After six months of delays to deal with technical issues, the PC version of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana finally launched yesterday, albeit to less-than-great public reaction. Not because it’s a bad game – far from it – but because the PC version is plagued with bugs just not present in any other version of the game. Nonexistent Vsync, flickering lights, wonky controls and more have been reported. Today, NIS America acknowledged the majority of reported issues, and have promised that fixes are coming.

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They say good things come to those who wait, but perhaps the release of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana could have gone back into the oven a little bit longer. The six-month-delayed PC port (first to completely re-translate the game, then to deal with a rising tide of technical issues) has finally made it to launch, though after looking at the first wave of public response, it doesn’t sound like publisher NIS America have done Falcom’s latest action-RPG much justice.

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Nihon Falcom’s RPG series Ys is continuing its meandering journey over to PC piece-by-piece, with 2012’s Ys: Memories Of Celceta due to officially find its way from PlayStation Vita to PC in summer 2018. I’ve no experience with the series myself but people speak fondly of it and seem glad when more games come to PC so good, here’s some good news for such people. Me, all I need to know is that it’s set around a giant forest. Yes, good, thank you. Publishers Xseed livestreamed almost two hours of the game on Friday so here, watch: Read the rest of this entry »

For a second time, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana has been delayed mere days before it was due to launch on PC. Nihon Falcom’s JRPG had been due in September 2017 but was delayed one day before launch, and this new delay comes eleven days before the latest launch date. This time, publishers NIS America are being quite open: it’s delayed again because the game runs poorly and they haven’t managed to improve performance as much as they hoped, so they will hand the port to another developer, and they’re so sorry for all of this. They go into a surprising amount of detail with the technical problems, if you’re curious. Read the rest of this entry »

The PC version of Nihon Falcom’s RPG Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana will arrive on January 30th, publishers NIS America have announced. This is almost five months after the console version but, unlike that, the PC release won’t launch with shoddy localisation. The original English script was so wonky that NISA have been reworking it to fix typos, errors, and clunky translation, and re-recording dialogue to match. While those changes will come to consoles as a patch, they’ll be in the PC version from the start, giving us a better initial experience.

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While Ys 8’s PC release might have slipped back to next year, we’ve plenty of Nihon Falcom games to chew on for now anyway. And yet another is coming our way soon too, Zwei: The Arges Adventure. Due to be the Japanese RPG studio’s 15th release on Steam, Zwei: The Arges Adventure was originally a PC game, although like many of Falcom’s past games it was a Japanese-only release, becoming better known after a console launch and now eventually finding its way back home to be localised with a swath of extras and improvements.

Though publishers Xseed haven’t pinned down a firm release date, they’re confident it will be ready for a winter 2018 release. Read on for a peek at the teaser trailer for the game. There are kitties.

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It would seem that ‘measure twice, cut once’ isn’t just good woodworking advice. NIS America’s localisation of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana, the latest in Nihon Falcom’s long-running action-RPG series, has now been judged so wobbly by the publisher that they’re delaying the PC release to allow for a complete ‘from the ground up’ rework of the English script and voice track.

There is at least some silver lining to this particular cloud. NIS America are going to be detailing the process through regular blog posts, the first of which details their reasoning behind the decision to push the PC release back, now with no fixed release date in sight.

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There is one unexpected benefit to the PC version of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana [official site] being delayed: ours won’t launch with wonky localisation. Western publishers NIS America have apologised for the poor state of the game’s localisation when it hit consoles in September — when it was originally due to hit PC too — with oddities, errors, and assorted wonk. Fresh folks are reworking the localisation now and NISA say the PC version will launch with that included. They’ve drafted Durante to help the technical side on PC too. Read the rest of this entry »

If you had been looking forward to playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana [official site] today, I’m sorry to tell you that it has been delayed. Nihon Falcom’s JRPG was supposed to launch on PC today alongside its console counterparts, but publishers NIS America announced only last night that the PC version will be late. They don’t offer an update release date and say the delay is “due to continued efforts to improve gameplay quality”, which is a little vague. Mysteries! Read the rest of this entry »

Nihon Falcom’s flashy slashy JRPG Ys Seven [official site] is now out on PC, eight years after it first arrived on the PSP. It’s largely the same game as the handheld version upscaled for bigger screens, just with a refreshed translation from the Japanese original. It should run at 60fps at a variety of resolutions and it supports both keyboard-and-mouse and controllers. All good stuff.

You’ve got control of a three-man party exploring a large world that offers a 20+ hour main campaign. The focus is on combat and, unlike some JRPGs, there’s no split between exploring and fighting. I watched publisher Xseed Games stream a bit of it a few months ago and the combat looked smooth and satisfying.

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Nihon Falcom’s JRPG Ys Seven [official site] will hit PC on 30th August, publishers XSeed Games have announced. The port of the 2009 PlayStation Portable original is a “full upscaled HD” version and will feature lots of resolution options, new achievements and a refreshed translation from the Japanese version, XSeed say.

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel [official site] has arrived on PC. It’s an updated version of the PS3/PS Vita JRPG from 2013, improving the visuals and adding 5,000 new lines of voiced dialogue.

A trio of Nihon Falcom’s Legend of Heroes games are already out on PC (the Trails in the Sky trilogy), and this one takes place in the same universe. But if you haven’t heard of the Erebonian Empire, don’t worry, because it’s the start of a new story.

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Nihon Falcom’s 2009 game Ys Seven [official site] is making the jump from the PSP handheld to PC. We’ve been slowly catching up on the series on PC, and the next one will actually launch on the same day as its western console counterparts, so it’s nice to fill in the gaps. I’ve not played any Ys but do hear good things from folks who do enjoy grinding through Japanese action-RPGs. Here, watch these teensy folks scrap: Read the rest of this entry »

JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd [official site] finally released worldwide on PC this week, almost 10 years after it came out in Japan.

It’s the third and final instalment in the Trails in the Sky sub-series and stars Father Kevin Graham, the priest with two first names. Expect third-person combat and a good chunk of dialogue. Read the rest of this entry »

Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel [official site] will come to PC this summer, publishers Xseed Games have announced, four years after its console debut. Trails of Cold Steel kicks off a new sub-series in Falcom’s sprawling Legend of Heroes series but no, sadly its Cold Steel is nothing to do with the sword-swinging YouTube stars. Xseed also confirmed that the sequel, Cold Steel II, will follow. And! Announcements spilling out their mouths like custard from a Comic Relief fundraiser, Xseed have also announced a PC release date of May 3rd for The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. Read the rest of this entry »

From the next in RPG series Ys to a strategy game where players give gal pals magical tattoos, the western arm of Japanese publisher NIS have announced western PC releases for more games in their curiously eclectic lineup and launch dates for others already known. It’s a NIS news blowout. Non-stop NIS news clues. Read on for deets on Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana [official site] and Tokyo Tattoo Girls [official site] along with Psycho-Pass, more Cladun, and a splash of New Tokyo Legacy. Let’s get cracking. Read the rest of this entry »

Xanadu Next [official site], an action-RPG by The Legend of Heroes and Ys series developers Nihon Falcom, has finally received an official English version – 11 years after its original release. Well, it’s finally received an official English version that isn’t on the ha-ha-hilarious Nokia N-Gage game-o-phone. The noughties, eh? What a curious half-way for pocket phone technology. Point is: if you fancy more Falcom-y action-RPGing, you can now venture to Harlech Island to investigate strange sightings of a ghostly castle (and duff up baddies). Read the rest of this entry »

Just the other day I was talking about another action-RPG from Japanese developers Nihon Falcom coming our way (Ys VI, there), when lawks a lummy look! Another one’s already here, as an English translation of Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure [official site] launched yesterday.

It’s a cutesy adventure about a girl, her monster friends (who are invisible to adults, obvs), and her magical drill. Together, they fight evil spirits and save the village. Adventure! It looks all cutey-cute, but I have heard some fairly good things about the old PSP port.

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Another two Japanese action-RPGs are coming our way from PlayStations via Xseed Games, the publisher announced last week, and they’re certainly a curious pairing.

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim [official site] is from the long-running, well-received series Xseed have been trickling onto PC for a while now. Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed [official site], on the other hand, is about freeing Tokyo’s otaku district Akihabara from vampires by beating them up and whipping their clothes off to expose them to sunlight. Well!

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