On Twitter, Nihon Falcom revealed a more precise release date estimate for Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. The game is scheduled to launch in Fall 2019 in Japan on PS4. Previously, Falcom only announced that the game would launch in 2019. In a follow-up tweet, Falcom also stressed out that this is an estimate, as the game is still in development, and that the release date isn't set in stone yet.One could think Falcom chose Fall, which is the season of Halloween, because of how considerably darker Ys IX seems to be compared to past games, from the game's teasing to its first official announcement. However, it's simply that Falcom has always been launching their big games in Fall for years, on the last week of September especially. Unless the game is delayed, there's a very high chance Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will be launching on the last week of September as well. (As a side note, in Japan, Summer is considered the season of scary stories instead of Fall.)

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will take place in a huge city called Balduk and its outskirts. The city also houses a giant prison and sports the nickname "Prison City". The game is set after Ys Seven and features the oldest incarnation of Adol we've seen yet.

Like recent Ys games, the game has a party system, and there are seven playable characters confirmed so far: Ys series protagonist Adol Christin, five "Monstrum" characters, and a character wearing a red scarf. You can read more about the Prison City, the playable characters and check a screenshot of the red-scarf individual in our previous story.

Monstrum are people with supernatural powers featured in the game. While their names haven't been revealed yet, details on what kind of weapons each one of them uses and details on their powers have been published by Falcom.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will have an important focus on verticality in its gameplay, and for example, characters will be able to run up walls. The first trailer will be releasing on March 24.

Lastly, Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo already stated that the game will be standalone and you don't need to play previous Ys games before jumping in. Fans of the series know the games have a very interesting overarching story though, and all previous games so far have been great, (though Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana suffered from localization problems), so you should definitely jump into the Ys series.

Falcom also published a direct-feed version of one of the artworks revealed in the latest issues of Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation, you can find it below.