The Falcom Thread

[Nester the Lark]

Honestly, I've had a hard time finding out what DLC is (and isn't) included with each version of the game. It's never laid out clearly anywhere.

In recent years, Falcom has gone a little crazy with the DLC, but as far as I know, it's all cosmetic, and doesn't actually include anything significant like new game content.

Also, I realized that the list of costumes included in the Switch version isn't even all of the costumes. It's still missing Adol's classic Silver Armor (which is what I was mainly interested in), as well as the Adventurer Clothes. Maybe that will be paid DLC?

I'll try to see what I can find out.

[Nester the Lark]

Silver Armor confirmed for the Switch version of Ys VIII.

In other news, the PC version is finally out... and apparently, it's kind of a disaster.

[nocturnal YL]

The PC port's issue seems to be summarized as the developer tried to make a PC game using a console game's mindset. In particular, it failed to take into account different PC settings and the fact that PC users prefer to have more options.

Though this shouldn't really affect console-to-console ports, that makes me kind of nervous about the Switch version.

[Nester the Lark]

The PC port was commissioned and overseen by NIS America, and they seem to have a reputation for mangling things up a bit (like the initial English localization). But from what I know, the Switch port is being handled internally by Nippon Ichi Software in Japan, so I'm not too worried yet.

[Nester the Lark]

This was sudden, but they streamed the Switch version of Ys VIII on Twitch a little while ago. You can see the video of it here.

Couple of points:
- The game has gone gold.
- It runs at 30 fps, at least in docked mode. (PS4 version ran at 60 fps, Vita ran at 30.) They didn't clarify if there was any difference in performance between docked and handheld modes, so I've reached out to them on Twitter. Let's see if they bother to respond.

[nocturnal YL]

The frame rate seems rather bad for an action game, especially when the camera is moving fast. Sometimes it feels like it's actually less than 30fps. Don't know if it's just the stream or if it's the game itself.

The graphics are pretty bad, with terrain graphics that look like they're taken straight from GameCube. But I think this applies even to the PS4 version. I want to see a PS4/Switch/Vita comparison.

But on the plus side, the loading time is really short. Maybe it's because of the bad graphics?

The game itself seems to be more story-inensive than I thought. Not sure if I'll like this, speaking as someone who's never played this series. Not sure about Adol's silent protagonist treatment, either.

Putting this in my "maybe" list.

[Nester the Lark]

If you were wondering what Ys VIII looked like running in handheld mode (like me), here's some video.

[Nester the Lark]

Early reviews for the Switch version of Ys VIII are coming out, and they're generally very positive while noting some minor performance issues, as well as some English localization/editing issues (still?).

[Nester the Lark]

Looks like Ys VIII on Switch is getting three launch-day patches to address the text issues.

So much for Nippon Ichi Software being more on top of things than NIS America.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's NISA's blog for the four patches they're working on for the Switch version of Ys VIII. I guess they declared it "gold" a little too soon.

Here are the details:

Patch v1.01
Short Description: Fixes include adjustment to Nintendo Switch auto-sleep function, incorrect icons displaying, and text refinements.
Current Status: Ready for Launch
Actual Live Date: June 26

Patch v1.02
Short Description: Addressing crash issues, some aesthetic issues, and text refinements.
Current Status: Testing Round 2
Expected Live Date: Launch week

Patch v1.03
Short Description: Text refinements.
Current Status: Testing Round 1
Expected Live Date: Week after launch

Patch v1.04
Short Description: Japanese Voice Implementation and aesthetic refinements during cutscenes.
Current Status: Testing Round 1
Expected Live Date: Mid July 2018

Yikes.

[nocturnal YL]

…They should have delayed it by a month or so to get all these fixed first.

I'm more curious about whether the Japanese version is affected, since that will be what I'm potentially getting.

[Nester the Lark]

I can't imagine why the Japanese version would have issues since there's no localization involved.

To tell the truth, I'm a little put off from it at this point. After all the problems the previous versions of the game have had, it seems like they should have their act together by now.

Also, I feel a little burned out from action-RPGs after playing so much Xenoblade.

On the other hand, if I don't play it on Switch, it's unlikely I'll be able to play the game at all. Plus, I have it on pre-order for a reduced price due to Amazon's low price guarantee, and it'd be a shame not to take advantage of that.

*sigh* First-world problems...

[nocturnal YL]

There are bug fixes unrelated to localisation. Sometimes these may be distributed as first-day updates.

It sounds to me that they have some coordination problem between the Japanese and American branches. Maybe the Japanese team took too long, so the American branch could only use in-progress versions for localisation? Sounds like a case of pushing for a worldwide release when they shouldn't have done that.

[Nester the Lark]

NISA actually streamed the game yesterday, and they explained the localization issue. They said that when they initially released the new translation for the PS4 and Vita versions, there were still some text issues that they patched later. For some reason, the Switch build was based on the pre-patch version. So, yeah, sounds like a coordination issue.

NISA seems to have a lot of corporate bureaucracy going on.

[Nester the Lark]

I know I said I wanted Falcom games on Swtich, but do I really want to support this? Ugh...