How to unlock the true ending in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

Want the true ending of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, that reveals the ultimate fate of a key character? Here’s exactly how to get it, plus more story.

If you just breeze your way through Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana without a care in the world, you might find its ending a touch unsatisfying. Without spoiling anything, the fate of a certain character remains foggy, and there remain unanswered questions about the history of Eternia and what that means for the world going forward. Fortunately, the game’s true ending is easy to get, though you’ll want to start working on it early in the game rather than trying to finish it later.

This guide will contain very light spoilers for later sections of Ys VIII:

You get the true ending in Ys VIII by achieving a reputation score for Adol of 150 or higher. Adol’s reputation can be seen from the menu page among all of Adol’s other stats. You earn reputation in Ys VIII by completing the requests that villagers put up on the board in Castaway Village. The trick here is that the quests do not stick around for the entire game. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, so pay attention to the time limit posted with each one. It’s not a realtime limit, but rather a limit indicating how much story progression can pass before the request can no longer be done.

It’s worth doing these quests, as you can get extra backstory on the different villagers from doing them, and you’ll often get decent item rewards. You can also purchase (from Dina after a certain point) or find gifts for different villagers to increase their affection for Adol, eventually leading to heartfelt conversations they will share with him. This also means you’ll want as many of the castaways actually in the village as possible so their quests will appear, so make sure you’ve found everyone you can.

150 isn’t a difficult benchmark to make if you stay on top of the quests throughout the game, but don’t try to cram it all in right before the final boss. You’ll run out of sidequests!

But wait, there’s more–

In the North American version of Ys VIII, new story has been added for Dana, as well. Though it doesn’t affect whether or not you can get the true ending, you’ll stumble upon a new dungeon and sidequest detailing the history of Eternia early on in Dana’s story. The dungeon itself has five different floors that you’ll unlock by finishing all of Dana’s sidequests in Eternia to raise her virtue and rescue the fairies. Unlike Adol’s quests, Dana’s can be done at any time by visiting the applicable crystal, and each crystal will show which ones remain undone.

By finishing all her quests, you’ll unlock the final door of the dungeon. And after a certain point in the game, a character will beckon you to meet her there for one of the hardest boss fights in the game. The reward is worth it, though, as you’ll get the best weapon upgrade in the game for Dana just before the fight, and her final “memory” for completing it, thus wrapping up the story of Eternia and what happened to all the characters of Dana’s past.

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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA is out now for PS4 and Vita. It will be coming to PC at a later date.