Ys IX: Monstrum Nox Reviews

YUFA

Emo adol

PREPOSTEROUS!

The real monstrum nox was all the friends we made along the way

I played Ys VIII before this game, and I played both Ys VIII and IX co-op. So, in this review, I'm going to be making a lot of comparisons to Ys VIII. Between the 2, Ys VIII had the more engaging narrative. VIII starts with Adol shipwrecked because a giant kraken like creature attacked the boat you were on and ending up on a fabled island. IX starts off with Adol getting arrested upon entering a city because...he's an adventurer? I really don't remember why exactly he was arrested, but I do remember it felt incredibly contrived. So already, VIII has a better hook. But VIII maintains interest as you are tasked with 1) finding other survivors; 2) find a way to safely get everyone off the island; and 3) figure out what exactly is happening with this island because there's something off about it (especially since Adol starts having dreams where he sees the lives and actions of certain people from an ancient civilization that used to inhabit the island). The narrative in IX however is, after escaping from the prison, Adol is without his consent, forced to aid some other citizens with fighting off these creatures called Lemures while also figuring out why so many people are getting arrested for no good reason. There is some interesting intrigue in IX surrounding why there seems to be 2 Adols, but aside from that, the ongoing plot just isn't as engaging as it was in VIII. Another thing regarding the plot is the main antagonist of IX: SPOILER WARNING, SKIP AHEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW The main antagonist of IX doesn't get revealed until like the end of the penultimate chapter of the game., and aside from the reveal cutscene, the only other cutscene where is is actually shown is right before the final boss. The characters do talk about him in between those 2 cutscenes (some of those discussions are only from sidequests), but I still thought it was pretty lame how this game handled its main antagonist END OF SPOILER SECTION Another thing is I read from a few people that IX had a lot of cut content, and while I'm not saying that that is actually true, the last 2 chapters of the game do give off a "we had to cut content" feel. I also found VIII to be thematically superior then IX. In VIII, your progression is dependent on how many survivors you saved and what Adventure Gear you've unlocked. Adventure Gear are just special items that usually give you a new traversal related ability (like being able to climb vines), but the reason why its also dependent on how many survivors you rescued is because your path will occasionally get blocked by something and you need a certain number of survivors rescued to help you clear the obstruction. Also, whenever you rescue a survivor and bring them back to your settlement, they will usually expand upon your settlement in some way. For instance, one of the survivors is a merchant, and when you rescue her, she opens up a shop in the settlement so that you can trade for things. Also, in the tower defense parts of VIII (both VIII and IX have these, and yes they're mandatory [but they're enjoyable]), You and the survivors are defending your settlement from the island wildlife that's attacking you. During these, you can set up defenses like a catapult to aid in attacking enemies, meat bait to lure enemies, and cheval de frise style barricades (all of which being things that a bunch of castaways from various backgrounds to cobble together). IX carries over the "rescuing people to join your cause" and "tower defense" mechanics as well, but I found the less interesting. The people you rescue in IX are mostly people who were imprisoned (or were going to be) that you save and come back to the pub that Adol and his friends are using as a base of operations. And usually when they join, they again offer a service. Ex. one of the people you save will purchase something from one of the various shops you've been to before so that you don't have to go out to that specific shop yourself. And as for the tower defense parts, its Adol and his party going to like an alternate dimensions to fight the Lemures to essentially disperse the built up negative energy (I'll touch on this later in the review). The thing is though, Adol and the other party members are able to go to this alternate dimension and both see/fight the Lemures because they all received a special boon. The people who join your cause don't receive the boon, so them being able to see the Lemures and assist in fighting them in this alternate dimension doesn't make much sense. They might of given a reason in a throwaway line of dialogue that I missed/forgot, but it still comes of as more contrived that these boonless people are able to assist you in these tower defense sections compared to the survivors you rescue in VIII assisting you in that game's tower defense sections because that was just the island wildlife attacking the settlement where everyone was staying at until you found a way to escape the island. Going back to that comment in dispelling build up of negative energy, in IX, your progression is blocked by both these magic barriers all over the city and surrounding country side and by what movement abilities you have unlocked. The magic barriers can only be dispelled after you build up enough negative energy (which is done by doing sidequests or grinding lemures), and then completing a tower defense section. This kind of progression blocking I find more contrived and thematically less interesting than how in VIII your way was blocked because of like a natural rockslide and you can only clear the way after you've found X number of survivors to help you clear the rubble. Also, regarding the tower defense section, you can unlock artifacts to assist you in them like how VIII you could acquire things like a catapult, but the artifacts are visually just more boring visually (they look like structures you've most likely seen in a number of other games) and more contrived (like seriously, how does Dogi acquire and setup these artifacts in that alternate dimension?). I mentioned unlocking movement abilities in IX, and I will say this is a positive IX has over VIII. At the start of the game, Adol has the ability to teleport to certain kinds of spots, and as you unlock party members, you get a new traversal ability with each one. For example, the first party member grants you the ability to run up walls, and the second party member grants you the ability to glide in the air. Not only does this make unlocking more party members something to look forward to even if you don't end up using them, but that also means IX feels a lot more free and fun with its traversal than VIII. Though I will say, the traversal abilities you unlock after the gliding one are a lot more situational and less fun. Another positive I'll give IX over VIII is its coop mode. Specifically with how it handles switching which character you play as in the active party. So let's say your active party is characters A, B, and C (in that order). In IX, Player 1 controls A, and Player 2 will control B. However, at the press of a button, Player 2 can instantly change to C. Player 1 is stuck playing as A until coop mode is turned off. In VIII however, while Player 1 would still control A and Player 2 will still control B, the only way for Player 2 to control C is for Player 1 to cycle the character order (which is done with a button press). Meaning that Player 1 would end up controlling B, Player 2 would end up controlling C, and A would be controlled by the game. In short, IX handles the coop mode better. One last minor advantage I'll give IX over VIII is that IX felt a bit more tight with its story. There were 2 spots in VIII that felt unnecessary and could've been removed (specifically, the "murder mystery" subplot and that part where you had to investigate the ghost ship). I still think VIII is overall the better and more satisfying game, but IX is enjoyable too.

This franchise knows it's lane and knows how to weave a good story. The game is straight forward and has everything you would want in a good JRPG. It's not ridiculous in the name of "difficulty" either. It's fun, has it's challenges, decent exploration, and it really scratches the itch well. I would say maybe nowadays 60 dollars is too much being this was not a high end graphics release back when it came out, but for a good discount, which they do often it is well worth it.

Adol and Dogi finally make their way to the Romun Empire and, since his luck sucks, he's promptly arrested and sent to the Romun version of The Bastille crossed with Alcatraz, since in Ys VIII two important characters from this country warned him he was getting too famous and attracting too much attention from powerful people in the Empire. So of course he tries to escape, but like every few months or so, he ends up getting mixed up in some supernatural shenanigans, this time falling under a curse that makes him a superhero but prevents him from leaving the city and forces him to fight some invisible monsters and dressing in Alucard's old clothes from his edgelord teenager phase, while he uncovers the mystery of what's happening, saves the local population and breaks the curse. The gameplay is pretty much almost the same as Lacrimosa of Dana, the previous game in the series, just with some tweaks. Instead of the village you have a pub as a home base where your allies gather, instead of the dinosaur raids you have the demon/spirit attacks, instead of exploring the island you explore the city and report back, and so on. Gear, upgrades, skills, etc., are all very similar, and the main difference is that your powers now give you more options to navigate the map since on top of having the double jump from the start you can also unlock additional moves like being able to glide and climb using a line and so on. The whole edgy vaguely Castlevania-ish aesthetic they have going on for the main characters when in their super-powered persona is lame AF but after a while I got used to it, especially since the characters do have "secret identities" and look like their normal selves for a big part of the game. Every single Ys game I've played starts out with me thinking I'm not sure if I like it that much, and every sequel made initially think I liked the previous game better, but usually by the end I end up loving all of them for different reasons, and I expect this one won't be an exception based on what I've seen so far. I got a huge kick out of the Interrogator referencing the events of previous games when Adol has just been arrested when she accuses Adol of lying or being suspicious because he's been on too many shipwrecks and he always ends up involved in high profile events and local politics, including getting his hands on powerful and even legendary artifacts he somehow always manages to lose before he shows up elsewhere, and Adol just says it's not like he's doing it on purpose. Edit: After finishing the whole game, I think it's not as good as Ys VIII, but I do think that the story becomes more interesting towards the end of the game and I liked the ending a lot. Now, on to Ys X: Nordics to finish my playthrough of all the Ys games released in the west to date.

It's worth it, but I expected more. The combat starts simple in a good way with focus on parrying and bursting with skills during parrying buffs. Then you get a completely overpowered skill and just spam it to deal with everything. Map exploration is great. There's no post-game content, which I almost expected for this type of game. Mixed feelings, worth playing. 7/10.

This was my first YS game, but after playing I am definitely going to dive into the rest of the series. It's hard for me to give YS 9 a number rating because I have some issues with performance and visuals, and I was not truly invested until the latter half of the game, but when I did get invested and everything clicked with me, man did I love it. It's not that the first half of the game isn't good either, it just feels a bit repetitive or at times you're not given a lot to go off of to keep you motivated. Overall, this game rocked and I didn't really expect to like it so much, so it was a very nice surprise. I came in not knowing if I'd play much at all, and by the end I was committed to basically 100%ing it (which I might still do in a 2nd playthrough). I am an action game and JRPG enjoyer, and I reeeally liked everything gameplay-wise that this game had to offer. Very fast-paced and fun to mess around with skills and different playable characters and to do so while listening to the OST in different areas was a blast. All the abilities for traversal through dungeons and areas was fun, and I enjoyed going back and exploring areas when I unlocked new ones. It feels a bit metroidvania in that sense, breaking through walls or sneaking into areas that you couldn't before. There's a lot of difficulty options which I really like, I played on Hard which was perfect for my entry into the series, but I would definitely go up from there in the future. I would imagine most people could handle Hard as their start to the series as well. Combat and how fun it is to control the different characters was a big highlight of YS 9. This game has style. While I do think the 3D textures, character models, and some of the animations the character models have are outdated for sure, the art, design, and music of this game really hit for me. The art and designs for characters, enemies, and set-pieces in YS 9 are a treat. Go check out the art-book for this game online, it's nuts. All the art you see that's 2D in this game is 10/10. Edgy designs are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, so the way the Monstrums look hits for me for sure. For the music, you're hearing a LOT of guitar and high-energy tracks in the OST in this game and I love it, but I can understand some criticism if you're not into that. There's some OST variety for sure as well, but seriously some of the tracks are downright exhilarating to the point I'm bumping 'em while working out. Story-wise I was a bit bored or confused for the first half or 2/3 of the game, and then I was locked-in and enjoying it a lot after that. Love all the characters though, really really do. Hawk, Yufa, and Aprilis my beloved. I was very happy in 100%ing all the character entries in the journal and maxxing affinities to see more of these characters. Getting resolution at the end and seeing the credits made me a bit emotional, like wow I'm gonna miss these guys. YS 9 was a great adventure, and I definitely will remember it fondly, even as I start playing other games of the series (unlike Adol).

Having a game set only in One city and its immediate surroundings is a crazy bet. One that worked really well here. Allthough the graphics are outdated and the Artistic Direction is nothing crazy (Except for a few main part of Balduq and the chara design which is absolutely stellar) the game remains a good one, where time spend is a blast. I found the story enjoyable, the characters endearing and the OST good. It's not better or worse than YS VIII, it's different, and I'm all for it