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Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
While imprisoned in Balduq, Adol is cursed and becomes a Monstrum. With his newfound powers, he must stop the Grimwald Nox from consuming the city.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Fluid traversal and satisfying combat” (41 of 82 reviews) and “Likeable, emotionally resonant characters” (21); the most common complaint is “Repetitive button-mashing combat” (17). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-29 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
41 of the 82 reviews raise this.
21 of the 82 reviews raise this.
“I had a lot of fun with Ys 9! It improves a lot on what made Ys 8 so much fun, especially the additional traversal abilities (unfortunately dodge hovering got nerfed, it was a very silly tech in Ys 8). The story had an…”
“Ys IX: Monstrum Nox trades the bright island vibes of VIII for a darker, more mysterious atmosphere and it absolutely works. I REALLY REALLY LOVE THE CHARACTERS IN THIS GAME!!! SIMPLY 10000/10, best cast ever in all Ys…”
9 of the 82 reviews raise this.
“Ys IX: Monstrum Nox trades the bright island vibes of VIII for a darker, more mysterious atmosphere and it absolutely works. I REALLY REALLY LOVE THE CHARACTERS IN THIS GAME!!! SIMPLY 10000/10, best cast ever in all Ys…”
“Adol and his Adventure Waifus... + interesting skills + pretty much GPU and CPU friendly + finest Adol ARPG action + took some inspiration from Ys VIII (so its familiar gameplay) + interesting quests and subquest + good…”
9 of the 82 reviews raise this.
“Beautiful. Amazing Game. What a way to payoff all the saga! But still without being "just a big crossover" but more in the weight of adol in this story. Gameplay amazing, so fluid and chaotic as we all love in this…”
“This is a decent game. It is not quite as good as Ys VIII, but it's still pretty good. I would give it a 7/10. The music is great (as always in the Ys series). The story is interesting. The characters are likeable. The…”
“Adol and his Adventure Waifus... + interesting skills + pretty much GPU and CPU friendly + finest Adol ARPG action + took some inspiration from Ys VIII (so its familiar gameplay) + interesting quests and subquest + good…”
17 of the 82 reviews raise this · 14 of them still recommend the game.
“Coming up on the end of the game as I am now, I find myself having flash-backs to its predecessor, a game I also gave a thumbs down on Steam, despite coming out of it with a fairly positive impression. I'm sure I don't…”
“Beautiful. Amazing Game. What a way to payoff all the saga! But still without being "just a big crossover" but more in the weight of adol in this story. Gameplay amazing, so fluid and chaotic as we all love in this…”
16 of the 82 reviews raise this · 13 of them still recommend the game.
“Coming up on the end of the game as I am now, I find myself having flash-backs to its predecessor, a game I also gave a thumbs down on Steam, despite coming out of it with a fairly positive impression. I'm sure I don't…”
“Ys IX: Monstrum Nox trades the bright island vibes of VIII for a darker, more mysterious atmosphere and it absolutely works. I REALLY REALLY LOVE THE CHARACTERS IN THIS GAME!!! SIMPLY 10000/10, best cast ever in all Ys…”
7 of the 82 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Coming up on the end of the game as I am now, I find myself having flash-backs to its predecessor, a game I also gave a thumbs down on Steam, despite coming out of it with a fairly positive impression. I'm sure I don't…”
“I absolutely love this series. This is ANOTHER fantastic entry as it's left me feeling the way I usually do after a great game. I always wish it was longer even when I've spent almost 100 hours playing it. I can't wait…”
“It's basically the same engine as Ys VIII, but a new game. This one is shorter and takes place in a smaller environment, centered around the city and the prison. Ys VIII is the better game (and lasted about 10 hours…”
5 of the 82 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Coming up on the end of the game as I am now, I find myself having flash-backs to its predecessor, a game I also gave a thumbs down on Steam, despite coming out of it with a fairly positive impression. I'm sure I don't…”
“It's basically the same engine as Ys VIII, but a new game. This one is shorter and takes place in a smaller environment, centered around the city and the prison. Ys VIII is the better game (and lasted about 10 hours…”
“How I feel about this game is a bit odd. I really enjoyed exploring the city with all the different abilities collecting stuff which I normally hate. But the characters and story just bored me. The combat on hard may as…”
4 of the 82 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“This is a decent game. It is not quite as good as Ys VIII, but it's still pretty good. I would give it a 7/10. The music is great (as always in the Ys series). The story is interesting. The characters are likeable. The…”
“How I feel about this game is a bit odd. I really enjoyed exploring the city with all the different abilities collecting stuff which I normally hate. But the characters and story just bored me. The combat on hard may as…”
Counted across 82 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 94.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“Definitely a great Ys game (6th to play so far). More of the same with the combat system since SEVEN but more improvised from Lacrimosa. Super fun gameplay and pretty chill experience, not too difficult. Exploring the castle + city is vast but not too overwhelming. Didn't mind…”
— a player, Steam review · 36 hrs played“Honestly, the game isn't bad. It's just that it doesn't feel like a Ys game. Idk what it is, but this game feels a lot more like the Trail series, which don't get me wrong, is a great game series that I actually love, but I'm here to play Ys, not Trails. Anyways, I still enjoyed…”
— a player, Steam review · 35 hrs played“My second YS game coming straight from 8 and it's definitely more YS fun! Big city with lots to collect and do but not overwhelming amounts of collect-a-thon. Really, just right. I definitely enjoyed this about the same as 8, both fantastic hack and slash adventures.”
— a player, Steam review · 42 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-24.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-23). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Version 1.1.4 Release Notes
Hi everyone, today we are releasing a patch for Ys IX which improves how the game interacts with platform achievement APIs. This should prevent performance issues in some circumstances, specifically w
Ys X: Nordics Coming on October 25, 2024
YouTube link here About Ys X: Nordics + Wishlist today and stay tuned for exciting updates leading up to the game's release! Following their tenuous encounter at sea, the young red-haired adventurer A
Ys IX 1.1.3 - Nobody Expects the Surprise Performance Patch
Hi everyone, I bet you didn't expect an Ys IX performance patch! Some background: while working on the upcoming release of Trails from Zero, and specifically looking to keep it at a solid 60 FPS on al
Ys IX Patch 1.1.2 - Introducing Local Co-op
It has been a while, but today we are very happy to announce a major update to Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. The most important new feature this update introduces is local co-op. Two players can join together
Patch 1.0.6 Release Notes
Hi everyone, we have fixed various minor issues with Ys 9 and implemented some new features: Input / Controls added remapping of confirm and cancel actions added mouse wheel support for scrollable lis
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Action, RPG |
| Player tags | JRPG · Action · Action RPG · Story Rich · RPG · Beautiful · Dark · Fantasy · Colorful · Drama · Anime · Singleplayer (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op · Shared/Split Screen · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards |
| Languages | English * , French, Japanese * * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 54 |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 10/8.1 64-bit Processor: Core i3-2100 3.10 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Geforce GTX 650 Ti DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 10 GB available space Sound Card: Onboard