Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

The gameplay is fun and succinct. The story is good, but not as good as Ys8 for me. All around, I'd say the game is objectively better than 8, but I just enjoy the vibes of 8 more. Would recommend.

整体中规中矩，难怪容量比8小只有8G，地图虽然还算大但是因为世界观和地区构造的设计，全是重复的简易素材和贴图堆起来的。 白猫真可爱

Another Ys masterpiece. About half as long as Dana but twice as long as Celceta or any of the earlier games, probably. Size-wise, it may the smallest Ys game though. Released just at the start of the plague, it suffers from the same problem that Tales of Arise did, where it seems like they intended to write more game and then had to rush the end. Nonetheless, Monstrum Nox adds a great deal of depth the action, maybe more even than the Nordics does. I loved the characters and their story almost as much as I loved Dana. This one is much darker, mysterious, suspenseful even. What I love most about Ys games is the focus on balancing artistry and an efficiently running software product. Where most action game franchises just beef their textures and polygons and lighting and fog and bog down their action to 58fps (or 132 if you have AI insert frames for you), Falcom creates a very nice looking game with very basic textures and simple meshes and a little creative genius that runs at your monitors frame speed with zero dips ever. If Monstrum Nox outpaces all other Ys games in any category, it is in the creative use of color to drive the action and story. The action feels a little sparse at the beginning of the game compared to how much story you're going through which was kind of a shock coming from Dana which was mostly exploration, but it really opens up as the game goes on.