Lacrimosa of Dana: Officially Licensed Novelization of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

Anna Kashina

Oct 2023 · Books of Ys Book 1 · Dragonwell Publishing

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

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. If I laid out my full thoughts I'd hit the 1000 character limit so I'll be concise. Some of the prose is frustrating to read because it gets too stilted and overly literal at points, but that's minor criticism 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, and somehow this adaptation has a weird fixation on romance that the game completely lacked. You'll see a major character get a romance they didn't even have in the game. I could list more examples, but again, character limit. 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. Tl;dr just play the game. Don't bother with this.

I'm four chapters into it and I can already visualize the events from when I played the game. Anna did a masterful job recreating the events in text form. Hopefully this will be the first of many collaborations with Falcom.

The author nailed it. Huge fan of the game and the book is incredibly faithful, and even expands on it. Highly recommended.