Yv VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is finally on PC, but the port is reportedly terrible
NIS JRPG arrives on Steam following six month delay.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was originally meant to launch last September. But in the days leading up to its release date, publisher NIS America announced that the PC port would be delayed indefinitely. In November, the publisher elaborated that the JRPG would release in 2018, and while localization issues were emphasized, there were also clearly some technical issues that needed addressing.
Skip to April 2018, and Ys VIII is finally on Steam, but don't get your hopes up: the game is currently sitting on a "Mostly Negative" average, with the vast majority of reviewers reporting a technical mess.
"It's a lazy PS4 port through and through," reads the most upvoted review on Steam. "Barebone graphical options, fixed internal resolution... gamepad issues, horrendous keyboard+mouse support... a Dark Souls 1 PC tier port, if you want a comparison."
That's the prevailing sentiment, though there are a few outliers. Sadly, it's not unusual for NIS games to receive poor PC ports: the original Disgaea released in less than ideal circumstances in 2016, though it appears most of the problems have since been fixed up. More infamously, the PC port of Tales of Symphonia was woeful upon launch, though that has since been fixed as well. So I'm hopeful that Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana will also be fixed over the coming weeks. In the meantime, you might want to wait.
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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.