Actually liked this a lot, felt like a big improvement on Ys VIII in terms of gameplay. Encounters, bosses and raids are now better balanced and you aren't spending 10 minutes to kill an enemy with fat HP. The monstrums are probably the most memorable and likable cast out of any of the party system games and traversing Balduq with the "gifts" is pure classic video game fun. I'd say the art direction could have been a lot better in terms of both Balduq itself and character art; I understand what they were going for, but it felt like they just settled for something half-baked rather than refining the game's aesthetic to be something truly stylish. There are a fair few things it does worse than VIII but the improvements to the basic gameplay in IX gives it the slight edge over its predecessor.