"While I do enjoy the Ys series of games, I have to be honest, I didn't like it too much when they decided to start from Ys Seven and having party members join Adol in the field and be controlled by the AI as well as introducing enemy types that had a specific weapon type they were weak again. Meaning having to either let the AI do the work or manually switch to the other party members that did the damage type necessary to more quickly defeat enemies, sure in early titles Adol had to switch between element type weapons or magic to deal increased damage, but I've always found this mechanic annoying after Ys I & II, Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim, Ys: Oath In Falgahna & Ys: Origin where you only had control of Adol or in Ys Origin's case one of the three selectable characters to play through the story from 'their' perspective. I also do not like the whole Flash Move/Flash Guard system they introduced. I mean yes it works similar to other game series with the "perfect guard" or "parry" system with blocking at the correct/last moment to trigger.

I am currently playing through Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and honestly the flash move/flash guard mechanic gets on my nerves as I can't get the timing right due to the variety of monster types and all having different animations along with having multiple attacks, two attacks at least which come with their own animations. Most times I've managed to get them to trigger has been from dumb luck from just attempting to dodge attacks in the first place which is what triggers flash move or from me activating skills as flash guard is triggered by the RB button on Xbox controllers, as you have to press and hold RB to trigger whatever skill you have assigned to A,B,X,Y. Its to me just an annoying mechanic especially against bosses and in Lacrimosa of Dana's case also annoying in the whole "Raid" mechanic.

Raid being a sort of mini-game if you will where you have to return, or well i guess not have to, did say it was optional if I recall, anyways you return to Castaway Village to defend one side from a set number of Waves of enemies, each wave ending with tallying up scores and bonus points awarded at the end of each wave on if you've done a Flash Move, Flash Guard, EXTRA Skill, Eradication (Meaning all monsters in the wave defeated and none fled ) and no damage. Believe there was also scores for how many fortifications/lures remained in tact after each wave. And then at the end of the Raid you get ranked and rewarded based on the rank so if you want the S rank and all the rewards because on first time Raids you do get the rewards for both the rank you achieved but also from the lower ranks, then you need try to get all the bonus points per wave which mind you I fail at because timing for Flash Move and Flash Guard are a pain with multiple monster types but also time it wrong and you take damage which nulls the No Damage bonus.