Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, PlayStation 5 review of one of the most loved Ys

When we reviewed Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana in its first incarnation for 2017, we began the post by explaining the origins of the Falcom series, which dates back to 1987 as few people knew at the time. Almost five years later, the situation has not changed much, but the release of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox kept pace and convinced, at least in the relaunch of the series. NIS America Recommending the most interesting – and best-selling – titles like Lacrimosa of Dana, thus reaching its second transformation for Sony consoles.

ours Ys VIII for PlayStation 5: Lacrimosa of Veal Review Before we focus on the news of this transformation, we’ll provide a brief overview of what the game has to offer, so if you’d like to delve into the matter in detail, we point you to our previous Nintendo Switch review.

History

Ys stars Adol Christin, a young adventurer who somehow always crashes here and there. This time, however, Adol finds himself in good company. There History It begins when the Lombardy ship carrying a colorful crew with our hero comes very close to the cursed island of Seiren. Adol finds himself alone and confused on the shore. After meeting Laxia, a sullen teenage shipwrecked fellow like himself, the two begin to explore the island in search of their missing companion and an escape route.

There progress In the story, it is intertwined with the exploration and discovery of other sunken humans. The island of Seiren is a huge territory divided into large areas separated by very short loads: following the main goal of the return, we will always dig deeper, encountering new characters who will join our group or return to the base camp. a short list of services including workshops, blacksmiths and other features. It wouldn’t be wrong to describe Ys VIII as a kind of “metroidvania” as the progression system is basically the same.

Unfortunately, the story does not intertwine immediately. It’s an alarmingly slow start-up, and a technical industry that feels the weight of years and is often resorted to. english dialogues. At one point, however, Ys VIII’s story begins with a series of intriguing twists that wink at historical fans and dive deeper into the series’ mythology. You’ll have to grind your teeth for a while, but the Ys VIII is comfortable. Adol Christin’s best adventure.

combat system

Ys VIII is an action RPG: The player takes full control of the movements and actions of Adol or one of his traveling companions in real time. The party can actually consist of up to three characters and the player can change them at any time with a simple push of a button. As the map is explored far and wide by running and jumping, combat system It focuses specifically on some simple maneuvers like dodge and dodge: pressing the keys at the right time triggers power-ups called Flash Dodge and Flash Guard. The effect lasts for a few seconds, but at this point time slows down and the player gains a substantial bonus to damage dealt and movement speed.

The combat system rewards aggression, because there are no real healing spells, because life is renewed by standing still, and the player simply attacks the enemy, accumulating the resource from which special moves are drawn, so it is necessary to put neurons also move. Each member of the party, in fact, wields a weapon that deals a certain type of damage to which enemies can be more or less vulnerable. For this reason build the party Depending on the enemies to encounter, it soon becomes basic, but at the same time studies and learns the behavior of monsters to predict their next attack and make the most of the effects of Flash Guard and Flash Dodge, recharging the super attack gauge. Destroy the enemies as soon as possible.

PlayStation 5 transformation

Ys VIII is a very entertaining title, but not with the story that takes a while to progress, but above all with an outdated graphics sector in which a rough polygon modeling stands out, at least the main characters have a remarkable level of detail. There artistic direction he makes up for these angularities with a restrained and persuasive character design, but above all with a variety of scenarios that, according to tradition, are a pleasure to explore in the notes of a high-end soundtrack.

The PlayStation 5 version actually adds absolutely nothing to the original game in terms of content, other than that DLCs ​​included in the price immediately, and also includes some costumes that have remained exclusive to the Japanese until now.

On the technical front, however, the improvements are quite noticeable. THEM downloads they’ve gotten really fast, and considering the island of Seiren is divided into “rooms”, that’s a huge added value. All shadows were then retouched, which looked much more distinctive and realistic than in the past, and work was done on the draw distance and color palette to significantly improve visual rendering in scenarios and fights. Second, it benefits more from switching 120 frames per second, it drops to 60 if you set the resolution to 4K. Of course, the slowdowns experienced on PlayStation 4 from time to time, and much more often on Nintendo Switch, have of course completely disappeared, and moreover, Nihon Falcom has added mouse and keyboard support.