One of Falcom’s best-loved action RPGs is coming to Switch 2. NIS America has announced that Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA arrives as a native Nintendo Switch 2 release on 25 February 2027, with performance of up to 120 frames per second and two-player co-op through GameShare.
Until now, Switch 2 owners could only play the original Switch version through backwards compatibility. This is a proper native version, and for a game whose combat lives and dies by speed, that matters.
What’s different on Switch 2
- Up to 120 FPS. Ys combat has always been fast, built on dodging and flash-guarding at the last moment, so a higher frame rate should make it feel noticeably sharper. The “up to” is a ceiling rather than a locked target, so expect the usual caveats until it’s been tested.
- GameShare co-op. Bring a second player along via GameShare to fight together, which is new to this version.
- Spanish text for the first time, alongside English and French. Voices remain in English and Japanese.
For context, the PS5 version already offers 4K at 60fps or 120fps at 1080p, so Switch 2 is catching up with the best existing version rather than leaping ahead of it.
Why this port matters
Ys VIII’s history on Nintendo hardware is mixed. The 2018 Switch version was a welcome portable option, but it was widely criticised for its performance compared with the PS4 version. It also launched in the same year NIS America retranslated the game’s English script after fans criticised the original localisation. A native Switch 2 release with a high frame-rate target is the version Nintendo players arguably should have had from the start.
There’s no word yet on whether owners of the Switch version will get a discounted upgrade path. NIS America hasn’t announced pricing either, and that will decide how tempting a double-dip is.
If you missed it the first time
Ys VIII first launched in Japan on PS Vita in July 2016 and reached the West in September 2017. Adol Christin, the series’ red-haired adventurer, is shipwrecked on a cursed island after his ship, the Lombardia, is attacked by a sea creature. He and the other castaways build a village to survive while searching for a way off, and Adol starts dreaming about a mysterious blue-haired girl called Dana.
The story moves between Adol’s survival and Dana’s own playable sections, and as you rescue more castaways, your village gains new services and the island opens up. Combat lets you swap party members on the fly, and it’s still one of the most satisfying systems in the series. The game had sold more than 500,000 copies by the end of 2018, a big number for a series that spent decades as a cult favourite in the West.
If you’ve only ever played Falcom’s Trails games, Ys VIII is the best place to start with its action-RPG sibling. It’s self-contained, you don’t need to know anything about Adol’s previous adventures, and it’s the entry that brought a lot of today’s Ys fans into the series.
Release details
| Detail | What’s confirmed |
|---|---|
| Release date | 25 February 2027, worldwide |
| Platform | Nintendo Switch 2 (native version) |
| Performance | Up to 120 FPS |
| Co-op | GameShare, two players |
| Text | English, French, Spanish |
| Voices | English, Japanese |
| Publisher / developer | NIS America / Nihon Falcom |
| Price | Not yet announced |
Ys VIII is also available now on PS4, PS5, Switch, PS Vita and PC. For more Switch 2 release dates, see our Nintendo coverage.