Ys IX Patch 1.1.2 Introducing Local Co-op as well as 16:10 Aspect Ratio Support, and a Slew of Minor Fixes

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 to not only fight monsters and explore dungeons (as in Ys VIII), but also explore the city of Balduq. Beyond co-op, this update also brings support for aspect ratios narrower than 16:9 and a number of more minor bug fixes which we have accumulated since the release. These will be detailed at the end of this announcement.
Local Co-op

The local co-op feature allows two players to play Ys IX together, at every point in the story where more than one character is available.

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.

Of course, given the experimental nature of this feature, there are some constraints and restrictions to keep in mind:

You need two controllers to play in co-op 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). Please keep this in mind.

We have completed 100% of the game in co-op at Nightmare difficulty during testing, and I personally think that it is an incredibly enjoyable way to experience Ys IX.
16:10 Aspect Ratio Support

Previous versions of Ys IX used letterboxing for any resolution aspect ratio narrower than 16:9. In this version, all 3D scenes render at full resolution for aspect ratios such as 16:10 (even down to 4:3). 2D elements such as the menu or map screens will still be letterboxed as, just like for ultrawide, the effort to redesign all of these to be aspect-ratio-independent is prohibitive.
Full Changelog New Features

Local co-op support

Support for narrow aspect ratios

The "Equip Screen Supersampling" graphics setting now also applies to the "Ritual Relics" screen
Fixes and Improvements

Make sure that traps behave functionally the same at high framerates (>>60 FPS) as they do at the default framerate

Fix timing of fades after video playback before Grimwald battles

Fix spikes at Dry Moat Ruins boss not being shown with some settings

Fix crash on startup when no audio devices are available

Fix UI animation speed of Grimwald result screen at high FPS

Fix a long-standing bug causing NPCs to get stuck on some ceilings after wall run

Fix some English spelling issues

I am personally very much a fan of local co-op in games, and feel like too few RPGs in particular offer the option to play their main campaign in co-op. I hope this update brightens the day of my fellow co-op aficionados out there, as well as anyone playing on a 16:10 monitor.

Peter "Durante" Thoman, PH3
Patch 1.0.6 Release Notes (July 26th 2021)

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 lists and journal when mouse menu navigation is off

added mouse wheel support for message log

fixed vibration only working for controller with ID 0

improved save game menu navigation by disabling page-wise scrolling for left stick
Monitor / Display

properly support Borderless mode on non-primary screens

save used monitor for multi-display setups

prevent screensaver from activating while the game is running
Draw Distance / LoD

added "Lunatic" draw distance setting (higher than Ultra, see notes below)

made draw distance setting apply to sub-map level of detail selection (see notes below)

make draw distance setting apply to more object types (see notes below)

fix calculation of draw distance applied to objects when changing the setting in the menu

fix distance fadeout of objects being closer towards the center of the screen than at an angle
Miscellaneous

fix specific boulders not starting to move in some situations at framerates ~>100 FPS updated credits

Note: Due to the additional graphics improvements now associated with the draw distance setting, higher levels will have a somewhat higher performance impact than on the previous version. Also, the "Lunatic" setting is strictly intended for very high-end systems and future proofing.
Update July 12th 2021

Hi everyone,

there were several reported issues which could be fixed quickly, so we pushed out a minor patch:

added missing DLC content: Ecliptic Errant costume

fixed crashes when opening the options menu using certain screen resolutions

improved behavior when running with specific screen settings (i.e. resolution) on a screen that doesn't support them (esp. useful in multi-screen scenarios). Note that, in the rare case that the menu does not offer a desired combination of resolution and refresh rate that you know your platform supports, you can always manually edit the file %LOCALAPPDATA%/Ys9/settings.xml and adjust the corresponding entries.