Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS5) Review

Ys is the reliably old-fashioned granddaddy of the action-RPG canon. To those in the know, they have seen decades of plain-jane protagonist Adol Christin the red-haired adventurer uncover the mysterious lands of misspelled antiquity as he inadvertently falls into each of his lengthy hack-n-slash journeys. After just as many remakes as there are mainline entries, Adol must finally reckon with his choice of vocation in the latest game in the series. After surviving on a castaway island, he comes upon a city whose ruling authority doesn’t take too kindly the heresy inferred in Adol’s many numerous, magical exploits around this wild world. 

So what do newcomers need to know beyond this to enjoy the latest numbered entry in this decades-old series? Surprisingly little. This time around, Adol finds himself taken captive by folks that find Adol’s relentless adventuring and subsequent survival a bit suss and decide to lock him up in prison. The twist: that prison is an entire city whose guards may as well be on strike for all the cares they give about incarceration. Enjoy the free food and accommodation, then pop that lock on those steel bars and go for a wander at your leisure. That’s as much as you need to know, now off you go. 

Wasting no time, players jump into Ys IX Monstrum Nox mid-prison break with returning red-haired adventurer Adol. There’s an obligatory sword in a chest and a brief smattering of tutorial pop-ups before we immediately slay jelly fiends, rats and sentient sewer fish in the prison’s bowels. A mysterious hooded woman with prosthetic wings and limbs named Aprilis corners our escape and fires a bullet into the fleeing Adol. She announces that her bullet anoints Adol with a transformation curse, giving him the name of The Crimson King and his newfound powers. It is all pretty breakneck, yet totally in line with the light and breezy action that made Ys VIII such a compelling title that any novice gamer could pick up and quickly excel at. 

Tears Of The Kingdom is looking a bit arse

As Adol escapes the prison and hides amongst the citizens of the surrounding city with little more than a wig and a scarf, he finds he is one of six residents of the prison city of Balduq to have similarly been cursed as Monstrums (sic). The curse binds the bearer to magical barriers within the city, where they are regarded as villains by the authorities and outcasts by the citizenry. The city is the primary region where most of the game takes place, with an extensive network of plain grey dungeons interwoven beneath to match the blanket grey brickwork above. 

While the predecessor encouraged exploration and opened up new paths in existing areas as the game progressed and new castaways were recruited, the Monstrum curse creates annoying walls of impenetrable air that block players’ exploration to a grinding halt. While frustratingly locking off areas that seem to invite exploration, such as a neighbouring district within the city just a street over. 

The boundaries of the curse can be expanded by surviving waves of enemies in a tower defence sub-game called a Misama Vortex. It’s an enjoyable button-mashing distraction that reminds me more of earlier Dynasty Warriors games. It is a reimplementation of the village invasions from The Lacrimosa of Dana and is a rewarding and mindless mob bash with a hearty reward at the end. As somebody who doesn’t gel with tower defence in any of its forms, even I happily gritted my teeth through these.

The Miasma Vortex is a mindlessly satisfying yet visually bland tower defence mode

The moment-to-moment gameplay still follows a similar pattern to VIII and mostly succeeds at replicating this formula. Whereas the previous title’s missions were all linked to further exploring a mysterious island, Monstrum Nox has Adol and company often fulfilling fetch quests around the city. Sometimes it’s unclear which of these quests is actually a prerequisite for unlocking the next primary quest giver. For those players willing to entertain a bit of side content, the discovery of new vendors around the city and the rewarding sense of power that comes with upgrading gear means that the fundamentals driving the player towards rolling credits remain satisfying. 

A quality of life improvement that really goes to show this game’s commitment to endearing characters and gameplay is the employed maid who comes to Adol’s service. She can instantly visit all discovered vendors and provide a one-stop-shop of resources and supplies that sourcing elsewhere may feel like busywork.

Oh, and the fast travel. Fast, yet far from instant, load times mean popping around the city’s separate districts and dungeons is a breeze. Coupled with swift gliding and double jumping over buildings to make sure errands in the colour-barren city don’t overstay their welcome, Falcom has effectively reduced the wait time on the delicious drip feed of rewards and upgrades. 

The minimap is the only clue that I’m about to become a cooked chook on that invisible wall ahead

The combat was a strong praise point in my previous review, which remains the case this time. Evoking the best of the PS2-era action-RPG greats like Kingdom Hearts 2, fighting is light and responsive, with cool-down-based skills and satisfying dodge and parry mechanics. Characters are switched out with the press of a button, so enemies can be staggered by exploiting their weakness with a given character’s weapon type. It is elegant, and simple, yet still tests the responsiveness of the player. This is all rewarded with a shower of orbs and materials, with all encounters over in satisfying seconds.

My gripes with this latest Ys instalment are largely irrespective of the PS5 port, but those minor port issues are disappointingly carried over from the Ys VIII. One of them is weak haptic feedback that only infrequently flitters a buzz on the initial impact of a received attack from an enemy. If unlucky, you receive a few more blows and get another lazy rattle through the DualSense. Other than that, no PS5-specific options mean that the reliable 60fps upgrade is all returning players are getting for the price tag.

Final Thoughts

Monstrum Nox lays down a very similar core loop to its predecessor. With this comes greater ambition in the form of traversal systems and a greater scope of activity in the world. It is an iterative sequel with cool new ideas however it loses some of the uniqueness and focused direction of Ys VIII. Despite this, Ys IX is a delightfully predictable action-RPG that resurrects a simplicity of gameplay rarely seen since the PlayStation 2. A shame that Nihon Falcom offers little more than a glossy 60 frames for this PS5 treatment.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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