Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, released on PlayStation 4 in 2021 and ported to PC and Nintendo Switch later that same year, is an Action-RPG that follows in the direct footsteps of its predecessor Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, once again following adventurer Adol as he finds himself in another extraordinary situation. This time around, Adol’s journey has brought him to the city of Balduq, well known for its massive prison, where soon enough Adol finds that there are multiple mysteries that will force him to investigate the strange goings-on in the city.

If you’ve never played any games in the Ys series before, know that this is a very episodic series, and you don’t need to have played prior entries in the saga to understand what’s going on here. Adol is an adventurer and thrill-seeker, who travels with his good-natured buddy Dogi, and that’s pretty much all you need to know going in. This game does make light reference to events of prior games, but largely these references are just characters recognizing (or refusing to believe) that Adol has quite a storied past and has seen a lot of strange things in his day.

When Ys VIII was released on Nintendo Switch, I absolutely loved the game, but noted that the Nintendo Switch port was really rough, with some nasty graphical issues. However, this time around there was some hope for things to be better, as Nintendo Switch would presumably be one of the platforms the game was designed for from the start. Well… or at least, that was the hope.

Sadly, as flawed as the port of Ys VIII was, I’m sad to say that Ys IX is way worse. Terrible pop-in and aliasing are both pretty bad here, but the real nasty part of the presentation here are the framerates, which absolutely shudder at times on the Nintendo Switch. At its worst, this game has quite possibly the worst framerates I have seen in any major release on the platform. It’s very, very bad.

And the strange thing is, there’s nothing here to really justify how terrible this game’s framerates get. Some of the worst framerates are in the game’s main central town area, which is indeed a large open area with a lot of architecture, but it’s no more complex or intricate than numerous other open-world games on the Nintendo Switch. What’s more, the town is sparsely-decorated and not exactly teeming with people, the textures aren’t especially detailed… there’s just no excuse for how poorly this game performs when it looks like a mid-generation Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 game.

That’s not to say that Ys IX is completely ugly. The character designs here are absolutely fantastic, imaginative, and full of personality. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like quite the same can be said for the environments, which are sufficient, but don’t have the bright colors to keep them interesting that were present in the tropical island setting of the previous game.

The music, at least, is fantastic. This game has some really excellent action-packed themes like Decision, Welcome to Chaos, Dreaming in the Grimwald, Cloaca Maxima, Feel Force, and Lacrima Crisis, and a few good melodic themes like Tranquil Silence and Petite Fleur. Seriously, this game absolutely rocks, with lots of great tracks that do a fantastic job of getting the adrenaline flowing for a good fight.

Unfortunately, I can’t give quite the same glowing compliment to the voicework this time around. Either due to awkward localization, direction, or something else I can’t quite put my finger on, it often feels stilted here. Combined with some odd choices made in the localization, this can make for some confusing moments in the game’s plot. To give an example, one early part of the game’s story focuses on a Robin Hood-esque character whose actions are being painted as naive and misguided, but it’s not quite clear why everyone has come to that conclusion, beyond the fact that a few recipients of the money decided to use it on gambling and drinks. Is this the game’s way of trying to sell people on “bootstraps” economic theories? Are we to assume no one in the slums getting this money actually needs it? As much as I personally don’t subscribe to this line of thinking, I could at least credit the game for trying if it made a coherent argument to that effect. But if it ever did, it seems that argument got lost in translation.

When it comes to the gameplay, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that everything that made the gameplay in Ys VIII great seems to have not only been preserved, but improved upon here, albeit with a few major caveats I’ll note in a moment.

Combat in Ys IX is a joy, with the game giving players a satisfying variety of combos and specials for each character that they can instantly swap between on the fly. What’s more, the combat has been further enhanced with a Bayonetta-style perfect dodge move, a comparable perfect guard move, and the return of a “Boost mode” mechanic that lets you power up your character at key moments. These elements combined add a lot of strategy and fluidity to combat and almost make this game play like a Spectacle Fighter at times.

Also returning are the various ways players can gradually build up and enhance their base to improve their characters in battle, recruiting characters to build and improve weapons and items, trade resources, and numerous other elements that can make grinding in this game a joy for players who are so inclined.

However, a new element that has been added to the game this time around are “Monstrum Gifts”. Early on in the game, players become cursed to become something called a “Monstrum”, which binds Adol to the town of Balduq and forces him to be at the beck and call of a mysterious woman enlisting him to fight monsters. But on the bright side, this curse gives him and other Monstrum allies new abilities both in and out of combat. As these allies join your cause, you gain their abilities, which enhance your mobility in different ways, allowing you to teleport, scale walls, and do other things that make moving around and exploring a great deal more fun.

This is all great stuff, and if that were all there was to say, it’d be a clear improvement over Ys VIII… but I did say there were a few major caveats. Firstly, the camera here is a pain, particularly in combat. Especially with new abilities in this game, players will be zipping around a lot in combat, and it can get very chaotic and confusing. This is doubly so if you’re fighting in a place where the framerates are poor – you can easily get disoriented and feel like you’re fighting blind in a horde of enemies.

However, the other major flaw here is that the pacing in the beginning of this game is unfortunately worse than what was in Ys VIII. You know all that stuff I said about improving your base and getting access to that fun grindy stuff? That doesn’t happen until hours into the game, to the point where I found myself seriously wondering if it was even still in the game at all, or if it was removed in this installment.

Add to that the fact that much of the game takes place in boring, repetitive, labyrinthine environments. Do you like dungeons, prisons, and sewers? Because you’ll be spending a lot of time in them here.

Also, because I don’t know where else to put it, I should mention that this game doesn’t make use of the touchscreen or gyroscopic motion controls in any way, which isn’t any great surprise or disappointment. However, there is one other way that this game has been poorly optimized for Nintendo Switch – the text the game uses is often tiny and difficult to see in docked mode, and an outright pain to see in handheld mode. Just one more sign that this port simply did not receive the sort of care it deserved.

I really wish this review wasn’t so negative, because there’s a lot to enjoy in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. Everything that made Ys VIII a joy to play is present here more or less, as well as some noteworthy additions that improve on what was here before. Unfortunately, these improvements feel like they’re outweighed by the more mundane and repetitive setting, the terrible opening hours of the game, and the absolutely atrocious performance issues on Nintendo Switch. If you enjoyed Ys VIII, you’ll probably like this follow-up, though I hesitate to say you’ll enjoy it more. However, if at all possible you’ll want to try to get it on another platform, because this game seems to have suffered pretty badly in its transition to Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Ys IX is an Action-RPG that follows series protagonist Adol as he becomes cursed with supernatural abilities and must investigate mysterious goings-on in the prison city of Balduq. This game has some excellent combat, fun grinding opportunities, and a killer soundtrack. Unfortunately, the first few hours of the game are slow, the location is dull and repetitive, and the Nintendo Switch version suffers from severe performance issues, including some of the worst framerate drops I’ve seen in a major release on the platform. If you enjoyed the prior game, you’ll probably like this one, but if at all possible you should get it on a different platform.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Music, Best Action-RPG, Worst Port/Remake, Most Disappointing

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