During the Nihon Falcom stage event at Dengeki Game Festival 2019, Falcom’s president Toshihiro Kondo revealed new information and gameplay for Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, and spoke about what might come next for the Ys series.
Kondo started by going over the Ys series, mentioning Adol’s age in each of his adventures so far. He also talked about how the first version of Ys I mentioned in its manual that Adol’s adventures ended when he became 63 years old and disappeared, with no one knowing what happened to him. The Eresia continent where the Ys games take place in is based on Europe, and Adol explored all of it during his life and left behind over 100 journals recounting his adventures.
So at that point, the games didn’t even cover half of Adol’s adventurer life. Kondo also mentioned how over at Falcom they often talk about how they can’t make a game with a very older Adol. Having “The red-bearded Adol” instead of the “Red-haired Adol” would be nice though. One possibility Kondo mentioned is making a game with an older Adol but with the main protagonist being a younger man who admires Adol and is his disciple.
Later on stream, Kondo also revealed that Adol is 24 years old in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox.
One of the triggers behind Ys IX‘s development is how a lot of Falcom’s staff just really wanted to design a huge city. They also properly designed the city of Balduk as realistically as possible while keeping in mind facts like how it’s used as a base for many adventurers.
Adol has settled in the city as well. Kondo and the Dengeki journalists joked about how Adol might have found a job there too, as he did technically work as a sailor in Ys VIII: Lacrimoso of Dana.
Jokes asides, they added that Adol while Adol settled in Balduk, he can’t live there normally in the open for a certain reason.
Adol’s adventures usually start after he got shipwrecked and gets found unconscious by someone, most of the time a cute girl. This is one of the traditions of Ys games and there will be something similar but different in Monstrum Nox.
As you already know, there are seven playable characters confirmed so far, Adol, the red scarf person, and the five Monstrum. Each of the Monstrum has a different “Movement Action” to travel around. It was confirmed that the white-haired cat-like Monstrum is a girl. She can run up any wall on the game. Meanwhile, the blue Monstrum man who dual wields swords can fly. Some of the movement actions can be used to avoid traps in dungeons, and some can be used to attack as well. Kondo stressed that despite all these new action additions in the series, it won’t make the game’s controls too difficult and people not good with action games will still be able to play properly.
They explained that in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, basically if you see something, you can actually reach it most of the time. Like with past games, Monstrum Nox also has treasure chests to find. Falcom wanted players to be able to see a chest from far away and be able to go there and get it.
As we already know, you’ll be able to explore the city of Balduk, but go outside the city as well. The game will also feature the usual giant bosses present in Ys games. The city also has a Guild where you can accept quests.
Later on stream, Kondo also answered multiple questions from fans:
On whether they have plans to remake older Ys games as they did with Memories of Celceta, Kondo answered a lot of staff at Falcom wish to remake Ys V, but a lot of fans also wish to see Ys I and Ys II remade. For now, they haven’t decided anything but Kondo added that he definitely wants to remake Ys V, especially to rewrite its story to make it fit with all the new story elements since then.
Falcom recently started using Motion Capture for their games and they’re using it for Ys IX to a certain extent. Kondo indirectly confirmed Adol is one of the characters they made using Motion Capture. One of the challenges they’ve faced during development is how Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is a speed-based action RPG like the rest of the series, something which doesn’t go too well with realistic movements you obtain using Motion Capture. So they had to adapt the movements to make them fit with the game’s speed.
On whether they’d like to make an Ys game in VR: Kondo mentioned nothing is planned in that regard, but everyone at Falcom is very interested in VR games. You can also see that with the Trails of Cold Steel IV collaboration café actually ongoing in Shibuya, where they made a small VR app that lets you become one of the characters.
As we already reported, Nihon Falcom is currently working on two Kiseki/Trails games along with Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. Kondo mentioned that over anything else, Falcom is prioritizing Ys IX‘s development.
That’s all. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is scheduled to release in Fall 2019 for PS4 in Japan.
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