Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is a 2016 action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom. The eighth numbered installment in the Ys series, it was first released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in July 2016. Versions for the PlayStation 4, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, and PlayStation 5 followed.
The game follows adventurer Adol Christin after the passenger ship Lombardia is wrecked near the Isle of Seiren. Adol searches for the other survivors, develops a settlement with the castaways, and investigates the island while experiencing visions of Dana Iclucia, a woman who lived in an ancient civilization. The gameplay expands the party-based action system used in Ys Seven and Ys: Memories of Celceta with a larger focus on exploration, settlement development, castaway recruitment, and alternating sections played as Adol and Dana.
Falcom developed the original version for the PlayStation Vita and subsequently expanded the game for PlayStation 4 with additional story sequences, dungeons, enemies, and playable sections involving Dana. The international versions were published by NIS America. The original English localization was extensively revised after criticism of its translation and voice direction, while the Windows version underwent further technical redevelopment after a delayed and poorly received launch.
The game received generally favorable reviews, with critics frequently praising its combat, exploration, soundtrack, and castaway-settlement structure. The Windows version received a more mixed response because of technical problems. By August 2019, worldwide sales had exceeded 600,000 copies. An official novelization of the game by Anna Kashina was released in 2023.
Plot Adol is on a passenger ship called the Lombardia that is headed from Xandria to the continent of Eresia, but the ship is attacked in the archipelagos of the Gaete Sea by a giant creature and is sunk. When Adol wakes up, he realizes he landed on the shore of a cursed island known as the Isle of Seiren. On his search for other survivors, he teams up with the noblewoman, Laxia von Roswell, and fisherman Sahad Nautilus to help his fellow castaways to survive and find a way to get off the island. At the same time, he wants to find out what lies behind his dreams about Dana Iclucia, a mysterious girl from a prehistoric era who seemingly has a connection to the Isle of Seiren and Adol's fate.
Adol's party is soon expanded to include Hummel Trabaldo, a transporter who was a passenger on the Lombardia, and Ricotta Beldine, a resident of the Isle of Seiren. While exploring the island for additional castaways, Laxia notes the creatures on the island are unlike anything known to the outside world. Citing her father's academic research, she concludes that the monsters are an extinct group of animals known as Primordials. Further exploration in the north of the island leads the group to the ruins of an ancient civilization known as Eternia, whose residents possessed a power known as Essence. It is here where the party discovers Dana, waking from a deep slumber, telling the group she is the last of the Eternians, but does not know why, nor why she is alive in the current era, as she is suffering from amnesia.
The castaways begin to build a ship to escape the island; Adol's party continues to explore the island for clues to what sank the Lombardia. After research into the matter, it is discovered that a Primordial known as the Oceanus was responsible for the sinking of their ship, as it has historically attacked ships since before Dana's era. The castaways band together and defeat the Oceanus, allowing for safe travel in the surrounding sea, but questions surrounding the Primordials and Dana's situation lead the group to continue to explore the island. By doing this, Dana begins to slowly regain her memories. She discovers that multiple meteorites crashed into Eternia long ago, killing many people and triggering events akin to a nuclear winter, which led to the extinction of Eternians. This event was brought forth by a process called the Lacrimosa, which triggers an extinction event after the primary species on earth has run its course. During each Lacrimosa, one member of the species is chosen to survive and become an immortal Warden of Evolution, one who watches over the Lacrimosa and ensures the process is successfully carried out. Dana was chosen to be the protector representing Eternians; she resisted and put herself into a deep sleep until the next Lacrimosa would occur. Dana awoke in the present because the current Lacrimosa was beginning: the extinction of humans, to be accomplished through the revival of Primordials as the primary species. Consequently, Adol is selected to be the next Warden of Evolution, representing the human species.
With Dana's help, Adol's crew becomes the first group to resist the Lacrimosa, ending the process and ensuring the continued survival of the human race. Stopping the Lacrimosa does not go as planned, and the world begins to collapse. Dana uses her essence to disrupt the end of the world, but seemingly dies in the process. Shortly thereafter, while mourning the loss of Dana, the goddess of the world, Maia, makes an appearance, telling the group that Dana's sacrifice has led her to become the Goddess of Evolution, tasked with watching over the world. Dana and the other protectors appear; Dana wishes goodbye to Adol's group, while the other Protectors inform Adol the Lacrimosa may still need to be used in the future to prevent the world from collapsing. After the Protectors and Goddesses disappear, the castaways finish construction of their ship and sail home, parting ways and returning to their normal lives.
Gameplay Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player explores interconnected fields and dungeons, collects materials, completes quests, and fights enemies in real time. The game builds on the party-based systems of Ys Seven and Ys: Memories of Celceta, allowing the player to switch immediately among as many as three active characters while the others are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence.
Each character uses a slashing, piercing or striking weapon. Enemies may be vulnerable to one damage type and resistant to the others, encouraging the player to change the controlled character during combat. Special attacks consume skill points, or SP, which can be restored through regular attacks and charged attacks. Each character also has an Extra Skill that can be used after filling a separate gauge.
The player can activate Flash Guard by guarding immediately before an enemy attack connects. A successful Flash Guard temporarily negates damage and causes the player's attacks to inflict critical damage. Evading immediately before an attack instead activates Flash Move, temporarily slowing enemies while allowing the player character to continue moving normally.
Materials obtained from enemies, gathering points, and treasure chests can be exchanged or used to create medicine, equipment, and other items. Because the castaways are isolated from conventional towns and merchants, the settlement uses a barter-based economy rather than ordinary currency. Rescued passengers return to Castaway Village and provide services such as weapon enhancement, tailoring, medicine, farming, and cooking.
Finding castaways also expands the player's ability to explore the island. Certain obstructions can only be cleared after the settlement reaches a required population. The village is periodically attacked by monsters in defensive battles known as raids. During raids, the player protects barricades and other structures while earning rewards based on performance. Later versions of the game also include suppression battles, in which the party establishes bases and destroys enemy nests within a field.
The story alternates between Adol's exploration of the present-day Isle of Seiren and sections featuring Dana in the ancient civilization of Eternia. Changes made during Dana's sections can alter the island in Adol's era, opening routes or revealing new areas. In the PlayStation 4 and subsequent versions, Dana can change among three combat styles with different abilities, attack properties, and traversal functions.
An experimental local cooperative mode was added to the Windows version in January 2020. A second player can control another member of the active party during exploration and combat, although menus and some other functions remain controlled by the first player.
Development and release
Announcement and production Nihon Falcom announced the game for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 in September 2014. It was the first Ys game announced for the PlayStation 4 and Falcom's first development project for the platform. Although Falcom initially announced the project for release in 2015, the company formally presented it under the title Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana in December of that year.
Falcom described the game as an expansion of the exploration-oriented systems used in Ys: Memories of Celceta. In addition to automatic map creation, the company introduced Castaway Village, in which passengers rescued on the island establish facilities and contribute their abilities to the settlement, and raid battles in which the castaways defend the village from attacking creatures. The game retained the party-based combat, Flash Guard, and Flash Move systems of the preceding games while adding free jumping and faster traversal across larger environments.
The Isle of Seiren was designed as an isolated setting populated by unusual wildlife and the remains of an ancient civilization. Adol searches the island for other passengers from the wrecked Lombardia, establishes Castaway Village with the survivors, and investigates recurring dreams involving Dana and an unfamiliar society.
The castaways were given different occupations and abilities that affect the settlement. For example, rescuing the blacksmith Catherine enables weapon reinforcement, while other survivors establish or improve facilities used for medicine, clothing, farming, cooking, and village defense. Advancing the story and completing character-related events also reveals more about the individual passengers and their circumstances before the shipwreck.
Dual-protagonist structure Falcom constructed the story around Adol and Dana as two protagonists living in different periods. Adol initially experiences Dana's life through dreams. The game later allows players to switch between their perspectives through a system described as consciousness sharing, with actions performed during Dana's sections changing routes or conditions in Adol's era.
The original PlayStation Vita version contained playable Dana sequences, but Falcom substantially expanded them for the PlayStation 4 release. The later version added new areas, story events, enemies, quests, and dungeons associated with Dana's era.
The PlayStation 4 version also introduced Dana's Style Change system. Dana can change among Iclucian, Gratica, and Luminous forms, which differ in speed, strength, defense, attack properties, and environmental abilities. The additional Underground Shrine dungeon requires the player to use the abilities of the different styles, while rescuing spirits unlocks or strengthens Dana's forms. Falcom also added separate Extra Skills for the styles, nighttime exploration, and a gallery mode.
Falcom president and producer Toshihiro Kondo later said that Dana was created partly in response to the enduring popularity of Feena, the heroine of the original Ys. Kondo described Falcom as having felt a longstanding difficulty in creating a later heroine who could make a comparable impression, which influenced the attention given to Dana's role in the story.
Japanese versions