Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA for PS5 – Review

Another journey, another shipwreck. The life of the adventurer Adol Christin is full of unfortunate events, without which we would have no way to enjoy his adventures in the saga of Ys. After enjoying the ninth chapter numbered on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switchthe new generation Sony flagship is ready to welcome the most complete version of what is perhaps the most successful chapter of the saga of Nihon Falcom. From 18 November Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA will also be available on PS5having delighted the players of PS Vita, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch with the events set on the Island Seiren.

Let’s find out what this new version of the action RPG released in the West by NIS America. All aboard Lombardy! (the ship, not the Italian region)

Being shipwrecked is sweet to me

The eighth chapter of Ys once again sees our unfortunate adventurer as the protagonist, whose story almost always begins with a stormy disaster at sea. He just doesn’t seem to want to learn the lesson, since his purpose is that of his friend Doges will be to achieve Heresy aboard a ship, the luxurious one Lombardyled by the captain Barbaros. And guess what? After a quick tour, which will allow us to get to know the crew and a selection of passengers, the ship will be attacked by mysterious tentacles, presumably belonging to one of the fearsome beasts that inhabit the waters near Seiren. Time for a new adventure: Adol he will wake up alone, surrounded by monsters who want to kill him. Having recovered a makeshift weapon, he will make his way through the fronds until he meets his first companion: Laxia von Roswell. The splendid and surly swordswoman will set out in search of the other castaways with Adol, ending up running into the captain of the ship, who in the meantime has well thought of setting up a refuge, from here on out our base of operations.

You can’t even imagine!

Advancing within the story, in fact, we will rescue the passengers of the ship and take them to our refuge, the Castaway Village. Each of them will give its contribution to the community by building new structures and with everyone’s help it will also be possible to overcome originally insurmountable obstacles, such as immense trunks that block new explorable roads. On the island of Seiren, however, Adol will begin to dream of another person’s memories. It’s about Dan, a blue-haired girl who seems to come from another era and who seems connected to the fate of the island and its new inhabitants. During our adventure we will pass from Adol’s point of view to that of the girl, in some sections of gameplay absent in the original game designed for Playstation Vita and made specifically for the version Playstation 4 of the game.

Ys VIII: New Horizons

Much of the gameplay of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA it will consist in exploring the island and completing the map, in search of the missing castaways, and fighting against the inevitable monsters, collecting resources and objects useful for our adventure. The action combat system uses a single button for attack, one for jumping, one for parrying, one for dodging and a combination between R1 and one of the keys assigned by us for the execution of special skills, which we can chain until the appropriate indicator sp it will allow us to execute them. By dodging with the right timing we will be able to activate a Bayonetta-style bullet time called FlashMovewhile performing a parry with the right timing we will activate the Flash Guard. In this handful of seconds we will be able to inflict huge damage on enemies without suffering repercussions. Using skills will allow us to increase our mastery, allowing us to learn new skills in the course of battle and, as in the most classic of Japanese RPGs, the level increase through experience points is accompanied by weapons and equipment for different parts of the body that can be upgraded through the appropriate shop inside the shelter.

Each of the characters will be endowed with a physical attribute which is divided into three types, namely Slash, Strike and Pierce. Each of these attacks is effective against a different type of enemy and to fight to the best of our ability we will have to change the active character on the fly by pressing the square button, alternating between the three members of our party in real time during the attacks. Finally, once the appropriate indicator has been filled, we can use theEXTRASkills of each character, a special technique that unleashes the potential of Adol and his companions. The truly frenetic and rewarding combat system is one of the strengths of the saga and of this episode in particular. A pity that in this PS5 version they have not implemented the cooperative multiplayer mode inserted in an experimental way in the PC version of the game.

By advancing within the plot we will also unlock the so-called “Interception”, real defense missions that will interrupt the normal flow of gameplay to call us to defend the Castaway Village from the assault of the enemies together with the other castaways, in a sort of fun tower defense that mixes the classic fights with the introduction of traps useful for slowing down the advance of the monsters.

A life on vacation

Technical analysis is certainly the focus of this review, as the game itself is pretty much the same as it was four years ago. The transition to the new generation of consoles has allowed Lacrimosa of DANA to improve from various points of view, but in some respects it still leaves something to be desired. Let’s see them together.

In terms of resolution and frame rate, it is possible to play by default at 60 frames per second with 4K renderingwith no noticeable dip or change in resolution. Dropping the resolution to 1080p raises the FPS to 120, for TVs that support them. Among other improvements we find a wider horizon, which eliminates the pop-in effect and allows us to observe enemies, characters and elements of the scenery from a greater distance. Among the merits we can also include gods very fast loading, with the ability to manually “stretch” them to allow us to read the good old advice during the transition screens. On the other hand, however, the game maps are still divided into areas that require a, albeit very short, transition between one segment and another, which interrupts (even if, I repeat, for a very short moment) the game action. We certainly would have preferred a totally seamless version, but we realize that at this point it would have required significant structural changes that went far beyond these simple improvements.

Textures have also been improved in terms of definitionalthough some of them are still blurry compared to others, but playing from the right distance you won’t pay much attention to it. To enjoy a greater definition are also the shadows of the elements of the scenario and of the characters that populate them, which in comparison to the PS4 version are sharper and more detailed.

From an audio point of view we are once again with the English and Japanese tracks for the dubbing, accompanied by the same splendid soundtrack that we were able to appreciate previously. Unfortunately, NIS America did not make any changes in terms of localization, despite having been able to take the opportunity to translate the game into other languages, including Italian, preferring not to invest additional funds that could raise the budget price at which the game will be sold — 39 €.99 for the physical edition which also contains a mini artbook and a selection of songs from the soundtrack on CD.

Who would we recommend Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA for PlayStation 5 to?

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA it was one of the RPGs that we enjoyed the most among those released on Playstation 4 and if you haven’t had the chance to play it until now, the release of the PlayStation 5 version could be the right opportunity to bring it home, thanks to a very attractive introductory price. However, despite being the best edition from a technical point of view, it cannot hide its nature as a title born on PS Vita: although remastered and polished to the best of possibilities, it is impossible not to notice the small number of polygons which mainly characterizes the settings and the surrounding elements. A certain command of the English language is also required to fully enjoy every nuance of the dialogues.