Not quite as good as Ys VIII in my opinion. The combat is about the same as 8 but feels a lot easier and more spammy. The monstrum abilities really make exploration a lot of fun this time. You have a large open city which perfectly complement these abilities too. The map is somehow worse than before since sub areas arent really marked in a way I'd like. I liked the story a bit more than Ys VIII since it does a good job deveeloping the main cast. Visually, the game definitely looks rough. The colorful lush environments of 8 are replaced with more drab grey environments. The game is pushing some very large maps for a falcom game, but the engine cannot keep up as the game struggles to run in these areas. Overall its a good game that tries to do some unique things for the series but doesn't always stick the landing.