For lovers of the JRPG genre, especially with a focus on action compared to turn-based combat, Ys is a pretty well-known name. While the original games came out close together, the numbered releases were staggered out much more following V. So it’s kind of shocking to see IX come out just three years after VIII. Of course, following the adoration VIII got, I was very excited to see the direction the latest entry was taking.

If you’ve never played an Ys game, it’s important to know that while each entry is singular and separate, they all follow the same adventurers: Adol and Dogi. There are several callbacks to previous games throughout the series, although none of these should be anything to worry about – it’s just something nice for those that have been along for the ride. A good majority of these happen in the early portion of this game, during an interrogation following imprisonment. It’s worth noting that the opening gave me some Persona 5 vibes, although this is quite different moving past that portion of the game.

It doesn’t take long for Adol to be imbued with the power of the Monstrum, which is a curse put upon several people (your eventual party) that keeps them from leaving the city of Balduq – the Prison City. In fact, it hinders you from moving about different parts of the city until certain criteria are met, which typically involves killing monsters within the Grimwald Nox. Think of this as an alternate reality where monsters spawn – it’s a bit like Dusk Diver in that regard, although the landscapes were typically more boring. However, while you are limited by where you can go in one regard, it’s made up for in others, as you can teleport (hookshot), run up walls, glide, and more depending on the party members you’ve obtained and each of their gifts. While you won’t be booting up the game just to traverse the city like you might in Spider-Man, it really opens up the world and brings a breath of fresh air to it.

During the first few hours, combat seems to be mostly optional aside from some story events, which was both nice and odd. Later on it made more sense, although I wasn’t a huge fan of farming spawn points to build up my Nox gauge once I had completed the available side quests, although it helped boost my item count and things to sell. The Nox gauge is necessary for continuing the story and provides some other bonuses, and is also helpful for some of the trophies if you plan on going for the platinum. Speaking of options, the game offers several difficulties as well as handicaps if you have trouble with things like platforming. It’s nice for accessibility purposes, as the story is quite good. There are some twists hinted at early on that I didn’t expect, and it was a welcome surprise.

It’s not long into the game that you start building up your own little group of friends in a bar. Whether they are party members or NPCs that you helped during a quest that will assist you, this is your home base. You’ll pick up quests, replay battles, build up skills, trade inventory, enhance your weapons, and more. In addition to your increased party size meaning more Monstrum skills, it also means more people to use in combat. This is helpful if you’re going against an enemy that is resistant against a certain weapon type, which will be obvious by the damage coming up as blue instead of white or yellow (weak). Switching roles is as simple as clicking circle and you’re instantaneously the next character. Admittedly, I found myself switching when I didn’t want to as I tried to complete combat skills, failing to hit R1 first, or thinking I was hitting it. To that end, there were many times button combinations just didn’t register, which was a bit frustrating, although it never resulted in my death.

While my actual problems with the game are few, including the responsiveness of the buttons (could just be my controller, was playing on PS5 with a DualSense), I did run into some bugs. As is the case with any game that allows for vertical traversal, I found myself stuck in the environment many times over, having to exit out of the game and reload a save. I also had the game crash and boot me back to the PS5 home screen during a cut-scene as I was preparing to progress. However, none of these issues compared to the PC launch of Ys VIII – I must’ve played the prologue of that game 20+ times in the hopes of actually getting into chapter 1 without it closing out on me. Load times never seemed obtuse, although that may have been because of the PS5.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox feels like a reinvention of the series in a way. The overall tone feels much darker, the movement is much more inviting, and the story is compelling for new and old players. There’s definitely a lot for veterans to love, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the series found a much bigger audience with this release, akin to the later Persona games. While not the best looking game I’ll play this year by a long shot, it will definitely be sticking with me.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Monstrum Gifts
• Interesting Story
• Fun Combat

Cons

• Glitches (Environment, Crashes)
• Input Lag

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox was developed by Falcom and published by NIS America. It launched on PS4 and will be coming to Switch/PC in the future. The game was provided to us for review on PS4 and played on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, check out the official site.

 

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