably more complicated but that doesn’t necessarily make it better. One thing is for sure though, the story will constantly keep you guessing and will make you want to keep playing to see what happens next. The problem with the story is Dana and literally everything related to her character, I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling the game but it involves time travel and it handles it very poorly to the point that you really have to willingly suspend your disbelief at times. I did enjoy the twist at the end though. All in all, it’s a bit messy but it will certainly keep you engaged for the journey.

Thankfully the cast of characters are very well rounded and likable, except for Dana. I really enjoyed Sahad’s character in particular, though the rest of the cast are just as likable and well written with the exception of Dana of course, who is the blandest character in the game. Even the non playable characters were more interesting than Dana. Interacting with these characters was a real treat as they all have great arcs, even if some of them are a bit generic, it was fun to learn about all of these characters and where they came from and see how they adapt to their new life as a castaway. It’s just a shame the game had to include Dana as a playable character and that they made her an important character, seriously I would take any of the characters from the other two games over her, she really felt like the black sheep of the group in this game.

I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack of YS VIII a lot, there’s a good mixture of high energy and calming tracks and there are many standouts, my personal favorite would have to go to Next Step Toward The Unknown, that song couldn’t have played at a better time, I cannot even begin to express how much this track got me psyched up for what was to come. Other notable tracks are Woods Of Elevated Coral Reef, A Footprint In The Wet Sand, Overcome The Rocky Path and many more. Honestly this is hands down one of if not the best soundtrack of the decade.

Overall, YS VIII was one hell of an experience. It felt like they really put their all into this one. Difficulty wise I’d say that it’s kinda somewhere in between YS SEVEN and Memories Of Celceta. If you found Memories Of Celceta too easy, you might prefer this one, if you found YS SEVEN too hard, this one might be a bit easier. What makes YS VIII harder than Memories Of Celceta though is the bottle limit since you can only carry a limited amount of healing items, unlike YS SEVEN however, you can gather extra food items that can heal you should you need it so if you run out of potions, at least you have those to fall back on.

So what do I consider to be the best of these three games? Well let’s compare them and then I can tell you my personal favorite of the three.

While the combat systems of Memories Of Celceta and Lacrimosa Of Dana are more-or-less the same, Memories Of Celceta’s weapon upgrade system is vastly superior to Lacrimosa Of Dana’s, so I would say that Memories Of Celceta is the best of the 3 in terms of gameplay.

Gameplay – Memories Of Celceta

Story is always going to be subjective and I can totally see why someone would choose Lacrimosa Of Dana over the other two games but personally I would have to say that Memories Of Celceta’s story was better simply due to the fact that Lacrimosa Of Dana’s story, despite being greater in concept, went a bit too crazy with the whole time travel thing. While it may be smaller in scale, I think Memories Of Celceta’s story was handled better overall as it was tighter and didn’t drag for too long, that and it was more interesting than Seven’s story.

Story  – Memories Of Celceta

The characters in Lacrimosa Of Dana are vastly superior to the characters in the other two games. I find that the characters in the other two games weren’t half as memorable by comparison. Ozma is like a carbon copy of Mustafa, heck I’d argue he’s actually less interesting than Mustafa. I’d say that SEVEN’s cast is better than Memories Of Celceta’s cast overall but it saddens me that many of the characters in SEVEN were just there to represent their local temples and nothing more. Characters like Sahad, Laxia and Hummel on the other hand each have their own pasts explored and have distinguishable traits that make them memorable, that and they also receive a lot more character development by comparison.

Characters – Lacrimosa Of Dana

In terms of music, while all of them offer amazing soundtracks, I think that as great as YS SEVEN’s soundtrack was, many of the songs didn’t stick with me as much as the other two games did. Memories Of Celceta’s soundtrack had quite a lot of noteworthy tracks and honestly, part of me wanted to give Memories Of Celceta the win here but Lacrimosa Of Dana’s soundtrack gets the win simply because out of all three of the game’s soundtracks, I find the quality of the music more consistent throughout, that and the fact that Lacrimosa Of Dana has more of it than the other two games which is probably due to the fact that the game is longer. Put simply the music in Lacrimosa Of Dana never falters, whereas the other games have a few songs that I just didn’t care for.

Music – Lacrimosa Of Dana

By now, you can see that Lacrimosa Of Dana and Memories Of Celceta are both tied but which one do I personally enjoy the most? Well that would have to be Lacrimosa Of Dana. It was a close call between these two games as they both offer their own qualities but Lacrimosa Of Dana wins simply due to the fact that it is the visually superior game, that and the fact that they added the raid minigame. I know that it’s unfair to compare an older game to a newer game visually but it was the biggest reason why I prefered Lacrimosa Of Dana over Memories Of Celceta. Heck, the story of Lacrimosa Of Dana might have its problems but the story is far more ambitious than that of Memories Of Celceta’s story and is still thoroughly engaging so there really isn’t much between them in that department. Regardless on what I consider to be the best of the three games, I can safely say that I enjoyed all three of these games regardless, so just because YS SEVEN didn’t get a mention in any of the categories doesn’t mean that I think that it’s a bad game, it certainly isn’t. I just felt that the other two games were better personally.

Winner: YS VIII Lacrimosa Of Dana

YS VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana Review

It pains me to admit that I never really got into the YS series back in the day. The whole idea of playing as a single character in an action RPG with overly simplified combat seemed a bit too archaic for me. Now I realize that the YS series is one of the pioneers of the action RPG genre and truth be told, I did want to give the series a chance but I just never knew where to start. It wasn’t until the release of YS VIII Lacrimosa Of Dana, that I decided to give the series a try.

It appears that YS VIII opted to follow in the footsteps of more modern action RPG’s such as the Tales and Star Ocean series as it features 3D camera controls as opposed to its top down/side view predecessors. It is also worth noting that recent YS entries have started incorporating a party system into the games and YS VIII is no exception. I personally appreciate these changes to the series as I believe having a more modern 3D look does wonders for the aesthetics and the party system offers multiple play styles to keep the gameplay fresh.

What makes YS VIII stand out from other RPGs of its kind is its premise. The story starts off with the protagonist Adol, who gets shipwrecked on an uncharted island filled with dangerous monsters. Along the way he is reunited with some of the ship’s passengers and crew but many of them have gone missing and it’s up to Adol to track them all down. As simple as it may appear on paper, the simplicity of this premise is quite refreshing as rather than throwing you into a deep and intricate save the world story right from the get go like most games do, YS VIII tells you to go out and explore the world in search of other castaways… and that’s pretty much it really, at least early on in the game.

While this might sound off-putting to those who seek a deeper, more intricate storyline in their games, the game moves at a very quick pace and you will soon realize that there is more to the island than meets the eye. Put simply, the story does get deeper and more intricate later on. That being said however, YS VIII feeds the story slowly to you and doesn’t exactly present its more intricate details particularly well in the game’s early sections but you’ll probably end up ignoring it anyways as the game’s premise is exciting enough for you to keep playing regardless.

God forbid I ever get stranded on an Island then…

I really find that playing the role of a castaway in the search of other castaways on an uncharted really gives off a feeling of adventure that not many modern JRPGs seem to offer nowadays. Back on the SNES, this was common as many JRPGs were lacking in the writing department and the characters you played as were simple and the plot usually revolved around hunting down macguffins in order to pan out game time. For this reason, it was important for developers to create a world that players would want to explore by designing interesting levels in order to keep the games from stagnating. I feel that most modern games focus way too much on their storytelling that they forget how important it is to design intricate dungeons.

The dungeons in YS VIII are some of the best I have seen in a long time, as are the locations themselves. I find that many of the dungeons put a heavy emphasis on verticality which makes them way more interesting to navigate compared to most JRPG dungeons these days. It is also worth noting that YS VIII doesn’t try to throw too many annoying gimmicks at the player, sure there are a few puzzles and there are sections which cannot be accessed until you acquire a certain item, but there isn’t too much of it to the point that it bogs the game down.

The YS games are also known to have had environmental hazards in the past but they are mostly absent in YS VIII. I personally see this as a good thing since I find that environmental hazards often get in the way during combat and serve no practical purpose. All they seem to do is annoy the player. I find that the verticality and the aesthetic design of YS VIII’s levels as well as the abundance of items to find more than makes up for the lack of gimmicks present in previous YS games.

Speaking of the aesthetics, generally speaking I’d say that they are pretty solid for a vita port. While the graphics may appear to be somewhat dated for PS4/PC standards, I’d say that the vibrant usage of color masks this really well. I’d also like to point out that while the visuals themselves may not be as detailed as they are in Star Ocean Integrity And Faithlessness, the field of view in this game is equally as impressive as that game which does wonders for the game’s exploration value which is a big deal considering how important exploring is in this game.

Check out that view…

The character designs appear to be very similar to that of the Legend Of Heroes Trails series and Tokyo Xanadu. So if you like the art style of those games, you’re probably going to enjoy YS VIII’s art style as it pretty much inherits the same style. YS VIII’s character models are celshaded, much like Tales Of Berseria/Zesteria, however the environments have a very vivid vibrancy compared to that of the Tales series and I find that this greatly contrasts with the celshaded design of the character models. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is for you to decide.

Ultimately, the main appeal to the YS series isn’t so much the story/visuals, rather it’s the fast paced gameplay that the series is known for. YS VIII takes the Action RPG genre to the next level, proving that Falcom’s long running series isn’t just a relic of the past. What makes the gameplay of YS so enjoyable is its simplicity and YS VIII does not stray away from this. That being said however, YS VIII improves the mechanics of the combat considerably, allowing for more flexibility in the combat system, giving other ARPG’s a run for their money.

Those who are looking for a more technical, combo-centric battle system may be disappointed by YS VIII as the combat doesn’t really offer any of that, in fact you can spam the same moves over and over again to get through pretty much every single battle, though this is nothing out of the ordinary for an ARPG. YS VIII chooses to instead focus on the defensive aspect of gameplay, rewarding players for avoiding enemy attacks and severely punishing players for getting hit.  Sure you can spam the same moves over and over but it won’t save you from getting hit.

Dodging attacks with perfect timing rewards players with flash move. This makes the player invincible for a short period of time allowing them to freely attack without worrying about getting hit. You can also parry attacks with a flash guard but it requires perfect timing to pull off, doing so makes all your attacks stronger for a short period of time. These features allow players to approach battles differently and rewards players for their dexterity in defensive play.

As far as aggressive play goes, players are able to map up to 4 special skills to each of the face buttons and they can be triggered by holding the R1 button and the corresponding face button, while regular attacks, dodges and jumping can all be performed by pressing their corresponding face buttons without R1. This allows for the game to have that little extra flexibility which is important as without it, the game would be pretty bare bones.

By attacking enemies, a skill gauge is accumulated, using special skills consumes the skill gauge requiring you to manage your usage of special skills carefully. On top of all this you have the extra gauge which is filled by using special skills, therefore it is recommended not to conserve your skill gauge unless you need to. Once your extra gauge is full, you can perform a finishing blow which can deal devastating damage to enemies.

It is important to remember that Adol is not on his own in this game, now he has AI partners to help him out. You can switch control of characters at any time with the press of a button and unlike Star Ocean, they will instantly swap to manual control and vice versa once they are switched. This alleviates one of the biggest issues of the Star Ocean series, switching characters could get you killed fast if the AI uses an attack during a switch.

Speaking of AI, the AI in YS VIII is hands down the most competent AI I have ever seen in an ARPG. You rarely ever have to worry about the AI taking damage in a fight as they will avoid attacks automatically and will receive considerably less damage than the player if they are attacked. Of course the player controlled character cannot do this but they are ultimately going to be stronger in terms of damage dealing to the point that you cannot really rely on the AI to fight for you as the AI tends to respond to the player’s actions, acting accordingly so if you pull out of a fight, so will they.

 

“YS VIII takes the Action RPG genre to the next level, proving that Falcom’s long running series isn’t just a relic of the past”

 

Put simply, if you lose a fight in YS VIII it is never the fault of the AI, it is always the player’s fault, as the AI never holds the player back, nor does it do all the player’s work for them. This is what I love the most about YS VIII, the fact that the game doesn’t force you to babysit a bunch of incompetent party members by constantly spamming healing items. For this reason, I think more ARPG’s should adopt this style of AI controlled characters.

All in all, YS VIII has a very simple, straightforward combat system and with no battle transitions to worry about, battles can end in a matter of seconds. This is very much a run and kill kind of game much like its predecessors, you never feel at a standstill and this does wonders for the game’s pacing as you are constantly on the move, quickly progressing through the game. This is what YS VIII excels at the most, therefore if you’re the type of person who wants to get from a to b as fast as possible, then this is definitely a game that is worth your time.

For the most part you’ll spend your time traversing the world in search of refugees. Some refugees grant you access to certain facilities while others just act as NPC’s to talk to in town. There is also a gift giving mechanic similar to that of Onimusha 2 which allows you to improve Adol’s relations with the other refugees. Doing so rewards the player with stat boosts for each character involved in the gift giving process. While it may not be as open ended as the gift giving mechanic of Onimusha 2, it’s still a nice enough distraction that can give you access to some extra scenes should you choose to partake in it.

There are also side quests to do which allow you to improve your relation with refugees and usually come with a reward. There’s a great variety of tasks on offer to keep the sidequests fresh and they never become bothersome for completionists. The only issue is that sidequests are missable so they must be done as soon as they are available should you need to complete everything the game has to offer. The game doesn’t feature too many of them though, therefore it’s never a slog to get through them.

YS VIII also offers a couple of combat related minigames in the form of raids and beast hunts. This is where the refugees you have gathered over the course of the game are put to good use as they provide various buffs to assist you in battle. In raids, players must defend the refuge from monster attacks, while beast hunts require players to lure out and hunt certain monsters. Both of these minigames can get pretty chaotic as there are usually tonnes of enemies on screen making for some pretty exciting battles. If you’re a fan of musou games, you’ll probably love these missions and if you’re a completionist then you better enjoy these diversions because it makes up the bulk of the game’s end game content.

Personally I’d argue that while raids are a lot of fun, beast hunts are a bit too chaotic and can kind of feel a bit too overwhelming at times due to having so many needless features such as having to take over territories, destroy nests etc. I think beast hunts could have been simplified a little to make them a bit more fun. Raids on the other hand are a lot of fun and are really exhilarating to experience. The goal of raids is to defend your fortifications and bait by pushing enemy groups away from them. The more fortifications you protect and the better your battle performance, the better your rewards. As for beast hunts, there are a lot more factors to be aware of and this can make getting high ratings pretty complicated. Also unlike raids, in beast hunts you have a limited amount of time to finish them and this can be somewhat irritating at times.

On top of all the other side content, there’s also the obligatory fishing minigame that every game has to have these days. It’s surprisingly pretty decent though.

Needless to say, the refugees you’ve gathered are essentially the only other characters besides the playable cast that you ever get to talk to for the most part. On top of all this there is only one settlement in the entire game which basically acts as the main hub. This could be a turn off for people looking for a more traditional JRPG experience where you visit multiple towns and cities to buy items and interact with NPC’s. That being said, many of the refugees are surprisingly interesting characters that you want to get to know and connect with.

Speaking of characters, the story of YS VIII revolves around two characters, Adol and Dana. Adol is pretty much the player’s persona in this game in the sense that he is more-or-less a silent protagonist, occasionally saying something after the player makes a choice. Based on his choices, he appears to be somewhat confident and well mannered. You could say that he is a typical heroic character, which makes sense considering the fact that this isn’t Adol’s first adventure and as a result, he shows a level of competence that is respected by the rest of the group. Despite all this, he still fits the protagonist trope of being a bright-eyed do gooder but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Dana on the other hand embodies pretty much every single issue I have with the game’s story, not to say that the story is bad or anything, rather the flaws in the narrative all tie in with Dana and how the role she plays affects the entire course of the game’s story. I don’t want to go too much into detail for the sake of spoilers but the game’s story takes a crazy turn during the second half where players may have to willingly suspend their disbelief should they wish to continue investing themselves in the game’s narrative. Put simply, the second half of the game leaves itself vulnerable to many potential plot holes due to the complications of what happens and as a result it can be difficult to accept how things play out as a result.

The second half of the game’s story plays out somewhat similarly to Richard Knaak’s War Of The Ancients trilogy in the sense that it focuses on events of the past but also ties in with events in the present. If you have read any of those books, you know exactly what I’m talking about, if you haven’t then I’ll let you all find out for yourself as I wouldn’t want to give too much away. I will say however that if you’ve been finding the story up to this point to be bland and uninteresting, the second half of the game might change your mind. With all of its flaws considered, the story does start to get more interesting in the second half and in some cases it gets better even.

As for Dana herself, I honestly cannot find anything to say about her character other than the fact that she is a mary sue who is gifted with powers that are vaguely explained. She also has a strange connection with Adol which is explained later on in the game. That’s about all I can say about her character. She’s pretty much a walking talking plot device. The problem with this is that the game clearly wants to make the player care about her character despite her not having any distinguishable traits. Sure she isn’t a completely unlikable character but even Adol manages to express more personality than she does and he is mostly a silent protagonist.

This made me feel a bit turned off from the latter half of the game but despite all of its shortcomings, I would say that the narrative is still enjoyable for what it is. I think it handles some interesting themes and aside from Dana, the cast of characters do their job well enough to maintain the player’s investment. Laxia develops surprisingly well, Hummel’s unpredictability keeps him interesting and while Ricotta isn’t the greatest of characters, at least she has a distinguished personality. None of them can hold a candle to Sahad though, Sahad’s personality is simply magnificent. It’s great to see such a cheerful, yet crude character with such a modest composure. Why can’t more games have characters like Sahad? He’s such a refreshing character. I do dislike how many of his lines were censored due to people whining about the so-called bad translation but it didn’t bother me enough to make me like the character any less though.

Regardless of your own personal take on the game’s story, one thing that will stick with you throughout the game is its soundtrack. Falcom are renowned for having great music in their games and YS VIII’s soundtrack doesn’t disappoint. There are a lot of high energy tracks here as is expected from a YS game but at the same time there are also some calmer tracks that offer a nice contrast. The music adds a lot of flavor to the game, particularly in its dungeons but that’s not all, I’d argue that the music is the main driving force of YS VIII as it synchronizes with the game’s pacing, helping to enhance the player’s adrenaline to provide a thrill factor.

Ultimately, while people expecting YS VIII to offer a strong narrative may be disappointed, those who do not may find themselves to be pleasantly surprised by the game’s story. Regardless of how you feel about the story, it’s important to remember that the crux of what ultimately makes YS VIII so enjoyable is the game’s combat. If you do not enjoy fast paced, simple and somewhat mindless action, then this game may not be your cup of tea. Those that do however are going to love YS VIII regardless of its flaws as it is one of the few modern action RPG’s to succeed at doing away with battle transitions, essentially perfecting what Star Ocean 5 and Tales Of Zesteria attempted to do.

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Story/Plot: Good

Visuals: Great

Gameplay: Excellent

Music: Excellent

Length: Decent Length

Difficulty: Medium

Would You Replay? Maybe

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Overall: Excellent

 

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Value: £40.00

Note for PC players: For those misfortunate enough to own a copy of YS VIII on PC who are intent on playing with a gamepad, I have bad news for you. You’re going to be fighting to toughest boss in the game right from the get go:

The Controller Configuration

Have fun with that…