Posted on: July 7, 2021
minneyar
Verified ownerGames: 221 Reviews: 5
One of the finest action RPGs, period
I've been a fan of the developer, Nihon Falcom, since the SNES days. I've played every game in the Ys series, including the ones that've never gotten English translations. I'm on my third playthrough of the game now, after previously having played through the Japanese and English PS4 releases. With that in mind, let me say: this is my favorite Ys game, and one of my favorite games of all time. I could gush at length, but I'll try to summarize. Ys IX has a great cast of characters, a creative story, an amazing soundtrack, and some of the best gameplay in the series. Compared to VIII, IX introduces a huge city that's filled with secrets and is a lot of fun to explore, and over the course of the game you get new abilities that change how you explore the city. All of the playable characters are very different from each other and fun to play as, and there's always something new to find or discover. This is the kind of game where you'll find yourself constantly saying "just a few more minutes" as you explore another cranny in the map. You don't need to have played prior Ys games to enjoy this one, but there are a lot of callbacks for long-time fans. If I was to have any complaints: this is a much more story-heavy game than the previous games in the series. Unlike some of the other games, this one doesn't just drop you right into the action; it can feel confining and restrictive at first, and it'll take a while before you really start to unlock the city. It's worth your patience. Also, the PC port is also smooth as butter. Durante did a great job on this port; my GTX 1080 can run it at 60 FPS @ 4k or 120 FPS @ 1440p. The game has a wide variety of supported graphics options, including ultra widescreen and up to 144 Hz, as well as a variety of other options for tweaking the settings. This is definitely the best version of the game to play. I absolutely recommend Ys IX to anybody who likes fast, story-driven action RPGs. This is Falcom at their best.
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