Year: 2019 |Publisher: NIS America|Developer: Nihon Falcom |Original format: PlayStation 4 | Version played: PlayStation 4
After falling for Falcom with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of DANA, and subsequently working my way through a number of the best entries in the series, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox was my first time playing a brand new entry at launch. Exciting, right? This instantly made it a different experience to the others, with relatively little historical context to go on, and largely free of any critical consensus. Except of course, informed by my now EXPERT opinion on what makes a great Ys game.
But here’s the thing… When I watched the trailers for Ys IX, I struggled to get excited. The game’s new setting, the walled prison city of Balduq, looked grey, depressing and lifeless in comparison to the beautiful tropical island of Ys VIII. And when I played the demo ahead of the game’s release, it did little to reassure me. Its sample dungeons felt dreary and cold, boxy and repetitive and I actually came away less interested in playing it than I was before. Uh oh.
Things weren’t looking too promising were they? And yet I went ahead and bought the PS4 version anyway. Partly this was because some trustworthy sources said the full game was way better than the demo, and partly it’s because I just felt Falcom’s previous work had earned them a leap of faith. I took that leap and… well, I wouldn’t be writing about it now if I didn’t have a good time.
The strange thing about Ys IX is that all the preconceptions I had did actually turn out to be true. The city does feel very stale compared to the locations of previous games, and the dungeons are a bit a drab. Most notably, I felt the story was way more bloated than I’d typically expect from an Ys game.
Balduq is a densely populated city with scores of of NPCs to talk to, and endless side quests to take on. What’s more, this game invests much more time in Adol’s party of compatriots than Ys VIII did. Each of the five playable allies has an entire chapter dedicated to them, telling their personal back-story, and for every chapter that takes place within the boundaries of the city there is another inside the prison itself. This all adds up to a very, very, very long game with a hell of a lot of talking.
At times the focus on story and the city location reminded me more of Trails Of Cold Steel than it did Ys. If this was intentional on Falcom’s part, I could understand why. The Trails series has been extremely successful for the venerable developer and played a huge part in their slow and steady growth in the west. Yet I can’t help but feel this directly goes against what made Ys great in the first place. When the original game was created in 1987, it was intended to be more accessible and easier to complete compared to other RPGs on the market. It was fast and zippy, and never got bogged down. Now I’m not saying Ys shouldn’t evolve with the times, but there are plenty of talky-talky RPGs out there, and maybe Ys should evolve its own strengths further in a direction that sets it apart from the competition rather than moving closer toward it. But who am I tell Falcom what they should do with their long-running, successful and beloved series? Especially when I enjoyed the game so much in spite of its drawbacks.
If you were only to play a couple of hours of Ys IX, you might be fooled into thinking this is just another RPG where you walk around another vaguely European town, taking on quests and occasionally venturing out into the field to slay monsters. But appearances can be deceiving, and Ys IX’s cast of characters are the most deceiving of all. The “Monstrums”, the playable characters referred to in the game’s title, are each struck with a curse that endows them with their own unique power and the ability to transform their appearance into much more dramatic and flamboyant versions of themselves. Adol too is struck with this same curse, which is why he appears taller and more dashing than usual, with a sharp and stylish anime pop idol hairstyle replacing his usual boyish mop. It’s a fun way for Falcom to explore a wildly different design for their iconic hero without having to actually do away with his classic look.
Adol and friends are cursed with protecting Balduq from monsters that only they can see. Defeat enough of them and you can visit the Grimwald Nox, an isolated and concentrated attack of demonic creatures in a parallel dimension. These battles play out a lot like the dinosaur tower-defence sections in Ys VIII but here they feel much more integral to the overall game design. Defeat a Nox and it will open up the magical walls that block off Balduq, expanding the horizons of the city and gradually turning a generic RPG town into a glorious open world.
If increasing the size of the city is the consequence of your actions then it’s how you get about the city that is the reward. As well as superhero alter egos, each Monstrum also has their own super power. The White Cat, for example, can run up sheer walls while Hawk can, as you might imagine, sprout wings and temporarily glide. Adol himself can use the “Crimson Line” to attach himself to certain grapple points and zip toward them. With each new chapter you gain a character, and with each character you gain a power. The masterstroke being that no matter who you’re controlling, you have access to all of their powers at once. So your ability to traverse the city with style just keeps getting better and better. Before you know it, walking the streets starts to feel a little… pedestrian. Why walk when you can quickly zip to a corner rooftop, sprint up a wall and dash across the tops of the houses, or double jump across a street gap and glide down to a building below.
As the city unfolds and you unlock new powers, Balduq takes on a life of its own. No longer a typical RPG town with shops and quests, it’s an exceptionally designed playground, with the sole aim of making movement as fast and fun as possible. It’s a whole new type of environment for Ys, one that makes bold and meaningful use of the third dimension, but also one that feels very much in keeping with the ethos of the whole series.
From its very first entry, Ys has prioritised, no, loved, movement. There were no turn-based battles to slow young Adol down, instead he bumped into and cut through monsters with ease. Yuzo Koshiro’s electrifying guitar rock the wind in his sails, forever propelling him forward with a pace all too rare for the genre. When you’re dashing across the rooftops in Ys IX, the feeling is exactly the same.
As Adol transforms into his Monstrum alter ego and climbs high up to the rooftops, looking down at the people below, it’s hard not to think of him as a literal superhero. The Monstrums spend much of the story hiding their true identities from the authorities, while the innocent civilians of Balduq have little to no idea of just how much our heroes do to protect them. It’s a novel feeling for a JRPG to take such inspiration from American pop culture in this way, and when mixed with other clear influences like Paris’s fortress city of Bastille and the Hundred Years’ War, it all gives Ys IX a unique identity.
There’s so much more to like about Ys IX, and I probably should at least mention some of those things just to balance out all that moaning about the story. Although most of the good stuff is the same good stuff you’d find in other Ys games, it’s reassuring to know they’re still here. The action combat is fast and fluid, just how you like it. The soundtrack… Well, it’s actually not quite a good as Ys VIII, but it’s still amazing. The hard rock tracks kept me surging through the action sequences, and the main town theme (see below) just made me want to hang out in Balduq forever.
On the whole, I can’t say that Ys IX is my favourite game in the series but I had a lot of fun cutting about that city, and it leaves me wondering where the series will go next. I’m really impressed at how this game embraces the third dimension, and how Falcom built the themes and characters around its gameplay aims. It pushes the series forward and does it in a unique and cohesive style. All of which leaves me absolutely certain of two things. The Ys series will almost certainly leap forward again in new and exciting ways, and I cannot predict what those ways could be!
SEVEN LITTLE THINGS ABOUT YS IX: MONSTRUM NOX THAT I RATHER LIKED
1. While most of the cut-scenes are presented with in-engine graphics, flashbacks tend to be in this beautiful hand-drawn style that really pumps up the drama.
2. There are lots of references to previous Ys games throughout Monstrum Nox but this boss battle, harking back to Ys Origin, is one of the most obvious and a favourite of mine.
3. I can definitely relate to the last part of this bucket list!
4. Another Ys game, another appearance from Falcom mascot Mishy. In this case he’s a customisable toy you can clip on to Adol’s arm, which really undermines some of the more dramatic cut-scenes.
5. This owl.
6. Doll (right) is one of the best playable characters in the game with a unique persona, backstory and powers. The best thing about her, though, is the way she skates around the world at high speed, making the traversal even more fun.
7. Wouldn’t argue with that.
Finally, how about some music from Ys IX: Monstrum Nox…
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Games From The Black Hole 
Interesting! I am definitely going to play this one, although I was planning to finish VIII and some of the earlier titles first. One thing I’ve found refreshing about Ys is that it doesn’t drag on for hours, so it’s a shame if this one is a bit more bloated, however the rest of it sounds right up my street.
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