Topic: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

It's not the sort of game where the extra framerate really helps that much. I've played both the Vita and PC version there's really no difference. It's action-based yes but it's not especially timing based. Not comparable to something like Dark Souls or a FPS at all.

@Dezzy That's good to hear I suppose, and like I said, if it's a consistent 30 then I'm totally fine with it. Only when it starts stuttering and dragging constantly do I have much of a problem. So in other words, it looks like this one's still on my shopping list!

I'm certainly looking forward to this. I haven't played it on any other platform yet, and the last Ys I played was Wanderers on the SNES! This entry happens to look a lot like Xenoblade, aesthetically. I wonder if that's coincidence or not. I realize Xenoblade is semi-turn-based like an ATB evolution, and this is a hack n slash, but visually the similarity is striking. I wouldn't be able to tell which game it is in a hudless video comparison.

@NEStalgia

It's not like Xenoblade at all. They're completely different styles of game. The Ys series is closest to the Tales series in style. Like a light-hearted anime.
Fun rather that emotionally deep.

@Dezzy I meant visually. I know the actual play genre and story theme are different

30fps is perfectly fine for action-based games. It's why the majority of AAA action games still target it.

@NEStalgia Xenoblade's environments are significantly more striking and epic in scope, though. I think it'll be easy to tell them apart once you actually play the games.

So, I'm 5 hours into the game, into Chapter 2, and I'm liking it so far. Story seems slow for now, but it's setting up for greater things to come so I don't mind. Cutscenes feel awfully jank though, but at least the voice acting is solid. Adol doesn't have a voice except in battles though... so he's like a developed Cross from Xenoblade X.

Combat is weird though. Overall I like it, but it doesn't feel all that smooth to me for some reason. Lock-on is absolute trash and I don't like the camera placement compared to something like Bayonetta which obscures too much of the view. Flash guards and dodge timing also feels somewhat weird too. I'll get used to it eventually, but compared to something like Bayonetta, it's not quite as polished. I realize I may be comparing two very different games so it may not be fair to either game, but when Ys VIII is an action RPG with hack-and-slash elements, I can't help but draw the comparisons. Something about Ys feels off and I can't place my finger as to why.

Thankfully, everything else is fun. Swapping characters mid-battle reminds me of Sonic Heroes in a way lol. All the special attacks and stuff not being magic but rather a meter you build up by just attacking is also great to encourage you to use your specials instead of just winning battles through war of attrition. Exploration is also a lot of fun and I get a lot of Metroidvania vibes from the exploration, unlocking new shortcuts and upgrades to traverse around the island.

Very fun game despite my complaints, and I can't wait to see it to the end.

I finally can go and start playing the game for around 1 hour and I must say that so far, I enjoy the gameplay! The characters are also seems to start with an interesting... thing, but nonetheless I'm intrigued.

While perfomance seems to be a little wobbly at times, it seems overall smooth except why is everything feels so blurry is my questions, but oh well, as long as it's playable and feels good

@darkfenrir The graphics are overall nice, but in handheld mode there's this weird blur filter that happens like once every 5 seconds. It's so damn annoying mid-cutscenes, where it just looks really off. The overall game looks like an up-rezed PS2/GameCube game too. Then cutscenes also seem to animate at like 20fps, feeling like a weirdly good-looking N64 game. Textures are also extremely grainy, especially when you move the camera.

This game in general has a lot of weird things in terms of graphics. Honestly I feel like it's more because this port seems fairly rushed and slap-dash.

But graphics are the least of my worries. The game still looks good, and it's razor-sharp docked with no blurriness like on handheld. And in motion when playing, mid-combat, it's flashy and kinetic to make up for the weaker points.

Oh, I forgot to bring up soundtrack. It's alright, but nothing's sticking to me right now. Need to play the game more though, but it's nothing too mindblowing as of now.

@EvilLucario Yeah, that's what I'm talking about since I'm full blown handheld player, and the blur that keep happening, and I DOn'T UNDERSTAND WHY CUTSCENES ARE BELOW 30FPS.

But overall, yeah it's pretty fun so far, and I think I'm enjoying the battle system more than I do Tokyo Xanadu (as long as the plot didn't go to that game's level, should be fine)

Weird. I haven't noticed much in the way of blur so far. What I DO notice is how pronounced the visual noise is on the foliage in handheld mode. And the way shadows flicker when you move.

Still looks 100x better than Xenoblade 2 in handheld mode, though.

The combat is shallow, but a lot of fun. I'm enjoying this so much more than Bayonetta.

I actually thought Xenoblade 2 is muuuuch better in handheld mode. I remember a ton of crisp area, and a smart way of turning the camera around always make things sharper.

Can't do that with this one unfortunately.

@Ralizah It flickers between a blur and sharp image in handheld mode in my experience. I notice it most often during cutscenes, but during gameplay you're likely to not notice (like me).

Also what's really funny is that this game supports video capture. Cool feature that I'll probably use if I can pull off multiple flash guards/dodges in succession I guess.

@darkfenrir Depends on what you value more. Xenoblade 2 in handheld mode is SO blurry in comparison to Ys. It has much more detail and it has visual parity with docked visuals so that aspect is kept... at the expense of resolution. Ys VIII may look like a glorified PS2/GameCube game at times, but it always remains sharper than Xenoblade 2 no matter where.

Also what do you mean by quickly turning the camera around? If you mean resetting the camera like in 3D Zelda or Xenoblade 2 clicking in the right stick, you can do the same in Ys VIII.

@EvilLucario I mean, I always turn the camera to where there's not many things to render during Xenoblade 2 to alleviate the worst of the resolution (I remember fighting that bird... boss... thingy during the end of Chapter 7 or something at that annoying island, and turning the camera to not face to the cloud sea, always help the framerate from tanking like crazy, and even help the resolution).

Maybe I have biases glasses going on

I... genuinely have no idea what you're talking about here, and I played that game for 100+ hours, and at least 30 - 40 of those hours in handheld mode. The resolution mostly seems to dip absurdly low based on location (things start looking downright impressionistic in Torigoth).

@EvilLucario Interesting. I'll have to see if it stands out to me now.

And yeah, I was surprised when I realized it had video capture support. It's kind of a random game for that to show up in.

@darkfenrir Oh, you mean moving the camera away from problematic areas to reduce the resolution drops? Hm. For Xenoblade it works since you're always hitting the enemy and the enemy is always hitting you while the monsters' Arts are flashed out on screen, but for Ys being more action/reaction-based, that wouldn't work as well unfortunately.

Also, that boss is most likely Crimson Derrick. Oof, that dude is painful if you try to take him on before finishing Chapter 7.

@EvilLucario Ys VIII pretty much always looks like a Gamecube/PS2 game to me. Even on PS4. Especially in cutscenes, as characters do that thing where they'll turn around to face other characters very robotically.

Doesn't bother me one bit, to be honest.

@Ralizah I'm not sure either, but that's just my memory of the game (And I play 99% on handheld mode other than one time on docked because friend forced me to). The one I remember is the worse is the little sand area to go up to Mor Ardain city from the port, oh god that area was soooo bad, I think it's 240p maybe.

@EvilLucario And yeah, that's what I mean. I understand why it won't work in this game, just wish it's there when you finished killing all the monster in the area.

I think I managed to defeat that Crimson Derrick, but then again I was around level 60-70+ by that time in the game.

What game is the combat comparable to?

@ValhallaOutcast It's like a sort of like a simplified version of the combat systems found in recent Platinum games like Bayonetta or Nier: Automata. Fast combat with a focus on dodging or parrying at the last second. In this game, there are also a variety of special skills you can use during battle. Your party has three characters in it, and you flip between them depending on what sort of damage you need to do to an enemy.