This weekend I’m enjoying Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. One month in the past I performed my first sport on this sequence, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and fell in love with it, a lot so I obtained the platinum trophy for it. This newfound appreciation for the franchise led me to discover different entries, beginning with Ys: Recollections of Celceta. I completed it yesterday and now I’m diving into New Sport+ on Nightmare problem for an additional platinum run.
What instantly units Ys IX aside is its self-awareness. The sport cleverly performs with the acquainted tropes present in JRPGs and earlier entries within the sequence, usually including a humorous contact to the darker tone of its narrative. In reality, it appears extremely homogeneous to Dragon Quest XI concerning its opening hours—one other RPG favourite of mine.
The setting itself is drastically totally different from its counterparts. You’re on this sprawling metropolis often known as Balduq, or relatively Jail Metropolis. It capabilities as a residing and respiratory world, the place individuals work, have their very own properties, and is comparatively fashionable. Nonetheless, the world is wealthy with lore, with mysterious graffiti littered about that gives upgrades relying in your character, and from the very starting, the sport hooks you with collectibles you possibly can’t but attain, igniting curiosity and anticipation for what’s to come back.
This culminates into one standout side in its refined gameplay, and that’s traversal. Not like prior video games, this one focuses on verticality as a spotlight level of its degree design, and it’s all the higher for it. Whether or not it’s scaling partitions or gliding throughout rooftops, these traversal skills make town of Balduq really feel like a playground, full of hidden treasures and unreachable areas that beg to be explored.
As for gameplay, a lot of the mechanics are acquainted, sustaining its frenetic fight whereas introducing a plethora of character skills that make fight extra partaking. The sport additionally bestows its conventional use of artifacts—now often known as sacramentals—to boost its already dynamic gameplay. This all results in a brand new layer of freedom that retains the gameplay recent.
I’m solely a number of hours in, however total the sport strikes an ideal stability between innovation and familiarity. It’s shaping as much as be among the finest RPGs I’ve performed in current reminiscence, and is shortly changing into my favourite within the sequence thus far. My degree up hype for the following installment is thru the roof, and I’m glad I solely have to attend a month for its launch.
