Turns out seafaring is a wrapper of even more padding AROUND those. During sea battles you sometimes need to board an enemy ship... and you suddenly find yourself in the same wave-based slog once again. Except they seem even more superficial as enemies spawn on-the-spot right in front of your face.
I was initially willing to give this a pass as it seemed to replace the tower defense segments that a lot of people were utterly sick and tired of after 2 other games had it (heck, I reckon plenty were tired of it after 1 game). The problem is... it's not replacing that.
Getting from point A to point B initially takes forever and feels like unnecessary padding. Fortunately there's fast-travel to specific points from the get-go, and also sea currents that speed you up between specific places. Unfortunately it doesn't end with that...
(Skip this thread if you don't want even high-level spoilers) The overarching plot/progression is slightly amusing simply it essentially flips the concept from Ys VIII on its head. They introduced seafaring and nautical battles, which might sound exciting on paper, but feels boring in execution.
Short version: The good news is it's another high-quality Ys game, while trying some new things, and the PC version runs great even in Linux. The bad news is I'm kinda not a huge fan of any of the new things it tries.
Holy crap I finally found the end of the Ys X #SteamNextFest demo. It waits until the end of the whole thing to tell you saves are transferable to the full game. My verdict on this is gonna require multiple posts. TL;DR I have mixed feelings but am still likely buying/playing it on day 1.
I have a couple more demos to try but I feel like chilling out on Friday night, so let's see if I can reach the end of the absurdly long Ys X demo instead. watch.cney.stream
Sektori #SteamNextFest verdict: very reminiscent of a mix of Waves and Rhythm Storm. Clearly has a solid vision for what it's going for. Has a few helpful accessibility settings, but sadly I think I was still having a lot of trouble visually following / noticing things to be any good at it.
RANDOMAX #SteamNextFest verdict: Interesting premise (a roguelike shmup), questionable execution - the demo was easily beatable even on the hardest difficulty, but no idea how later levels will scale. Gameplay felt like pretty much a wash; the most entertaining part was the dialogue in cutscenes.
Crystal Breaker #SteamNextFest verdict: pretty solid latest entry by TERARIN (who have other releases that I should also try). There's always stuff going on and often a "correct" place to be to maximize score via close-proximity kills or special bonuses for killing formations in specific ways.