Board 8 > So how good is Ys IX?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My only experience with the series is playing like 3 hours of Ys Seven.

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Its bad like every Ys game

it's great like every Ys game

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I haven't played it like every Ys game

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It's ok like every Ys game

Actually I've only played Memories of Celceta, VIII and this.

I haven't beaten this one though because I got bored after playing for about 6 hours.

The Good

• This is the best version of the Party based combat system that has been in the series since Ys Seven. Play at least on Hard though because you can just button mash every encounter on Normal.
• Story has a fun mystery that begins around late chapter 2 if I recall. It also references elements of every prior Ys game to the point where it feels like the end of Act 1 of the series.
• Large areas to explore which is a switch from previous Ys games as the exploration was a bit more linear in those games. The main Prison City is super vertical and you can use all your monstrum abilities to scale it and it's a blast to do so.
• After Ys VIII felt like it had somewhat of a subdued soundtrack, we're back to the awesome music that Falcom games are known for. https://youtu.be/A98da5UbppY

The Bad

• Visuals are a downgrade from Ys VIII. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the switch the larger scale open areas and it was the first time Falcom was trying out this approach.
• I would recommend only playing on PS5. The instant load times are a godsend and the framerate struggles on other platforms, especially Switch.
• You are gated off from exploring for a long time, but eventually you do leave the walls of the Prison City and it retains that Ys feel of exploring a bunch of varied environments out in the world.

Hopefully Ys X or whatever the next remake is uses the new engine they're using for Kuro no Kiseki because that'll fix a lot of the visual and performance issues this game has.

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Ys 8 is better, but it's still an excellent game and a contender for GotY IMO. Any reason you're skipping 8 and going straight to this?
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if you havent played a Ys game, start with VIII. Its much better. Not that 9 is bad, it just isnt on the same level as 8.


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I got the switch version on the way. It was on sale. Hopefully it doesn't play like butt. Frame rate doesn't bother me as much as load times.

but yeah, play Lacrimosa of Dana

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Ys VIII is such an overrated game. I went in expecting to be mindblown because everybody was saying it was so good and instead I just got a JRPG with not bad combat but bland as hell atmosphere and a snoozer of a story. Nothing special. I honestly think Memories of Celceta was more enjoyable than Ys VIII even though it was maybe more flawed overall.

Celceta's fine, but not even my favorite Ys IV. Dawn of Ys just so much better. To me it's the weakest of the party system ys games

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Not enough bumping

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Ys VIII is such an overrated game. I went in expecting to be mindblown because everybody was saying it was so good and instead I just got a JRPG with not bad combat but bland as hell atmosphere and a snoozer of a story. Nothing special. I honestly think Memories of Celceta was more enjoyable than Ys VIII even though it was maybe more flawed overall.

I generally agree but I think it's the best intro

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Ys VIII is such an overrated game. I went in expecting to be mindblown because everybody was saying it was so good and instead I just got a JRPG with not bad combat but bland as hell atmosphere and a snoozer of a story. Nothing special. I honestly think Memories of Celceta was more enjoyable than Ys VIII even though it was maybe more flawed overall.

What the? Everything in this post feels wrong to me. I love the progression of rescuing the castaways and learning Dana's story. The combat's real fun too. For my taste, it's the best action RPG by a long shot, blowing away the likes of the KH or Mana games.
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You need this if you're going to play it
https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/of1mos/ys_9_ost_mod_for_pc_is_out_now/

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That reminds me, I need to finish Ys VIII.

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So I see VIII and IX are essentially the same price. Should I get VIII first?

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Yes, you should get 8 first.
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I have a kinda crappy laptop, I see it's cheapest on Steam. I assume the spec on it aren't great (my laptop doesn't meet recommended due to lack of ram, but everything else is good).

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8 has better performance than 9 so that's another reason to get it first. It used to not be great on PC but they did a big fix a while ago.
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I've played about an hour of it on switch

performance issues aside, this is still not very good!

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9 takes a while to get going. I didn't like it that much until several hours in.
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Great, but it pales in comparison to VIII.

IX has a much better story than VIII and an Arkham City-style world to explore with fun new abilities.

Combat and music are on par with VIII, but the law of diminishing returns is what hurts IX the most IMO. I'd recommend playing on Nightmare mode if you're a veteran of Ys VIII--it's really not that hard aside from a few boss battles.

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Ys VIII is such an overrated game. I went in expecting to be mindblown because everybody was saying it was so good and instead I just got a JRPG with not bad combat but bland as hell atmosphere and a snoozer of a story. Nothing special. I honestly think Memories of Celceta was more enjoyable than Ys VIII even though it was maybe more flawed overall.

I went in with minimal expectations and was blown away. While I agree with you on the story being dull, the gameplay was off-the-charts IMO.

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plasmabeam posted...

Great, but it pales in comparison to VIII.

IX has a much better story than VIII and an Arkham City-style world to explore with fun new abilities.

Combat and music are on par with VIII, but the law of diminishing returns is what hurts IX the most IMO. I'd recommend playing on Nightmare mode if you're a veteran of Ys VIII--it's really not that hard aside from a few boss battles.

You basically just said that IX is better than or on par with VIII in ever way, but VIII is better?

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KamikazePotato posted...

You basically just said that IX is better than or on par with VIII in ever way, but VIII is better?

Correct. IX has a much better story and a cool prison city, but the jump from VIII to IX was underwhelming IMO. I also didn't mention that the island environments in VIII are more endearing than those in IX. The prison city in IX is more restrictive and disrupts the game's flow.

You have to understand... VIII blew me away when I played it in 2018. IX, while great, felt like more of the same with less freedom.

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At this point (again very early) calling this story better than VIII's is INSANE to me. VIII's story is extremely basic but I can't help but think of this setup/setting as extremely lame in a weird hot topic kind of way

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I don't know why people are holding VIII's atmosphere in such high regard. I mostly remember beaches, plains, forests and caves. Once you start controlling Dana, it becomes a little more varied. Maybe because VIII has full camera control which is a huge step up from Memories of Celceta but that game had way more interesting locations.

The spirit of exploration in VIII is what gives it good atmosphere. It's fantastic in that respect.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

The spirit of exploration in VIII is what gives it good atmosphere. It's fantastic in that respect.

Exactly. I'm normally not a fan of sunny, uppity settings, but VIII's island is pretty damn charming and has juuust enough mystery to keep things interesting.

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End of Chapter 2 and Ys IX's story is going places


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