Boom.
I don't think anyone saw this coming. It was already a big enough surprise when Aksys Games announced that they were bringing over Tokyo Xanadu instead of XSEED Games, but this is something else entirely. Up until tonight, XSEED Games had handled every Ys related localization since Ys: Oath in Felghana - including titles such as Ys Seven, Ys: Origin, Ys: Memories of Celceta, and more. Tonight bucks that trend, as NIS America just confirmed - with a video of Nihon-Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo confirming the news himself. The title will release in the west this Fall, for PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
The game previously released on PlayStation Vita in Japan last July, and the Japanese PlayStation 4 version of the title had been slated for a release this spring. The title, expanding upon the "party" combat system of the series' two previous games - Ys Seven and Ys: Memories of Celceta - is the largest Ys game to date, and (per my impressions of the Japanese Vita release) definitely a title that series fans do not want to miss. Ys VIII's western release is also set to allow dual-audio, featuring both an English dub and the original Japanese audio available in the western release. Previous games in the series were English dubs only when they had been released in the west up to this point.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana will release in Fall 2017 in the west, published by NIS America. We'll be sure to keep you posted with more information as it pours in.
