Ys IX: Monstrum Nox Review (Corey)
This game is painfully average, and as a first time enjoyer of this series this is hard to recommend to fans of any jrpgs, but it's a hearty recommendation to action game fans.
The story and characters is just passable. The story plays it pretty straight, you an generally guess plot twists or reveals from miles away and this is little stakes in this story at all. Chapters are extremely formulaic and characters are tropey but I like the designs of the characters themselves which is what gives them a pass for me. It's just a shame the character designs are bogged down by this writing (Aprilis in a different game with better writing would have been just *chef's kiss*).
Gameplay is mindless, It plays like a warriors game, slash slash slash, slash some more, spam abilities, it all feels like it's been done before and done with more style at least. If you like warriors gameplay, I'm sure you'll have a BLAST playing this game but there just isn't much in terms of substance to combat. The monstrum nox levels are also dreadfully boring and an awful way to cap off chapters... tower defense or a collectible minigame until a boss appears and kill them... wow absolutely brilliant stuff. Even dungeon design is boring as hell and more frustrating than engaging.
The graphics... oh my goodness gracious. It is not an exaggeration to say this game looks like a late PS2, early PS3 game... the character models themselves are just passable, but they feel emotionless. The environments though... holy moly so lifeless, souless, and passionless. The dungeons look the exact same. It is all sewers, it is all dungeons, there is ZERO creativity here. The city itself is also sooooo washed out I feel like I want to vomit after exploring for an hour or so because it all looks and feels the same. Even the hilarious 'landmarks' to collect and find are super trivial and simple looking and lack any beauty at all.
However, even with the dreariness of the graphics and city, exploration and the metroidvania aspects to the game during free segments were fun. Running around rooftops finding chests and soaring around the city can be pretty cool. There are also plenty of sidequests and collectibles to find for completionists (althought this company has a raging hard on for missables in every title they make so be aware).
Music itself is fine I guess. It's in a camp for me of good music, but there were no standout songs I'd ever go out of my way to listen to.
Overall as a first time Ys player, this game is just like I said at the start of my review: painfully average. If not for being able to explore the city using abilities, I'd say leave this game in the dust altogether. 6/10 only if you enjoy warriors games.