Ys IX: Monstrum Nox game features explained in detail by Nihon Falcom's Toshihiro Kondo

Not long after Nihon Falcom revealed Ys IX: Monstrum Nox in their shareholder meeting, Weekly Famitsu magazine has its first article dedicated to this newest title in Falcom's popular action RPG Ys series. In this article, Nihon Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo also gave more explanation on the game's settings and features.

Kondo-san considered Ys IX as a "challenge title" where the team tries to depict the story with a different opening from past series. The subtitle Monstrum Nox, which means "Night of the Mysterious People", directly forms the concept of Ys IX. Both words are important keywords that also connect deeply with the world setting and gameplay system.

Ys IX takes place in a large prison city known as Barduk. Kondo-san mentioned that the composition of a story that takes place in a large city is extremely unique in the series, and the team made Barduk as a three-dimensional city with a notable elevation difference. Players will be able to feel spatial breadth not only horizontally but also vertically. But just like in past series titles, players will be able to explore places like grasslands, forests, and ruins that are situated around the city.

It is also confirmed that Ys IX will take place in a period after Ys Seven, so the hero Adol Christin will appear in his oldest age as far as the whole series goes. His name has become known everywhere as an adventurer, and that may also relate to the story in this ninth game of the series. Kondo-san also mentioned that the hooded woman in the key art, who has prosthetic arm and leg, will be a major key character in Ys IX. The Japanese official site also has an image where the woman is separated from other mysterious people with bars, but Kondo-san made a teasing question on who - between the woman or other people - are actually behind bars.

Kondo-san then explained the overall gist of the gameplay system. Popular features that have also defined the Ys series such as simple controls and Party Battles are still intact. The new Superpower Actions included in Ys IX will allow players to do movements like running on the wall, moving after becoming a shadow, or adding vertical movements to horizontal dashes, thus allowing more aggressive and three-dimensional actions. Ys IX also has a new system called Guild Management. This is actually based on the Drifting Village from Ys VIII, but it has been expanded specifically to fit the world setting of Ys IX.

Nihon Falcom will release Ys IX: Monstrum Nox for PlayStation 4 in 2019 in Japan. Kondo-san has stated that the game's development progress so far is at around 50%. Most of the content has been set in stone, and Falcom is about to start mass-producing the in-game data. An English localization for this game has yet to be announced.