Nihon Falcom's Ys series has a long and storied history. Though it had it's start in Japan on the NEC PC-8801, most people remember it's real breakout version released for the NEC PC Engine CD/TurboGrafx 16 CD. My first experience with with the Turbo DUO pack-in version of Ys Books I and II, and I have been a hardcore fan of the series ever since. With the last release, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana NIS America took over the localization of the series, and it had quite a rough start with a half-assed translation, and a shoddy PC port. Thankfully that got all ironed out over the course of several substantial patches, and Ys VIII has become quite a masterpiece.
Thankfully with the release of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox things have gone quite smoothly, with NISA clearly learning from it's past efforts. The game runs flawlessly on my system, and looks amazing at the maxed out settings at 1440p60. Clearly a lot of love has been put into the localization and porting this time around, as I've not run into any bugs, translation errors or the like in my time playing. There's no discernible input lag either. and the controls are tight.
The gameplay is your usual Ys action-RPG fare, but this time with an added twist in the form of large scale tower defence battles. Now I've never been one to enjoy tower defence games, however Ys IX manages to present them in a way that makes them intuitive and fun in fashion that I've never seen in the genre. The story is as always engaging and entertaining, living up to the series pedigree once again. All in all, Ys IX is a perfect example of what the series can be, and I'd recommend it for series veterans and newcomers alike.
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