Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Review (notPoland TolakUUTNIPolri)
Completed the game and got all achievements so i think i qualified to review this great game. TLDR at bottom.
Do you feel when the game is so good, you want to forget and play it again for first time? this is one of those games. I think lot of people heard certain red-haired adventurer if they are long enough on gaming, his armor is pretty iconic also because he mentioned on many medias like anime, manga such as goblin slayer year one, even western games but never deep enough to know where he came from. Personally that what underrated means for a series called YS and it is on weird position to make people to know it for a long time, YS VIII does a good job about it.
Story
The story is stellar not masterpiece but still up there compared to many J-RPG. The deliveries are unique especially dana backstory. Lot of games talk about adventure but don't have sense of adventure like YS 8. From introduction, it got so many mysteries after mysteries, field exploration with different ecosystem, the feel on stranded island, side quests that actually matter, interesting take of the villain, and the amount of story is just right. The characters are really great with distinct personality but have same goal and purpose escaping the island. Laxia ass should be enough reason you buy this game.
Gameplay
The game gives everything about combat at the start, flash move and flash guard alone gives great replay value while raising level and unlock new skill without skill tree. Just action-packed combat and no gimmick behind it. A town expansion when you meet another castaway and unlock new areas, a tower defense like mini games that actually train your combat. The enemy variation are SO MANY with their own attack pattern. Maps and level design are pretty challenging like design, obstacle, puzzle are different from each other. I also like about crafting not only to get better stuff, it allow to trade down made the items grind bearable. The game originally released 7 years ago so you should know what you expect about the graphics but it adds charm to gameplay since it gives more colorful areas. You can upscale render quality to highest, another game saved by 'durante' port.
OST
Falcom does interesting turn how they made their OST. They really like violin, rock with strong solo guitar while being really good at it. It does differentiate with other games ost distinctly, which usually uses orchestra, synth, piano, electro, or latin singings. There are lot of "oh this is really falcom music" or "this is indeed from falcom". The ost is in english naming too make it pretty easy to search.
Achievements
54 achievements do sound a lot but what i like is you can access every map by the end of game made it possible to achieve everything, the only missable is side quest which you can see everything easily on billboard and always do it fast when it is available because it can be gone when there is progress on main story. There is non-spoiler guide by zoelious which cover all, i do it because falcom games tends to have hidden backstory, events.
TLDR
Other J-RPG may have very good stories or other things but none as good as ys 8 imho about recipes to incorporate and balance everything. EVERYTHING about this game they do it right and great. It is on my number 1 on my J-rpg list and i play a lot of the genre from ps 1, gba,nds till now. 9/10, a magnum opus and masterpiece from falcom and i find it hard to surpass this one. When i play i always want more of it. :D