Ys VIII (8): Lacrimosa of DANA

Cubed3 Rating Some minor technical limitations aside, gamers are in the presence of what is one of the most compelling JRPG stories the Nintendo Switch has seen, easily on par with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 's and, admittedly for lack of competition at this level of polish, at time of writing anyway, the absolute and unquestionably best Action JRPG on the system. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana does have some light, frustrating moments that await the pure completionists out there, but that comes with the territory. It is a fully realised artistic masterpiece, both visually and even more so in the audio department, and deserves a place in any serious Switch player's collection. To crown it all, everything is tightly packed into one cohesive package that, at retail, requires no additional download and even comes with some neat little bonuses.

Text issues aside (patches are scheduled to fix the typos, grammar mistakes and also include Japanese voice) it's an ok game, but nothing special. About 20 hours in, gameplay and combat are fun however it does get repetetive but more engaging and hectic than Xenoblade, however the story is very average. All in all, unless you're a big fan of the series (in which case this review is redundant) I'd wait for a big price drop, especially with two more big RPGs yet to come (Shining Resonance July 10, Octopath Traveller July 13), I'd hold off for info on either of those, or play their demos.

Outstanding game, never played this before but thoroughly enjoying it and even tho it's showing it's age, it still looks pretty good. Only complaint is there are some very occasional frame rate dips on some scenes, but they are few and haven't distracted me at all, but definitely worth mentioning. Notice these mostly in dock mode, can't really remember any while handheld! Otherwise, the game is just fun, I wish Xenoblade had real time combat like this, it's definitely more hectic and I found fun, especially when your retreading old ground and your just mowing down the nasties. Voice acting is decent, but it does the usual one line of voice then just text in many places, that always irked me, but again, not really distracting me from enjoying it. Oh and it's a big game, very big!!

Ys VIII exemplifies the core characteristics of the quintessential action RPG.

It’s an RPG that asks a hefty time commitment and doesn’t offer particularly deep character storylines – but the combat, overall story, and character progression make Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA a journey well worth taking.