Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - FINALE: Soul of a God (Plus the 1 Million Gold Grind)
0I failed to make both a "Those are the laws of equivalent exchange" joke and a "Ed...ward..." joke. Until I immortalized them here that is.
Scoring? I think scoring is good:
Gameplay: 8.5/10
I honestly think this game's combat is a slight downgrade from Ys 8. I'm not sure what it is, but something feels less good about it. However, that is made up for with the much wider range of movement options.
Story: 7.5/10
I thought the story worked fairly well. The best part was definitely the mystery of the two Adols. I think the way the story resolved was alright, but I feel Zola was brushed off too easily, even if he technically wasn't a combatant. Even then, his resolution was glossed over in the small time skip of after the final boss. They make it seem like he didn't die, but little was mentioned about him. Or it was and it was such a glancing reference I didn't take a mental note of it.
Sound: 7.5/10
I think I'm getting spoiled by good soundtracks. I knew going into this game that Ys 9 has one of the weakest soundtracks of the series, and I think those opinions are not wrong. There are a lot of plain or unimpressive tracks here. To go past the OST, the voice mixing was kinda wonky for the voices, which were mostly good aside from the occasional reused voices.
Graphics: 7.5/10
Character models are better than Ys 8. A lot of the NPC have unique outfits, which is a plus. The environments are overall very boring. Ys 8 did a better job with that for certain, but I guess when it takes place in a town and the ruins underneath, that's what you get. I could be mistaken, but I think I saw a few motion captured scenes. They looked better animated than other scenes. I believe they use it a lot more in Reverie, so I'll be looking forward to that.
Other Stuff:
There is no post-game unless you count the Inferno and Lunatic difficulties. There is a Time Attack mode to test your skills if that's your thing. Also, The 1 mil gold achievement in particular sucks to get.
Overall: 7.8/10
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is another solid addition to the Ys series. Considering the heavy references to previous titles, it is probably not the best place to start. I say jump in starting from Ys 1&2 and then work your way through the other localized titles. After all, out of the localized Ys games, none of them are bad.
Until the next game. It's one that I have been eagerly anticipating.
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