Very interested in this. My favorite thing about Ys VIII is how I started off enjoying the exploration and slowly uncovering the map (I actually liked the whole "need X number of people to open new areas" thing even though I know a lot of people didn't), but thinking the story was kind of bad. Some of the early chapters were really rough, when it was just about the shipwrecked crew and their inner strife and all.
But then, around when you get to the halfway point, I found myself suddenly really liking the story once it ramps up and deals with Dana's plotline. I found myself surprisingly invested in her character, and the history of the island, and really liked the tragic arc of how it all played out. Well... until the ending kind of went into "epic planet anime bullshit" mode, but still, it was fun.
