I enjoyed V8. Tried to work through the redesigned Terajuma first but my impatience led me to stop before Crawli and go blast through the new story content.
I didn't think about it at the time but Krystal being the champion does make sense. I was wondering when we'd start seeing the champion mentioned and it feels about time for that to start coming up given how many badges we have now. I wish I hadn't forgotten her dialogue during her earlier side quest but I guess I'll just do it again with my Terajuma save.
I teamed up with Erin because she knew Aelita. Aelita is currently my favorite NPC so I thought teaming up with her might give me more information about her. I appreciate Erin's blunt attitude. So I exposed Flora because I have no real reason to like Bladestar given that my only interaction with them was getting thrown into a cell. And, at this point, the main character has had some pretty bad experiences with prisons and cells. Besides, after being captured so many times it felt amusing to get someone else caught.
I'm actually most interested in seeing where Venam ends up going as a character. It wasn't the focus of this update but it's clear something is brewing there.
My thoughts on redone Terajuma so far: Much improved! The extra dialogue between Braixen and Adam was really needed since they have just kind of been there. Now I actually care about them a little. Before the game didn't give me much reason to. The new way Venam returns to the story is amusing. I don't really like her but even I smiled when DOGARS played as a Yacht pulled in.
Misc thought on other stuff in the game: It's almost certainly nothing but the line Melia says when are fighting her for the first time "Wait, this isn't how it was suppose to go" seems really suspicious now given that time travel shenanigans are now happening.