Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana PC delayed at short notice

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!

"We want to ensure that our fans will enjoy a high-quality game, so we are continuing to work hard by taking time to enhance the quality of gameplay for PC users," NISA said in yesterday's announcement.

The timing would lead me to suspect they discovered a big problem at the last minute, though that's only a guess. I've asked NISA for more details on what caused the delay, why the announcement was last-minute, and when we might expect Ys VIII to hit PC. I'll let you know if I hear anything interesting back.

The game's Steam page now says simply 2017 so hey, it'll be less than four months?

It is a shame because over the years since the last Ys game launched, most of the 20-year-old RPG series has received western PC releases. Ys VIII, the first new entry in the main series since 2009, was due to be the first to launch for us alongside the console releases.

Still, even with this surprise delay, it's a huge timing improvement over previous games. I'm glad that the question is now usually "when" a console game will come to PC, not "if".