Okay, Ys VIII is my favorite Ys game. Having a blast with it and it does seem like a 40 hour game (40% of the map in 20 hours gameplay). The music is much better than Celceta, looks much better and the jump mechanic isn't tacked on (you use it a lot in platforming, fighting and overall traversal of the island).
The game feels like a mystery adventure which I love. My favorite genre is adventure and unfortunately there aren't a lot of games/anime/manga that really give the feeling of going on an adventure (exploring and uncovering secrets, runes, history etc...)
If i were to complain about it, I'd say it needs a slight performance patch (like additional 4 frames when fighting a lot in a large area) and remove a cutscene or 2 from the intro of the game (the first 4 hours had a lot of scenes between gameplay). Anyways, i need to finish the game to see how the story unfolds.
