Having started playing Ys X recently, I thought I might as well share my old writeup of the previous game in the series.
The last game I finished in 2021 was Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, and it was honestly one of the best games I played all year. I definitely regret waiting so long to get the game, especially since I loved Ys VIII so much, but I really assumed (based on reviews) that VIII was something of an outlier for the series. But no, Ys IX is right up there with VIII, modern Ys games really are this friggin' good apparently.
One of the things I really loved about Monstrum Nox was the exploration - it has some of the most fun exploration I've encountered in any JRPG, not only boasting huge open areas filled with stuff to find and collect, but perhaps more surprisingly, also giving you some really awesome movement options: The ability to basically hookshot/teleport to all sorts of strategic spots close by, like rooftops and spires, which lets you zip around the prison city of Balduq super quickly, and you also get the ability to outright run up walls surprisingly early, giving you an amazing sense of freedom. Additionally, you get the ability to fly/glide across shorter distances from high up, comparable to the paraglider in BotW. And yes, abilities like these can very much be chained together to access even more locations.
The story was quite good too, the main plot centered around Adol being cursed/blessed with special powers at the price of being trapped forever in Balduq, forced to fight against these shadowy monsters in something called the Grimwald Nox, and forming relationships with other people in similar situations (the Monstrums) to find a way to break the curse being quite compelling in its own right. At the same time there are various tantalizing mysteries that soon emerge, and which make you that much more interested in seeing just what comes next. The story still isn't as good as in Ys VIII (and quite frankly I never expected anything to match the beautiful and tragic backstory of Dana and Eternia anyway), and for a long time it's quite formulaic (each new chapter basically being dedicated to you befriending a new Monstrum character and helping him or her out until your party is complete), but nonetheless very enjoyable and satisfying on the whole.
I also really liked the Monstrum Nox party. While the game lacked one single Standout character like Dana in Ys VIII, I felt the main party was actually overall stronger this time around (though I'm sure many on the Fediverse and Varis will bemoan the lack of a Loli rep), with great chemistry between the party members. I especially enjoyed Hawk being a fucking edgelord, and frequently scandalizing the other characters. Doll basically acting like an emotionless, analytical robot that gradually becomes more human-like was also really neat.
Combat was fun too, not the deepest from what I can tell, and you really should play the game on Hard mode or higher to get some actual challenge, but the different characters are all fun to use, quite unique, and get plenty of different attacks that you can play around with. Some bosses also force you to use your special Monstrum abilities, normally just used for exploration, in order to beat them, which is a nice change of pace and helps make those boss battles more strategical.
