Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (2019) - Now released in English on the PS4

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Looking forward to the pc port, Ys 9 desperately needs it. The ps4 version runs terribly. I'm interested to see how the switch version runs
 
Started playing it on the ps4. It's basically Ys with Bloodborne esque gothic atmosphere. The cringe from some of the lines and character design is amazing. Combat is flowing and fast paced, I like the more flowing movement without turning into KH3 floatiness. One thing I'm already dreading is dungeon design, since it looks like it will be limited to wastelands, sewers and concrete prisons.
 
I'm holding off until the PC release. I'm looking for a similar game to VIII which it looks like it delivers on. Not the exact same, which is fine because it's hard to beat comfy adventure island.
 
Love_Machine011 said:
Love the art as usual. I'm wondering why they didn't announce a ps5 version. Is the ps4 compatibility done in a way where it just works?
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All the Cold Steel and YS games don't really get a major performance boost since they were running at max frames already.

Trails of the Blue and Trails of Azure may be PS5 releases though. Disgaea 6 isn't coming to PS5 until all it's DLC is out and NISA is supposed to release PS5 games this year (idea factory already is putting out a few PS5 games in comparison).
 
Got around 2/3 of the way into the game. It's a good entry overall but a step down from the absolute masterpiece that was the last game.
I think the biggest problem is that the game feels too game-y. Areas in the city are blocked because it's a game. People don't explain things because it's a game. It's just frustrating gameplay-wise because you are just waiting for the plot to advance while the game trickles information.

I feel like combat suffers a lot from being unbalanced. I'm playing on Hard and enemies on the world map are a joke while few of the bosses are brutal. The raid battles are back and are way too chaotic to be fun with all the characters fighting at the same time. Sometimes more is less. I think the game should have used the special monstrum abilities a bit more in combat, but it might change later on. Also the lock on is trash and I did die because of it.

Plot wise it's alright with the intrigue around the jail. I think the whole city should have been a jail (with some plot justification) rather than it being a small part of it. It also really ruins the intimidating aspect of the jail when the characters constantly break into it like it's a cheap whore, rather than have the game building up into the jail break in the climax, I can't believe I say that but Persona 5 did it better.

The characters are alright but feel more like an assortment of random anime characters than characters with connection to the plot like last game (which is ironic considering last game was randos getting shipwrecked). I do like The Doll and the tits on some characters are great.

The game runs pretty neat on the ps4 though there are some slowdowns on few of the cutscenes. The draw distance also sometimes doesn't handle the full city. It's alright overall and I never died because of it (though I'm not the type who notices fps dips easily or cares for fps below 60).
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Got around 2/3 of the way into the game. It's a good entry overall but a step down from the absolute masterpiece that was the last game.
I think the biggest problem is that the game feels too game-y. Areas in the city are blocked because it's a game. People don't explain things because it's a game. It's just frustrating gameplay-wise because you are just waiting for the plot to advance while the game trickles information.

I feel like combat suffers a lot from being unbalanced. I'm playing on Hard and enemies on the world map are a joke while few of the bosses are brutal. The raid battles are back and are way too chaotic to be fun with all the characters fighting at the same time. Sometimes more is less. I think the game should have used the special monstrum abilities a bit more in combat, but it might change later on. Also the lock on is trash and I did die because of it.

Plot wise it's alright with the intrigue around the jail. I think the whole city should have been a jail (with some plot justification) rather than it being a small part of it. It also really ruins the intimidating aspect of the jail when the characters constantly break into it like it's a cheap whore, rather than have the game building up into the jail break in the climax, I can't believe I say that but Persona 5 did it better.

The characters are alright but feel more like an assortment of random anime characters than characters with connection to the plot like last game (which is ironic considering last game was randos getting shipwrecked). I do like The Doll and the tits on some characters are great.

The game runs pretty neat on the ps4 though there are some slowdowns on few of the cutscenes. The draw distance also sometimes doesn't handle the full city. It's alright overall and I never died because of it (though I'm not the type who notices fps dips easily or cares for fps below 60).
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That's been pretty much my experience after beating the game as well. Ys 8 told a better story, had better balance, and had more replay value while also having better characters. Ys 9 is okay, but it feels rushed in the last quarter where plot gets dumped on you and I get the feeling that's what happened to development as well. Dana, as a character and as a part of 8's story, was an absolute masterpiece and I'm sad they couldn't repeat that feeling again.
 
Poop A Loop said:
That's been pretty much my experience after beating the game as well. Ys 8 told a better story, had better balance, and had more replay value while also having better characters. Ys 9 is okay, but it feels rushed in the last quarter where plot gets dumped on you and I get the feeling that's what happened to development as well. Dana, as a character and as a part of 8's story, was an absolute masterpiece and I'm sad they couldn't repeat that feeling again.
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Oh yeah, I miss my Dino girl. The only big improvement I can think of is that there are no more wide panning shots.
 
Poop A Loop said:
That's been pretty much my experience after beating the game as well. Ys 8 told a better story, had better balance, and had more replay value while also having better characters. Ys 9 is okay, but it feels rushed in the last quarter where plot gets dumped on you and I get the feeling that's what happened to development as well. Dana, as a character and as a part of 8's story, was an absolute masterpiece and I'm sad they couldn't repeat that feeling again.
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Did you play Memories of Celceta? That's considered a low point in the series and 9 is certainly above that.
 
Marissa Moira said:
Did you play Memories of Celceta? That's considered a low point in the series and 9 is certainly above that.
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Yeah I finished it but I didn't think it was a burning trash fire or anything, I also had zero expectations coming in so it didn't have anything to prove to me. For example, some of the complaints I saw from people who generally play and focus on Ys-like games like AboveUp in their reviews didn't register with me at all since I never played the original and didn't have the reference for those changes to compare against.

You could say I have the same type of disappointment with 9 that AboveUp had with Celceta, where reviews mentioning the continued focus on characterization and narrative and my recent history with the series just playing through 8 led me to believe I'd just get more of what I already loved. Instead, it was more of an "adequate" attempt at a sequel that just doesn't measure up to what I think is a pinnacle of the series. I'll probably be playing through it again in the future series completion on a higher difficulty simply because I'm a huge sucker for literally everything Falcom-related, but the lack of good storytelling or memorable characters (beyond maybe Yufa and Doll) and poor difficulty balancing means it's not on the same level as Origins, Felghana, or 8 for me
 
Beat Celceta again this morning. Finished it way back on the Vita and recently grabbed it again on PS4. I enjoyed it, but it's definitely not top tier. Practically the entire map is either forest or plains. Not very imaginative. The PC Engine version was the best one.

I'd love to see Oath get ported to consoles. Probably my favourite Ys game.

Still waiting for my copy of IX to show up.
 
Finished the game. I think the most apt comparison to Ys9 is (and I know it's a meme at this point) Dark Souls 2. A sequel to a really good game that's really underwhelming in a lot of way but not outright bad (though DS2 at least had really good DLC). I'll try not to repeat myself too much from my previous post. The first big problem in the game is that it takes part in France but it's not really using the setting well, when I hear France I think beautiful countryside, not ugly concrete city the game takes in, and in general the game looks really gray and most of the dungeons are sewer levels. The game also has a French "La resistance" against the Romuns but the game doesn't really know how to handle it and ends with a rather cuck message of "if the invaders who massacred your countrymen are reasonable then you need to reward them for their crimes even if they fuck you in taxes and trade".
The combat is very easy except a single boss, I doubt increasing the difficulty would have changed much since the game has a lot of OP equipment/skills and ton of items I barely used. A lot of the bosses feel samey (which why I thought of the DS2 comparison).
The game has a twist but it's brought only the last 90% of the plot and is barely touched despite it being a really interesting idea. The game should have done it midgame and had the rest of the game deal with the ramifications rather than have literally every scene have a character saying "you aren't ready to know the truth yet".
Overally a letdown. I'm going to play Yakuza 7 now, since this and Atelier Ryza 2 were pretty disappointing.
 
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