Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (Zero Punctuation) 

Watch this week's episode of Zero Punctuation on Cruelty Squad - www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/cruelty-squad-zero-punctuation/ - You can watch it early on RU-vid via RU-vid Memberships for $2 / month! ru-vid.com/show-UCqg5FCR7NrpvlBWMXdt-5Vgjoin

I enjoy his positive reviews. Like clearly this game has its flaws but it's competently executed and apparently comfortable to play. Might have to try out Massive Knokwurst.

Now appearing on the game's sales pages etc.: "I ENJOYED PLAYING MONSTRUM NOX" - YAHTZEE CROSHAW

"Fucking hell LADY! Where were you the last time I played World of Warcraft?!" What a timely question

I don't know what's craziest, the fact that he reviewed Ys IX, the fact that he somewhat enjoyed it, the fact that he has played older Ys games, or the fact that not only did he play older Ys games but somewhat enjoyed those too. What next? Yahtzee going without sleep for a full week in order to finish Trails in the Sky in time for a review?

The way Adol casually writes up his adventures in a collection of travel reports cracks me up. Dude literally saves the world from game to game and doesn't want to get it on with the girls that fall for him, because this MF got places to be. The soundtrack is usually spot on for me and I love the way Adol and his newfound friends grow together over the course of each installment. It's simple, but sincere, and at the end of it all, heart-warming fun.

"friends you're fine with now but embarrassed to be seen with in public".... yeah I felt that a little too much

Funny how annoyed Yahtzee seems to be getting with Danganronpa recommendations. Guys, if you weren't so persistent about it and just waited until Decadence came out, there's a decent chance he might have picked it up during the post-Christmas "whew coast is clear" season.

I am somehow both surprised and not surprised Yahtzee is somewhat of an Ys fan.

A simple game that knows what it wants and what it can do God that’s a rarity in itself nowdays

I was expecting Yahtzee to tear the Ys series a new one it's kind of heart warming to hear this cynical husk of a man actually like your favourite JRPG series (even if it is less in the sense of "wow this is the greatest ever" and simply the sense of "I like this, this is nice").

That "anime season" comment at the end seems apt at the moment.

Ys graphics are"whatever the current gen of portables can do at 60 fps and max resolution"

If Nintendo is "triple A but 10 years behind", Ys is "single A but 10 years behind"

That gag about "writing home to your parents" got me.

The big Innovation: "We added a Gopher NPC." "WHY ISN'T THIS IN ALL GAMES!?"

I don't know how else to describe it, but Yahtzee has such dad vibes in this review.

Hearing Yahtzee say "Totes adorbs" is quite strange.

mmm.. mint chocolate stab, my favorite.

It brings me immense joy to know that Yahtzee enjoys the Ys series. "Adorable" is the perfect description. It does what it can, somehow striking in that fine line between too-cheesy-for-its-own-good, Try-hard, and Just perfect. I'm glad to know Monstrum keeps up the tradition. I'm sold on checking it out.

Ever since Valkyria Chronicles Yahtzee has slowly been getting more and more open to anime games.

I quite enjoy Nihon Falcom they do Lore really well (looking at you trails series) and fun/casual battle mechanics like the Ys games. Glad to see Yahtzee enjoyed this.

Yeah Ys has always been a place of comfort and you can always expect the music to be really good

You know what? This actually makes me want to buy the game! [checks steam, sees $60 price tag (plus another $55 in DLC] You know what? This actually makes me want to put the game on my wishlist so I get notified if it ever goes more than half off!

Ironically, in their early days (80s), Falcom and their games like Dragon Slayer and Ys literally influenced every other JRPG. Ys on TurboGraphX was the first JRPG to have an intro with fully voiced narration. Adol isnt just a generic red haired heroic anime swordsman, he's THE ORIGINAL.

If Ys is a child then I guess the Trails series is that ankward big brothers that you dont know if he is a teen or a child.

Game developers make long convoluted name for their game. Yahtzee i guess i can leave my cadbury egg collection for 5 minutes and make fun of the name.

I’m super happy to see a more well known reviewer doing a video on ys I love this game franchise and I’m just excited at the fact that this video might get it some more players

Ys I & II were actually incredibly fun with the bump mechanics, by far my favorite Ys games, and very memorable overall.

Pretty much summed up everything I enjoy about the Ys series. Quite glad to hear I might not be insane.

2:45 I see you sneaking in a timely He-Man reference.

Oh come on, Adol is not just a generic adventurer dude... he is actually insane to the point were multiple characters in the game are actually horrified or amused by how just insane he is about all the life threatening shit he is being put through. Instead of angsting about it, or being shocked by it all, he is just "YAY, a new adventure! cant wait to see what kind of world shattering insanity ill deal with now! I wonder if ill get cursed this time... or accused of regicide and sent to fight against a giant monster with nothing but a rusty machette and rotten wooden shield!" Adol is basically a version of link who is NOT constantly re-incarnating and adventuring centuries apart, or a classic JRPG protagonist who actually has lived through multiple FFs worth of world threatening chaos... and he absolutely loves every second of it. Enough that its a plot point in this game that the part of the reason he got arrested is that people dont believe all the insane shit he pulled in the past and think he is actually a spy or con artist. That is actually one of the things I like about this game, every time you get a dialog option you have the 'newbie' option were he acts like a generic RPG protag man... and then you get the adol option, were none of this shocks him, he just takes it all in stride or even acts excited about whatever life threatening bullshit will be thrown his way next, or talks about/compares stuff to previous adventures. Also there is the fact that by this point in his life he actually has multiple god/godess in love with him and one of them even cameos in this game giving him indirect help and serving as the quest giver for a side collection quest... via posessing a generic RPG.

Didn't realise Yahtzee knew of the Ys series, they're usually pretty simple with the plot, but I love the way they approach challenging hack and slash gameplay (play on lunatic for a dark souls experience), also the music is banging

Hearing Yahtzee give a positive review for a game I love made my day. Perfect way to cap it off for me as I just finished it last night as well.

Now I actually want to get this game... that's worth a laugh on it's own.

Yeah, yahtzee probably doesn't appreciate the 10000 super chats with "play Danganronpa pls" he's sent every livestream

wait we're allowed to recommend our favorite retro games? Have you considered starting a life of crime and pirating Mother 3?

Yahtzee has mellowed out a little in his old age, it’s nice to see

I love the Ys series, it's so underrated.

Honestly given Yahtzee's preferences I would really like to see him take a look at 13: Sentinels Aegis Rim sometime. A masterpiece of a game that could not be told in any other medium, I feel like Yahtzee would completely lose himself in it.

Sometimes… it’s okay to enjoy “not great” games. Sounds a little outside my preferred genres, but it’s nice to hear that you found a chill, relaxing time as the world burns down.

Ys seven is the reason I still play my PSP regularly!

Gotta agree with Yahtzee's take on this one. Sometimes, you just want a vanilla RPG experience. No needless frills, no attempts at innovation that only serve to mangle and complicate proceedings. Just some good old fashioned "Stab Enemy, Level Up, Save Day" adventuring.

I pronounce Ys as 'whys', as in, "Why's it named that?"

Would love to see the reactions of game developers watching Yahtzee review their game.

It's all fun and games until you learn the Ys series has been going on since 1987

as a guy who misses and longs for retro rpgs this sounds like my jam and I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it not every rpg has to be persona 5 to be enjoyable

"The viewers get to send in heartfelt recommendations for their personal favorite indie and retro games I get to tell them all to piss off everyone's having fun" 😂😂😂

Ys/ Falcom stayed behind the rest because, of their president policy of being strictly a PC developer and mostly to japan in the early days even thought they were doing RPGs things before the competition! So they stayed small! Ys is fantastic!

I gotta say, those STAB jokes had me almost literally dying. Some fine content this week.

I'm a German and I'm here to tell you that "Monstrums" is actually the correct plural... in German, that is. 😃

Despite being a self proclaimed JRPG hater, Yahtzee sure likes playing them. If I weren't a trusting rosy cheeked character, I might suspect that he is lying.

Nihon Falcom needs to shift over to cel shading rather than realistic lighting to not only have the characters look more like their rather great looking anime artwork, but also so that they can have resources left over to put things like stained glass into their otherwise bland (but really fun to explore) gothic setting. Like, Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana technically has worse graphics, but way better aesthetics due to its broader color palettes making it easier to tell when the monsters you are fighting are new.

Shame there was no mention though of the Nihom Falcon's amazing music for every game. They only know one speed though - F A S T.

'Salt and vinegar stab' cracked me up.

From that last comment during the credits, I'm now imagining Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck holding up a cardboard sign saying ANIME SEASON.

Definitely made me laugh. Need more anime for this season

Oh god. I played the first Ys game and spent 2 frustrating hours trying to chest bump the final boss to death while he made floor panels disappear under me. I do NOT miss not having an attack button. May give this one a try!

Seems like this mid-Range light Plot Game that probably had some dedication or ambition behind it is more enjoyable than the high polished money oozing AAA formula-committee Games. Who would have thought.

Having just levelled my enchanting in TBC Classic, that last line speaks to me.

Monstrum Nox was better than 99% of the other games that came out this year. Games DO NOT need to have up to date graphics to be way better than all of the games that have them.

I love that, in universe, Adol is treated like he’s genuinely insane by everyone except Dogi. Like, this man has been in SO many “end of the world” plots, met multiple god-like beings, and had held the affection of multiple women, that the guy has just become…used to it, and treats everything like it’s a GAME. As if he KNOWS he’s a JRPG protagonist and just goes along for the ride for the thrill of it. Which is hilarious to think about.

The write home a letter bit got me good 😂

Man you know it’s roughy if Yahtzee has to dig through B grade JRPG’s.

I guess Nihon Falcom never really sell their game graphics. I don't play Ys, but I enjoyed their other franchise: the Kiseki/Trails series. The Zero and Ao no Kiseki were released in 2010-2011 and they were still sprite-based... Heck, Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2 were released in 2015 but the graphic is worst than a PS2 game.

It's been awhile since a ZP video sent me into fits of hysterical laughter but "Her name is 'i drew my girlfriend's DND character for my college art portfolio" fuckin did it holy shit 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

For what it's worth, I don't really think that Raging Bull was particularly sassy in either of her identities. She gets in the odd mildly biting remark (mostly towards Hawk, who absolutely deserves it), sure, but otherwise she's pretty much textbook caring and helpful older sister/girl next door, except when SPOILER talking about the recent war that killed her parents a few years back. Like, she and Tifa Lockheart would be one another's spirit animals.

This was actually one of my favorites from earlier in the year, and I can still play it, for a lot of reasons. It's got a load of additional content, some great challenges, and unlike other games, your stats can keep going up, and up, and up, so you're never playing, 'just to play it again', you can justify it by saying, I'm making my characters stronger every time, because you are. Better, the Ys have two things over their contemporaries. 1, you can play them in any order, as the games, while connected, are not directly linked story wise. The big thing is that Adol Christian, our stalwart hero, is...well, an Adventurer, as Yahtzee said. That is what he is doing, and that's all the motivation he has, so there's no real big overarching plot or anything, it's just a guy living in a magical world, going around having fun, and saving the world/local area as he does. The only exceptions are Ys 2(Ys 1 and 2 are basically part 1 and 2 of the same game), and Ys SEVEN(Yes it's all in caps), which is a direct follow on from Ys 6. 2, those random word salad titles mean something, and it's never obvious at first, meaning you eventually understand. They're not random or without purpose. Lacrimosa of Dana was...well about the Lacrimosa of Dana. But who Dana is, and what a Lacrimosa is, both very plot relevant things, are revealed only by playing. Same for the Ark of Napishtim, which is the macguffin of the game, though what it does and why it's important is also in the story. Oh, and Memories of Celceta. That's an important title, as it's those memories, of that place, that drive Adol in that plot. As I said, the titles mean something, but only if you play the game. No Revelations, Brotherhoods, or Resurrections to be found here.

Nihon Falcom are the unsung essential workers of JRPGs

The Prince Adam joke absolutely did me in

Never thought I’d see a game franchise make cartoon Yahtzee curl up to it like a cat, but here I am.

Yahtzee reviewing a Falcom game? Hell's not just frozen over. It's become a Bose-Einstein Condensate.

Seems I enjoy yahtzees voice so much I got his books on audible. Really enjoying differently morphous!

Two weeks where Yahtzee played games he enjoyed? Oh the bourgeois are gonna be tickled by this scandal when they're finally allowed to watch it.

cant believe how long this series has gone on for

The Ys games have fast, fun, and don't overstay their welcome. One of the funnest jrpg series I've gotten into in recent memory.

And all these years I've been pronouncing it 'WHYYYYYS'.

Wasn’t expecting you to cover this! Not as good as the other modern Ys games in my opinion, but still a fantastic game overall!

An absolute perfect description of the little kids (Ys) coming to the big boy table (Big Game RPG).

I'm currently playing this on my switch and progressing through chapter 6. I absolutely love this game and I was a big fan of Ys 8 and this one feels like the great continuation. I am really looking forward to the 10th game in the series because Falcom is going to be using the whole brand new engine for it and I'm curious to see how they'll expand on the lore for Adol. Kuro No Kiseki which is coming out this September in Japan is using the new engine and for a Falcom game it looks great! Also just a note the game doesn't feature gratuitous panty shots or skimpy looking ladies there's just one character that has really sexy features but is not really exploited like he was seeing other anime games. Honestly all the Falcom RPGs don't really have a whole lot of female characters that are sexually exploited as bad as some other titles which is a breath of fresh air in the jrpg genre

"Jilling off" is brilliant.

I think it's kinda wild that we've come to the point of video game development that "not innovating" seems like the new innovation. The point about the game not expecting much from the player and vice versa is spot on. Honestly, I feel like I enjoy games like that more than flashy, bleeding edge games most times. I liked Doom 2016 more than Eternal. I play Star Wars Battlefront 2 classic because the new one expects me to sell liver to afford to sit around and play it all day.

The name "Monsterums" makes me think of the Monstars.

3:16 lol, that had me bust a gut 🤣

"I drew my girlfriend's D&D character for my college art portfolio" actually sounds like a positive lol

It also has a demo, which makes it better than 99% of games nowadays in term of accessibility.

I saw Danganronpa and laughed. I love the game series, like I can't even explain it. However, I'd love to watch Yatzee RIP it a new one, he's got so much sass. I wouldn't have even been mad. Hahaha

Adventurers *giving* fetch quests is more innovation than I could expect out of any one game over the past 10 years.

"Ys has gradually embraced the innovations of the action RPG genre - _at its own leisurely pace_ ..." I don't know why I think that particular passive-agressive comment is so hilarious, but it is.

Y'know this might be the first time I've agreed with everything Yahtzee's said about a game I enjoy. The graphics and gameplay are nothing game-changing, but if you're looking for something to play to just have some fun it's great. And while the story is typical anime what the fuckery in places it does have some solid moments.

You had me at "sassy jugs".

Jesus Christ, barely 15 seconds in and already an ugly sputter laugh from me at the "I piss dust" joke. Bravo.

I kind of want him to do Lacrimosa of Dana. It's by far the better game, and I love the story, its melodramatic as balls so it would probably drive him crazy though.

Has Yahtzee been playing Ys on the side this whole time?

2:45 prince adam 😂

Things don't have to be innovative to be good. Like, there's nothing new about pizza, but almost everyone likes it.

The only other Ys game I've seen was the 8th one Lacrimosa of Dana. The gameplay was fun, setting was good. 2 characters (the Loli Ricotta and the Tsundere, Lexi I think was her name?, were annoying but overall didn't spoil it for me.

I was thinking that he'd put it in the Bland by default. I wasn't expecting him to come out and say, without any sarcasm, that he actually liked it.

I was kind of hoping the credits gag wouldn't have been Yahtzee turning into his adventure awaits character.

1:45 memories about Ys VII returns