Adol Christin embarks on a new adventure full of action and mystery that will delight fans of the series, despite its significant graphical limitations.
The excellent Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana raised the bar for what to expect in the series, and while Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is another brilliant Falcom ARPG that no fan should miss , it will be inevitable to compare Adol Christin’s new adventure with its predecessor. Make no mistake: anyone who has enjoyed Lacrimosa of Dana or any other Ys will find here what they ask for from the saga: fast action, imposing bosses and a powerful soundtrack. That it is one notch below the previous episode should not be seen as a serious problem.
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is on sale now on PS4 and will arrive on Nintendo Switch and PC in the coming months. This time the tone and atmosphere of the game is a 180 degree turn from the paradise island we saw a few years ago, although the development is not far from it. Of course, now we are not a castaway but a prisoner who in the first stages of his escape meets a mysterious woman; his help to escape is a double-edged sword: a type of curse that grants superhuman powers but in return he cannot leave the Balduq, only obey his savior to eliminate the corruption of Grimwald Nox, a dimension populated by demons that threatens the city. The tone and setting of Monstrum Nox is dark and drab, something that in a certain way has not been transferred well to the game – we will talk about this later – with Falcom’s scarce graphic muscle. It comes with texts – and voices – in English and, although there are a lot of winks and references to past games, it is independent enough that you can enjoy it without experience in previous Ys – however, we recommend playing Ys VIII first if you has the opportunity-.
The new powers that Aprilis grants us are a poisoned gift and will force us to solve the mystery of Balduq.
Skills that change Balduq’s exploration
We already told you in our impressions that the playable base of Ys IX has nothing to envy to other titles in the series, and it can even be argued that on paper it has the most refined mechanics of Ys . This is a fast action RPG, almost close to slash’em up, where we can switch characters instantly to take advantage of their combat styles and abilities, something essential against powerful bosses or very specific enemies. Attack enemies, accumulate SP and take advantage of the special techniques of your companions, other Monstrum with strange powers; Activate Boost mode to increase attack and improve defense for a short period of time, or use a unique extra ability for each character. Thanks to a frenetic combat with double jump, evasions and blocks, you will be able to do real magic, dodge the attacks of the enemies and smash the monsters on the ground or in the air according to their weaknesses.
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Added to this is the true grace of Ys IX , which mainly have a use during exploration, but certain abilities are also taken advantage of during action. Crimson Line is the first one we learn and consists of automatically traveling to architectural highlights: you can jump to high areas, overcome impossible jumps and go through solid objects. During combat it takes you directly to the enemy you have marked, and deals damage to creatures you cross. We have the race for walls, wings to glide , the special vision that uncovers secrets, the transformation into a shadow that passes through narrow places and evades enemies -or attacks-, or the breaking of cracked walls with a forceful blow. Like is logic,the design of the maps and dungeons is designed to make use of these movements , with a multitude of secrets and passageways in places where, in other Ys , you would never think of looking simply because you cannot run down a vertical as if you were Spider-Man. Skill learning is progressive and bosses often test the skill you have most recently acquired.
The game is divided into chapters where we learn more about the personality of the team members. In general, for progress you have to achieve a Nox score, either by defeating enemies in the city – an easy but repetitive task, because it provides little score – or by solving optional missions. The latter, although it does not depart from the usual tasks of an RPG – search for characters, defeat enemies, etc. – is always more recommended: it gives variety to the game and the allies will end up helping us in Grimwald Nox, a kind of tower defense minigame where you have to protect a pillar from enemy waves; As we progress, resources and friends will help us to make these battles a little easier – strengthen the tower, place decoys – so the time you invest in these tasks pays off. This entire cycle will open new neighborhoods in Balduq, more companions and their powers, dungeons, etc.
In a few hours you will have a good handful of movements that will change the way you explore Balduq, and areas that you know become interesting again as soon as you can go up to their roofs or fly over the streets. Undoubtedly the fluidity of the navigation or the mechanics to make the combat more creative make this Ys the most fun, at least when everything works as it should . The point is that globally it does not give the impression of being as round as Ys VIII : a progress that can be made repetitive, at times the long conversations break the rhythm of an action-oriented RPG and there is a feeling that it forces to fulfill missions that in the end, they are not so optional. Nothing hits the great combat of Ys IX, but dungeons do not always take advantage of their possibilities – not in an intelligent way – and other sections that make up an RPG adventure of this type, sometimes with almost as much weight as the combat itself, do not reach the same level . It’s as if Falcom had put all his attention on the playable core, something vital in an action title, but not so much in the part of the narrative that inherits from the role.
At first you will only be able to visit a small part of the city, but over time you will be able to tear down the magical walls that separate each neighborhood and thus discover new places or dungeons.
A very improvable graphic section
If there is one aspect in which Ys IX disappoints, it is the graph. Nobody could hope that Falcom would surprise us with a visually powerful production, but in Monstrum Nox two problems come together: artistic and technical limitations. Ys IX continues with that anime-like style in the characters as we have seen in Ys VIII or the Tails of Cold Steel series , but it is a great contrast to the environment, which has dropped many points compared to its predecessor. Balduq is a gray place, the dungeons – especially the first ones – are repetitive and artistically uninspired, with sewers and tunnels indoors, or fields and mountains in open areas, which we will have seen in dozens of RPGs.Although not everything takes place in labyrinthine corridors, Ys IX does not enter through the eyes.
On the other hand, in the technical aspects it is one of the most outdated Ys relative to the platforms on which it is launched that we can remember . It would be a modest game even for consoles from 15 years ago – we can think of many PS3 titles with a better invoice-, it suffers slight performance problems on PS4 – not so on PS5, where it maintains 60 fps, although it will need some patches to fix occasional crashes-, sudden appearance of objects in the most open maps, abundant blurry textures and a lack of good antialiasing that eliminates some quite visible saw teeth in the city. A pity, but Ys IX in this sense seems a step back when compared to Ys VIII, the excuses for Falcom not to renew its technology have been exhausted.
The general impression is that the graphics are inferior to ‘Ys VIII’, and do not justify some performance problems on PS4.
The developer does not usually disappoint in the soundtrack and, although Ys’s is not one of the most memorable in the saga, it always accompanies the calmest moments – missions in the city, walks through catacombs – as in the combats, where electric guitars steal the limelight from the most classic instruments , music that you can listen to perfectly outside of the game.
Conclusions
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will delight veteran fans of the saga, and it is even suitable for newbies due to its good difficulty curve and reasonable duration, more than 20 hours in its main story that doubles if we want to see everything. Our only recommendation to those who enjoyed Ys VIII is to control expectations: Monstrum Nox is even better in certain playable aspects and the story hides its surprise twists, but in other areas it feels more uneven, and the whole is not as polished., falls faster on replay, not to mention incomprehensible poor performance on the original PS4 models. In any case, Falcom is always a guarantee of quality, and Adol’s adventure should not be missing in the collection of any Japanese role-player.
