Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

A strong entry into the modern Ys games. The game features a perfectly executed pseudo time travelling story with a good amount of mysteries and twists that isn't just directly fed to the players but made to be understood as the story progresses. Would definitely recommend Ys IV Remake (Memories of Celceta), or everything prior to this one if possible as there are some callbacks to previous titles. The game makes good use of world building established in previous games to set up events that occur, such as people ending up in certain situations due to political tension between two kingdoms, people from previous games appearing with updates on how things have gone, etc. All topped with a satisfying (true) ending [spoiler] albeit bittersweet, perfectly wraps up the story of Dana and allows Adol to carry on in his journey [/spoiler] Celceta-esque combat with member-swapping and EX skills. Progression is smooth and relatively easy for a Ys game where it feels impossible to get stuck on a boss (not including inferno difficulty). Also taking from Celceta is the exploration/mapping system that incentivises exploring the island for rewards and discovering landmarks. As you save more survivors and gear , you gain more means to access new parts of the map, which gets you more survivors and gear. As you progress, there's also gifts to collect and give to specific survivors to raise their approval and unlock journal entries and additional scenes where you can learn more about them. This, combined with the interactions in the base, allows you to connect more with the survivors stuck on the island with you. Some optional (sometimes not) contents include Raids, Hunts, Night-Hunts, and the usual optional dungeons. While the optional dungeons are nice for some loot, Night-Hunts are just a night time version of an area which isn't that exciting. Hunts are fine since you can just brute force your way and skip waves. The Raids however, get boring real fast since there's quite a few you have to do with most of them being mandatory for story progression, all while having to go through waves of mobs before an actual boss. Overall, It's a solid title that deserves the praise it gets as a critically acclaimed JRPG. A well written and emotional journey that perfectly blends the actions of past and future into a cohesive timeline that rejects predetermined fates. A classic story of the indomitable human spirit.