Full video review: https://youtu.be/JmXAt2yXQ-E
Ys VIII was both my introduction to the series and my personal game of the year back in 2018 – so I had high hopes going into this one.
Combat:
The Ys series has always been known for its action-orientated take on JRPG combat and Ys IX is yet another shining example. It plays in real-time, has a mountain of different abilities and moves to use, and – overall – is just fun to play. The core to the combat is actually kind of basic, but the depth really comes from character abilities. You get your dash attacks, large AOE attacks, aerial risers, and combo finishers that can be strung together however you wish. It’s like a fighting game in a way – you have all the tools to come up with your own combos, it is just up to you to figure out the right formula and what works in each scenario.
It’s a lot of fun in practice and yes, this all sounds like the makings of some great combat, but if you have played Ys VIII – the overall gameplay is basically the exact same. The system in VIII was already top-tier, so it’s nice to see it again here, but I won’t deny, it would have been cool to see some more changes made.
Exploration/Level Design:
New to IX are a bunch of cool abilities called Monstrum Gifts. Running up walls, breaking down certain structures, being able to double jump from the start of the game, and even just straight-up gliding – the game has a much better sense of verticality to it and it makes the exploration far more interesting.
The level design is done in such a way as to aid in this exploration, putting chests, secret graffiti spots, and other neat stuff to find in spots that may look out of reach, but once you have the right abilities – can be accessed with a well-placed wall-run, glide, or combination of the two or more. As with other Falcom games, there is a LOT to find here and given that most of the game takes place in a single city – a lot of effort was put into making that single city as dense as possible.
Setting/Scale:
The game as a whole is smaller in scale. Smaller story, smaller map, shorter length – it’s not quite as ambitious as previous Ys games and I was a bit disappointed that these cool new exploration abilities weren’t able to be used in this big, open map like what we got with Ys VIII. That game had a real sense of adventure to it, being dumped onto this tropical island and discovering its secrets – a feeling I didn’t quite have with IX, being in a prison for a good chunk of the game and being enclosed within the walls of a city for the majority of it.
Story:
Ys IX, despite being a shorter game compared to Ys VIII, not only places more focus on the story with longer dialogue scenes and such, but does so in a very structured manner. By that, I mean within just the first few hours, you can already feel the “story loop” develop. Each chapter introduces a new character, has you go through their story arc, has you complete one of those tower defense missions, unlocks a new area on the map, and has you go through a story scene in the prison. Repeat this a number of times and you got the core to Ys IX. For a game about adventure, it’s quite literally the opposite feeling – one less of discovery and more of order.
Falcom’s other big JRPG franchise – Trails – has adopted this approach with its recent games as well, so perhaps this is just the studio’s way of consolidating how it does its narratives. It’s unfortunate, because while the stories themselves can be interesting, you can never really escape that “structured” feeling and it does bring down the experience a bit – makes it feel like I’m going through a checklist rather than being on an adventure.
Still, that’s not to say that the story is entirely bad here. It may not be as interesting as VIII, but the increased story focus does allow for the characters to see more development and I grew to like the cast here – perhaps more so than VIII. The little story arcs you follow, the interactions the characters have outside of the main story, and the addition of a new “gifting” mechanic all add to this as well, giving even more time to allow this cast to develop and really humanize themselves.
Graphics/Music:
The game looks pretty much the same as Ys VIII and the recent Trails games. It’s not a bad look, but don’t go into it expecting the studio to be pushing boundaries. It is 100% a game developed for the last generation and the graphics reflect that.
The music, on the other hand, is some really good stuff. Not quite as good as VIII, but I have yet to be disappointed by a Falcom soundtrack and Ys IX is no exception. Fast and powerful battle themes, epic boss music, and the more relaxing stuff for the town and story scenes too – it’s got a good range to it and is 100% something I will be listening to on and off in the future.
PC Port:
All in all, the port itself is pretty good. You’ve got the usual graphic options like resolution, VSync, display mode, and whatnot, but the port goes a bit beyond what we usually see in the genre with more obscure settings like sampling rate, draw distance, multiple shadow options, multiple postprocessing options, and a framerate slider.
The game supports a maximum of 144 fps and I had no issues running it at that resolution smoothly at 1440p on my aging 1070 Ti. It supports 4k resolution, ultra-widescreen, adjustable field of view, and even has a color blind mode – props to the studio for that. Control-wise, it plays flawlessly on an Xbox controller, but also has mouse and keyboard support that isn’t even that bad. I still prefer the controller layout for sure, but this is one of those ports I can at least recommend to keyboard players without having to warn them first.
Overall:
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, although not quite as good as Ys VIII, is still another excellent addition to the series – bringing some notable improvements to it while keeping the core to what makes the series great. Exploration, for example, is a lot more involved this time with the addition of Monstrum Gifts. In return though, the map size and overall scale of the game is smaller. Story-wise, it has its ups and downs, but is an overall enjoyable ride with a nice cast of characters attached to it. The combat is practically the same thing as the last game, but it was good there so of course it’s good here as well – although I won’t deny I would have liked to see some more changed made to it.
For Ys fans, it’s an obvious pickup, but if you are new to the series, I would recommend starting with a previous one – Ys VIII is an excellent entry to start from.
Ys VIII was both my introduction to the series and my personal game of the year back in 2018 – so I had high hopes going into this one.
Combat:
The Ys series has always been known for its action-orientated take on JRPG combat and Ys IX is yet another shining example. It plays in real-time, has a mountain of different abilities and moves to use, and – overall – is just fun to play. The core to the combat is actually kind of basic, but the depth really comes from character abilities. You get your dash attacks, large AOE attacks, aerial risers, and combo finishers that can be strung together however you wish. It’s like a fighting game in a way – you have all the tools to come up with your own combos, it is just up to you to figure out the right formula and what works in each scenario.
It’s a lot of fun in practice and yes, this all sounds like the makings of some great combat, but if you have played Ys VIII – the overall gameplay is basically the exact same. The system in VIII was already top-tier, so it’s nice to see it again here, but I won’t deny, it would have been cool to see some more changes made.
Exploration/Level Design:
New to IX are a bunch of cool abilities called Monstrum Gifts. Running up walls, breaking down certain structures, being able to double jump from the start of the game, and even just straight-up gliding – the game has a much better sense of verticality to it and it makes the exploration far more interesting.
The level design is done in such a way as to aid in this exploration, putting chests, secret graffiti spots, and other neat stuff to find in spots that may look out of reach, but once you have the right abilities – can be accessed with a well-placed wall-run, glide, or combination of the two or more. As with other Falcom games, there is a LOT to find here and given that most of the game takes place in a single city – a lot of effort was put into making that single city as dense as possible.
Setting/Scale:
The game as a whole is smaller in scale. Smaller story, smaller map, shorter length – it’s not quite as ambitious as previous Ys games and I was a bit disappointed that these cool new exploration abilities weren’t able to be used in this big, open map like what we got with Ys VIII. That game had a real sense of adventure to it, being dumped onto this tropical island and discovering its secrets – a feeling I didn’t quite have with IX, being in a prison for a good chunk of the game and being enclosed within the walls of a city for the majority of it.
Story:
Ys IX, despite being a shorter game compared to Ys VIII, not only places more focus on the story with longer dialogue scenes and such, but does so in a very structured manner. By that, I mean within just the first few hours, you can already feel the “story loop” develop. Each chapter introduces a new character, has you go through their story arc, has you complete one of those tower defense missions, unlocks a new area on the map, and has you go through a story scene in the prison. Repeat this a number of times and you got the core to Ys IX. For a game about adventure, it’s quite literally the opposite feeling – one less of discovery and more of order.
Falcom’s other big JRPG franchise – Trails – has adopted this approach with its recent games as well, so perhaps this is just the studio’s way of consolidating how it does its narratives. It’s unfortunate, because while the stories themselves can be interesting, you can never really escape that “structured” feeling and it does bring down the experience a bit – makes it feel like I’m going through a checklist rather than being on an adventure.
Still, that’s not to say that the story is entirely bad here. It may not be as interesting as VIII, but the increased story focus does allow for the characters to see more development and I grew to like the cast here – perhaps more so than VIII. The little story arcs you follow, the interactions the characters have outside of the main story, and the addition of a new “gifting” mechanic all add to this as well, giving even more time to allow this cast to develop and really humanize themselves.
Graphics/Music:
The game looks pretty much the same as Ys VIII and the recent Trails games. It’s not a bad look, but don’t go into it expecting the studio to be pushing boundaries. It is 100% a game developed for the last generation and the graphics reflect that.
The music, on the other hand, is some really good stuff. Not quite as good as VIII, but I have yet to be disappointed by a Falcom soundtrack and Ys IX is no exception. Fast and powerful battle themes, epic boss music, and the more relaxing stuff for the town and story scenes too – it’s got a good range to it and is 100% something I will be listening to on and off in the future.
PC Port:
All in all, the port itself is pretty good. You’ve got the usual graphic options like resolution, VSync, display mode, and whatnot, but the port goes a bit beyond what we usually see in the genre with more obscure settings like sampling rate, draw distance, multiple shadow options, multiple postprocessing options, and a framerate slider.
The game supports a maximum of 144 fps and I had no issues running it at that resolution smoothly at 1440p on my aging 1070 Ti. It supports 4k resolution, ultra-widescreen, adjustable field of view, and even has a color blind mode – props to the studio for that. Control-wise, it plays flawlessly on an Xbox controller, but also has mouse and keyboard support that isn’t even that bad. I still prefer the controller layout for sure, but this is one of those ports I can at least recommend to keyboard players without having to warn them first.
Overall:
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, although not quite as good as Ys VIII, is still another excellent addition to the series – bringing some notable improvements to it while keeping the core to what makes the series great. Exploration, for example, is a lot more involved this time with the addition of Monstrum Gifts. In return though, the map size and overall scale of the game is smaller. Story-wise, it has its ups and downs, but is an overall enjoyable ride with a nice cast of characters attached to it. The combat is practically the same thing as the last game, but it was good there so of course it’s good here as well – although I won’t deny I would have liked to see some more changed made to it.
For Ys fans, it’s an obvious pickup, but if you are new to the series, I would recommend starting with a previous one – Ys VIII is an excellent entry to start from.