The GWJ JRPG Club: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (Q4 2022)!

Ahh, that new thread smell!

We'll be ending this year like we ended last year: wandering. "Wandering" is what I always think of, when I think of the Ys series, given that for the longest time I only knew of the SNES game Wanderers from Ys (technically Ys III: Wanderers from Ys; later remade as Ys: The Oath in Felghana). But "Wanderers from Ys" feels it would be a good title for the series. Adol's just an adventurer, who gets up to trouble and likes it, and seems nonplussed by whatever anime plot he finds himself in.

This time, in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, he's imprisoned in the fortress town of Balduq, transformed into a "monstrum" for some mysterious purpose. From what I understand, this game feels a lot like Ys IX, so as the weather gets colder (at least in the northern hemisphere), we can snuggle in for that cozy, familiar, action RPG formula.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/EdsV6xQ.png)
Happy gaming, everyone!

I'm in, and have already started it on the Switch. I'm a decent chunk into Ch.2.

First impressions are were that the music is great – something immediately driving you. It’s good to play these games again if only for the music.

I started the game on hard, and the first boss killed me a few times until I tweaked the controls a few times and finally started getting used to the setup. Once I got out of the prologue, I actually went back and booted up Ys VIII again so I could see what the controls were in that, and then remapped the controls in IX to match. It was only about a year ago we played it, and I figured I still might have some of the muscle memory, since I was very comfortable with those controls by the end of the game. So far, it's working out.

The crystal defense sessions are clearly a ripoff of the town defense from Ys VIII; at least the darker music gives it a different tone.

I have noticed that the map has issues with verticality, since stuff can be anywhere up or down from where I am and it's not clear on the map which it is. This is especially crucial once you get the second traversal ability that gives you a lot more vertical movement.

Also, the whole thing feels sort of off for now. Or at least, the setting is a sort of strange one, being stuck in this town and probably running into all sorts of hidden nooks and crannies and ancient hidden areas. It could also be that the island setting of Ys VIII was just so great, that anything else will feel lesser. That may change over the course of the game, of course.

Well, thanks to Amazon Luna making it free to Prime members through tomorrow, I should be finishing this game up tonight. I'm at a loss as how 27 hours is even possible with this game.as the side-quests are almost mandatory to build up nox points to open the gates that hold you back at the start of every chapter to proceed with the story. And all the side quests early on felt entirely incidental to the plot at best. Some thing feel more connected later on, though.

I've had some time I've left the game running for a while, but I'm still at 48 hours total, just after finishing up the final chapter sidequests, where most felt at least related to the plot.

That said, I'm still playing with it's enjoyable fast paced combat, and it's been fun to see the new characters come on board and all. The simple and quick inventory is a nice plus, too.

I've played about an hour. I started on hard mode because I remember Ys VIII being too easy, and the ability to block while attacking makes most encounters trivial.

So far, it's...definitely Ys! Not complicated, but still satisfying. Music is great, visuals are clearly lagging behind other studios, but they are crisp and colourful so I don't mind.

I particularly enjoyed the setup. I love how they poke fun at Adol being involved in so many historic events and somehow always losing all the priceless ancient weaponry he comes across . Good stuff!

I'm partway through Chapter 2 (just emerged from the Cloaca Maxima) and yep, so far it feels very familiar. It's been a few years since I played Ys 8 so that's fine with me. I've been playing on Normal which does feel a bit easy - the Cloaca boss was the first that put up any kind of a fight. But the whole game is pretty bright and breezy so I don't want the combat to get too gruelling.

Not sure where the story is going yet, but I do like that the Pendleton Corp relationship to Shantytown is not completely back and white. Music rocks as always, of course!

Just a heads up, if you find yourself stuck in the prison towards the end of chapter 2, you might need to reload from an earlier save. I wasted half an hour last night thinking I was being obtuse, but actually a cut scene was repeatedly failing to trigger. Eventually I quit to play something else, came back and later, and voila, welcome to chapter 3!

Finished the game Friday. It was good, and even better when the actual story and story areas were moving forward. As I alluded to earlier I could have 100% done without the busy work at the start of every chapter and the game would have been exceedingly better for it. Probably doesn't help that I was on a 1 month timer with it being on Amazon Luna for free and I the other 2 Ys games I have played have both been this year. I'll probably take a break before coming back to the series.

The game definitely is much easier than the other 2 Ys games I've played (Oath in Felghana & Origins) as I only occasionally had to revive a character, didn't usually dodge, and left a good number of level up items unused even after giving a dozen or so to the b-team.

Curious to see how everyone develops their characters. I landed on only using 3 characters after giving everyone a fair shake for their chapter, and just bought new weapons when I could afford it and gave them hand-me-down armor for the final chapter (since everyone participates in that one event type. I went with Adol, Raging Bull, and Hawk (even though I can't stand his character) pretty much as soon as I finished up the chapter I received the final character. In retrospect I might have considered using the thing to change Doll's attack type as I liked he moveset better than Hawk, but that's just how I landed.

Done with Ch.3. I’m noticing these early chapters are going by pretty quick, and that’s even with doing all the side quests that pop up on the map, and getting all of the treasure chests/graffiti/azure petals I can. It’s all just kind of speeding along.

One thing I’m noticing is that the movement if pretty fun as you unlock the powers of the other montrums. The teleport you start with is fine, but then the vertical wall run and the glide make movement snappy throughout a very vertical-heavy map, as long as you are pointed in the right direction. It sort of makes you feel like you have superhero powers, and really makes me think of Saints Row 4, which is a good thing in my book since that was a fun game, but a weird thing for a JRPG to be similar to (even if it heavily leans towards action). But I’m actually a bit interested to see which powers are coming next.

The story is fine so far. There’s a mystery going on of course, and they really aren’t telling us much yet as would be expected. It wasn’t until the back third of Ys 8 that they really started answering questions, either.

I'm lagging behind quite a bit. Every time I sit down to play PS5, I've been getting stuck into God of War 2018, I can't seem to convince myself to play Ys IX yet haha!

Anyway, I'd like to just quickly ramble about the Ys series as a whole since I don't have any Ys IX specifics to add.

Out of curiosity, how many people have played other Ys games? I've heard IX pulls on a lot of the history of the franchise. I was hoping to have finished Ys: Memories of Celceta before IX as I've heard it's a bit more directly related somehow.

So far, I've finished

Ys Origins
Ys 1 (remake)
Ys 2 (remake)
Ys: The Oath in Felghana (remake of 3)
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

They've all been interesting in their own way and have some fun connections but nothing too serious, and certainly nothing requiring previous knowledge to play. I was surprised how well Ys 1 holds up in terms of combat mechanics! I thought the "bump combat" would get dull quickly but it was pretty fun the entire way through.

The music has always been a big part of why I play these games

Ys: The Oath in Felghana has some of my absolute favourite tunes from the series

Ys: 1 remake has some stunning compositions too

Ys VIII has this absolute classic. Nothing at ALL screams "ADVENTURE" as much as this track.

I'm hoping Ys IX continues to have amazing music! There's some very cool stuff going on in those tracks, and while the series is slowly gaining popularity, I'm shocked that the music isn't talked about more!

I've played the same as you, with just one more on the list - Ark of Naphistim

So in total:
Ys Origins
Ys I
Ys II
Ys: Oath in Felghana
Ys: Ark of Naptime
Ys VIII

and now working on IX.

I think Felghana and VIII are easily the best of the ones I've played; and I hope that the club gets to Felghana at some point, since it really is the best of that era of games (with it, Origins, and Naptime). I really didn't mind the bump combat in I and II.

That said, I think 1 and Napishtim are the only two I wouldn't replay. I wouldn't go back to 1 just because it has that early level cap, and so you have to just straight up fight a couple of extremely frustrating bosses (the bat monster and then Dark Fact). And I found Napishtim to just not be all that interesting, with less interesting bosses than the other games and a large grid-based mid-game dungeon maze that took hours to explore and with few landmarks in it to tell where you were. I had to bust out a guide, and even then it was iffy at times. It's one of those old-school game designs I am glad got left in the past.

And the music is always phenomenal. I mean, everything the Falcom music team does (see also: Legend of Heroes) is great, but I think the Felghana final boss theme is probably a top 5er. Heck, the Felghana final boss is probably a top 5er as well. Just outstanding stuff.

I've only played Ys Origins and Ys VIII prior to starting on IX. I've noticed a few passing references to VIII so far, nice reminders but nothing important to the game.

I like the Saints Row 4 comparison, both in the mobility options as well as the laid back attitude. I'm also wondering if they will borrow from Trails games the political power plays between the Romn invaders, local militias and the church. So far the supporting characters have been a pretty disappointing bunch compared to Trails, though.

ComfortZone wrote:

I've only played Ys Origins and Ys VIII prior to starting on IX. I've noticed a few passing references to VIII so far, nice reminders but nothing important to the game.

I like the Saints Row 4 comparison, both in the mobility options as well as the laid back attitude. I'm also wondering if they will borrow from Trails games the political power plays between the Romn invaders, local militias and the church. So far the supporting characters have been a pretty disappointing bunch compared to Trails, though.

Which supporting characters are you referring? The other playables, or the bar group?

I noticed a least a few wink wink nudge nudge mentions to Adols past including a jab at waking up on beaches and how he never has anything on him from previous adventures.

As you get towards the end everyone gets some moments to build story and friendship level with Adol that adds to the overall feel of the base. Some are bigger plays regarding the story, too. I guess it is nice that not every NPC is super important to the narrative landscape or always just throw-away for the sake of side-questing. Some have family members, and some are just outlandish how things play out.

All of them, but I'm only up to Ch 3, so I fully expect them to grow on me as the game goes on. And having a pub as a home base where all my friends hang out is kind of a dream scenario for me.

I have only played a few Ys games before this one.
Ys Origins
Ys Memories of Celceta
Ys 9 Lacrimosa of Dana

I just started last night and only about 30 minutes in (beat the first boss) so can't really say much about this game yet. Celceta was my introduction to the series. One thing I noticed is that Adol looks older in this game than the other two I have played. Like probably in his 30s rather than teenage or 20s.

Chugging along, finished Ch.4. The formula of new area/new monstrum/new power is continuing here, but the characters are all interesting enough. I also like the new power of sight we get; it's not a movement ability like the other one's we've gotten, but instead lets you see hidden things, which is especially helpful for the collectathon in the city, for those who want to try to get all the Azure Petals or whatever they're called.

The villains of the chapter were more annoying than funny (and I think they were going for funny), but at least what happened to them at the end was ultimately pretty funny, and it adds some color to the monstrum crew. The music in the dungeon was fun as well.

I wish there was an in-game counter for playtime (I'm on Switch), since it feels like I'm maybe around 10 hours but wish I could say for sure. I feel like I'm blasting through the game even while collecting a lot of stuff, so if the main story alone is 27 hours, then some of the later chapters have to be like 2 or 3 times longer than the ones so far.

I'm at the same place, finished Ch 4 last night. I also found myself bopping along to that dungeon music!

It's all been pretty entertaining so far, but I still feel like we're waiting for the main plot to kick into gear. If it's anything like 8 I expect it will start taking over pretty soon. I think I've spent a fair bit more than 10 hours on it, what with all the side quests, exploration and talking to everyone I come across. But I'm always a slower than average player it seems.

Yeah, it feels like we're going to get all the monstrums in the party, then it uncorks and goes wild with all the secrets or something. With some twists and turns along the way, of course.

I hope so! The snippets of prison plot we get each chapter seem analogous to the Dana story in Ys 8, anyway.

I also like the decision to show you the entire gang of Nostrums when you visit the Nox each chapter. It's nice foreshadowing for the full reveal of each companion (although I guess you do miss the element of surprise you get from something like Persona).

Done with Ch.5, new party member and new ability, and new mysteries. Switch says over 15 hours, but beyond that still don’t know exactly how much. We should be getting to the end of the Gotta Befriend 'Em All phase of the game soon, so hopefully that's when things kick into high gear.

I’ve also spent a significant amount of time collecting those Azure petals with the help of the Third Eye. There’s some left on the map but not a ton, so if we wind up having to get them later for something important it won’t take too long to clean up.

Also, minor spoilers on story stuff:

Spoiler:

So Yufa being a monstrum was about as telegraphed as Kryha being the White Cat. And I don’t know if I buy the excuse that ‘she was just too busy’ to mention she was a monstrum when she’s working at a bar with the rest of the monstrums and knows who everyone is.

I think I'm near the end of Ch 5 too, having recruited

Spoiler:

Yufa and Sarahdi

last night. So far it's pretty familiar stuff like you say, with a few nice moments that made me smile

Spoiler:

(grabbing the bull by the horns, and Saradhi's "Bah, foiled again!" scene).

Now I wish I had the Switch version since I'm going to be away the rest of the week!

... but I did manage to wrap up Ch5 before leaving. The final boss was a new twist, and a good fight to boot! Interested to see where it goes from here.

Raging Bull is my favourite party member so far, although her special skill (basically hitting stuff really hard) is a bit mundane compared to the others. Her Nostrum and normal personas are a perfect combination too! re your spoiler Sundown:

Spoiler:

She's a single "mum" juggling 2 jobs, give her a break!

Booted the game last night, saved before the first boss, beat it, went through a few cutscenes, and then the game crashed my PS5 when I tried to save again

Just finished Chapter 4

Spoiler:

I am simultaneously annoyed and impressed how the game has so far refused to in any way acknowledge or explain having you play two Adols. I initially thought it was a flashback until guards started referring to current events.
I hope this pays off storywise.

Got some time in over the weekend and finished up through chapter 3. Taking a bit to get back into the swing of things, but have been lucky enough to S rank all the noxs so far.

Really do not like Hawk though, which sucks because his playstyle is similar to Laxia's and she was one of my favorites from Dana. I just cannot stand the always angry and rude character type and his backstory dies not justify it to me.

Spoiler:

He's just a whiny baby that never learned how to healthfully process grief and loss. Yes, it's tragic that this woman he connected with died, but instead of dealing with it, he just goes into a self-destructive spiral and takes other people down with him. I assume he is seeking out strong fighters and difficult challenges because he is hoping someone will kill him.

Hopefully the rest of the cast will be good and the second piercing character will play well as I never want to see Hawk again.

Beginning Chapter 4 (and sidequests) spoilers:

Spoiler:

We get a couple scenes where we see a second Adol locked in the central tower, but only a couple people know he is there. This of course raises the mystery of how there are apparently two independent Adols in this city. We have Crimson King and The Prisoner who both look and act exactly like Adol. How did this situation come about? Are there other characters in the prison who have clones of themselves? If it only happened to Adol, why did it happen to him? And it seems only a handful of people even know there's an Adol in the central tower. We see the Interrogator does not know he is there, does Chantele know he's there? What about Belegar? Mysteries are par for the course for this man and so much fun for us!

Edit: Added spoiler talk since the button was not working on my phone for some reason.

And done with Ch.6, and the party is all here. I'm still working with mainly the first three of Adol, White Cat, and Hawk since they've done all the leveling of their abilities, but I think I'm most likely to swap in Renegade for Hawk now, as a change of pace. I actually put some status effect equipment on White cat since she has a bunch of multi hit abilities, so that is sometimes fun. Besides that, everyone has the Warrior Crests to level up the skills faster.

I’m actually liking the climbing puzzles later in the game. Like, it’s not absurdly hard or requiring you to break the game or anything like cheesing your way up a mountain in Skyrim or something, but there are a lot of small ledges or long walls or tricky jumps with long wall runs you have to do a pretty precise job of handling to get to some of the treasure chests. It makes the exploration of the boxed-in ruins more interesting than they otherwise would be, especially when a lot of work is being done on those narrow ledges which are often not necessarily sign posted.

A bit of story spoiler talk now.

Spoiler:

Loved the centipede boss at the end of Ch.6, but it’s also noticeable that there are some repeat bosses from prior games. We had the dinosaur from Ys 8 in the previous chapter, and this one was from Ys Origins iirc. And I feel like we did the bat boss from Ys 1early on as well.

And since Renegade’s dad knows about Adol, knows the capital-t Truth, and can teleport, I think we’re now in the ‘things are going to happen’ portion of the game. Plus Prisoner!Adol is actually trying to escape now which I didn't think would happen so suddenly, so I think we’re far enough along for stuff to happen in that plotline as well, too.

On to Ch.7, and eager for some of these threads that have been dangling to start tying out.

I made it to chapter 2 yesterday, and I'm slowly going through it. The powers really change how the environments are explored, and I quite enjoy them!

Ys VIII was almost all natural environments, and here they are all man-made (so far), which I think is a nice contrast.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Finished the game Friday. It was good, and even better when the actual story and story areas were moving forward. As I alluded to earlier I could have 100% done without the busy work at the start of every chapter and the game would have been exceedingly better for it. Probably doesn't help that I was on a 1 month timer with it being on Amazon Luna for free and I the other 2 Ys games I have played have both been this year. I'll probably take a break before coming back to the series.

The game definitely is much easier than the other 2 Ys games I've played (Oath in Felghana & Origins) as I only occasionally had to revive a character, didn't usually dodge, and left a good number of level up items unused even after giving a dozen or so to the b-team.

...

Congrats, mrtomaytohead! Just out of curiosity, were you already playing through the game when we picked it, or did you binge the game?

I've yet to dive in very deep, myself. Bought it over that first weekend of October, and I played up to what I expect is near the end of Chapter 2, after I've recruited White Cat and am making may way through the underground, back to the jail. But a combination of very busy time at work, and an interest in playing The DioField Chronicle, and I'm back-burnering this for now.

I was only supposed to play this for a bit this morning, but it took me forever to actually stop. I'm currently in chapter 4.

I like collectibles (up to a point), and so far I enjoy just going around using the Gifts I have to find chests, graffiti and petals. (I'm still missing a bunch of petals, but I'm doing pretty well on graffiti and treasure chests.) The music is good, but I haven't heard any standout like Ys VIII's Sunshine Coast.

As for the story, so far, it's not particularly engaging, although I look forward to understanding what the hell is actually going on.

LastSurprise wrote:

Congrats, mrtomaytohead! Just out of curiosity, were you already playing through the game when we picked it, or did you binge the game?

I was already playing it because it was free for the month of September on Amazon Luna and it took me down to the final day to finish.

bobbywatson wrote:

I was only supposed to play this for a bit this morning, but it took me forever to actually stop. I'm currently in chapter 4.

I like collectibles (up to a point), and so far I enjoy just going around using the Gifts I have to find chests, graffiti and petals. (I'm still missing a bunch of petals, but I'm doing pretty well on graffiti and treasure chests.) The music is good, but I haven't heard any standout like Ys VIII's Sunshine Coast.

FYI, there aren't new petals and graffiti in the later chapters, so you can breath easy there, and that's where the story really digs in since you are no longer spending time focusing on getting to know new party members.

Done with Ch.7. Will be some quick hit story spoilers, but I’ll put it all in spoilers just to play it safe.

Spoiler:

First part of the chapter was identical to all those that came before – side quests, exploring new sections of the map (I finally got all the azure petals), get to the new dungeon, etc. The only real change is at the end when they decide to bust the story out.

So church is trying to drive Romuns out of the land. Fair enough as far as it goes. But my guess is Chatelard’s objective is to try to bring back about Gllia’s glory by resurrecting the old gods to help in the fight? And when Aprilis got shanked, it was clear then from Anemona’s flashback that she was the doll in the painting, so Aprilis must be the lady saint who was burned at the stake hundreds of years ago, but clearly still alive. And her age and broken form is why Chatelard didn’t want her as the symbol of his revolution, when she would otherwise be great (other than the whole supposed to be dead thing). Also, I legit was not expecting Aprilis to die, and I more than half expect her to come back somehow since she seems to important to be dead just yet.

Not sure why the Monstrums were allowed to just leave the prison like that, but Chatelard must not really see them as a threat. Not sure why on that one, or maybe he hopes some will take up his cause. We’re almost assuredly going to fight him at some point.

Feels like this is where the story will now be taking off, so curious to see what the ride is going to be.

I have done the final battle of Chapter 4 half a dozen times or so and I just can't seem to beat it. Very frustrating because I find the tower defense battles to be the least interesting part of the game and I just want it to be over.