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Lacrimosa of Dana
When Adol Christin boards the passenger liner Lombardia for an easy voyage across the Gaete Sea, he has no idea this journey will land him shipwrecked on the mysterious Seiren Island, home of an ancient curse that has plagued these waters for millennia. Nor can he possibly imagine that this act of fate will throw him into a battle against primordial powers, set out to destroy the entire human race. Joined by Dana, a powerful young woman from another era, as well as by a handful of the Lombardia survivors, Adol must save his species from extinction, or perish along with everyone he knows. But even if he wins, there is no guarantee that he can ever attain the ultimate prize - a future with Dana. LACRIMOSA OF DANA, a bestselling game by Nihon Falcom Co., is part of the award-winning Ys series, featuring Adol Christin, a legendary swordsman and adventurer. This novel follows the story and characters of the game and is officially licensed through an agreement between Dragonwell Publishing, Dragonwell, LLC, and Nihon Falcom Corporation.
- GenresFantasy
466 pages, Hardcover
Published October 18, 2023
17 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Anna Kashina
24 books158 followersAnna Kashina is a critically acclaimed award-winning author of “The Majat Code” series, featuring adventure, swordplay, intrigue, and romance in a historical fantasy setting. She is the author of the official novelization of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, a bestselling video game by Nihon Falcom Co.
Awards: 2015 Prism Award (Fantasy, and "Best of the Best" grand prize), Locus Award Nominee, 2013 ForeWord Book of the Year (IndieFab) Award, 2014 Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY).
Awards: 2015 Prism Award (Fantasy, and "Best of the Best" grand prize), Locus Award Nominee, 2013 ForeWord Book of the Year (IndieFab) Award, 2014 Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 5, 2023
Read an eARC from the author
Content warning: death of a parent (mother, in flashbacks), dead parents (mentioned), drowning, blood, natural disaster, shipwreck
Adol Christin awakens on the shores of the Isle of Seiren upon the Lombardia‘s sinking as a result of a terrifying sea monster. Once there, he experiences mysterious dreams of a time millennia before of an Eternian named Dana and a land which no longer exists.
This epic story features a bond reaching across time, magic, and found family as Adol unravels the mysteries behind his visions with the help of fellow castaways trying to get home.
Going to start this review off by saying that I have not played a Ys game, but I do have experience playing JRPG’s and reading light novels. This adaptation hits the highs of both media. Kashina’s passion for the story and the characters leaps off the page. I loved how distinct the voices were and how, despite often spending much time together, the different perspectives are easy to keep separate. I particularly loved Dana, who presented as kind and powerful, and doesn’t get lost in her relationship with Adol. The same can be said for Laxia, who has her own compelling character arc. The way Kashina indulges the characters’ side passions adds depth to their reasons for existing and reasons for wanting to get off the seemingly cursed island. This is as much a story about exploration, archeology, and history as it is a survival fantasy. The beasts fit within the world and the context provided, making for tight world-building and an immersive reading experience.
One of the most impressive things about this novelization is how Kashina balances the myriad characters and plot without getting too bogged down in depicting action sequences that would have emerged through game play. With some encounters, it’s easy to imagine where the boss fights would go, but there is such a focus on plot and characterization that this piece of fiction truly works as a novel. The pacing is also impeccable, especially given that player interaction is absent from this adaptation. It really works. Mysteries unfold at a satisfying clip, and this plot has a bit of everything: a murder, an exploration, tests of friendship, and more.
Recommending for fans of JRPG’s who want to really get into the heads of the characters at its center, told by a writer with a clear love of the source material.
Content warning: death of a parent (mother, in flashbacks), dead parents (mentioned), drowning, blood, natural disaster, shipwreck
Adol Christin awakens on the shores of the Isle of Seiren upon the Lombardia‘s sinking as a result of a terrifying sea monster. Once there, he experiences mysterious dreams of a time millennia before of an Eternian named Dana and a land which no longer exists.
This epic story features a bond reaching across time, magic, and found family as Adol unravels the mysteries behind his visions with the help of fellow castaways trying to get home.
Going to start this review off by saying that I have not played a Ys game, but I do have experience playing JRPG’s and reading light novels. This adaptation hits the highs of both media. Kashina’s passion for the story and the characters leaps off the page. I loved how distinct the voices were and how, despite often spending much time together, the different perspectives are easy to keep separate. I particularly loved Dana, who presented as kind and powerful, and doesn’t get lost in her relationship with Adol. The same can be said for Laxia, who has her own compelling character arc. The way Kashina indulges the characters’ side passions adds depth to their reasons for existing and reasons for wanting to get off the seemingly cursed island. This is as much a story about exploration, archeology, and history as it is a survival fantasy. The beasts fit within the world and the context provided, making for tight world-building and an immersive reading experience.
One of the most impressive things about this novelization is how Kashina balances the myriad characters and plot without getting too bogged down in depicting action sequences that would have emerged through game play. With some encounters, it’s easy to imagine where the boss fights would go, but there is such a focus on plot and characterization that this piece of fiction truly works as a novel. The pacing is also impeccable, especially given that player interaction is absent from this adaptation. It really works. Mysteries unfold at a satisfying clip, and this plot has a bit of everything: a murder, an exploration, tests of friendship, and more.
Recommending for fans of JRPG’s who want to really get into the heads of the characters at its center, told by a writer with a clear love of the source material.
December 16, 2024
Lacrimosa of Dana aims to novelize the story of the videogame. For those who enjoy the game, it's enjoyable to have the story condensed to a novel so one can experience just the story and characters. However, the book is difficult to recommend as a fantasy book in general. The difficulty in judging rhe book lies with deciding what is good about the original story vs what the author adds to it by putting it in a new medium. The author states that one aim of the novel is to add more characterization to make the story more engaging, but I don't believe the characters had any more personality than in the game. Additionally, many of even the most important fights that took place were exceedingly short, often a couple paragraphs, making them feel forgettable and anticlimactic. Meanwhile, other events received pages of description despite having little impact on the plot. For example, a romantic conflict that ultimately did not affect the plot went on for the better part of a chapter while one of the central battles of the entire story received less than two pages. The book would have benefitted significantly from a better balance. Ultimately, the book is enjoyable, but mostly for those who already are familiar with and enjoy the story of Lacrimosa of Dana, but is more difficult to recommend to those who are not fans of the franchise.
August 3, 2025
as a huge ys fan i'm extremely disappointed in this book. bad adaptation, weak writing. no fewer than three romance subplots completely absent from the game are added here. perhaps this would work for a reader with no knowledge of the games, but fans - especially fans of series protagonist Adol - will find mischaracterization, thematic incoherence, and a complete lack of ys magic. nor would i suggest a non-fan pick this book up. there are simply much better fantasy books to spend your time with. there are typos and redundant sentences that should have been caught and revised during editing. three side characters speak exactly zero words throughout the novel. many are given a perfunctory scene or two to check off their particular gameplay box, and then vanish from the story forever. this book is a half-measure in all senses.
i understand that adapting a video game into a completely different medium like this must be challenging. however, it is my opinion that this book not only fails to do that, but also fails to be interesting in the process.
i understand that adapting a video game into a completely different medium like this must be challenging. however, it is my opinion that this book not only fails to do that, but also fails to be interesting in the process.
August 2, 2025
The choices this book makes bewilder me.
The writing itself is stiff and lacks clarity at times—it feels amateurish, so many basic writing tips come down to doing exactly the opposite of what this book does. I’m not saying you can’t break the rules, but have to know what you’re doing first. It treats the reader like an idiot who can’t put things together, with a hint of snark to bite the hand that fed it. No, we don’t need your commentary on random plot points, write the story.
The book is messy and doesn’t handle the task of bringing a video game’s plot together well in any way, shape, or form, which ends up giving it strange priorities. Some quests are included, others are not, and it IS hard to balance a video game’s story in a medium it wasn’t made for… but I expect more effort to tie it together and weigh the importance of scenes and quests for an official book.
Battles, which I don’t expect to be constant but do expect some work put into, will often be a few sentences (keep in mind, this book is adapting an action RPG known for its combat) but random descriptions of things will take up way more space, descriptions that don’t even need to be that fleshed out in comparison to other aspects. Strange parts where a simple action is described in near incoherent detail, whilst other parts of the book such as setting are left bland and simple when they shouldn’t be. Books should be able to grab you, and especially when you’re adapting a VIDEO game, you want the visual aspect to be given its due diligence. The author doesn’t have to describe every plant, I’m not asking her to, but when a location in the game wows you, I expect that same wow-factor in the book.
The author wrote this book because she says she loved the world and especially characters and wanted more of them, and I don’t doubt that love, it’s a great game. Yet I don’t see that love translated here at all. It feels to me that she loved the base concept, and wished to change everything else about it to suit her needs. Creative liberties are a given with novelizations, even encouraged, but this…? There is such a thing as going too far, and the book crosses that line.
The world of Ys is disrespected, treated as a backdrop without any thought put into it, and for a series that has so much care for its worldbuilding and lore… that’s extremely disappointing and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It mishandles and misrepresents the series’ world, as if the setting of Ys VIII exists in a bubble rather than being tied to a greater expanse. Yes, it’s important to keep your focus on the main island you’re actually writing… but it’s hard to take it seriously when the book implies things like a character knowing all of world history, and therefore not believing in the current plot. For some fantasy settings that may work, but for Ys and it’s heavy parallels to our own world and the intertwining histories across it, it comes across as lazy to any fan of the series.
On that note, the characters. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the characterization of the main cast is awful. At best they’re inconsistent and slightly out of character, and at worst they’re the main characters betraying their own ideals for a romance that never existed in the game’s story.
Sahad, isn’t quite himself, nor is Dogi. Ricotta and Hummel are barely there, and Laxia is written as if she’s both intelligent and a whiny child who is in love with her butler, something that was not in the source material (that relationship is described as paternal in the game.)
Even character descriptions don’t match the designs, like the author was afraid to acknowledge that she was writing a book for an anime-styled game. You can have a character with blue or white hair, it’s okay. Dana’s description doesn’t even match her appearance on the cover of the book, and Adol’s actively goes against an established running joke of the game series—that he’s quite scrawny and lacking in muscle.
But worst of all has to be what was done to the main characters as CHARACTERS, Adol and Dana themselves. Adol is the main character of the series, and is known for only having adventure on his mind—adventure ‘makes life worth living’ for him, to quote him directly. This book decides that he’d be willing to give up adventure for Dana, another added romance that didn’t exist in the game. His writing is egregious, he’s randomly rude (a problem many other characters in the book have to be fair) despite kindness being one of his biggest traits, and his personality has shifted to make way for what seems to be the author’s personal ship. He describes her as perfect among other, stranger descriptions. Imagine that, a character so considerate of others and their problems, so empathetic that this trait is referred to outright in the games, seeing Dana not as a person with flaws and troubles but as an object to be worshipped. And Dana loves it.
He also strangely comes across as very new to adventure despite being on what would be his (excluding the newest game, which came out after the book) 5th-6th adventure timeline-wise. There are things the book treats as if he’d be confused or shocked about… that he experienced in a previous game, before 8 takes place. The author doesn’t seem to care for him and his story at all, not enough to cover his background, and eventually focused on his character becoming a meatsack to have Dana fall in love with. The protagonist of the entire series, mind you. He may be mostly silent in the games but he has a distinct personality defined by his actions and the moments he does speak, and what was written goes against those very basic and easy to write traits.
Dana on the other hand is a character from Ys VIII specifically. Many fans love her for her selflessness, her kindness, and her ability to stand tall and keep to her convictions despite the pain she suffers. She’s a very strong and independent character, which is part of what makes adding romance to this story such a horrible misstep. Her choices and ideals are even slightly questioned by herself because of Adol, because she’s in love. Dana in the game would never do such a thing, someone traumatized into pure selflessness would never act this way. Especially not for a selfish notion like loving a boy enough to consider the pros of giving up her battle, when that boy is fighting the same fight as her. The mere consideration of that idea should have been enough for me to stop reading, and it’s shocking that I managed to get through it in any capacity going forward.
…And not only that, she’s given two romances, because we just couldn’t stop at Adol, could we?
Romance can go alongside strong characters very easily, but changing two characters’ entire personalities to force it in is NOT the move. Especially the two protagonists, their story is wonderful without the added yearning and questioning of their central character traits. The lack of understanding of characters and lack of research of the series left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The author has been noted to ask questions about the series that are basic facts, and refusing to accept Adol’s main character trait of loving adventure more than anything else, so my claims aren’t even unfounded, unfortunately. It feels like an elaborate joke to laugh at what was an incredible game from an incredible series, mixed with a cheap YA romance novel because the author couldn’t respect the characters enough not to go there.
For fans of the series on a deeper level, the flaws are even more apparent, and frustratingly so. As an obvious fan of the series myself, I want better. Falcom tends to license out their IPs haphazardly, but it’s a rare day for us western fans to get something as big as a novelization. And quite frankly I’m disappointed, and in some ways disgusted by this product. I didn’t pay real money to be given glorified fanfiction. I expect it to be quality work. If you want a better representation of the series then just play the game, and if you want to read, go read Ys IX’s prequel book, it’s short but first party, fully canon, and carries the spirit of the series far better than this.
And for those who may be considering this having not played the game or casual fans: the amateurish writing; strange quips as if to wink at readers; inconsistent, blatantly disrespectful characterizations; and awkwardly thrown together narrative makes it very hard to recommend.
The writing itself is stiff and lacks clarity at times—it feels amateurish, so many basic writing tips come down to doing exactly the opposite of what this book does. I’m not saying you can’t break the rules, but have to know what you’re doing first. It treats the reader like an idiot who can’t put things together, with a hint of snark to bite the hand that fed it. No, we don’t need your commentary on random plot points, write the story.
The book is messy and doesn’t handle the task of bringing a video game’s plot together well in any way, shape, or form, which ends up giving it strange priorities. Some quests are included, others are not, and it IS hard to balance a video game’s story in a medium it wasn’t made for… but I expect more effort to tie it together and weigh the importance of scenes and quests for an official book.
Battles, which I don’t expect to be constant but do expect some work put into, will often be a few sentences (keep in mind, this book is adapting an action RPG known for its combat) but random descriptions of things will take up way more space, descriptions that don’t even need to be that fleshed out in comparison to other aspects. Strange parts where a simple action is described in near incoherent detail, whilst other parts of the book such as setting are left bland and simple when they shouldn’t be. Books should be able to grab you, and especially when you’re adapting a VIDEO game, you want the visual aspect to be given its due diligence. The author doesn’t have to describe every plant, I’m not asking her to, but when a location in the game wows you, I expect that same wow-factor in the book.
The author wrote this book because she says she loved the world and especially characters and wanted more of them, and I don’t doubt that love, it’s a great game. Yet I don’t see that love translated here at all. It feels to me that she loved the base concept, and wished to change everything else about it to suit her needs. Creative liberties are a given with novelizations, even encouraged, but this…? There is such a thing as going too far, and the book crosses that line.
The world of Ys is disrespected, treated as a backdrop without any thought put into it, and for a series that has so much care for its worldbuilding and lore… that’s extremely disappointing and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It mishandles and misrepresents the series’ world, as if the setting of Ys VIII exists in a bubble rather than being tied to a greater expanse. Yes, it’s important to keep your focus on the main island you’re actually writing… but it’s hard to take it seriously when the book implies things like a character knowing all of world history, and therefore not believing in the current plot. For some fantasy settings that may work, but for Ys and it’s heavy parallels to our own world and the intertwining histories across it, it comes across as lazy to any fan of the series.
On that note, the characters. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the characterization of the main cast is awful. At best they’re inconsistent and slightly out of character, and at worst they’re the main characters betraying their own ideals for a romance that never existed in the game’s story.
Sahad, isn’t quite himself, nor is Dogi. Ricotta and Hummel are barely there, and Laxia is written as if she’s both intelligent and a whiny child who is in love with her butler, something that was not in the source material (that relationship is described as paternal in the game.)
Even character descriptions don’t match the designs, like the author was afraid to acknowledge that she was writing a book for an anime-styled game. You can have a character with blue or white hair, it’s okay. Dana’s description doesn’t even match her appearance on the cover of the book, and Adol’s actively goes against an established running joke of the game series—that he’s quite scrawny and lacking in muscle.
But worst of all has to be what was done to the main characters as CHARACTERS, Adol and Dana themselves. Adol is the main character of the series, and is known for only having adventure on his mind—adventure ‘makes life worth living’ for him, to quote him directly. This book decides that he’d be willing to give up adventure for Dana, another added romance that didn’t exist in the game. His writing is egregious, he’s randomly rude (a problem many other characters in the book have to be fair) despite kindness being one of his biggest traits, and his personality has shifted to make way for what seems to be the author’s personal ship. He describes her as perfect among other, stranger descriptions. Imagine that, a character so considerate of others and their problems, so empathetic that this trait is referred to outright in the games, seeing Dana not as a person with flaws and troubles but as an object to be worshipped. And Dana loves it.
He also strangely comes across as very new to adventure despite being on what would be his (excluding the newest game, which came out after the book) 5th-6th adventure timeline-wise. There are things the book treats as if he’d be confused or shocked about… that he experienced in a previous game, before 8 takes place. The author doesn’t seem to care for him and his story at all, not enough to cover his background, and eventually focused on his character becoming a meatsack to have Dana fall in love with. The protagonist of the entire series, mind you. He may be mostly silent in the games but he has a distinct personality defined by his actions and the moments he does speak, and what was written goes against those very basic and easy to write traits.
Dana on the other hand is a character from Ys VIII specifically. Many fans love her for her selflessness, her kindness, and her ability to stand tall and keep to her convictions despite the pain she suffers. She’s a very strong and independent character, which is part of what makes adding romance to this story such a horrible misstep. Her choices and ideals are even slightly questioned by herself because of Adol, because she’s in love. Dana in the game would never do such a thing, someone traumatized into pure selflessness would never act this way. Especially not for a selfish notion like loving a boy enough to consider the pros of giving up her battle, when that boy is fighting the same fight as her. The mere consideration of that idea should have been enough for me to stop reading, and it’s shocking that I managed to get through it in any capacity going forward.
…And not only that, she’s given two romances, because we just couldn’t stop at Adol, could we?
Romance can go alongside strong characters very easily, but changing two characters’ entire personalities to force it in is NOT the move. Especially the two protagonists, their story is wonderful without the added yearning and questioning of their central character traits. The lack of understanding of characters and lack of research of the series left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The author has been noted to ask questions about the series that are basic facts, and refusing to accept Adol’s main character trait of loving adventure more than anything else, so my claims aren’t even unfounded, unfortunately. It feels like an elaborate joke to laugh at what was an incredible game from an incredible series, mixed with a cheap YA romance novel because the author couldn’t respect the characters enough not to go there.
For fans of the series on a deeper level, the flaws are even more apparent, and frustratingly so. As an obvious fan of the series myself, I want better. Falcom tends to license out their IPs haphazardly, but it’s a rare day for us western fans to get something as big as a novelization. And quite frankly I’m disappointed, and in some ways disgusted by this product. I didn’t pay real money to be given glorified fanfiction. I expect it to be quality work. If you want a better representation of the series then just play the game, and if you want to read, go read Ys IX’s prequel book, it’s short but first party, fully canon, and carries the spirit of the series far better than this.
And for those who may be considering this having not played the game or casual fans: the amateurish writing; strange quips as if to wink at readers; inconsistent, blatantly disrespectful characterizations; and awkwardly thrown together narrative makes it very hard to recommend.
May 29, 2024
***
Adventurer Adol becomes shipwrecked upon the mysterious island of Seiren. Tasked with rescuing his fellow castaways from the dinosaur infested jungle and attempting to find a way off the island, he is also faced with many mysteries, including dreams of Dana, a young priestess of a lost civilization.
This book closely follows the events of the game, from three different viewpoints: Adol, Laxia, and Dana. However, the book at times is a little too faithful to the game, making it overlong and a chore to read through, yet even with all the details this is not a book that can stand on its own as the world building is lax. There are some nice expansions to the story, such as the surprising There were some genuinely good parts, but it was bogged down by the inclusion of so many of the sidequests.
This was better written than many adaptations I've read, probably because it was by an actual author, but Ys 8 is a long and amazing game that doesn't necessarily translate well to the page.
Personal history: Purchased.
Adventurer Adol becomes shipwrecked upon the mysterious island of Seiren. Tasked with rescuing his fellow castaways from the dinosaur infested jungle and attempting to find a way off the island, he is also faced with many mysteries, including dreams of Dana, a young priestess of a lost civilization.
This book closely follows the events of the game, from three different viewpoints: Adol, Laxia, and Dana. However, the book at times is a little too faithful to the game, making it overlong and a chore to read through, yet even with all the details this is not a book that can stand on its own as the world building is lax. There are some nice expansions to the story, such as the surprising There were some genuinely good parts, but it was bogged down by the inclusion of so many of the sidequests.
This was better written than many adaptations I've read, probably because it was by an actual author, but Ys 8 is a long and amazing game that doesn't necessarily translate well to the page.
Personal history: Purchased.
April 12, 2024
Received an ARC from the publisher, and I couldn't be happier. I am already a fan of Anna Kashina and was not disappointed in her latest endeavor. This is a novelization of a video game series I have always been interested in trying. Reading Kashina's take on the story only made me more interested in trying the games. The world was absolutely immersive and had me hooked from the first chapter.
Our intrepid protagonist, Adol, is sailing on a vessel that gets a little too close to a mysterious island outside time. A deep soul connection leads Adol to Dana to help him save humans from extinction.
Now, non-gamers must absolutely read this novel. The adventuring is truly epic. The characters are entertaining and blend well with each other. Standard fantasy elements of fate, quests, and magic blend at an absorbing pace that had me flying through the pages. Bonus for gamers, the story feels like you are inside the game. You can feel the mechanics through the words.
Our intrepid protagonist, Adol, is sailing on a vessel that gets a little too close to a mysterious island outside time. A deep soul connection leads Adol to Dana to help him save humans from extinction.
Now, non-gamers must absolutely read this novel. The adventuring is truly epic. The characters are entertaining and blend well with each other. Standard fantasy elements of fate, quests, and magic blend at an absorbing pace that had me flying through the pages. Bonus for gamers, the story feels like you are inside the game. You can feel the mechanics through the words.
August 4, 2025
Quite possibly the worst adaptation of an IP that I've seen in recent history, tied with Paul W.S. Anderson's Monster Hunter movie. And it breaks my heart since Ys 8 is literally my favorite JRPG of all time.
Some of the prose is frustrating to read because it gets too stilted and overly literal at points, but those are flaws I can somewhat forgive. They're minor nitpicks, especially when compared to the damage this book does to Ys 8's characters. People like Dogi are written wildly out of character, people like Ricotta are underwritten, several side characters do not do anything, and the action is extremely lacking. I know the author intended to cut down the video-gamey parts of Ys 8 to focus more on character writing, but apart from failing at the character writing, this is an adaptation of an ACTION RPG. I'd expect at least the important fight scenes (like Dana's last boss fight at the Sanctuary Crypt at the end of her solo story section, much less the FINAL BOSSES) to be adapted faithfully or at least in an engaging way, but most of the fights are over and done with in a few paragraphs. Oh, did I mention the seeming fear the author has in acknowledging that this adapts a game with an anime art style? SHE LITERALLY GETS DANA'S HAIR COLOR WRONG ON PURPOSE. MULTIPLE TIMES.
And somehow, this adaptation has a weird fixation on romance that the game completely lacked. There are no less than THREE major romance subplots in this book, and two of them--Laxia/Franz and Dana/Rastell--are just shoved in there for absolutely no reason. The journal entries of Ys 8 very clearly state that Franz's affection for Laxia is ENTIRELY paternal, yet this book completely changes their bond to a romantic one. And Dana and Rastell don't even have anything resembling a romance in the games! Sure, you COULD argue that there was SOME one-sided affection on Rastell's part, but that's it--entirely one-sided. And even then, I'd argue Rastell's affection for Dana isn't even that romantic in the game--it's just high admiration for the Maiden of the Great Tree and a desire to protect her.
But perhaps the largest offender is the forced romance this book gives to Adol and Dana. Both are written wildly out of character, betraying their ideals and the cores of who they are just for a forced romance between them. Adol seriously considers that his love for adventure--his most defining trait--is only secondary for the sudden love he gains for Dana. He seriously considers throwing away his lifelong passion just for a girl he just met on an abandoned island.
As for Dana, the namesake of this video game? Well...
You know the kind, selfless soul that is absolutely determined to save as many people as she can? You know the kind, selfless soul who stands tall in her convictions despite the odds being completely stacked against her? Well, she seriously considers at one point to throw her convictions away just because she suddenly wants to make out with Adol. That is an offensive character change, something she never even THINKS about in the game--but no, we gotta put romance here, am I right??? TWO romance subplots for her even????
This frustrates me greatly. Dana is someone who matters a great deal to me, she's quite literally my favorite character in fiction and she saved me from the darkest pits of my life. And this novel just does her completely dirty.
Tl;dr just play the game. Don't bother with this, it's essentially just glorified fanfiction that somehow got officially licensed by Falcom (not that I'm surprised; they license awful things like the Trails Northern War anime or that one Gagharv trilogy mobile gacha game that uses AI art). I paid real money just to see my favorite character in fiction get butchered to high heaven, and to see a really amazing game to be watered down to just a YA romance novel that puppeteers Ys 8 as a skin suit.
Some of the prose is frustrating to read because it gets too stilted and overly literal at points, but those are flaws I can somewhat forgive. They're minor nitpicks, especially when compared to the damage this book does to Ys 8's characters. People like Dogi are written wildly out of character, people like Ricotta are underwritten, several side characters do not do anything, and the action is extremely lacking. I know the author intended to cut down the video-gamey parts of Ys 8 to focus more on character writing, but apart from failing at the character writing, this is an adaptation of an ACTION RPG. I'd expect at least the important fight scenes (like Dana's last boss fight at the Sanctuary Crypt at the end of her solo story section, much less the FINAL BOSSES) to be adapted faithfully or at least in an engaging way, but most of the fights are over and done with in a few paragraphs. Oh, did I mention the seeming fear the author has in acknowledging that this adapts a game with an anime art style? SHE LITERALLY GETS DANA'S HAIR COLOR WRONG ON PURPOSE. MULTIPLE TIMES.
And somehow, this adaptation has a weird fixation on romance that the game completely lacked. There are no less than THREE major romance subplots in this book, and two of them--Laxia/Franz and Dana/Rastell--are just shoved in there for absolutely no reason. The journal entries of Ys 8 very clearly state that Franz's affection for Laxia is ENTIRELY paternal, yet this book completely changes their bond to a romantic one. And Dana and Rastell don't even have anything resembling a romance in the games! Sure, you COULD argue that there was SOME one-sided affection on Rastell's part, but that's it--entirely one-sided. And even then, I'd argue Rastell's affection for Dana isn't even that romantic in the game--it's just high admiration for the Maiden of the Great Tree and a desire to protect her.
But perhaps the largest offender is the forced romance this book gives to Adol and Dana. Both are written wildly out of character, betraying their ideals and the cores of who they are just for a forced romance between them. Adol seriously considers that his love for adventure--his most defining trait--is only secondary for the sudden love he gains for Dana. He seriously considers throwing away his lifelong passion just for a girl he just met on an abandoned island.
As for Dana, the namesake of this video game? Well...
You know the kind, selfless soul that is absolutely determined to save as many people as she can? You know the kind, selfless soul who stands tall in her convictions despite the odds being completely stacked against her? Well, she seriously considers at one point to throw her convictions away just because she suddenly wants to make out with Adol. That is an offensive character change, something she never even THINKS about in the game--but no, we gotta put romance here, am I right??? TWO romance subplots for her even????
This frustrates me greatly. Dana is someone who matters a great deal to me, she's quite literally my favorite character in fiction and she saved me from the darkest pits of my life. And this novel just does her completely dirty.
Tl;dr just play the game. Don't bother with this, it's essentially just glorified fanfiction that somehow got officially licensed by Falcom (not that I'm surprised; they license awful things like the Trails Northern War anime or that one Gagharv trilogy mobile gacha game that uses AI art). I paid real money just to see my favorite character in fiction get butchered to high heaven, and to see a really amazing game to be watered down to just a YA romance novel that puppeteers Ys 8 as a skin suit.
August 21, 2024
I am having a hard time properly judging this book because I rarely read something when I already know the full story. I struggled to get through it and put it down several times because I did not have the pull of wondering how everything unfolds and ends.
That being said, I could still appreciate the author's ability to convey the sense of adventure that's present in the Ys games, especially in the beginning of the story. I also appreciated that the fights, despite being very numerous, were not the main focus of the book and were generally described quite concisely. There are liberties that I appreciated, like the expanded relationships between some of the characters, which wasn't part of the game. And then there were liberties that I appreciated less, like some of the romance that was included in this. Fortunately it was quite brief, but it still had time to get to a level of cheesy that put me off.
As far as the story and series of events go, I think the book suffers from being too close to the game. Many times during my read, I found that I was just reading a long sequence of quick quests that didn't have a chance to build up and breathe. In my opinion, this hurt the narrative and world building, and made it more tedious to read. I know it will probably please some fans that pretty much everything that is in the game is also in the book, but I think it would have greatly helped the book to be less game-coded.
That being said, I could still appreciate the author's ability to convey the sense of adventure that's present in the Ys games, especially in the beginning of the story. I also appreciated that the fights, despite being very numerous, were not the main focus of the book and were generally described quite concisely. There are liberties that I appreciated, like the expanded relationships between some of the characters, which wasn't part of the game. And then there were liberties that I appreciated less, like some of the romance that was included in this. Fortunately it was quite brief, but it still had time to get to a level of cheesy that put me off.
As far as the story and series of events go, I think the book suffers from being too close to the game. Many times during my read, I found that I was just reading a long sequence of quick quests that didn't have a chance to build up and breathe. In my opinion, this hurt the narrative and world building, and made it more tedious to read. I know it will probably please some fans that pretty much everything that is in the game is also in the book, but I think it would have greatly helped the book to be less game-coded.
October 28, 2025
i ain’t usually a review type but holy moly what did i read
not the biggest ys fan i’m more of a trails guy but i picked it up, kind of a sure why not moment, I liked the games enough. this felt kinda like if you took a fanfic and made it official it’s weird. i love dana in the game but in the book she’s kinda creepy, like obsessed with guys treating her like an object kinda creepy. and adol wasn’t really how i imagined him either he acted weird and obsessive too. a lot of the characters seemed possessive of each other for romance tbh it was like the author had a fetish and really wanted to write the guys as big buff dudes who pamper dana. dana even dates two men and it’s really weird going back and forth between her relationship with adol and her feelings for rastell it felt like i was watching a really good character get ruined and cheat on her friends with each other. i was kinda stunned this is what the book was like cause isn’t ys kinda known for a protagonist kinda like luffy from one piece? like he doesn’t care about anything but adventure, he kinda seems asexual in some ways and this book he has sex it threw me way off. kinda surprised falcom released this i get it’s 3rd party but i thought they gave their games a lot of care and figured they’d give the book attention too but i feel like falcom didn’t proofread this XD
not the biggest ys fan i’m more of a trails guy but i picked it up, kind of a sure why not moment, I liked the games enough. this felt kinda like if you took a fanfic and made it official it’s weird. i love dana in the game but in the book she’s kinda creepy, like obsessed with guys treating her like an object kinda creepy. and adol wasn’t really how i imagined him either he acted weird and obsessive too. a lot of the characters seemed possessive of each other for romance tbh it was like the author had a fetish and really wanted to write the guys as big buff dudes who pamper dana. dana even dates two men and it’s really weird going back and forth between her relationship with adol and her feelings for rastell it felt like i was watching a really good character get ruined and cheat on her friends with each other. i was kinda stunned this is what the book was like cause isn’t ys kinda known for a protagonist kinda like luffy from one piece? like he doesn’t care about anything but adventure, he kinda seems asexual in some ways and this book he has sex it threw me way off. kinda surprised falcom released this i get it’s 3rd party but i thought they gave their games a lot of care and figured they’d give the book attention too but i feel like falcom didn’t proofread this XD
November 1, 2023
I love the Ys series, especially Lacrimosa of Dana, and I immediately bought this book before it was even available on Kindle. Obviously, I’m a bit biased. However, I can definitely say that the author truly focused on the story rather than the innumerable amount of battles that these characters faced in-game.
It should also be noted that Adol (main character) does not speak in the games. Everyone else does the talking, and maybe he might say a couple short words. Thus, it was refreshing to see him speak in the book and to see the world through his eyes. I was also surprised to see romance come out in a way that I really didn’t see in the game, and it was done quite tastefully.
It should also be noted that Adol (main character) does not speak in the games. Everyone else does the talking, and maybe he might say a couple short words. Thus, it was refreshing to see him speak in the book and to see the world through his eyes. I was also surprised to see romance come out in a way that I really didn’t see in the game, and it was done quite tastefully.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2025
It's not perfect but man do I love the setting, and I love Dana. Some of the romance is hit or miss, and I'm a bit ambivalent with the way things are tied together at the end, but this is a fabulous love letter to the game. Thank you Anna, for letting me revisit this beautiful world in a different form.
January 15, 2025
I have thoroughly played the game and although it isn't perfect, it certainly stuck to the core plot of the story and dug deeper into a good chunk of the characters involved in the plot that the game never did.
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