This week's Famitsu Magazine had a feature on Nihon Falcom's Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, the latest game in the best Action RPG series ever, officially announced a few days ago. The screenshots included in the magazine are the same which were revealed along with the game. However, Nihon Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo also shared new information.

Ys IX follows the critically acclaimed Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, so Nihon Falcom is feeling quite the pressure as they're developing the game, doing their best to not disappoint. The first key illustration and screenshots should give us a good idea of how the game will feel like. They decided to go with a different type of story and atmosphere than the previous games in order to challenge and renew themselves. Like the subtitle Monstrum Nox indicates, Ys IX's story and new game systems revolve around the night and the "Monstrum", the mysterious individuals shown in the key visual.

Ys IX's environments have a big emphasis on verticality, as shown by the key visual of Balduk, the game's "Prison City". You can find this key visual below, though the quality is far from optimal. Besides the Prison City, the game will also include the usual places to explore found in Ys games, like grasslands, forests, caves, mines, ruins and more.

Timewise, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox's story takes place after Ys Seven, and the oldest incarnation of Adol Christin yet will appear in the game. It's still unclear what role the Ys series' traditional protagonist will play in the game, but by the time of Ys IX, his heroic deeds and skills as an adventurer have become quite recognized around the world. The fact that Adol's fame has spread is also linked to Ys IX's story. Adol's exact age and appearance at the time of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will be revealed later.

As for the battle system, it follows a similar party-like system found in recent Ys games, but we don't know yet how many characters are included in a party. The game's characters, the Monstrum, all have unique supernatural abilities, which include being able to transform into a shadow or run across walls. The wall dash ability especially will fit perfectly with the verticality of the environments, and players will be able to enjoy exciting, aggressive 3-dimensional action gameplay. The identity of the Monstrum and their link with Adol will be revealed at a later date.

As already stated in the game announcement's press release, a "Guild management" system is also in the game, and it's similar to the village building found in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.

Lastly, Kondo-san talked about the hooded woman with a prosthetic arm and leg seen in the key visual. He noted how she's the only one out of the cell in the visual, but maybe you should flip your point-of-view, and consider she might be the only one truly imprisoned. He said this will turn out to be one of the key aspects of the game.

At the end of his comments, Kondo-san mentioned that the game's development is at 50% and they'll now enter full-fledged development. Nihon Falcom will strive to bring us an exciting action RPG that both fans and newcomers will be able to enjoy.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will launch for PlayStation 4 in 2019.