Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

The Co-Op Experience

Two players can join together at every point in the story where more than one character is available to not only fight monsters and explore dungeons (as in Ys VIII), but also explore the city of Balduq.

Note that there is an in-game co-op setting which you need to enable in order for co-op to be available. Once this setting is enabled, the co-op player can drop in and out of the game using the "Start" (or equivalent) button on any non-primary controller, while the "Select" button on the secondary controller toggles the player ID indicators ("P1" and "P2") on and off.

Unlike Ys VIII, where co-op was mostly limited to combat, the second player is largely equivalent to the primary player in terms of capabilities in Ys IX, including movement and combat abilities, using Monstrum Gifts, discovering and triggering landmarks, enemies and events, opening chests, picking up collectibles, and initiating dialogue. Only interacting with menus and the map is restricted to player one.

Another significant improvement over the co-op feature in Ys VIII is that character switching is implemented individually for each player: that is, if there are 3 characters in the current party, players one and two can both independently switch to the currently-unused character without affecting each other.

There are some constraints and restrictions to keep in mind:

• You need two controllers to play in co-op (or one controller each for Steam remote play together), and it is not possible to re-bind the controls for the second player.
• There is shared camera control, and while the co-op camera code does its best to keep both players on screen, this takes some getting used to and requires a different approach to camera control than the single-player mode.
• The co-op mode is experimental, and in select situations sequences of specific actions could lead to a softlock (e.g. triggering some device which closes doors with the character controlled by player 2, and then logging that player out).

Description

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.

Play as any of the six notorious Monstrum, each with their own unique Gifts that grant abilities such as scaling sheer walls or detecting hidden objects to protect the city from shadowy creatures.

Explore the massive city, accept quests to aid the townsfolk, and enter the Grimwald Nox to vanquish the threats to Balduq.