Publisher NIS America and developer Falcom have announced that Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will launch on PlayStation 5 in Spring 2023.
First launched in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in September 2019, the game saw a North American and European release in February 2021. The game is available to play on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC–however, the upcoming PlayStation 5 release will come packaged with all previously released cosmetic DLC content from the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions.
Check out the announcement trailer below.
The Limited Edition version of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is available to preorder now via the NIS America Online Store. For $89.99, players can snag the game, the official soundtrack, a prequel short novel titled The Lost Sword, an art card collection, a hardcover art book, a 200-piece puzzle, and a collector’s box.
NIS America also provided an overview of the title, which you can read below.
Renowned adventurer Adol “the Red” Christin and his companion Dogi arrive at Balduq, a city annexed by the Romun Empire, only for Adol to be detained before their adventure can begin. While imprisoned, Adol meets a mysterious woman named Aprilis who turns him into a Monstrum—a being with supernatural Gifts and the power to exorcize monsters.
Now, Adol must team up with his fellow Monstrums to fend off the fearsome threats emerging from the shadowy dimension known as the Grimwald Nox, unravel the mysteries of the Monstrum curse, and discover the truth behind the unrest within Balduq. Join Adol in this iteration of the Ys series coming to PlayStation 5.
Players will be able to control any of the six notorious Monstrums, each having a unique Gift that grants powerful abilities such as scaling walls or finding hidden objects. The game features a large open world and a hefty number of sidequests to accept. While familiar mechanics such as Flash Dodge and Flash Guard are present in this installment, new additions like Gifts and Boost Mode will provide some much-needed change-ups to the battle system.
In an interview with Dengeki PlayStation in 2020, Falcom’s CEO and Ys series producer and writer Toshihiro Kondo discussed the title, noting that making seamless travel for the city of Balduq was the largest hurdle for the dev team in terms of development. The loading speeds and framerates posed problems, giving the massive size of the game’s primary setting.
The Ys series has been ongoing since 1987, following the release of Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished. This first installment was developed for the PC-8801, and since then, 15 titles have been released. With over 5 million copies sold worldwide to date, it remains a popular piece of action role-playing history.
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will be released for PlayStation 5 in Spring 2023. Currently, the title is available for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia.
