For me, Ys VIII felt like it finally justified this entire era of Ys, delivering an action combat system that was equal parts arcadey and deep, while also telling a story with a strong emotional core with an interesting structure. Ys IX takes that formula and refines it. Compacting what worked about that sprawling adventure down into a much more dense game.
I absolutely adore the setting - a prison city dotted with dungeons and emphasizing verticality, which constantly urges you to use all your new-found movement abilities to their utmost. The density of the city aides in the storytelling as well, allowing for tons of characters to briefly cross your path, only to turn up again later in unexpected places, which even plays into a major twist late in the game that made me cackle because it was so out of left field. I just developed such a deep sense of familiarity with the world and characters here, which I cannot say I experience often to this degree. It felt genuinely painful to say goodbye to the cast, despite so many of them being the anime tropes the series has leaned on for so long, the interconnectedness of their lives with the city and Adol just hit on something deep for me that I can't quite explain.
The mechanical framework that Ys VIII established remains mostly intact here as well, the combat flows largely the same, but due to a couple things I enjoyed it substantially more this time around. First of all, I played on hard, which was somehow a first for me across the entire franchise, and this forced me to use flash guard way more often than I had previously. This led me to realize that it's one of the most satisfying fucking mechanics I have ever experienced in any action game, stringing that together back to back to completely block all damage and build meter to spam a bunch of moves is just the best feeling in the world dude. I also found the movesets of the characters to work a lot better for me than in the last few games. It feels like every move has its niche, there are certainly moves that are better than others, but they're locked deep into the game for the most part, and with the way SP costs are balanced you still have to make some tough decisions about what loadout to use. I also found myself considering what accessories to equip much more frequently than before, because so many of them provide unique utilities that have interesting implications for your build. I really just had a ball from front to back with the combat here, I think they pushed this system to its absolute limits considering this was its final outing if what I understand of Ys X is accurate.
If I had one gripe it's that the game seems to have a very centrist, bordering on pro-imperialism message which kinda sucks. I would say it's in line with the series' depiction of Romn up to this point, but considering the last couple of entries try to have a more mature narrative I would expect something a little bit more nuanced at this point. If we can have a plot with as much mechanical complexity as this game has, they could certainly tackle these subjects in a better way than "some imperialists are okay." That sucks!
I absolutely adore the setting - a prison city dotted with dungeons and emphasizing verticality, which constantly urges you to use all your new-found movement abilities to their utmost. The density of the city aides in the storytelling as well, allowing for tons of characters to briefly cross your path, only to turn up again later in unexpected places, which even plays into a major twist late in the game that made me cackle because it was so out of left field. I just developed such a deep sense of familiarity with the world and characters here, which I cannot say I experience often to this degree. It felt genuinely painful to say goodbye to the cast, despite so many of them being the anime tropes the series has leaned on for so long, the interconnectedness of their lives with the city and Adol just hit on something deep for me that I can't quite explain.
The mechanical framework that Ys VIII established remains mostly intact here as well, the combat flows largely the same, but due to a couple things I enjoyed it substantially more this time around. First of all, I played on hard, which was somehow a first for me across the entire franchise, and this forced me to use flash guard way more often than I had previously. This led me to realize that it's one of the most satisfying fucking mechanics I have ever experienced in any action game, stringing that together back to back to completely block all damage and build meter to spam a bunch of moves is just the best feeling in the world dude. I also found the movesets of the characters to work a lot better for me than in the last few games. It feels like every move has its niche, there are certainly moves that are better than others, but they're locked deep into the game for the most part, and with the way SP costs are balanced you still have to make some tough decisions about what loadout to use. I also found myself considering what accessories to equip much more frequently than before, because so many of them provide unique utilities that have interesting implications for your build. I really just had a ball from front to back with the combat here, I think they pushed this system to its absolute limits considering this was its final outing if what I understand of Ys X is accurate.
If I had one gripe it's that the game seems to have a very centrist, bordering on pro-imperialism message which kinda sucks. I would say it's in line with the series' depiction of Romn up to this point, but considering the last couple of entries try to have a more mature narrative I would expect something a little bit more nuanced at this point. If we can have a plot with as much mechanical complexity as this game has, they could certainly tackle these subjects in a better way than "some imperialists are okay." That sucks!