Ys’ Adol is an adventure. We’ve seen him visit places that are comforting in their familiarity and alluring due to their exotic nature. Sometimes, he’ll end up in vastly different places in the same game. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is limited to a single island, due to the party landing on the cursed place after a shipwreck. Even though there is that restriction, it never feels like you are actually trapped. Seiren is rather large, filled with things to do and opportunities to accomplish things easily and without tedious traveling.
Even though it is an island, Seiren does a good job of offering multiple locations to explore. There are beaches, forests, swamps, a ship, ruins, and even an underwater area. There are even reasons to send you into what is essentially a wintry wonderland, thanks to the twists Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana offers. It is handled very well and keeps the game from feeling limiting, even though we are technically “trapped” on an island without a “real” town.
You will definitely want to visit as many of these locations as possible in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. All enemies have drops which can help your community grow and improve. You’ll need various bits and pieces to trade or complete side-quests. There are fishing opportunities to enjoy. Preparing weapons is also quite a draw, since upgrading them makes them stronger and look different. You can even get various collectibles that help you learn more about the other people trapped on Seiren and get closer to them. Getting enemies into Break state is the key to collecting dropped items for crafting and errands. That is easy to do since you have someone from each of the three attack categories – slash, strike, and pierce – right away and helps eliminate some of the grind. While it may be tempting to have the characters you like best, you really do need to have one of each time on hand instead.
Constantly checking for sidequests is just as important in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. You can miss them. In Adol’s route, you can even miss possible villagers. It is important to check in frequently both in Adol and Dana’s routes. In his, there could be quests on the board that you might not catch or see. In hers, things happen over time and if you don’t take up a quest while you’re around, you could miss it for good. But then, you really only need them for two things. One is 100% completion, in case you like having “everything.” The other is to get one of the three endings. Adol has a reputation that builds up among the villagers as you take their quests and protect Castaway Village. Going out of your way for them can lead to the True ending, but holding back results in a Bad one.
Fortunately, fast traveling is available. Every save crystal is a warp point you can access from the map. It is very rare for Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana to lock you out of fast traveling. Between that and knowing that adding more villagers makes it possible to get past obstacles to new areas, it makes it easy to accomplish any other goals you might have. Did you find some new people? Teleport to a save crystal adjacent to a blocked area to check out the new place. Have a sidequest you need to take? Teleport to a spot near it to complete it. And really, you don’t have to backtrack if you don’t want to, but battling is so fun that it becomes an enjoyable option.
For being what is technically a small space, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana offers a rather large world. Adol and his allies will be able to explore a large space with multiple biomes. There are lots of items to collect, for crafting, trading, and quests, not to mention fish and collectibles that will help boost Adol’s reputation with the other residents of Castaway Village. And, thanks to a great fast travel system, it is easy to get to where you need to and explore every cranny without feeling like you’re trudging through the same spaces over and over again.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana will come to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PC in North America on September 12, 2017, followed by a September 15, 2017 release in Europe.
