Game Review – Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Nintendo Switch)

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Short Version: It’s awesome and you should all get it. It’s a fun island-exploration adventure with very memorable characters, but then it takes some great twists that essentially turns it into Your Name with monster fighting. Aside from a few spelling mistakes and some rare graphical hiccups here and there, the Nintendo Switch version is more than capable of delivering this great action RPG both on the go and on a TV. I can’t praise this game enough.

Long Version: Sometimes I wish I could play a game without knowing anything. And by that, I don’t mean full-on ignorance, but rather being able to have a fresh perspective as I discover a brand-new world with no previous knowledge of how it works. As a person who actively searches for gaming-related news and makes videos on the subject, I find myself already knowing everything there is to know about a game way before it even comes out. At the moment of play, I’m not as excited as I would like to be, since all my previous knowledge reduces my playthrough to just waiting for the parts that I already know about.

I feel that there’s something beautiful about just launching a game without any assumptions or anything else. Simply being introduced to something entirely new as you learn your way through the rules of a new world gives a sense of wonder that I feel like I have lost as I have gotten older. By playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, I feel like I got my child-like wonder back, and I could not be more grateful. Watch the video above to hear my full thoughts on the game.

Corrections

I made a mistake in the video where I said that Ys VIII is the first 3D Ys game in the series, which is not true. Yes, this game handles and looks way differently than previous entries, but graphics-wise, there have been other titles made with 3D elements for a while now. Sorry for the mistake. I should’ve been more specific and also phrased it differently, since I didn’t mean it in such a literal way. Instead of saying that the gameplay underwent big changes, it instead came out as me stupidly saying, “This is the first full 3D Ys game!” which is not entirely the case. Another correction is that the title is pronounced “eeee-s” and not “Waiz” as I’ve been saying the whole time. You can tell that I’m new to the series, huh? Anyway, please be gentle in the comments. Whatever problems you have are likely things that I have already been made aware of.