Ys VIII is a very flawed game, from its story to its core gameplay. However, at times it excels in these areas. I can't, in good faith, recommend it for several reasons: from bugs to wonky hit boxes, and, most critically, the story doesn't "start" until 20 hours in. It's a solid "mid" game with equally frequent highs and lows. All the lows are heavily front-loaded.
If you're a fan of Ys, perhaps you'll tolerate it. If you're desperate for a long ARPG, you can probably do better, but it'll definitely scratch that itch.
[h1] Game Breaking Damage Glitch [/h1]
To this day, over eight years from release, there is a game-breaking bug that insta-kills any boss. It is not hard to do and completely ruins the experience if you care about combat. High frame rates make it trigger with greater ease; it is fixable, but you need to go digging into the Nvidia control panel to limit your frame rate to 60 to *mostly* rid the bug. It's insane it has not been patched.
[h1] Story [/h1]
Straight up, the story does not "start" until 20 hours in. The spoiler-free explanation is "stuff" happens for the first 20 hours, but it has no bearing on the main plot of the game. It's so extreme and bizarre that it feels like during development there was too much "game" and not enough story to fill it.
Spoiler version: [spoiler] Adol & friends shipwreck onto an island. You run around aimlessly doing trivial tasks that amount to collecting 5 bear butts to build a watch tower and "run around and find the other people from the ship you were on." At the climax, your pirate captain dies (oh nooo, he had a daughter he wanted to go home and see, and he was so devoted to being a captain and making everyone come back safely ;((( boo hoo) he was killed by a "mwahahaha" cartoon serial killer who kills people because he was written that way. Then you fight him, and he gets gobbled up by Barney the red dinosaur. The end. Case closed, never comes back later, never mentioned again. Practically the same for the dead captain. A waste of 20 hours of plot. [/spoiler]
Dana is the center of the story; Dana IS the story. Every other character you find, even your MAIN party members, are surface-level, one-note characters. Fisherman guy in your party? Fishing is his life! It's all he knows. The funniest is the "transporter"; he is a party member and can't be anything more of a nothing character. All the cast is like this, even everyone you recruit in the village. However, this isn't a problem for members of the village. They're written and designed distinct enough that it feels like everyone in the village is their own character. It gives the village a sense of identity this way. However, I find it inexcusable when all your party members have the same level of depth and importance as the local village announcement parrot.
Outside of this: Dana. Dana is given a lot of depth in her part of the story. Her history, lore of [spoiler] her era [/spoiler], her experiences of why she is the way she is. [spoiler] Dana is from the past; she has gameplay sections where you play from her time. Flavor text is abundant about the world in these sections, and it all feels very organic. You see her friends, her relations to the towns people. When the Lacrimosa hits her era, you even see the impact it has on her as a character in the past and her coming to the revelation of it in the future and how that impacts her psychologically. After the Lacrimosa hits, there are even voiced lines that are easy to miss of Dana walking around the desolate city or the refuge of the dying Eternians in the temple. [/spoiler] So much effort clearly went into Dana's story (and thus the whole plot). It's a shame it doesn't start until 20 hours in and is front-loaded with a 20-hour bed time story to pad the run time.
Unfortunately, after 20 hours it's not all sunshine and rainbows. All the empty characters that are Adol & Crew STILL don't add anything to the plot. They simply exist as vehicles for gameplay and for _something_ to experience the story that you, as the player, can see and experience.
[h1] Gameplay [/h1]
For context, I played on nightmare difficulty, the second hardest difficulty. So for wonky combat, you get punished a lot more. You take 3.5 times damage and deal 0.81 damage, plus 50% less experience gain. Sadly, the step between hard and nightmare is huge (e.g., hard is a 1.75 damage increase that enemies deal to you vs. 3.5 in nightmare), so hard never felt enough, while nightmare felt too punishing due to the many issues with combat.
Combat is basic but highly varied, which makes it fun. You have a normal attack, 4 specials by holding a bumper and pressing a button, an ultimate move, and you can "flash" guard and parry (dodging and guarding at the right time respectively). "Flash" guards and parries make you invincible for a set time and either speed you up or give you 100% crit rate for a time. Dodging and guarding is essential for fighting bosses. But this is where the issues arise.
Hit boxes, on average, suck. That little cute newt that's trying to lick you? Yeah, when he does that, his hit box destroys entire nations across Australia, as well as your entire party. Examples of very frequent odd hit boxes are: Charge attacks hitting you well before the enemy model does, jump attacks where sometimes you can guard on impact with the ground and sometimes you need to wait for the enemy to land and the "shockwave" animation to play out? All of this is learnable eventually, but it makes first-time enemy encounters frustrating on nightmare, as you get 1 shot frequently.
Thankfully, you can pause at any time and heal/revive party members with no cooldown or penalty. Meaning the caveman tactic of unga bunga heals and revives works. The problem is reviving has no invincibility frames, so if you revive too early, you'll die from the same hitbox that killed you.
Despite those issues, the gameplay is fun. You unlock plenty of abilities throughout the game for all characters; there was never a time I did not have a new skill to try out. The more you use them, they get enhanced, and at max level, they get some unique upgrade. The game does not tell you what this is, but you notice it visually—larger AOE, extra projectiles etc. Encourages mastery and usage of all your skills.
Equipment is all stat sticks—weapons are linearly upgraded numbers, accessories are damage/mana multipliers, which is quite mundane.
All characters play and feel distinctly different, which is great.
It's a mixed experience. Perhaps a "good" one if you lower the difficulty and trivialise it with healing.
[h1] Exploration [/h1]
The first 20 hours are linear. Seiren, the island you explore, is big and very varied. It all feels interconnected and organic, only slightly expanding from being linear after the 20-hour mark. Rewards for exploring are usually "meh"—a lot are basic revive items and healing, although you do get a decent amount of accessories. Movement feels good.
Oddly, you have limited "adventure item" slots for overworld abilities (climbing gloves, double jump, water shoes). I don't understand why these weren't permanent—it's just annoying menu micromanagement with no strategic purpose.
Most dungeons are visually distinct. It must be noted there is a lot of unique music in this game throughout areas, all of it sounds like you're marching into the final battle—a high-energy bop.
While the island feels organic, almost all the bosses are chilling. You'll wander into a room, random creatures go "RAWRRRR," and you fight—like it was an after thought.
[h1] Conclusion [/h1]
For every good thing I can say about this game, I can say at least one bad thing. Squarely a middle-of-the-road experience. On balance, I cannot recommend it given the game-breaking bug, 20-hour filler, and general frustrations with the combat system. Dana's story pushed me through it.
