Just a few days ago, NIS America announced that Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana would be released on PC on January 30th. Unfortunately, this won’t happen.
The publisher reached out with a press release explaining that technical issues stemmed from the differences in architecture between PS4 and PC have made modifying the core programming of the game unavoidable. As a result, development will be moved to an entirely different studio that will focus on optimization and frame rate improvement. Once that process begins, NIS will decide a new release schedule, and will also keep the fans updates regularly on the progress made.
The good news is that the relocalization of the PS4 and PS Vita versions of the game, that was supposed to release at the same time as the PC port, won’t be affected. It will still release on January 30th as scheduled.
The press release includes a full explanation and apologies from Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mitsuharu Hiraoka, which you can read in full below.
“Low framerate issues and memory leak problems were apparent from the earliest PC builds we received. To help combat these, we looked into the drawing processes, which lead to an overall improvement in performance. However, we are still encountering framerate drops in specific circumstances. The systems regulating these framerate issues are heavily reliant on the architecture of the original PlayStation 4 version and, as such, are not existent in PC architecture. The memory leak issues are somewhat less complicated and expected to be resolved this weekend. But in order to solve these issues, we have determined that we must modify the core level of data in the game.
As the PC version of the game was originally envisioned as a port, we avoided touching the core programming as much as possible and focused on PC performance optimization. However, in light of the feedback of those who have participated in the second beta test, we have concluded that we cannot avoid modifying the core programming.
Once the changes from the relocalization efforts have been implemented at the end of this month, we will be moving development to an entirely different developer who will primarily focus on frame rate improvements as well as other PC optimizations. Once that process begins, we will monitor the progress and determine the release schedule. We will also be sure to give regular updates to our progress.
Again, we truly regret that we underestimated the severity of the issues that have surfaced (and how long it would take to resolve them), and for that, NIS America sincerely apologizes to all of you for this unexpected delay. We are fully aware of how much our fans have been anticipating this release, and will do our very best to launch the game the way it is meant to be launched: without any issues, game-breaking bugs, or errors.
If you have made a pre-purchase on Steam and would like a refund due to this delay, please use the link provided.
For any purchases or pre-orders made outside of the Steam channel, please contact the corresponding refund support for that channel.
Thank you very much for your understanding, support, and patience through this time.”
The press release also did not make any mention of the recently-announced Switch version, which still doesn’t have a firm release date, and is coming this year.
If you want to learn more, which is currently available for PS4 and PS Vita, you can read our original review of the PS4 version.