Finally, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is available internationally and on PC. I’ve not missed a single Ys release since my first experience with Ys Origin seven years ago, as even though the games aren’t always amazing, they never fail to be fun and entertaining. And the previous entry in the series, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, was easily one of the best action RPGs I’ve ever played. Despite the fact that the PC port of the game was at the time very flawed.
Yet, my hopes for Monstrum Nox weren’t as high as from it’s original announcement trailers it looked to be going for much bigger and more open, yet empty feeling locations. So I was afraid, that the tight and exciting hack and slash action and really fun exploration mechanics would get lost with this move. Luckily, I was mostly wrong and Ys IX turned out to be really fun.
If you’re unfamiliar with the series, Ys games are action RPGs made by Nihon Falcom that focus on fun adventuring in locations based on mythology. And they’re known for really fast paced action gameplay, interesting characters and fun locations you can explore. The series are also known by now to have certain “phases”, where a new general style of gameplay mechanics is introduced and that formula is reused and evolved for the few games more until a new set of basics is developed. Ys IX is following on the formula used in Lacrimosa of DANA, which in itself was started in Ys Seven, except moved to a full 3D view from an isometric perspective.
As such, it plays very similarly to how the previous entry did. You usually play as a party of 3 characters, being able to switch on the fly (while the AI controls the rest) and as the game goes along the selection of party members grows, so you can switch them up. Each party member has a specific damage type out of 3 (basically your typical slash/strike/pierce) and there are enemies that are weak and resistant to certain damage types, so switching characters in the fight is incentivized. Each character has a unique fight style, their own set of special skills and a special powerful skill. And you still get the really fun ability to do perfect dodging (that slows down time) and perfect blocking (that increases your damage) during the extremely fast paced action, as you constantly move around the enemies while attacking them.
A big gameplay change in Monsturm Nox, that really affects the entire game, is the special abilities that become available with each new party member added. You get to grapple to far away enemies and objects, run up the walls, float in the air – all of which is reflected in the level design of the game. The levels are really big, both vertically and horizontally, and at its best you get tons of chances to pull off some cool navigation moves and get to secret areas. These abilities, while more limited than they might first seem, are really fun and make exploring and fighting enemies really fun.
But it does affect the game. While on one hand I really like how most of the game is just one gigantic city and areas in it, as you get to appreciate the scale of it, the fact that for story and gameplay reasons the developers had to put magic barriers to prevent exploration eventually starts to get annoying. And when you can finally explore everything you wanted from the start, you realize that the plot hasn’t really properly explained itself (focusing on smaller stories), but you’ve seen all of the city. And for the second half of the game, you don’t really need to explore it at all, instead just going through the same routes every new chapter. Same goes for dungeons and other one-off locations or even other big locations of the game – they’re relatively big, but feel empty and not memorable. And it’s very easy to explore them once and then never visit them again.
Unfortunately, this same-ness gets into the gameplay as well. Until the very last parts of the game I barely ever cared to do any advanced combat moves or even use healing potions of any kind (at least on Normal difficulty), because even the different types of damage seemed to be not as important as they used to be before. I didn’t love them, so I can’t complain much, but then the issue is that the action gameplay feels more repetitive, while not being as constant and exciting as in Ys VIII, because the locations are so huge you constantly get some downtime. Maybe if you’re used to Ys titles it’s better to just play on Hard (the game seems to suggest as much), but still – the uneven pace and lack of the same tightness and excitement of DANA would remain.
The story is rather decent, though, and I liked quite a few characters. Even if Ys games were always more into more archetype-like characters and this one is no exception, I thought that by the end I cared about the place and the characters a lot. Just not quite as much as in Ys VIII. Neither did this feel as much of an adventure in a traditional sense. The music is also not among the greatest in the series, though Nihon Falcom seem unable to do bad soundtracks either way. And the PC port of the game this time around is incredibly good.
Overall, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is a very good entry in the series. It’s just not as exciting as the best ones. I hope that whatever is next for the franchise, the developers figure out how to either scale their levels back or make this grand open approach more exciting. Or better yet, introduce us to a new phase of the series with new gameplay ideas. If you’ve never played an Ys game before and fast paced adventurous action RPG sounds fun to you – definitely give this one a try. But if you’re already a fan of the series and are still on the fence for this one – it’s good, just don’t expect it to blow you away.