Two new games from two of my favorite Japanese role-playing games series have fallen at the same time, and I’m driving down a wall trying to give them the same time. It seems to me that I have entered into a polyamorous relationship with Ys IX: Monstrum Nox i Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy, and I desperately try to show them that I love them both equally.
If my circumstances were different, it would be a good problem. Between the two games, I have over 100 hours of fighting, exploring, compiling, crafting, and generally screaming about attractive anime characters doing fun things ahead. If I wasn’t in a profession where there are constantly new games on the horizon, I feel compelled to play, I wouldn’t feel so anxious dividing my time between those two. If I didn’t have children to help me get up and deal with ongoing medical issues, I would be in the Japanese sky of pigs (or wild boars).
Instead, I access my PlayStation 5 and look between these two game icons. I play the PS5 version of Atelier Ryza 2 for a couple of hours. Then I start to feel careless, so I switch to the PS4 version of Ys IX.
It would be helpful for one of these two games to be bad, but not to have that luck. Atelier Ryza 2 could be the best Workshop game since the 24-year-old series went from 2D to 3D. The delightful alchemist Ryza and her friends have never been as good as they are in the PS5 version of the game. The dynamic combat system, a combination of turn-based and active combat, is even more exciting than it was when it was renewed in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout in 2019. I love the streamlined alchemy system, which sees Ryza use skill points to unlock new recipes in a vast skill tree. And it’s nice to accompany the young alchemist as she travels from her backwater island to a large metropolitan city.
Meanwhile, a Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, we like a new version of Adol Christin, the incredibly unfortunate adventurer who has had trouble in the Nihon Falcom series since its debut in 1987. Arriving in the city of Balduq Prison, Adol finds himself “gifted.” of the ability to transform into a Monstrum, supernatural warriors with strange powers tasked with protecting the city from the attacks of evil spirits known as Lemurs. Adol soon finds that the name of the city has a double meaning and that, like Monstrum, he cannot escape the spreading city. Adol and his constant companion, Dogi, settled in the city, bringing together allies in their cause as they tried to unravel the mystery of the Monstrums.
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What is really interesting about the latter Yes The game, aside from finally acknowledging the amount of trouble Adol has become over the years through his fun and cheeky dialogue, is the game’s new travel system. Instead of just running through the streets, Adol and his friends can use Monstrum’s powers to run walls and warp to grab points, adding a new dimension to the action role-playing game. Along with a combat system that allows you to switch between characters on the go, these are very exciting things.
You just have to choose one game, watch it to the end and move on to the next. That would make sense, but I can’t choose. Both of us Ys IX i Atelier Ryza 2 feed different JRPG desires. Atelier Ryza 2 it’s about digging through manual menus and casually exploring ancient ruins with friends. Ys IX it is more immediate and full of action. Atelier Ryza 2 it makes me go out into the fields jumping, diving, swimming and swinging in search of ancient secrets and ingredients of alchemy. Ys IX he makes me go to jail through a sewer called Cloaca Maxima. Go ahead and Google “sewer”. You may not be looking for images.
That’s why, instead of being in the middle of one game or the other, I only have five or six hours to finish both things. I play Ryza for a bit, then I start to miss it Yes. In the middle of playing Yes, I suddenly remember where to harvest materials for an alchemy recipe Ryza, and I go back. If PlayStation 5 had the Xbox One S / X quick recovery feature, the two games would run consecutively to facilitate change.
Long story short, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox i Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy they are two very good and very different JRPGs that are worth it. Maybe not simultaneously.
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