Just a week or so ago, NISA claimed it would be ready on the 30th, along with the improved localization for the Sony platforms. Apparently, though, they made this official announcement the past 20th, and the game is again without a release date on the PC, as NISA managed to botch everything there was to botch and had to hand the port to another developer in hopes of fixing this...

What a joke of a launch, what a joke of a company. Remembering how hard XSEED fought for the rights to this game, and how sad they got when NISA got them, I can't help but feel XSEED *really* should have managed to nab it.

For those interested, here is the official NISA announcement: Further Delay Announcement (Steam)

For the record, I'm keeping my GOG pre-order, as I'm a huge Ys fan and I don't own any system other than a PC -- plus, I'd rather have my games on GOG than on Steam. But this whole thing has left me close to cancelling it all, I'll be honest.

Dang it! I am so looking forward to this, almost bought it on Vita, then I noticed it was coming to Switch. Portable would be awesome, but I really prefer the DRM free PC version where I can backup my saves too and play it for years after the console's are gone.

I'll probably be getting it once it goes on sale.

At the rate this is going, it might at well be discounted at launch, considering how old the game is, by then.

I just checked the official Ys VIII Revision Blog on nisamerica.com and guess what, not a word of the delay even now!

The only hint is that, in the latest Entry, number 12, they just mentioned the release of the update for PS4 and Vita and nothing about the PC all of a sudden. And they did write that last note on the 24th, the comment in the steam forums already on the 20th.

Soooo.... They try to keep things as calm as they think they get away with before the release of the update and their upcoming twitch stream release party. I get it.

I still hate them for that.

At this point I wish they would have kept delaying it instead of releasing this bug-ridden and obviously not play-tested port. Unlike the Steam release, at least, my copy doesn't crash, but there are some graphical glitches, including bright and fast flickering. This is just bad and sad...

They shouldn't have kept delaying it, they should have swallowed their pride and treated Falcom's most recognizable franchise with the care and respect it deserves, acknowledged they weren't able to do the PC port and asked for help.

They could -- and should -- have asked XSEED for help with this PC port, because, despite all the (unjustified) hate XSEED gets, their PC tech division is pretty darn good, and when they have trouble they get in touch with coders and programmers that know who to fix things. Better yet, they should have talked to Aksys, since Ys VIII uses a slightly modified Tokyo Xanadu eX+ engine (itself an evolution of the engine used first for Ys Seven and, later, for Ys: Memories of Celceta), and Aksys made a pretty decent PC port of that game -- which, like Ys VIII, was ported from the PS4, as well, using basically the same game engine. So it would stand to reason Aksys has the skills to decently port and optimize games using this engine to PC.

But I guess asking help from those who know how to do things would mean having to share (and lose) money, and money always comes first, regardless of the pedigree of the game or franchise you're working on.

Ys isn't Disgaea, it's way bigger, and Falcom isn't Nippon Ichi (NIS, NISA's parent company); I don't think Falcom is going to stand for NISA's behavior and let them do what they want, like NIS does. Falcom already made NISA publicly apologize for their initial joke of a localization, since even news outlets in Japan were covering how bad it was and how western Ys fans were making fun of it and mad at NISA for such a lazy shoddy work. Nihon Falcom forced NISA to apologize and had them revise the localization, and NISA had to comply. They're dragging the name of one of Falcom's most beloved IPs through the mud, and I'm sure Falcom must be pretty pissed with them, and they'll likely make NISA work on this joke of a PC port until it's at least remotely playable.

The only thing NISA has going for them is the Nintendo Switch market, but after completely murdering their credibility with PC gamers with this, no amount of money the Switch makes Falcom could make up for no money at all from PC, not to mention the staggering bad rap NISA will continue to have.

And do you know what's the saddest thing? Ys VIII is one of the best games Falcom has ever made, but it's getting completely destroyed because of NISA's incompetence. Under this mess of a port is an actual brilliant game that PC gamers had the right to enjoy, but can't.