So back in 2019 I got to play through Ys VIII during my summer break, and it was a perfect summer vacation game with people stranded on an island with some mysteries thrown in as they try to escape. And then Ys IX was announced and finally in 2021 came to Switch. And perfectly for my summer vacation that year so it was another perfect match. So it starts with Adol escaping from the prison in the city of Balduq, but while escaping he is stopped by this mysterious woman with artificial limbs that shots him with a gun that curses him into becoming the Crimson King, a Monstrum cursed to fight the embodiment of negative called the Lumes to cleanse the city so that not even more monsters are created. After using his new powers to end up in a waterway we flash back to 10 days before as Adol and Dogi "the Wallcrusher" arrives at Balduq and Adol promptly is arrested by the Romun soldiers and Hieroglyphic Knights for his previous adventures that have set the Romun Empire to investigate him. So at the prison Adol helps this old man against another prisoner and as thanks he gives you a fork that allows you to escape the prison after being investigated by the female inquisitor and who wants to move you to Romn, so that sparks the need to escape, and now we are back in the present with Adol back in the town.
So you find this abandoned house and find Dogi that been laying low while Adol was in prison. Apparently Balduq was the capital of Gllia (which should be Gaul, which makes Balduq Paris or Lutetia if my knowledge of Asterix comics doesn't betray me) that was conquered by the Romun empire 8 years ago. Now, 6 months ago 5 monstrums appeared that started causing havoc, with one being the White cat that started stealing from the rich and giving to the poor Robin Hood style while the Feral Hawk picked fights with soldiers or strong people overall. This causes the people to fear them and the Romun Garrison and Hieroglyphic Knights to try to arrest them. So now Adol joins them and starts to unravel who they really are, cause apparently none of the others tried to even learn who the others where during these 6 months. First up is white cat that apparently is the adoptive daughter of the Pendleton family that are the richest family in Gllia that was one of the first to start trading with the Romuns, which make the Gllians hate them for betraying the country pretty much. Which the patriarch of the family don't care about. The company before all else and all potential competition is bought up... I get the sense it's some critique of the monopoly situation in an unregulated capitalistic market, especially when the White Cat after getting caught by Adol renounced her stealing ways and leave the family and start her own florist shop in the poor district. Meanwhile the older sister as thanks and seeing through the whole Monstrum facade gives you enough capital to establish a tavern in the abandoned house as a base of operations for Adol and Dogi.
The gameplay rounds is find a Monstrum, use its abilities to get into the prison and release some prisoners. The curse limits you to certain areas until you gathered enough crystals to open a portal to the Grimwald Nox that summons all Monstrums to one of two different fights, either a siege stage like the one in VIII or to destroy all crystals. Doing so open a new area and get you an entrance to the prison. First rescue is Park, the old man that helped you escape and he helps you out with information and rescue other prisoners. And after clearing that we jump back into the prison and... Adol??? Yes, apparently Adol is still in the prison where he goes around doing tasks for the corrupt soldiers that take missions from outside people, like the Monstrums. Helping you is Marius and Xavier, Xavier being a talking Roo at that. You don't level up and have to survive the traps in the prison to try to escape and find out whats going on. Prison Adol learns that the female inquisitor is actually a high ranking officer in the paranormal division that have been looking into Adol's activities, and later in the game he and Marius observe as the knight commander arrests the Romun commander for questioning his arrest of innocent people.
So that is the big mystery of the game, which is the true Adol and what happened here? Well, you find out that all the other Monstrums are adoptive children and that the leader of the Hieroglyphic knights are in league with an alchemist that have been alive for 500 years creating Homunculi's (lucky I had watched both Fullmetal Alchemist-series on Netflix to get the gist of that) of his comrades in the 100 years war between Britai and Gllia (meaning the 100 year war between England and France), Saint Rosvita and her champions. Saint Rosvita is pretty much Joan D'Arc. Apparently the war was a battle between the Nors gods Loki and Grimnir (Odin the Allfather pretty much) and the battle is Ragnarok that killed off all the gods and demigods that used to fight the Lemures in the Grimwald Nox. To compensate this loss the Alchemist made Homunculi's of his friends to fight in the Nox to avoid the destruction of the world. So that has been going on for 500 years, but some 15 years he disappeared which forced Apprilis, the clone of Rosvita, to give away the latest batch of Homunculi since she couldn't take care of them as well as fight the Lemures. So what has he been doing for these 15 years? He was busy creating the greatest homunculi to serve in the Nox and with that release the others from the curse of the Grimwald Nox. A homunculi based on Adol, the greatest adventurer of them all. So the Crimson King Adol is the homunculi and as he finds out and finds the imprisoned Adol that was betrayed by Marius that also was a homunculi (of the current Romun emperor no less) that was controlled by the knight's leader. Crimson King and the knight fight, and surprise, the knight is also a homunculi since he died in the invasion 8 years ago. He didn't know this and fought on to restore Gllia's independence and was in on the plan to create an homunculi army to match the legions of Romn. But the Crimson King malfunctions as well due to being insta-created so the Monstrum transfers his soul and powers into the real Adol so that they could fight angel Adol that have gone extermination mode on humanity since he correctly deduces that if the lemures is created by humans hate, greed, fear and what not, you gotta destroy the source, the whole city of Balduq and probably the whole world. And he killed the alchemist who tried to self-destruct him when he realised it was going out of hand. You defeat him and Adol is in a dream space where souls from Adols past arrives t help him destroy the Nox forever and release the Monstrum from their curse, but maybe doom the world int he future, but since we can't accept status quo Adol destroys the Nox and then leaves Balduq. With Romun legions chasing after you.
So... it was a fun game. It was rather fun running around the city, managing the tavern and all that. But I would say VIII is actually better. Tighter group of people, more fun locals since it got rather boring looking at the same catacombs of the prison and the music was a bit better since it at least had some more songs that I remember. It could also be that this game calls back to the other games in the series a bit more without explaining who they are, and the emotional scene of the souls coming to aid Adol is a bit missed when you don't know who they are. I mean, VIII had the death of the captain. The closest was the death of Aprilis, but she shows up later as the clones are revealed. It was fine for what it was, but I would love Ys 3-7 so I can get the deal. Or Ys X.
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