TL;DR: A lot of good ideas poorly executed and more than a few missed opportunities, but a very fun game regardless and worth the 40-50 hours it takes to beat.
My thoughts - on the story, mainly - need more time to be sorted out, but immediately coming off this game I felt like it was full of good ideas but executed rather poorly and the characters are one dimensional but are at least enjoyable (beating out many Cold Steel characters with that latter point). The ending left me with a very positive impression which is why it's difficult for me to fairly criticize the plot right now.
The gameplay is up to the Ys standard of being delightfully addictive, making me want to get in as many battles as I could because, again, the combat is fun. However, Ys IX Monstrum Nox is a very, very easy game. I was playing on hard thinking I would give my first playthrough a moderate challenge, but I got through the game with probably no deaths aside from a level 90 monster in a dungeon when I was level 45 and a superboss towards the end of the game - both of which I fought, and the latter was the only one that I found decently challenging, to illustrate just how easy this game is. However, in some ways that can be a blessing just because there are moments where events are so chaotic it can be a struggle to keep track of everything that's happening around you (really just the latter Grimwald Nox phases, this is also coming from someone with ADHD and gets overwhelmed easily anyway).
It was cool to have a large seamless area to explore, but Balduq was also very fractured into different segments that only expanded with story progress, which I felt took away from the game. Ys VIII did it more subtly, by throwing natural obstacles in your path like trees or boulders, but those also gave an incentive to explore the area more to find more castaways to add to the village and move forward. This game just says "fuck it, we'll just have force fields everywhere and not tell anyone where they are until they're two feet away." I know this isn't a deserted island setting anymore, but was that really the best they could come up with?
Monstrum abilities were cool, but I also felt like they could have done more with them. It would have been nice if it felt like Balduq, the plains outside the city and the dungeons were built around them instead of what felt like the other way around - it felt like the perfect opportunity to make this game a natural playground and a demonstration of what better movement in action RPGs can really be, so it ended up feeling like a missed opportunity for me and felt pretty janky in the end.
The general feel is good, though. The game is very pleasant to look at and there's a lot of good music in the soundtrack.
I had a great time with this game, but man I just wish Falcom would work on honing their game design sense a little more.
My thoughts - on the story, mainly - need more time to be sorted out, but immediately coming off this game I felt like it was full of good ideas but executed rather poorly and the characters are one dimensional but are at least enjoyable (beating out many Cold Steel characters with that latter point). The ending left me with a very positive impression which is why it's difficult for me to fairly criticize the plot right now.
The gameplay is up to the Ys standard of being delightfully addictive, making me want to get in as many battles as I could because, again, the combat is fun. However, Ys IX Monstrum Nox is a very, very easy game. I was playing on hard thinking I would give my first playthrough a moderate challenge, but I got through the game with probably no deaths aside from a level 90 monster in a dungeon when I was level 45 and a superboss towards the end of the game - both of which I fought, and the latter was the only one that I found decently challenging, to illustrate just how easy this game is. However, in some ways that can be a blessing just because there are moments where events are so chaotic it can be a struggle to keep track of everything that's happening around you (really just the latter Grimwald Nox phases, this is also coming from someone with ADHD and gets overwhelmed easily anyway).
It was cool to have a large seamless area to explore, but Balduq was also very fractured into different segments that only expanded with story progress, which I felt took away from the game. Ys VIII did it more subtly, by throwing natural obstacles in your path like trees or boulders, but those also gave an incentive to explore the area more to find more castaways to add to the village and move forward. This game just says "fuck it, we'll just have force fields everywhere and not tell anyone where they are until they're two feet away." I know this isn't a deserted island setting anymore, but was that really the best they could come up with?
Monstrum abilities were cool, but I also felt like they could have done more with them. It would have been nice if it felt like Balduq, the plains outside the city and the dungeons were built around them instead of what felt like the other way around - it felt like the perfect opportunity to make this game a natural playground and a demonstration of what better movement in action RPGs can really be, so it ended up feeling like a missed opportunity for me and felt pretty janky in the end.
The general feel is good, though. The game is very pleasant to look at and there's a lot of good music in the soundtrack.
I had a great time with this game, but man I just wish Falcom would work on honing their game design sense a little more.